Book - American Muslim Agenda

 If you are a conservative, then grudgingly you'll see the value in what this book offers, and if you are on the left, you want more of it, and if you are moderate, you will dance with joy.

HOSTING A BOOK TALK

The book is about building a cohesive America where each one of us feels secure about our faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientation. Who does not want to live a tension free life at home, workplace, and in the public space? 

The "American Muslim Agenda” serves a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it separates the chaff from the grain for fellow Americans to see Muslims for who they are and not how the media projects them. On the other hand, it challenges Muslims to restore Islam to its original purpose; that is to create cohesive societies, in our case, a coherent America, where each one of the 323 Million Americans feels proud of his or her uniqueness. 

The book presents many success stories to keep the reader bemused. I am pleased to submit three versions of the blurbs on the book talk. The format can be 10 minutes or 20 minutes presentation with room for Q&A. We want our esteemed guests to go home fully satisfied with all the questions they have had about Islam and Muslims. 

Our conservative friends would grudgingly acknowledge the pathway laid out in the book, while the moderates will dance with joy. If your vision of America is in tune with the book, together as Americans, we can contribute towards the greatness of our nation.

Would this book bring a change? 

Would this bring a change among Muslims towards others and others towards Muslims? Indeed, this book lays out a clear agenda to foster harmony among fellow Americans. It is akin to planting a seed and nurturing to give the beneficence to the next generation.

Some of the reservations we have about Muslims is based on what we have heard from our parents, friends, teachers, pastors, and TV. It is time for us to learn first-hand about them and remove the misunderstandings and live freely. 

It is one of the bold books written about Muslims, and it highlights the sources of extremism and how to cure it.

Unfortunately, some of the Muslim scholars from the past have reduced Islam to a religion of rituals and obedience. This book brings clarity to Muslims and fellow humans and separates the chaff from the wheat for you.

What is the overall theme of your book?

The overall theme of the book is to open people's hearts and minds towards each other. I believe that the ultimate ‘unexpressed’ purpose of humans is to live freely and be comfortable with one's culture, race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and individuality.

Why do you think that this book will appeal to readers?

It will appeal to Muslims and Non-Muslims alike, as they have never seen the pristine, pluralistic Islam. Moreover, for the first time in Islamic history, the essence of Islam is explained. Also, for the first time, the book explains twelve values directly from the Quran that contributes towards building cohesive societies with no privileges to one over the other. It is human nature to get along with fellow beings, and this book will resonate with them and pave the path for them to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

TEN TAKE AWAY POINTS FROM THE BOOK

1. The American Muslim Agenda challenges Muslims to think and restore Islam to its original purpose – i.e., to create a cohesive America, where each one of the 323 Million Americans feels secure with his or her faith, race, ethnicity culture, sexual and political orientation. 

2. The American Muslim Agenda paves the way for Muslims to own their mistakes, and remedy them. It corrects how fellow Americans perceive Muslims.

3. Islam is not about imposing (Sharia) your ideas or governing others. Islam is about living your life and letting others live theirs with freedom. That is the original Islam. Islam is about freedom and firmly stands for free will.

4. The essence and purpose of Islam from a humanity’s (Aalameen) perspective for the first time.

5. Never before in Islamic history, twelve values of Islam that contribute to creating secure, orderly and cohesive societies have been articulated. Verses from the Quran fully back each value. Thus, the book becomes a reference manual to teach and learn about Islam.

6. The best way to combat Islamophobia is through education, engagement, and dialogue. There are many success stories narrated including dealing with Fox News, Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney and the supposedly most of the Islamaphobes.

7. This book is the product of twenty years of research and interviews with the right, left, and the moderate fellow humans from many faiths including 150 interviews at Fox News and its many right-leaning guests.

8. Can a Muslim become President of the United States? What does it take, there is a full chapter on the topic?

9. In the end, it is learning to respect the otherness of the other and accepting the God given the uniqueness of each one of the 323 million Americans.

