[From nobody Sun Jul 29 15:55:25 2007 Return-path: <KMATTOX@aol.com> From: KMATTOX@aol.com Full-name: KMATTOX Message-ID: <d17.12723a73.33de030f@aol.com> Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 10:49:51 EDT Subject: Jihadism To: KMATTOX@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="-----------------------------1185720591" X-Mailer: AOL 9.0 VR sub 100 -------------------------------1185720591 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Language: en =20 The following appeared in the July 28, 2007 Houston Chronicle. It=20 origonally was published in the Washington Post. I was unable to find an= e-mail=20 site for Mansour Al-Nogaidan. - K Mattox =20 =20 Viewpoints, Outlook=20 July 28, 2007, 1:22PM Deliver us from jihadism A former extremist has found his Islam, and he wants others to find it, too By MANSOUR AL-NOGAIDAN Washington Post =20 =20 BURAIDAH, SAUDI ARABIA =E2=80=94 Islam needs a Reformation. It needs someone= with the=20 courage of Martin Luther.=20 This is the belief I've arrived at after a long and painful spiritual =20 journey. It's not a popular conviction =E2=80=94 it has attracted angry crit= icism, =20 including death threats, from many sides. But it was reinforced by Sept. 11,= 2001,=20 and in the years since, I've only become more convinced that it is critical= to=20 Islam's future.=20 Muslims are too rigid in our adherence to old, literal interpretations of th= e=20 Quran. It's time for many verses =E2=80=94 especially those having to do wi= th=20 relations between Islam and other religions =E2=80=94 to be reinterpreted i= n favor of a=20 more modern Islam. It's time to accept that God loves the faithful of all=20 religions. It's time for Muslims to question our leaders and their strict=20 teachings, to reach our own understanding of the prophet's words and to cal= l for a=20 bold renewal of our faith as a faith of good will, of peace and of light. I= =20 didn't always think this way. Once, I was one of the extremists who clung t= o=20 literal interpretations of Islam and tried to force them on others. I was a= =20 jihadist.=20 I grew up in Saudi Arabia. When I was 16, I found myself assailed by doubts=20= =20 about the existence of God. I prayed to God to give me the strength to=20 overcome them. I made a deal with Him: I would give up everything, devote m= yself to=20 Him and live the way the prophet Muhammad and his companions had lived 1,40= 0=20 years ago if He would rid me of my doubts.=20 I joined a hard-line Salafi group. I abandoned modern life and lived in a mu= d=20 hut, apart from my family. Viewing modern education as corrupt and immoral,= =20 I joined a circle of scholars who taught the Islamic sciences in the=20 classical way, just as they had been taught 1,200 years ago.=20 My involvement with this group led me to violence, and landed me in prison.=20= =20 In 1991, I took part in firebombing video stores in Riyadh and a women's=20 center in my home town of Buraidah, seeing them as symbols of sin in a soci= ety=20 that was marching rapidly toward modernization.=20 Yet all the while, my doubts remained. Was the Quran really the word of God?= =20 Had it really been revealed to Muhammad, or did he create it himself? But I=20= =20 never shared these doubts with anyone, because doubting Islam or the prophet= =20 is not tolerated in the Muslim society of my country.=20 By the time I turned 26, much of the turmoil in me had abated, and I made my= =20 peace with God. At the same time, my eyes were opened to the hypocrisy of so= =20 many who held themselves out as Muslim role models. I saw Islamic judges =20 ignoring the marks of torture borne by my prison comrades. I learned of Isla= mic =20 teachers who molested their students. I heard devout Muslims who never misse= d =20 the five daily prayers lying with ease to people who did not share their =20 extremist beliefs.=20 In 1999, when I was working as an imam at a Riyadh mosque, I happened upon =20 two books that had a profound influence on me. One, written by a Palestinian= =20 scholar, was about the struggle between those who deal pragmatically with th= e =20 Quran and those who take it and the hadith literally. The other was a book=20= by=20 a Moroccan philosopher about the formation of the Arab Muslim way of =20 thinking. The books inspired me to write an article for a Saudi newspaper a= rguing=20 that Muslims have the right to question and criticize religious leaders and= not=20 to take everything they tell us for granted. We owe it to ourselves, I =20 wrote, to think pragmatically if Islam is to survive and thrive.=20 That article landed me in the center of a storm. Some men in my mosque =20 refused to greet me. Others would no longer pray behind me. Under this press= ure, I=20 left the mosque. I moved to the southern city of Abha, where I took a job as= =20 a writer and editor with a newly established newspaper. I went back to=20 leading prayers at the paper's small mosque and to writing about my evolvin= g =20 philosophy.=20 After I wrote articles stressing our right as Muslims to question our Saudi=20= =20 clerics and their interpretations and to come up with our own, officials fro= m =20 the kingdom's religious establishment complained, and I was banned from =20 writing.