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Militant Islam Monitor > Satire > The Pro'paganda'gressive Muslim Union - Islamists in Yuppie clothing & Muslim Wake Up! - Sex in the Umma

The Pro'paganda'gressive Muslim Union - Islamists in Yuppie clothing & Muslim Wake Up! - Sex in the Umma

Islamists just wanna have fundamentalism - Maryam asks the Imam ; ' Do women get dick in paradise ?'-The PMU and the Harvard Pluralism Project
November 25, 2004

MIM : UNHAPPY WAHABI DAY - the Progressive Muslim Union - aka Muslim Wake Up!

Separated at birth ? Islamofacists as faux moderates and the 'Nazis' ?

Muslim Wake Up! and Germany Awake ! (Deutschland Erwache!) -"The cry of the NSAP (National Socialist German Workers Party )in the early years." http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERnazi.htm

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According to Dr. Daniel Pipes in his article "Failing to Find Moderate Muslims at the Progressive Muslim Union" :

...But the real agenda seeps through the sweet talk:

PMU will defend the Muslim community from the calumnies of those who seek to insult and degrade Islam and/or the Muslim community, in particular the relentless campaign of defamation from some evangelical preachers, like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, or from supporters of the extreme right in Israel, like Daniel Pipes. http://www.muslimwakeup.com/mainarchive/001541.php#more

Al-Marayati, Eltantawi, and Ibish have long pretended not to see the difference between those (like Falwell and Robertson) against Islam the religion and those (like me) against radical Islam the totalitarian ideology, no matter how many times I make this distinction. The misrepresentation of my position is further proof that PMU is just another group apologizing for extremism, even if a bit more elegantly wrapped than the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Public Affairs Council can manage.

It bears remembering that at first, CAIR and MPAC were also seen moderates; and just as it has taken years for their true colors to be discerned, so will it take time for PMU's real nature to be perceived. But it will be... " http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/361

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MIM: Here is a contact posting on the PMU Muslim Meetup website .

Will Yasmin decide to' have a blast' if the Imam assures "Aunt Maryam" that women "get dick in paradise?." http://www.muslimwakeup.com/sex/archives/2004/04/000687print.php

Added to Members by Yasmin on November 21, 2004

I am an American Muslim woman -- born and raised in NY. It would be nice to meet some people for whom my views are not explosive... :)

http://progmuslim.meetup.com/2/

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MIM: The PMU mission statement:

"The Progressive Muslim Union (PMU) is the result of almost two years of conversation and collaboration between a group of North American Muslims who are committed to representing and renewing our community in all its social, ideological and political diversity. PMU members range from deeply religious to totally secular, sharing in common a commitment to learning, political and social empowerment, a commitment to justice and freedom and a concern and love for the Muslim community. The four founders of PMU are, in alphabetical order, Sarah Eltantawi, Hussein Ibish, Ahmed Nassef and Omid Safi, who currently make up PMU's interim Executive Board. Each of the founding members have established records working as activists, media commentators, writers and academics serving the American Muslim community.

In January 2003, Ahmed Nassef and Jawad Ali launched Muslim WakeUp!, a website that gave American Muslims an unprecedented opportunity to express themselves without censor on a wide range of topics. Today the most widely read Muslim website in North America, no topic is too taboo for MWU! Sarah Eltantawi, then Communications Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), took notice of MWU! and got to know Ahmed Nassef well when she moved to New York City in January of 2004. Meanwhile, Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies at Colgate University, secured funding from Harvard University's Pluralism Project to host a Progressive Muslim conference at Harvard in March, 2005.

Ahmed and Omid began an online process of trying to organize this conference with about a dozen Muslim activists from across America and Canada. After a couple of months, it became clear that the conference could not be organized using an email listserve alone. Therefore, the program committee unanimously gave Ahmed the authority to take a leadership role in setting up an organizational infrastructure to help in planning the conference. Ahmed then reached out to Sarah, who immediately agreed to help. After a few long meetings at Manhattan-area coffee shops, it became clear to Ahmed, Sarah and Omid that nothing less than a new organization was in order.

Sarah then reached out to her long time friend and colleague Hussein Ibish, then the Communications Director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), inviting him to join the core group of organizers. Recognizing the urgent need for PMU as a result of his years in Washington DC working as a media pundit and activist, Hussein immediately agreed to join Ahmed, Sarah and Omid in building the new organization. The group held it first conference call in May of 2004.