10. There is a whole lot more, and it is all in the book.

Talk Version 1.0

Title of the talk: Muslims making America the Greatest nation on earth.

Americans Muslims are committed to building a cohesive America, an inclusive America where each one of the 323 Million Americans feel secure about his/her faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientation.

When you are free from apprehensions, and connect with fellow workers, the workplace becomes a joy to be. You will give 100% of your heart and mind to your work, and your family benefits from having a whole of you, thus creating a little heaven for yourselves.

Dr. Mike Ghouse, author, public speaker, pluralist, interfaith wedding officiant, and the president of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC., will discuss how Muslim efforts in building a cohesive America are working.

He points out that we are Americans, we are free and brave people and must jettison our apprehensions about each other to live freely. Mike advises that if you are a conservative, then grudgingly you'll see a value in what this book offers, and if you are on the left, you want more of it, and the moderates will dance with joy.

He points out that we are Americans, we are free, and the brave people, and must jettison our apprehensions about each other to live freely. How do we accomplish that? It is by knowing each other.

America has always led the world in science, medicine, math, agriculture, automation, information technology, exploration and all the advancements of the human race, and it is time for us to lead the world in building a cohesive nation. The book offers concrete solutions to Americans to make America a great and powerful model nation of inclusion for Americans to enjoy living their lives productively and purposefully, and the world to look up to us to emulate.

We have to assure each other and every American without exception that we are committed to each other's security, prosperity, and peace. Our goal is to reach out to every American who has not been reached before, particularly those who do not understand us. As American Muslims, we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution.

Mike will share a few incredible success stories of dealing with our friends on the right and answer questions about Muslim efforts.

The book “American Muslim Agenda” will become a reference manual to knowledge seekers and teachers of Islam, and those who want to see one nation, one people and one America. For Muslims, it is backed up with verses from the Quran. You can order this book from Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Google, and other book stores. See the talking points at http://www.AmericanMuslimAgenda.com and Mike’s profile appended at https://www.linkedin.com/inmikeghouse.

Talk Version 2:0

Title of the talk: Muslims making America the Greatest nation on earth

Americans Muslims are committed to building a cohesive America, an inclusive America where each one of the 323 Million Americans feel secure about his/her faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientation.

When you are free from apprehensions, and connect with fellow workers, the workplace becomes a joy to be. You will give 100% of your heart and mind to your work, and your family benefits from having a whole of you with them creating a little heaven for yourselves.

Dr. Mike Ghouse, author, public speaker, pluralist, interfaith wedding officiant, and the President of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC., will discuss how Muslim effort is ongoing in building a cohesive America, where each one of the 323 Million Americans feel secure about his/her faith, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual and political orientations.

He points out that we are Americans, we are free and brave people and must jettison our apprehensions about each other to live freely. Mike advises that if you are a conservative, then grudgingly you'll see a value in what this book offers, and if you are on the left, you want more of it, and the moderates will dance with joy.

The book paves the way for Muslims to own their mistakes, remedy them, and correct how fellow Americans perceive Muslims. Mike argues that Islam is not about imposing your ideas or governing others. Instead, Islam is about living your life and letting others live theirs with freedom. It is a bold challenge to Muslims. He shows a narration from humanity's (Aalameen) perspective of the essence and purpose of Islam for the first time in history.

Mike articulates, for the first time in Islamic history, twelve values of Islam that contribute to creating secure, orderly and cohesive societies. He concludes that the best way to combat Islamophobia (and other phobias) is through education, engagement, and dialogue. Mike lays out a clear agenda to foster harmony among fellow Americans. It is akin to planting a seed and nurturing to give the beneficence to the next generation.

Mike believes when Muslims become one with all and defend American values with their souls, they will become part of the American story, and everyone’s language will automatically shift from us vs. them to us, the one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. As American Muslims, we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution.