=20 The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, gave new life to what I had been saying. I =20 went back to criticizing the rote manner in which we Muslims are fed our =20 religion. I criticized al-Qaida's school of thought, which considers everyon= e who=20 isn't a Salafi Muslim the enemy. I pointed to examples from Islamic history=20= =20 that stressed the need to get along with other religions. I tried to give a=20= new =20 interpretation to the verses that call for enmity between Muslims and=20 Christians and Jews. I wrote that they do not apply to us today and that Is= lam calls=20 for friendship among all religions.=20 I lost a lot of friends after that. My old companions from the jihad felt =20 obliged to declare themselves either with me or against me. Some preferred t= o =20 cut their links to me silently, but others fought me publicly, issuing =20 statements filled with curses and lies. Once again, the paper came under gre= at =20 pressure to ban my writing. And I became a favorite target on the Internet,=20= where=20 my writings were lambasted and labeled blasphemous.=20 Eventually I was fired. But by then, I had started to develop a different =20 relationship with God. I felt that He was moving me toward another kind of =20 belief, where all that matters is that we pray to God from the heart. I con= tinued=20 to pray, but I started to avoid the verses that contain violence or enmity=20 and only used the ones that speak of God's mercy and grace and greatness. I= =20 remembered an incident when the prophet told a Bedouin who didn't know how t= o =20 pray to let go of the verses and simply to think of God and get closer to Hi= m=20 by repeating, "God is good, God is great." Don't sweat the details, the=20 prophet said.=20 I felt at peace, and no longer doubted the existence of God.=20 In December 2002, in a Web site interview, I criticized al-Qaida and declare= d=20 that some of the Friday sermons were loathsome because of their attacks=20 against non-Muslims. Within days, a fatwa was posted online, calling me an=20 infidel and saying that I should be killed. Once again, I felt despair at t= he ways=20 of the Muslim world. Two years later, I told al-Arabiya television that I=20 thought God loves all faithful people of different religions. That earned m= e a=20 fatwa from the mufti of Saudi Arabia declaring my infidelity.=20 But one evening not long after that, I heard a radio broadcast of the verse=20= =20 of light. Even though I had memorized the Koran at 15, I felt as though I wa= s =20 hearing this verse for the first time. God is light, it says, the universe i= s=20 illuminated by His light. I felt the verse was speaking directly to me,=20 sending me a message. This God of light, I thought, how could He be against= any=20 human? The God of light would not be happy to see people suffer, even if th= ey=20 had sinned and made mistakes along the way.=20 I had found my Islam. And I believe that others can find it, too. But first=20= =20 we need a Reformation similar to the Protestant Reformation that Martin Luth= er=20 led against the Roman Catholic Church.=20 In the late 14th century, Islam had its own sort of Martin Luther. Ibn =20 Taymiyya was an Islamic scholar from a hard-line Salafi sect who went throug= h a =20 spiritual crisis and came to believe that in time, God would close the gates= of =20 hell and grant all humans, regardless of their religion, entry to his =20 everlasting paradise. Unlike Luther, however, Ibn Taymiyya never openly decl= ared =20 this revolutionary belief; he shared it only with a small, trusted circle of= =20 students. Nevertheless, I find myself inspired by Luther's courageous uprisi= ng. =20 I see what Islam needs =E2=80=94 a strong, charismatic personality who will=20= lead us =20 toward reform, and scholars who can convince Islamic communities of the need= =20 for a bold new interpretation of Islamic texts, to reconcile us with the wi= der=20 world.=20 Al-Nogaidan writes for the Bahraini newspaper Al-Waqt. This article =20 originally appeared in the Washington Post. ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL a= t=20 http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour -------------------------------1185720591 Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Language: en <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; charset=3DUTF-8"> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.6000.16481" name=3DGENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=3Drole_body style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY:=20= Arial"=20 bottomMargin=3D7 leftMargin=3D7 topMargin=3D7 rightMargin=3D7><FONT id=3Drol= e_document=20 face=3DArial color=3D#000000 size=3D2> <DIV> <TABLE class=3Dsectionhead style=3D"BORDER-BOTTOM: #e1e1e1 2px solid" cellSp= acing=3D0=20 cellPadding=3D0 width=3D660 border=3D0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD height=3D27> <DIV><SPAN class=3DStoryHead><STRONG>The following appeared in the Jul= y 28,=20 2007 Houston Chronicle.&nbsp;&nbsp; It origonally was published in the= =20 Washington Post.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I was unable to find an e-mail site= for=20 Mansour Al-Nogaidan.