Since then, Hussein, Ahmed, Omid and Sarah have been working consistently to put together a statement of principles, mission statement, list of prospective advisory board members, and bylaws for the new organization. After five months of constant work, PMU is ready to launch on November 15, 2004, the day of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan, in New York City. Several prominent members of the American Muslim community have agreed to join our advisory board, and PMU is blessed with a talented and accomplished Board of Directors with a set of diverse skills.

On Saturday, October 2, 2004, PMU convened its first working group meeting to plan programs for PMU with the Executive Board and journalist Mona Eltahawy, International Affairs specialist Aiman Mackie and Ginan Rauf, who is completing her PhD in Comparative Literature at Harvard University. The working group set priorities and short, medium and long term goals for each of PMU's four major project areas: Education/Reform; Arts and Culture; Grassroots and Political Organizing; and Spiritual Exploration. With your help and support, the rest will be history."

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MIM: There is a debate raging in the Muslim community who refer to the PMU as'proggies' who are not representative of Islam. Here is one comment which is representative of PMU's Muslim opponents from this posting page on Alt.Muslim which is also cultivates a'moderate' facade. http://www.altmuslim.com/headlines_comments.php?id=1351_0_24_0_

Posting :"You should understand that the whole "progressive" thing is a reaction to hard-line opinions in the Muslim community that need addressing"...

Response : Uh no. How is it "hardline" for say a group like CAIR which has fought for Muslim rights, and offers free legal services to Muslims who have faced discrimination ? I may not not agree with everything CAIR ISNA etc do or say, but they are far more representative of my concerns as a Muslim then a bunch of self-declared leftist fanatics who have no idea what Islam is. In their world you are a Muslim if you like birzani and bakhlawa. ie a strictly cultural identity...and yes you can also have a martini, go fornicate and enjoy the subtle art of pornography...and thats all hallal in Islam, and dont you dare challenge that. I beg to differ.
Proper adab is a two way street, and the "progressives" dont believe in it. Infact they refer to Muslims who do observe adab as "misogynists, astagfirullah brigade." Hence forth I shall refer to them as "regressives."
ANd they're going to fall apart under the weight of their own hubris..."

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MIM Note: The Harvard Pluralism Project is sponsoring the first conference of the PMU. The Harvard Pluralism Project is a part of the Harvard Divinity School both of which are notorious for it's promotion of anti Americanism and Islamism.

In 2003 the Harvard Divinity School made the news after it accepted a 2.5 million dollar 'donation' from the head of the Zayed Foundation for Coordination and Followup' Dubai based "think tank" which specialised in Holocaust denial and blood libel. The ensuing negative publicity when the source of the grant was revealed forced Harvard to reject the donation in August of 2003 though it was not clear what was done with the money.

The Harvard Pluralism project has sponsored conferences which featured speakers from CAIR,(Nihad Awad and Jason Erb) MPAC(Salem Marayati), the ADC, Hussein Ibish , AMC's Erfan Vickers and terrorist defender Stanley Cohen. Poster boy convert Vickers was forced to resign his post at the AMC after calling the Challenger shuttle crash over Palestine,Texas, which carried an Israeli astronaut, 'a punishment from Allah'. The director of the AMC Albdulrahman Alamoudi, was recently jailed for 23 years on terrorism related charges. http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1183

For more on the Harvard's Islamist ties (i.e.the Bin Laden family), and the Pluralism Project - see the information at the bottom of the page.

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MIM :PMU co founder and former ADC leader Hussein Ibish (now a writer for the Daily Star in Lebanon) epitomises the PMU's Islamofacist 'blut und spelen' weltaanschauung when he says that Hezbollah is " a legitimate military operation",and states that "I couldn't be more hedonistic,debauched, and proud of it!"

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http://www.toledomuslims.com/Criterion/Article.asp?offset=100&ID=91

Hezbollah, the group fighting in southern Lebanon, is "a legitimate military operation," and many of its activities are social, such as running hospitals and schools, said Hussein Ibish, head of the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee.

"You will have a tough time convincing Arabs that Hezbollah are terrorists while the tactics of the Israeli military are not, whether it's kidnapping, bombing of civilians, torturing or shooting people."

Ibish said he knew that the pro-Israeli critics were exaggerating because they had called him a fundamentalist. "I couldn't be more hedonistic, debauched, and I'm proud of it," he said. "These people just want to have a monologue when it comes to Israel. They just want to play a game of gotcha!"