This book will become a reference manual to teachers of Islam and knowledge seekers about Islam, as it is backed up verses from the Quran. You can order his book from Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Google, and other book stores. See the talking points at http://www.AmericanMuslimAgenda.com and Mike’s profile appended at https://www.linkedin.com/inmikeghouse.

BOOK - Version 3.0

The American Muslim Agenda is a primer, a blueprint, and a road map for Americans in general and Muslims in particular.

A Muslim is someone who is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer, following the formula for peaceful societies practiced by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and guided by the Quran.

As a community, American Muslims have not developed any concrete plans to extricate themselves out of the chaotic situations, hostility and incessant Islamophobic rhetoric we face. Each time a terrorist acts out, we start praying and wishing that the terrorist not be a Muslim. We are Americans, and we can do better than that.

There is only one America, and all of us are fully integrated parts of that nation. We need to learn to engage with those who are opposed to us, and reassure them that we are all in this together. Mike will share some success stories.

When we start defending America and the American values we are in! We become an integral part of American Fabric. That is the clear objective articulated in this book.

The book is available at Amazon, Kindle, Google, Xlibris, Barnes & Nobles, and other book stores. The softcover is priced at $19.99, and the hardcover is $29.99. It is also available as an eBook.

The American Muslim Agenda will be in the hands of lawmakers, presidential candidates, media persons, lobbyists, think tanks, educators, interfaith activists, CEO, and fellow Americans. The book is about building a cohesive America where each one of us can live securely with our faith, race, ethnicity, and culture.

As American Muslims, we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our constitution.

Mike is a public speaker, author, interfaith wedding officiant, a newsmaker and the executive director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. More about him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/

Email to: SpeakerMikeGhouse@gmail.com or text (214) 325-1916

The Spirit, rituals and politics of Ramadan

The Spirit, rituals and politics of Ramadan
Mike Ghouse, Dallas, Texas

The Spiritual masters have captured the human gravity for rituals and have molded it with the art and science of self-discipline in their respective religion. The noble purpose of each one of them was to bring a balance in our lives and a balance with things that surround us; life and environment. Every faith is composed of a set of unique rituals to bring discipline and peace to human life. Fasting is one of the five key rituals that Muslims around the world observe.

Continued at: http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/The-spirit-rituals-and-politics-of-Ramadan.asp

Largest Mosque in Canada opens

http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2008/07/largest-mosque-in-canada-opens.html

Largest mosque in Canada opens in Calgary to political fanfare

Congratulations to the Ahmadiyya Muslims of Calgary for building the Mosque, a community center. I hope it will thrive and become a center for learning and peace making.

I am surprised at Stevenson’s comment that “But unlike mainstream Muslims, the Ahmadiyya believe that Muhammad was not the final prophet.” I have read and heard differently than this or perhaps I am mistaken that the group believes in Prophet Muhammad as the last prophet and that HH Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the promised Messiah.

We have always included Ahmadiyya into the fold of Muslims, however, the statement made by Imam Suharwardy that the Ahmadiyya are to Muslims, what Mormons are to Christians makes an interesting comparison.

I strongly urge the Ahmadiyya community to refrain from saying this particular phrase “… we do not believe in violent jihad ..” These are not the peace making words, the sentence alludes that other Muslims believe in violent Jihad. I have dealt with the same issue on local level at least on two occasions. One does become good on his or her own merit and not others perceived demerits.

I urge the few fanatics among us to leave the Ahmadiyya alone, let them practice their version of the faith as it works for them. After all, on the Day of Judgment, each one of us is accountable for our own deeds and not our kids, parents or community’s deeds. We are individually responsible for our actions and words, and we are certainly not responsible for what others say or do.

Mike Ghouse
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com

Largest mosque in Canada opens in Calgary to political fanfare
JAMES STEVENSON
Canadian Press
July 5, 2008 at 3:26 PM EDT

CALGARY — Calgary's Ahmadiyya community, an offshoot movement of Islam persecuted in some countries, was to officially open what is believed to be Canada's newest and largest mosque Saturday.