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; K=20 Mattox</STRONG></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=3DStoryHead><STRONG><FONT=20 size=3D5></FONT></STRONG></SPAN>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=3DStoryHead><STRONG><FONT=20 size=3D5></FONT></STRONG></SPAN>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=3DStoryHead><STRONG><FONT size=3D5>Viewpoints,=20 Outlook</FONT></STRONG></SPAN> </DIV></TD> <TD class=3Ddateline noWrap></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <DIV id=3Dstorycolumn><!-- begin middle column --><!-- end f.attachment.f.to= p-photo --><BR=20 clear=3Dleft> <P><SPAN class=3Dtimestamp><FONT color=3D#ef4d15><B>July 28, 2007,=20 1:22PM</B><BR></FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=3Dstoryheading3><STRONG><FONT=20 size=3D5>Deliver us from jihadism<BR></FONT></STRONG></SPAN><FONT size=3D3><= SPAN=20 class=3Dstorydeck3>A former extremist has found his Islam, and he wants othe= rs to=20 find it, too</SPAN><BR></FONT></P> <P class=3Dcopyright><SPAN class=3Dauthor><STRONG><FONT size=3D1>By MANSOUR=20 AL-NOGAIDAN<BR></FONT></STRONG></SPAN>Washington Post </P> <DIV class=3Dbodycopy><!-- rbox goes here --><!-- rbox ends here --> <P>BURAIDAH, SAUDI ARABIA =E2=80=94 Islam needs a Reformation. It needs some= one with the=20 courage of Martin Luther.</P> <P>This is the belief I've arrived at after a long and painful spiritual=20 journey. It's not a popular conviction =E2=80=94 it has attracted angry crit= icism,=20 including death threats, from many sides. But it was reinforced by Sept. 11,= =20 2001, and in the years since, I've only become more convinced that it is=20 critical to Islam's future.</P> <P>Muslims are too rigid in our adherence to old, literal interpretations of= the=20 Quran. It's time for many verses =E2=80=94 especially those having to do wit= h relations=20 between Islam and other religions =E2=80=94 to be reinterpreted in favor of=20= a more=20 modern Islam. It's time to accept that God loves the faithful of all religio= ns.=20 It's time for Muslims to question our leaders and their strict teachings, to= =20 reach our own understanding of the prophet's words and to call for a bold=20 renewal of our faith as a faith of good will, of peace and of light. I didn'= t=20 always think this way. Once, I was one of the extremists who clung to litera= l=20 interpretations of Islam and tried to force them on others. I was a=20 jihadist.</P> <P>I grew up in Saudi Arabia. When I was 16, I found myself assailed by doub= ts=20 about the existence of God. I prayed to God to give me the strength to overc= ome=20 them. I made a deal with Him: I would give up everything, devote myself to H= im=20 and live the way the prophet Muhammad and his companions had lived 1,400 yea= rs=20 ago if He would rid me of my doubts.</P> <P>I joined a hard-line Salafi group. I abandoned modern life and lived in a= mud=20 hut, apart from my family. Viewing modern education as corrupt and immoral,=20= I=20 joined a circle of scholars who taught the Islamic sciences in the classical= =20 way, just as they had been taught 1,200 years ago.</P> <P>My involvement with this group led me to violence, and landed me in priso= n.=20 In 1991, I took part in firebombing video stores in Riyadh and a women's cen= ter=20 in my home town of Buraidah, seeing them as symbols of sin in a society that= was=20 marching rapidly toward modernization.</P> <P>Yet all the while, my doubts remained. Was the Quran really the word of G= od?=20 Had it really been revealed to Muhammad, or did he create it himself? But I=20 never shared these doubts with anyone, because doubting Islam or the prophet= is=20 not tolerated in the Muslim society of my country.</P> <P>By the time I turned 26, much of the turmoil in me had abated, and I made= my=20 peace with God. At the same time, my eyes were opened to the hypocrisy of so= =20 many who held themselves out as Muslim role models. I saw Islamic judges=20 ignoring the marks of torture borne by my prison comrades. I learned of Isla= mic=20 teachers who molested their students. I heard devout Muslims who never misse= d=20 the five daily prayers lying with ease to people who did not share their=20 extremist beliefs.</P> <P>In 1999, when I was working as an imam at a Riyadh mosque, I happened upo= n=20 two books that had a profound influence on me. One, written by a Palestinian= =20 scholar, was about the struggle between those who deal pragmatically with th= e=20 Quran and those who take it and the <EM>hadith </EM>literally. The other was= a=20 book by a Moroccan philosopher about the formation of the Arab Muslim way of= =20 thinking. The books inspired me to write an article for a Saudi newspaper=20 arguing that Muslims have the right to question and criticize religious lead= ers=20 and not to take everything they tell us for granted. We owe it to ourselves,= I=20 wrote, to think pragmatically if Islam is to survive and thrive.