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The Pro'paganda'gressive Muslim Union shows their true colors :

http://www.pmuna.org/archives/2004/11/progressive_mus_1.php

"....The aim here is not to create some sort of "new Islam" or "American Islam" as some will no doubt charge..."

...PMU will never turn its back to the long-suffering Palestinian people, and rejects completely the idea that a progressive agenda for the Muslim community requires accepting or remaining silent about the abuse of the Palestinians..."

"...Our first major event is a conference at Harvard University on March 19th and 20th, 2005."

Note scroll to the bottom of the page for information on Harvard's promotion of Islamism and leftism)

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MIM : This is a 'progressive Muslim' 'Statement on the atrocities in Fallujah and Dafur' .In an appalling but revealing show of their militant Islamist 'weltaanshauung' the writers of this declare that there was nothing wrong with the mob in Fallujah gleefully displaying the bodies of four Americans because they were "already dead". Even more brazen is the fact that the writers do not mention that it was the same mob which ambushed and savagely butchered the four American contractors, whom they disingenuously refer to as "mercenaries".

These sensitive Muslims write that they are "heartsick" over the fighting in Fallujah and Dafur, lamenting that it is taking place during "the holy month of Ramadan".

The progressive Muslims claim that:

"America targeted the city" (Fallujah) because of it's supposed character as a stronghold for insurgents" and seems to be nothing more than simple revenge for the mob displaying the already dead bodies of the four mercenaries that took place several months ago" ...The "offensive" violates any idea of possible limits in warfare". "It is clear that Fallujah has become the main target for American rage". http://muslimwakeup.com/

MIM: Fittingly, and not surprisingly, directly below this America bashing article by progressive Muslims is the following: "Why we are launching the Progessive Muslim Union" : By Sarah Eltanawi, Hussein Ibish, (MWU editor) Ahmed Nassef, and Omid Safi.

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Statement on the Atrocities in Fallujah and Darfur

The statement below was submitted by members of the Network of Progressive Muslims, an email discussion list. -- Ed.

"As we celebrate the ending of Ramadan and the Feast of the Breaking of the
Fast, we, the undersigned members of the Network of Progressive Muslims, which has members on all continents of our planet, are heartsick about the destructive military devastation of Fallujah in Iraq and the Darfur region of Sudan taking place during this blessed month.

The American offensive on an entire city, shelling it repeatedly in a way that obviously will result in many civilian deaths, and attacking hospitals and schools as legitimate military targets, seems to us to completely violate any idea of permissible limits in warfare. The targeting of the city because of its supposed character as a "stronghold for insurgents" seems nothing more than simple revenge for the mob displaying of the already dead bodies of the four mercenaries that took place several months ago. Every day we read of car bombs in Baghdad, pipes cut or set fire in Mosul, police and American soldiers shot in Ramadi, yet it is Fallujah that has become the one main target of American rage. This attack on an urban center that prior to occupation was one of the most peaceful and crime-free cities in Iraq, has no excuse and is a clear war crime on the part of the American military and the Iraqi interim government."

Continue reading "Statement on the Atrocities in Fallujah and Darfur"

Posted by ahmed at 12:15 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack (0)

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http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2226

Posted on October 6, 2004 12:09 PM

The bad news: There are lots of fake-moderates parading about, and they can be difficult to identify, even for someone like me who devotes much attention to this topic. The Council on American-Islamic Relations still wins mainstream support and the Islamic Society of North America still sometimes hoodwinks the U.S. government. The brand-new Progressive Muslim Union wins rave reviews for its alleged moderation from gullible journalists, despite much of its leadership (Salam Al-Marayati, Sarah Eltantawi, Hussein Ibish, Ali Abunimah) being well-known extremists.

Fortunately, the authorities kept both Tariq Ramadan and Yusuf Islam out of the United States, but Khaled Abou El Fadl got through and, worse, received a presidential appointment. http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2226

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Nov. 19, 2004 update: The PMU posted its advisory board today and it's a mixed group. Some of its more offensive names include the boorish and fanatical Ali Abunimah, the obscure fake-moderate Ziad Asali, and the famous fake-moderate Tariq Ramadan. http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/361

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Organizer:
Ahmed Nassef

MIM: Ahmed Nassef is the editor of Muslim Wake Up! and a founder of the so called Progressive Muslims Union.

He is also the webmaster of both PMU and MWU.