The country's top political leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Opposition Leader Stéphane Dion, were expected to attend the ceremony.

The mosque complex covers more than 4,300 square metres and includes a community centre, classrooms, office space, children's area, kitchen, dining room and a multi-purpose hall.

The main outward features are its massive steel dome together with a steel-capped minaret tower.

When construction plans for the mosque started 14 years ago, there were no plans to make it Canada's largest, said Safeer Kahn, a spokesman for Calgary's Ahmadiyya community.

“We did not have intention on make it the biggest one. But when we started looking at our needs, we decided to make it for the future, not for the past,” he said.
About $8-million was raised by local Calgarians. Ahmadiyya from all over Canada also chipped in.

“People sold their houses and children broke their piggy banks and actually this was a great example of sacrificing,” Mr. Kahn said, adding the mosque complex will be open to everyone, whether they belong to Ahmadiyya or not.

“We welcome everyone here, and this mosque will be a symbol of peace. I assure you, Calgarians will be proud of having this building in their city.”

Members of the Ahmadiyya faith, which began in India and is now estimated to have about 70 million followers worldwide, call themselves Muslims and follow Islam's main tenets.

But unlike mainstream Muslims, the Ahmadiyya believe that Muhammad was not the final prophet. Instead, they maintain that he was followed by another prophet in the 19th century called Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who came in the spirit of Christ.

Just last month, thousands of Indonesian Muslims took to the streets of Jakarta calling for the government to ban Ahmadiyya.

The faith is considered non-Muslim in Pakistan's constitution and some consider it heretical.

Mr. Kahn said the discrimination in other parts of the world is precisely why the Ahmadiyya are thriving in Canada, where religious freedom is tolerated. “Anybody can have their own opinion and it does not affect us. We have our own goals and we do not believe in violent jihad and we believe that we are always open to discuss this issue.

“Religion is a personal matter and a person has the right to declare his religion so that's the right that Islam gave us.”

Calgarian Imam Sayed Soharwardy, founder of Muslims Against Violence and the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, said he respects the Ahmadiyya's right to religious freedom, but does not consider them to be Muslim.

“A lot of Muslims do not concede that they are Muslims,” he said recently. “They pray like us, they fast, they do everything except this one particular belief.

“They are our Mormons. I call them our Mormons because the Mormons had Joseph Smith and they had Mr. Ahmad. Some people express hate about them, but in my book there is no word ‘hate.' ”

http://www.theglobe andmail.com/ servlet/story/ RTGAM.20080705. wmosque0705/ BNStory/Front/ home

Who owns the word “Allah” ?

The Malaysian Government need to learn that no one owns the word "Allah" nor does any one own "Allah". Same formula applies to the other names of God be it Yahweh, Ahura Mazda, Krishna, Allah, Ahura Mazda or any other name one can imagine to call on the creator.

As a Muslim I welcome every one to call God with his name in Arabic – "Allah" with equal devotion and honor. Quietly and peacefully this would be the response of over 99% of Muslims in the world. It is time for us not to run over by the few.

Full article at: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/07/who-owns-word-allah.html

Obama should visit a mosque

Indeed, Obama should visit a Mosque, a Hindu Temple and if possible all places of worship. "He has repeatedly shown his courage during this campaign; Americans have responded to his intellectual honesty."

Obama has won just for that reason - moderation and intellectual honesty. The moderates make a wholesale majority, this is the first time, we have an individual representing the voice of masses, and he will be accpeted wholeheartedly by the Americans for standing up for the right thing.

Mike Ghouse


Cohen: Why Obama should visit a mosque
By Roger Cohen Published: June 25, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/opinion/edcohen.php

ISTANBUL: I'll admit it, I'm thin-skinned about the kinds of slurs and innuendo about Muslims that have accompanied Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Years of being subjected to them while I covered the Bosnian war did that.

We heard the whole gamut back then: how the European Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo were really "Turks" engaged in a "demographic genocide" (through high birth rates) against Christians, and how they were engaged in a plot to establish a "Muslim crescent" looping up from Turkey through the Balkans, and how they roasted enemy prisoners alive on spits.