</P> <P>That article landed me in the center of a storm. Some men in my mosque=20 refused to greet me. Others would no longer pray behind me. Under this press= ure,=20 I left the mosque. I moved to the southern city of Abha, where I took a job=20= as a=20 writer and editor with a newly established newspaper. I went back to leading= =20 prayers at the paper's small mosque and to writing about my evolving=20 philosophy.</P> <P>After I wrote articles stressing our right as Muslims to question our Sau= di=20 clerics and their interpretations and to come up with our own, officials fro= m=20 the kingdom's religious establishment complained, and I was banned from=20 writing.</P> <P>The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, gave new life to what I had been saying. I= =20 went back to criticizing the rote manner in which we Muslims are fed our=20 religion. I criticized al-Qaida's school of thought, which considers everyon= e=20 who isn't a Salafi Muslim the enemy. I pointed to examples from Islamic hist= ory=20 that stressed the need to get along with other religions. I tried to give a=20= new=20 interpretation to the verses that call for enmity between Muslims and Christ= ians=20 and Jews. I wrote that they do not apply to us today and that Islam calls fo= r=20 friendship among all religions.</P> <P>I lost a lot of friends after that. My old companions from the jihad felt= =20 obliged to declare themselves either with me or against me. Some preferred t= o=20 cut their links to me silently, but others fought me publicly, issuing=20 statements filled with curses and lies. Once again, the paper came under gre= at=20 pressure to ban my writing. And I became a favorite target on the Internet,=20 where my writings were lambasted and labeled blasphemous.</P> <P>Eventually I was fired. But by then, I had started to develop a different= =20 relationship with God. I felt that He was moving me toward another kind of=20 belief, where all that matters is that we pray to God from the heart. I=20 continued to pray, but I started to avoid the verses that contain violence o= r=20 enmity and only used the ones that speak of God's mercy and grace and greatn= ess.=20 I remembered an incident when the prophet told a Bedouin who didn't know how= to=20 pray to let go of the verses and simply to think of God and get closer to Hi= m by=20 repeating, "God is good, God is great." Don't sweat the details, the prophet= =20 said.</P> <P>I felt at peace, and no longer doubted the existence of God.</P> <P>In December 2002, in a Web site interview, I criticized al-Qaida and decl= ared=20 that some of the Friday sermons were loathsome because of their attacks agai= nst=20 non-Muslims. Within days, a fatwa was posted online, calling me an infidel a= nd=20 saying that I should be killed. Once again, I felt despair at the ways of th= e=20 Muslim world. Two years later, I told al-Arabiya television that I thought G= od=20 loves all faithful people of different religions. That earned me a fatwa fro= m=20 the mufti of Saudi Arabia declaring my infidelity.</P> <P>But one evening not long after that, I heard a radio broadcast of the ver= se=20 of light. Even though I had memorized the Koran at 15, I felt as though I wa= s=20 hearing this verse for the first time. God is light, it says, the universe i= s=20 illuminated by His light. I felt the verse was speaking directly to me, send= ing=20 me a message. This God of light, I thought, how could He be against any huma= n?=20 The God of light would not be happy to see people suffer, even if they had=20 sinned and made mistakes along the way.</P> <P>I had found my Islam. And I believe that others can find it, too. But fir= st=20 we need a Reformation similar to the Protestant Reformation that Martin Luth= er=20 led against the Roman Catholic Church.</P> <P>In the late 14th century, Islam had its own sort of Martin Luther. Ibn=20 Taymiyya was an Islamic scholar from a hard-line Salafi sect who went throug= h a=20 spiritual crisis and came to believe that in time, God would close the gates= of=20 hell and grant all humans, regardless of their religion, entry to his=20 everlasting paradise. Unlike Luther, however, Ibn Taymiyya never openly decl= ared=20 this revolutionary belief; he shared it only with a small, trusted circle of= =20 students. Nevertheless, I find myself inspired by Luther's courageous uprisi= ng.=20 I see what Islam needs =E2=80=94 a strong, charismatic personality who will=20= lead us=20 toward reform, and scholars who can convince Islamic communities of the need= for=20 a bold new interpretation of Islamic texts, to reconcile us with the wider=20 world.</P> <P><EM>Al-Nogaidan writes for the Bahraini newspaper Al-Waqt. This article=20 originally appeared in the Washington=20 Post.</EM></P></DIV><!-- end bodycopy --></DIV></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV= ><FONT style=3D"color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style= =3D"MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Get a sneak peek of the all-new <A title=3D"http://dis= cover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour/?ncid=3DAOLAOF00020000000982" href=3D"http:= //discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour/?ncid=3DAOLAOF00020000000982" target= =3D"_blank">AOL.com</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> -------------------------------1185720591-- ]