Advisory Board

The PMU Advisory board features prominent Muslims who have endorsed the organization's objectives and who have made themselves available for advice and consultation regarding PMU's long-range policies.

Advisory Board

Ali Abunimah
Ali Abunimah, a writer and commentator on Middle East and Arab-American affairs, lives in Chicago. He is co-founder of Electronic Intifada and Electronic Iraq. He was born in the United States and grew up in Europe. Both of his parents are originally from Palestine. His articles have appeared in newspapers worldwide and is a frequent guest on local, national and international radio and television, including public radio and television, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, the BBC and many others. Abunimah lectures frequently at colleges in the United States. He received his BA from Princeton University and MA from the University of Chicago. Recent book contributions include "No Justice, No Peace," in "The Anti-Capitalism Reader," edited by Joel Schalit. New York: Akashic Books, 2002 and "The Palestinian Right of Return" (with Hussein Ibish), Washington, DC: ADC, 2001.

Akbar S. Ahmed
Akbar S. Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C. Born in Allahabad, a small town on the Ganges River in what was then British India, Dr. Ahmed is a distinguished anthropologist, writer and filmmaker. He has been actively involved in inter-faith dialogue — and his work to bring understanding between Islam and the West has included three appearances on Oprah and a BBC news series called "Living Islam" — broadcast for the first time in 1993. From 1999 to 2000, Dr. Ahmed was the Pakistani High Commissioner (Ambassador) to the United Kingdom. He has also held many other senior positions in Pakistan. His many award-winning books include: Discovering Islam: Making Sense of Muslim History and Society, Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise, Islam Today: A Short Introduction to the Muslim World and Jinnah Quartet.

Ziad Asali
Ziad J. Asali, MD is the President and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine and past-president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab-American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States. Dr. Asali is a long-time activist on Arab-American issues. Dr. Asali was born in Jerusalem and completed his elementary and secondary education there. He received a B.S. from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1963 and an M.D. from AUB Medical School in 1967. Dr. Asali is the author of several publications that include "Expedition to Jerusalem" (1990), "Zionist Studies of the Crusades" (1992), and "From Crusades to Zionism" (1993).

Muqtedar Khan
Muqtedar Khan is Director of International Studies and Chair, Political Science Department at Adrian College in Michigan. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. Dr. Khan earned his Ph.D. in International Relations, Political Philosophy, and Islamic Political Thought, from Georgetown University in May 2000. He is the author of American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom (Amana, 2002) and Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Relations (Praeger, 2004). His forthcoming book is titled Beyond Jihad and Crusade: Rethinking US Policy in the Muslim World (Brookings Institution, 2004). Dr. Khan frequently comments on BBC, CNN, FOX and VOA TV, NPR and other radio networks. His political commentaries appear regularly in newspapers in over 20 countries.

Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle
Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle is Assistant Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College. His research focuses on the intersections between Islamic mysticism (Sufism), Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), and Ethics, including a special focus on gender, sexuality and the importance of bodies in Sufi devotional practices. Dr. Kugle received his Ph.D from Duke University in the History of Religions. His essay "Sexuality and Sexual Ethics in the Agenda of Progressive Muslims" appeared in Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism (2003).

Tariq Ramadan
A Swiss national, Tariq Ramadan is a professor of philosophy at the College of Geneva and Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Fribourg. In fall 2004 Ramadan was appointed Henry R. Luce Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Dr. Ramadan has written more than twenty books exploring reinterpretation and reform within Islam itself and between the Islamic world and its neighbors around the globe. His books include Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2003) and Islam, the West, and the Challenges of Modernity (The Islamic Foundation, 2000), and To Be a European Muslim (The Islamic Foundation, 1998). He has also published a total of 700 contributions or articles in collective books, academic reviews, and magazines. He was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most important innovators of the 21st century

Amina Wadud
Amina Wadud is Islamic studies professor in the department of philosophy and religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is nationally and internationally known for her ground breaking book Qur'an and Women: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective, the first interpretive reading of the Qur'an by a woman. Dr. Wadud seeks to validate the female voice in the Qur'an and bring it out of the shadows.

Posted on November 19, 2004 01:15 AM

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The PMUNA announces their advisory board

The board announced by the PMUNA excluded several of the initial controversial invitees - those excluded are Seeme and Malik Hassan (The Muslims for Bush people) Fareed Zakariyya, and Nawaal el-Sadaawi.