All the while, of course, said Bosnian Muslims were being herded by Christian Serbs into concentration camps that were centers of torture and systematic killing of a cruelty Europe believed it had forever banished.

That was before 9/11, of course, and before the Egyptian-born writer Bat Yeor popularized the term "Eurabia" to express her vision of a Muslim-infiltrated Europe capitulating Munich-like to Islamism, and before Pat Buchanan's apocalyptic "The Death of the West," and before Americans were encouraged in numberless ways to equate Islam with terrorists plotting Armageddon.

Give Americans the Rorschach test today and what they'll detect in the ink blots are bearded Muslim "suiciders."

Today in Opinion
Justice and decency in the face of horrorAt Justice, even the interns are politicalAnother rebuke on GuantánamoI'll admit something else: My own feelings about Islam have veered back and forth in recent years. Most of us were ignorant when the planes-turned-missiles struck. We've been searching for bearings: even the word "jihad" is variously described as a holy war against the infidel and an inner struggle for higher spiritual attainment.

When, in 2005, I talked to the Somalian-born Dutch author Ayaan Hirsi Ali in a meeting in The Hague that had to be organized like an undercover operation because of threats to her life from Islamic radicals, I was struck by her words: "Islam is not a religion of peace, or only of peace with other Muslims. We should acknowledge that it's a very violent religion, instead of pretending, like Bush, that this violence is not true Islam."

Certainly, the threat to her made in its name was violent. Certainly, the Koran is a long way from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Certainly, there are Koranic verses that Al Qaeda and other extremists have been able to use in attempts to sanctify their murderous acts.

Certainly Islam, politically expressed, has often proved irreconcilable with modern notions of pluralism, democracy and women's rights. But a "very violent religion?" No. From Beirut to Baghdad to Cairo to here in Istanbul, I have often felt the wonders of hospitality and generosity and wisdom that seem to well from Islam.

At Obama's old school in Jakarta earlier this year, an establishment scurrilously described as a "madrassa" in all the innuendo, a gentle principal showed me the large mosque and small Christian prayer room. He then invoked the words emblazoned on the coat of arms of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country: "Unity in diversity."

That's what I saw among the kids at the school, 85 percent of whom are Muslim and the rest Christian. That's also what America's supposed to be about, not religious slurring and stereotyping.

Yet, because he's called Barack Hussein Obama, and because his Kenyan grandfather was a Muslim, and because his commitment to Israel has been questioned, and because the U.S. Rorschach test is Muslim-menace mired, he's had to tread carefully.

As Andrea Elliott of The New York Times chronicled in an important piece, Obama has visited churches and synagogues but no mosque. He had to apologize after two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred from appearing behind him at a recent Detroit rally.

Obama should visit a mosque. He has repeatedly shown his courage during this campaign; Americans have responded to his intellectual honesty. One of the important things about him is the knowledge his Kenyan and Indonesian experiences have given him of Islam as lived, rather than Islam as turned into monstrous specter.

This enables him to break the monolithic, alienating view of a great world religion that is as multifaceted as Judaism or Christianity.

I've no doubt that Obama is a strong supporter of Israel. But what I find as important is that he would come to Islam without prejudice.

That's the precondition for dialogue, whether with Iran or between Israel and Palestine.

Here in Turkey, a Muslim country of myth-dispelling permissiveness, I met with Joost Lagendijk, the chairman of the Turkey delegation of the European Parliament. He's Dutch. What he hears at home is, "Fear of Islam and fear of Muslims and fear of immigrants."

Fear-mongering about Islam is a global industry. It thrives on ignorance. Obama has a unique power to break the cycle, not least by emboldening moderate Muslims to denounce terror. Nothing would do more in the long run for the security of the world.

