STATEMENT:  Muslims Protest Removal of the Ten Commandments

National Association of Muslim American Women

Posted Aug 31, 2003      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version
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National Association of Muslim American Women, PO Box 72110
Columbus, Ohio 43207- .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

National Association of Muslim American Women calls upon U.S. Muslims to protest removal of the Ten Commandments

August 23, 2003

For Immediate release

The National Association of Muslim American Women (NAMAW) is appealing to US Muslims, asking that they join with millions of people of faith in the United States as they oppose the removal of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building in Alabama.


The Ten Commandments are threatened with removal due to the ruling of a federal judge, who said that the placement of the Commandments in a public rotunda violates the U.S.  Constitution.  Alabama’s chief justice Roy Moore was suspended Friday, August 22, 2003, for his refusal to remove the monument. Justice Moore stated, upon learning of his suspension, that he had “upheld his oath of office by remembering God.” 

The Qur’an teaches Muslims that God presented the Ten Commandments to the prophet Moses and a band of people, Jews and Gentiles who followed Moses in an exodus from Egypt where they were being persecuted by the Pharaoh of that time. These people of faith left Egypt believing in God’s promise to guide and protect those who desire to live in a way deemed pleasing to God. Today, people of faith, including Muslims, continue to believe that this promised guidance is found in religious laws, including the Ten Commandments.

” In our view,” said NAMAW President Anisa Abd el Fattah, ” this is not a religious, or a denominational issue, but rather it is a test of our judiciary’s willingness and ability to protect the Constitutional rights of a majority of American people to exercise their first amendment right to public religious expression. Opposition will challenge the right of certain special interest groups, including activists’ judges, to impose their personal beliefs upon a citizenry that continues to define itself as believers in the God of Moses.”  Independent polls show that at least 90% of the American people believe in the God of the Bible and Qur’an, and that they also believe in a Day of Judgment, which means that we must also believe in a law or criterion by which we will be judged, and it seems that we should have a right to publicly display that law both as a historical monument, and as an expression of faith. The Qur’an says in 7:145, in reference to the Ten Commandments that we “take hold, and hold with firmness, and enjoin the people of faith to hold fast to its precepts.”

The Association is asking the leaders of mosques and Muslim organizations to issue statements in support of Justice Moore, and that all Muslims will write letters, send e-mails, and telephone their Congressional representatives asking that they address the issue of religious freedom, expression and Constitutional integrity through appropriate legislation. The Association is also requesting that people of all faiths contact the White House and request that the President intervene and prevent the removal of the Ten Commandments until all available legal appeals have been exhausted. 

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