Click here to read A comment on the Progressive Muslims Union, North America that is a more comprehensive statement on this and other very important issues of concern to Muslims.

And Click here to add your comments, thoughts, and ideas on this debate.

And read this blog for other important concerns regarding the PMUNA.

The current list of advisory board members, according to PMUNA announcement, include:

Ali Abunimah
Akbar S. Ahmed

Ziad Asali who at a UN-NGO conference publicly denied the right of return to Palestinian exiles and refugees.

Muqtedar Khan who worte that as soon as it became clear that Muslims were behind 9/11, I told my wife ‘there goes my chance to be this country's first Muslim Henry Kissinger' And in reference to the US war on Iraq, he wrote: "We will fight with America and we will fight for America. We have a covenant with this nation, we see it as a divine commitment.

Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle
Tariq Ramadan
Amina Wadud

others listed as invited (but not on board) include:

Khaled Abou El Fadl
Leila Ahmed
Tariq Ali
Shirin Ebadi
Shaykha Fariha
Mohja Kahf
Rashid Khalidi
Ebrahim Moosa
Imam Warith Deen Muhammad
Abdolkarim Soroush

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MIM: The website "Muslim Wake Up! was started two years ago by Ahmed Nassef. He is also one of the founders of the PMU and is the webmaster for both the MWU and the PMU. Muslim Wake Up! pretends to have a moderate agenda but their constant bashing of Dr.Daniel Pipes, and support for Islamists reveals otherwise. Here is a 'Pipes Flag' which accompanied a Pipes bashing diatribe by Thomas Nagy, a professor who claimed he was fleeing the US because of what Dr.Pipes wrote about him in article entitled; "Profs who hate America". In reality Nagy's illegal trip and support for Iraq 'might' have precipitated his flight.

MIM: The 'Pipes Flag' on the MWU! website

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http://www.muslimwakeup.com/mainarchive/000164.php

Excerpts from "Why I am leaving the US" by Thomas Nagy

"It is instructive to know how the wonderful democracy that the U.S. is exporting through its own very real WMD's actually works. There are worse governments than the US "democracy," but surely there are better ones, and US "democracy" is not worth exporting or imposing on anyone except the most desperate.

It is necessary to give the context to my small, modest insight into the reality of American democracy.

It has to do with Dr. Daniel Pipes.

The good Dr. Pipes identified the six leading university professor villains in the US—I'm number 6—in a column in the New York Post, a newspaper that is perhaps just a few steps up from pure trash, but one which is widely read and distributed—I can get it easily here in Washington, D.C. In the column, Pipes falsely accused me, among other things, of "providing aid to the Saddam regime."

I hope to die in Canada and atone for my stupidity and culpability in paying taxes to the most well-oiled killing machine in history, the United States of America, by teaching peace studies and promoting pacifism, which I think is the only force powerful enough to overcome America's super weapons."

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MIM: Dr. Pipes wrote about ' The Flight of Thomas Nagy' in his weblog and noted:

"...In "Profs Who Hate America," Jonathan Schanzer and I pointed to the topsy-turvy world in which American professors "consider the United States (not Iraq) the problem" and gave six examples of this way of thinking. One of them was a quote from Thomas Nagy, associate professor of business at George Washington University, who, we said,

proudly informed his university newspaper about providing aid to the Saddam regime against the United States during a recent (illegal) trip to Iraq. Specifically, he offered "estimates of the number of civilians needed to act as a human shield to protect infrastructure and buildings for Iraqi citizens."

In a belated response, Nagy wrote a long piece, "Why I Am Leaving This Country: Daniel Pipes and the Failure of Democracy in America," that appeared at Muslim WakeUp! on July 25, 2003, and has subsequently been widely reprinted on Islamist and far-left websites. In it, he announced to the wide world that our little quote caused him such pain that he has given up on the United States, a country where he became a citizen in 1954.

MIM: Dr. Pipes wrote this note to Nagy asking him to clarify wish ' to die in Canada' with his hopes to return to teaching at George Washington University in the U.S.

Dear Mr. Nagy:

I read your affecting story published on July 25, where you recount how my quoting you in a column last fall has prompted you to flee the United States for Canada, where you in fact "hope to die."