Readers are invited to comment at my blog: www.iht.com/passages

Americans Tolerant of Religions

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Americans Tolerant of Religions, Poll SaysThe following survey (below) filed under Nations News is indeed reflective of the average American, no matter how you pigeon hole him or her. The “survey finds most Americans don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise." Indeed, if we can learn to accept and respect every which way people worship the divine, conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Continued at: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/06/americans-tolerant-of-religions.html

Illusions of an Islamic State

Illusions of an Islamic State
A book by Tarek Fatah.

The book review by Ali Eteraz follows my comments;
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2008/04/book-illusions-of-islamic-state.html

If you are content with the status quo of your knowledge, this book is not for you, but if you’d like to be challenged, check this out.

At the World Muslim Congress, we take the middle path, we analyze and discuss the right wingers as well as the ultra-liberals, but our focus is on moderation and one of the qualities of moderate Muslims is “listening to” and pondering on different points of view. Moderates seldom reject a view outrightly without giving a thought. No one every agrees 100% with the other.

I am delighted to share Ali Eteraz’s review of Tarek Fatah’s book “Illusions of an Islamic State.” I have not read the book yet but I intend to read and hope the following items are included in the book.

- The Madinah pact is an example of separation of Church and State; it was initiated by the Prophet as a head of the City State and had signatures from other communities. If it was a religious government, I seriously doubt he would have taken the initiative or even get the others to go along with the freedom to practice their own religion. He Cherished that value and believed that there is no compulsion in faith, one has to believe in it to accept it.

- Prophet Muhammad’s time was pluralistic and all the work and examples generated were indeed sensitive to people of other faiths. He asked the visiting Christians from Najran to pray in his mosque when the time for prayers was up; he had walked up to a Jewish procession and kissed the Torah Scrolls they were carrying.

- Democracy was guarded by the prophet and the successive rulers of the state at that time. Prophet did not pass the mantle of state administration to the most deserved candidates at the time; his Son-in-Law Ali. Had he done that the administration would have been monarchial, passing on from relative to relative. That was not the case; each successive leader was chosen with consensus. There was campaigning and there were differences, roots of democracy some 1400 years ago as Abdul Aziz Sachedina has noted in his book.

- Prophet in his last sermon added a strong item – he said to the followers, I am leaving this book (Qur’aan) to you to follow, he did not assign an interpreter or established the clergy to be the guardians of the knowledge. As part of the individual responsibility he told his own daughter Fatima that she has to earn her way with God, through her deeds and she ain’t going to get a free pass to paradise because she is the daughter of the prophet.

- The First leader (ok, Caliph) Abu Bakr gave an acceptance speech, that I believe is one of the best examples of giving the people freedom to keep or drop the ruler. “I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Sincere regard for truth is loyalty and disregard for truth is treachery. The weak amongst you shall be strong with me until I have secured his rights, if God will; and the strong amongst you shall be weak with me until I have wrested from him the rights of others, if God will. Obey me so long as I obey God and His Messenger. But if I disobey God and His Messenger, ye owe me no obedience. Arise for your prayer, God have mercy upon you.

Broad definitions of a few terms;

Right wingers – a broad description would be the literalists, as the evangelicals in the Christian tradition. They do not give depth and essence to the words; it is what appears to them and nothing more.

Moderate Muslims: Majority of the Muslims fall into this category, they get along with all, they do not negate other peoples way of life nor do they have a problem with other faiths and life styles. People know they are Muslims but they do not wear neon signs on their forehead. http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/04/moderate-muslims.html

Liberals: Want to stretch the guidelines and test it out. Most of the changes we witness today are efforts of this group. They are not content with the status quo, they want to dig and check out the possibilities.

Mike Ghouse
http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/

Illusions of an Islamic State
Ali Eteraz
The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-eteraz/illusions-of-an-islamic-s_b_96698.html


Tarek Fatah, a pacifist, a controversial leftist activist and founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, recently published a book challenging Islamism, which he refers to as Islam's right-wing. The book is called Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State.

Fatah argues that since Islam's advent, there have been two parallel strains of the religion that are in clash.

