Kamal Nawash and Free Muslims Against Terrorism

by Sheila Musaji

Kamal Nawash founded the Free Muslims Against Terrorism Coalition and the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) **  Their website lists 11 members of this coalition including Zuhdi Jasser and Tawfiq Hamid.  His Free Muslims group sponsored a March against terrorism in 2005 which only attracted about 50 people.  Not because mainstream Muslims are not against terrorism, but because they distrust Nawash and his group.

The “about us” section of the Free Muslims site says The Free Muslims’ efforts are unique; it is the only mainstream American-Muslim organization willing to attack extremism and terrorism unambiguously. Unfortunately most other Muslim leaders believe that in terrorist organizations, the end justifies the means.  This is the sort of inflated claim for Nawash’s own importance and broad-based attack on American Muslim leaders that causes distrust.  This claim about being the only American Muslim organization willing to attack extremism and terrorism unambiguously can be easily disproven by simply clicking on the “Muslims Denounce Terrorism” logo on the front page of The American Muslim site.

Zahed Amunalluh reported (read his full article with lots of links)

Billed as the first mainstream Muslim rally against terror in Washington DC (the qualifiers came after rallies were pointed out elsewhere, notably AMILA’S well-documented march in 2002), the march was organised by the Free Muslims Against Terrorism, or more accurately by its president Kamal Nawash.

However, the march’s low turnout highlighted the leader’s notoriety for high publicity (in non-Muslim circles and Fox News) and rejection by most mainstream Muslim groups (of which FMAT claims to be part of). “For certain people, I’m a hero. For certain people, I was sent by God,” said Nawash, prior to the event (with angels fluttering above, no doubt). “Someone described me as the Martin Luther of Islam. To me, that’s not bad.” Nawash has been criticized in the past by Muslim-watchers such as Daniel Pipes for his defense of Abdurahman Alamoudi while working as an attorney for the ADC (he has since won back Pipes graces and left the ADC). But a recent critique (to put it mildly) by former ADC colleague and Progressive Muslim Union board member Hussain Ibish highlighted Nawash’s failed political aspirations and accused him of selling out. “It looks like an effort to force people into choosing to give Kamal completely undeserved credibility by joining him, or face possible denunciation as agents of terror by declining the poisoned offer,” predicted Ibish (somewhat correctly). “It’s a typically crude ploy, and nobody should be fooled for a second by it.” Furthermore, the bizarre list of supporters (including groups who said they never signed on and a sneaked-through anagram insult to Nawash) undermined claims of mainstream Muslim support.

Larry Scholer reported

The sponsors have aroused suspicion from Muslim and non-Muslim groups.

Of the 80 sponsors for the rally, many were not Muslim organizations. The sponsors included right-wing organizations—Rightalk.com, Free Republic Network, and the Objectivist Center—and organizations that promote democracy—the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Alliance for Democracy in Iran, the Government of Free Vietnam. Other sponsors, as critics of the Free Muslims have noted, seemed unrelated to the cause of the Free Muslims. These organizations included JPJ Fashions, Marion Meadows Entertainment, and Scentual Fragrance, as well as various law offices.

“We are looking at everything from clothes shops in Arizona, Moonies, right-wing Zionists, and Christian fundamentalists, to Iranian monarchists, Iraqi supporters of the occupation, Darfurian exiles and Lebanese Pphalangists,” wrote Hussein Ibish, the communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), on the weblog muslimwakeup.com.

“Also, I confess that I am somewhat puzzled by a list of endorsers that includes Marion Meadows Entertainment, JPJ Fashions, The Law Offices of Andrew Pakis, The Nawash Law Office, Rask Law Office, and Scentual Fragrance. What do these groups have to do with terrorism and jihad? What does their presence on the endorser list do except pad the list—enabling FMAT to send out a press release recently touting the March’s endorsement by over 50 groups?” wrote Robert Spencer, a harsh critic of Islamism, on his jihadwatch.org website.

Critics, like Ibish, of the Free Muslims and the march have looked with skepticism on Nawash, the organization’s president, who once ran for Virginia delegate as a Republican. They see Nawash as using the Free Muslims to revive his political career and to curry favor with figures such as David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes, former critics of Nawash. Ibish described the Free Muslims as “the group set up to stop criticism of Kamal Nawash by right-wing Zionists like Daniel Pipes and bolster his failed career as a Republican party candidate for local office in Virginia.”

Hussein Ibish reported on Nawash’s failed 2005 March and Kamal Nawash’s Very, Very Strange Bedfellows.  He noted:

...  Representatives of most major Arab American and American Muslim groups in Washington received invitations to participate in the March, but all declined given KamalԒs unsavory background and activities, and his close association with and open courting of those most hostile to these communities such as the professional bigot Daniel Pipes and others. Indeed, one of the purposes of the March may be to force the mainstream groups to choose between having to join this unsavory figure and give his appalling efforts undeserved credibility, or decline and face future accusations from the likes of Pipes that their failure to join Kamals March indicates some sort of secret support for terrorism against the United States. ...

SEE ALSO:

Alejandro Beutel debating Kamal Nawash on al Jazeerah http://www.mpac.org/multimedia/video/alejandro-beutel-debating-kamal-nawash-on-al-jazeera-english.php

Free Muslims Against Terrorism: Kamal Nawash’s Very, Very Strange Bedfellows, Hussein Ibish http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/free_muslims_against_terrorism_kamal_nawashs_very_very_strange_bedfell

Zuhdi Jasser-AIFD/AILC - Identified by Rep. King as Ideal American Muslim Leadership, Sheila Musaji http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/zuhdi_jasser

Robert Spencer turns lemonade into acid, Sheila Musaji http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/robert-spencer-and-free-muslims