I also note that at "GW -- A Real University? What do you think?" dated July 4, 2003, you wrote the following (and I preserve here exactly your punctuation):

You all might be interested to learn? that after 20 years of teaching at GW and 4 in the "Faculty" Senate, I have been kicked off the Sch of Biz Listserv as well as the Mgt Sci Dept. Listserv.? ... What's next, will I get kicked this listserv too? I'm leaving for Canada in 3 weeks to be a visiting prof. of peace studies at MacMaster U. I probably will not return to GW unless it becomes a real university or to the U.S. till it returns the Bill of Rights

This prompts two questions.

The July 4 explanation for leaving the US (a job offer) seems to contradict the one you gave on July 25 (my column); could you reconcile them for me?

Your saying that you "probably will not return to GW" seems to contradict your wish "to die" in Canada; could you again reconcile these statements?

Yours, Daniel Pipes

It comes perhaps as no shock that I still await a reply from Professor Nagy. (July 31, 2003)

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/71

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http://www.muslimwakeup.com/mainarchive/000164.php

Our Mission

Muslim WakeUp! seeks to bring together Muslims and non-Muslims in America and around the globe in efforts that celebrate cultural and spiritual diversity, tolerance, and understanding. Through online and offline media, events, and community activities, Muslim WakeUp! champions an interpretation of Islam that celebrates the Oneness of God and the Unity of God's creation through the encouragement of the human creative spirit and the free exchange of ideas, in an atmosphere that is filled with compassion and free of intimidation, authoritarianism, and dogmatism. In all its activities, Muslim WakeUp! attempts to reflect a deep belief in justice and against all forms of oppression, bigotry, sexism, and racism.

Contact Us

Muslim WakeUp!
P.O. Box 40641
San Francisco, CA 94140

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MIM: When not engaged in in Pipes bashing, which is one of the staples of the publication, Muslim Wake Up! attempts to bolster their false facade of moderation with a column entitled "Sex and the Ummah".. According to Jewish World Review : http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0404/grove040904.asp

The sex column was the brainchild of Ahmed Nassef, the Egyptian-born editor-in-chief of the year-old Web site.

"We started the online magazine to address the challenges of being a progressive Muslim," the 37-year-old Nassef, a U.S. citizen, told me Thursday. "Ninety percent of Muslims in the United States and North America are very conservative. Most of the mosques are highly conservative. After 9/11, the Muslims speaking for the community on television reflect the conservative side. But we're giving expression to another point of view."

The Web site summarizes the column's goals: "To address modern day Muslim sexual experiences even if they do not match Islamic prescriptions for sexual conduct." And "to affirm the sexual drives of women as much as those of men."

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MIM: Which begs the question as to whether Nassef will rename his site "Muslim Whack Off!"

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http://muslimwakeup.com/sex/

MIM: Here is a discussions on whether women also "get dick in paradise", which begs the question as to if one has to become a suicide bomber or will just die of other causes. Note that the Muslim Wake Up! 'Sex and the Umma' columnist Mohja Kahf did not miss a chance to 'slip in' some anti Israel propaganda and has one of the 'Gaza girls' talk of how 'Israeli soldiers beat 'slingshot' attackers' , and lament how "life under military occupation doesn't allow many evenings of unhurried pleasure ".

Population statistics prove Kahf wrong, ( although one cannot vouch for the pleasure aspect),it is a documented fact that Gaza has the fastest growing population in the world.

"...According to author Michael R. Fischbach, associate professor of history at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, the West Bank and Gaza boast several notable features. The population growth rate is among the highest in the world: 3.4 percent in the West Bank and 4.0 percent in Gaza..." http://www.globalhealth.org/sources/view.php3?id=251

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http://www.muslimwakeup.com/sex/archives/2004/04/000687print.php

The following essay is fiction. Any resemblance to real people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Excerpts from 'Lustrous Companions'

...Do we get dick in heaven?" my best friend's Aunt Maryam whispers to me during the ladies' Quran study halaqa at the Jersey City Mosque. We are doing "The Merciful," the chapter of the Quran where all the sexy virgin babes are promised to men in paradise. "Men get pussy. Do we get dick?" Maryam says. I snort laughing, but turn it into a coughing fit and cover it with the scalloped edge of my headscarf..."

"Ecksi-kuse me?" the assistant imam says in his excessively Egyptian accent. "Does zi sister have a question, inshallah?" Dark-skinned and muscular, he's sitting next to the visiting sheikh and fielding the questions. This session, for ladies exclusively, had been scheduled on the visiting dignitary's agenda at the insistence of Nany Elhamadany, the matriarch of the sisters' Quran group..."