The first, "state of Islam" is a person's moral compass; the way Islam governs an individual's personal life. Fatah has no issues with this Islam. In fact, he says that whether one is ultra-conservative or a secular Muslim should be no one else's concern.

In contrast, the second -- "Islamic State" -- occurs when a political entity uses Islam to govern and control society. Fatah has a great problem with this phenomenon, as he believes it connected to terrorism, fundamentalism and subjugation of women. His book is a sustained critique of the historical, political and theological bases upon which the idea of an Islamic state is premised.

As case studies, Fatah looks at Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Palestine, and reveals how in each place Islamist ideas found their genesis, how they were promoted, how they were actualized and how they have fared. He shows how leaders of dubious character have used the utopia of an Islamic state to acquire illegitimate dominance and demand cult-like obedience. The sections on Pakistan -- where Fatah was once a prominent student leader -- and Palestine -- a cause which he has supported since the 60's -- most ably demonstrate Fatah's thesis: the Islamist impulse leads to a retardation of civil society, leads to the subjugation of women, minorities and expression, and foments unnecessary crisis with external groups.

In order to diagnose the Islamist malaise, Fatah engages the intellectual argument upon which the Islamist narrative is built: the assertion that the Islamic state represents the most authentic vision of Islam. Fatah questions this vehemently. He points out that neither Muhammad nor the Quran provide for a political model, an assertion he shares with numerous other Muslim thinkers, including the current Mufti of Egypt (who takes this silence to mean that personal Islam is compatible with liberal democracy).

However Fatah goes further and shows that it was not Muhammad's intent to establish an Islamic state. Fatah's argument is novel. He says that if Muhammad had wanted to establish an Islamic state, then when he took over Mecca he would have provided for an Islamic constitution; after all, for ten years Muhammad was the de facto ruler of the city-state of Medina and there he had sought a constitution. Fatah argues that the lack of a political document in Mecca, taken in conjunction with one of Muhammad's assertions in his last sermon -- "I have completed the religion for you" -- means that Mecca was not an Islamic state, just a state ruled by a man named Muhammad where Muslims were free to establish a personal relationship with God based on their individual judgment on what constituted piety.

Fatah then delves into the lives of the Four Caliphs that followed Muhammad, painstakingly detailing how the idea of an Islamic state slowly came to prominence - not as a result of the Prophet's Companions fulfilling some religious obligation, but as a way to dominate their political opponents. Here again Fatah demonstrates ingenuity. He reveals that the title that Abu Bakr, the first caliph, took for himself, was not "Caliph of God" as later day caliphs, sultans and kings took on, but something akin to "Representative of Muhammad." Fatah believes that this fact undermines the Islamist idea of linking political power with God; after all, Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, Muhammad's closest friend, a figure that Islamists purportedly follow, didn't even take such a dramatic step. Fatah also notes that the second caliph, Umar, also celebrated among Islamists, also didn't take the mantle "Caliph of God." It wasn't until the third caliph, Usman, that the term became acceptable.

Fatah ends up taking his analysis of Muslim states all the way to the end of the Abbasid Empire in the 13th century. Along the way his basic assertion is corroborated repeatedly. The states that Muslims were running were just political entities, and weren't focused on their Islamic flavor. Had that been the case, then these formative states wouldn't have made a distinction between Muslims as they did. Fatah wonders, for example, how Islamists can assert that the early Muslims lived in an Islamic state when there were classes of Muslims who had to pay the jizya (minority tax), or classes of Muslims that couldn't legally marry Arab women, or classes of Muslims based on when they had converted to Islam? If these previous states were truly Islamic states, then they wouldn't have made distinctions between Muslims -- which they readily did.

There is, Fatah believes, only one conclusion to be drawn from this: the historical Islamic states were not organized around Islam, but ethnicity (Arab over non-Arab), power (vis a vis Persians and Byzantines), and expansion (both through conflict and conversion).