"Yes, brother," Maryam says. Oh my God. I can't believe Maryam is going to ask it out loud. Then again, it shouldn't surprise me; that's Maryam for you. "Do women get to have sex in paradise too?"

"Ecksi-kuse me?" The dark-skinned assistant flushes an even darker shade under his manly thick beard. Beards turn me on; it's a Muslim girl thing, I guess. We are all sitting on the prayer floor after maghreb, with our legs tucked to one side under our caftans, at a safe distance of about three yards away from the two men—but still close enough to smell the sandalwood scent from the stocky body of the assistant imam. He sits semi-kneeling with his ankles tucked up under his butt, his pants straining against the posture. I try not to look at his crotch. Carpet. Carpet. I look at the curlicues in the carpet...

The sheikh starts visibly. "Any woman who wants such a thing is not likely to make it to paradise," he says drily. The other ladies titter....

...We're Gaza girls, came over in the 1980s with our parents, old enough to remember Israeli soldiers beating twelve-year old kids with slingshots to a pulp, young enough to break in the English language for our use like a pair of red high-top Converses...

...Mmm," Maryam says, "thank you." She looks demurely down her purple and black checkered headscarf as she inserts the mouthpiece into the end of the long coiled pipe and draws again. "Him I want," she says when he leaves.

"Ecksi-kuse me?" Reyann says in a mock-Egyptian accent.

"Fuck," Maryam laughs, "I'd fuck him in a Muslim minute." We all cuss in English; somehow it seems less bad than cussing in Arabic. She blows smoke out her nostrils. I love the apply tobacco smell; it reminds me of my grandmother, whom I saw for the last time when I was five, back in Gaza. My grandmother loved smoking the shisheh, but life under a military occupation doesn't allow many evenings of unhurried pleasure. "Not for real, I mean. I wouldn't do that to my Hamudy. I am not an adulteress. But just for fun. Fantasy time. I'd do the pipe boy. Wouldn't you?"

"I'm satisfied with what I'm getting, honey," I bluster. I'm still a newlywed, three months and counting. We just got to oral sex a week ago. There's still plenty of territory left to explore. Maryam passes the nargileh to me. I pick up a mouthpiece and draw on the pipe several times in a row. I want to get to the good stuff..."

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MIM: MWU's 'Sex and the Umma' columnist Mohja Kahf follows this racy story up with a historical 'piece' entitled :

The Warm Fluids: A Ramadan Khutba of Imama Halima Holiness Hennings

"...Halima Holiness Hennings is an obscure figure in the history of Muslims in America, about whom very little is known with certainty. She may have been related on one side to Hajj Ali ("Hi Jolly"), the late nineteenth-century Arab immigrant to America who helped the U.S. government in a failed scheme to promote camels in the American West..."

http://muslimwakeup.com/sex/

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MIM: Equally inconclusive as to whether women have to blow themselves up "to get dick in paradise," as 'Aunt Maryam' puts it, is this article : 'Celebrating the Sexual Impulse' which talks about Muslims and sex, exhorting them to "learn from the animal rights lobby..." (!?) http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2004/04/celebrating_the.php

"...In the same way that we continue to ask questions about the best way of consuming halal food, how to deal with this in situations where Muslims are in a religious minority, what does the permissibility of food slaughtered by the ahl al-kitab (Christians and Jews) mean today, how do we continue to learn and benefit from new understandings of compassion to animals, etc., so too must we raise new questions about sex and its enjoyment. Instead of protesting against the animal rights lobby and asking Muslims not to succumb to the "politically correct lobby," we can ask what we have to learn from the humanity of these animal rights activists."

Farid Esack is Director of the Centre for Progressive Islam and the Besl Professor in Ethics, Religion and Society at Xavier University.

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MIM: Note the reference to the 'kuffar society' which again reveals the Islamist 'bent' of the so called progressive Muslim website.

http://muslimwakeup.com/sex/

Excerpts from 'The Fatima Incident'

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http://www.gregoriusnekschot.nl/cartoons_english.html

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r

Essential for the modern emancipated Muslimah- Replacable hymens by the strip

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MIM: Information on the Harvard Pluralism Project's 2003 conference .The Pluralism Project has now joined forces with the Progressive Muslim Union and will sponsor the PMU event in February 2005 .

The Harvard Pluralism Project or the Perversity of Diversity by Beila Rabinowitz director MIM:

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March 2003