In other words, Fatah concludes, the Islamist idea of an Islamic state is just a mirage. It is neither corroborated in the original sources of Islam -- the Quran and the Prophet's practice -- nor in the actual practice of the first generations of Islam.

Fatah's ideas represent a formidable intellectual challenge to Islamism.

I did, however, find some shortcomings in this book. While the first half of the book -- focusing on the case studies -- reads easily, the discussion about Muhammad and his companions becomes incredibly dense. The conclusions aren't always fleshed out and have to be inferred.

In addition, throughout the book, the sourcing is shoddy and inconsistent. On reading many assertions, I found myself wishing there were better footnotes. This is especially important when the discussion shifts to the contentious historical narrative.

Also, the book attempts an interesting synthesis -- by bringing together Sunni and Shia sources, using both to illuminate the discussion. This approach can be successful, such as when Ayatollah Modarresi used both the Sunni and Shia account to look at the history of Quranic compilation. However, the two pronged critique also has its down-side because of the historical enmity between Sunni and Shia, and the vast amount of polemics that infect this area of Islamic scholarship.

Further, throughout the book, one issue I kept wondering about was whether Fatah advocated opposing Islamists to such an extent that he would accept a secular dictator over democratically elected Islamists. There is no conclusive answer to this, but at one point in his life Fatah did consider General Nasser of Egypt his hero, which is troubling. He also seems to suggest that in Palestine, Abbas' Fatah Organization is presumptively better than Hamas because the former is secular and the latter is Islamist -- whereas experience suggests that Abbas' secularism hasn't made him any less violent.

In addition, the book contains a passing reference to the idea that anyone who calls himself a Muslim is a Muslim. Secular Muslims often like to stress this point but I have never understood why. If religion doesn't matter to you in the public sphere, then you aren't all that likely to be publicly affirming your Muslim identity anyway; so why bother with this point?
Finally, there is the figure of Fatah himself. Formerly a Marxist leader and activist for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan, ever since his arrival in Canada he has had a love-hate relationship with the Muslim communities. He has accused CAIR, ISNA, MSA and ICNA of being shadow-Islamists, which has earned him little love. His own efforts to create a North-America-wide Muslim group called Progressive Muslim Union of North America, were a failure largely because many progressive Muslims, like Muqtedar Khan and Omid Safi, were put off by Fatah's confrontational style and left the group. Further, even as he fought against Sharia in the Canadian legal system, he had a public falling out with Irshad Manji (though he thanks her in the acknowledgments). In other words, there are few Muslim figures who generate negative vibes from both the conservative and liberal side of Islam and Fatah is one of them.

I, personally, don't agree with many of Fatah's positions -- having criticized him in the past.

I, personally, come from the contingent of activists who thought that Fatah did create some of the tension that led to the downfall of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America (I say that as an observer as I was not a member). Unlike him, I don't think Islamic finance as practiced by Western banks strengthens Islamists, rather it forces the entire scheme to be more beholden to international regulation. Unlike him, I don't find any thing particularly threatening about the free and consensual wearing of the hijab. Unlike him, I believe that the theologian Ghazali and segments of Islamic traditionalism are not natural allies of Islamism (of clericalism, certainly).

Having said that, I think this book is a positive contribution to the discussion about contemporary Islam and certainly a valuable addition to the voices that are critically looking at Islam's right-wing. Fatah speaks about Islamic leaders with familiarity and respect, while engaging their ideas critically. He comes from the left so has vehemently opposed American interventionism for decades -- he says he writes to wake up his Muslim brethren, not attack them. He deconstructs Islamic history to separate it from the political reading that dictators, tyrants and fundamentalists have given it. Fatah writes well, has novel ideas, participates in the Islamic tradition, and he is clearly passionate about his private practice of Islam (he has made the hajj twice). Agree with him or not, I don't think there is any other public intellectual in the North American arena -- Muslim or other -- who could have written this book.

Get your copy of:
Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State
• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• ISBN-10: 0470841168
• ISBN-13: 978-0470841167