Jumah At the DNC

"There is no thought of original intent or original meaning in the way the Democratic leaders are giving this nation away to those who would see its downfall..."

The Washington Times reported yesterday that as many as 20,000 participants could show up for what is being billed by the participants and the Democratic National Convention as 'Jumah at the DNC'. Jumah is Arabic for 'Friday', and is the biggest prayer event of the week.

"The DNC lists the assembly as an 'official function' and claims that the leaders of the program are typical of the DNC community. The group is hardly 'mainstream,' being represented by Siraj Wahhaj, who will be the 'Grand Imam' for the gathering....Wahhaj and the co-leader of the Charlotte event, Jibril Hough, are both heavily involved in the separatist American Islamist movement," said the Times.

It then goes on to explain how this Islamic gathering at the DNC will be a "prime example of taqiyya".  This will cover a protest by the participants directed at the Patriot Act, the NYPD, Islamophobia, and anti-sharia issues. Most of the participants, said the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, "will likely come from Hough and Wahhaj’s radical networks that have long been entrenched in the Charlotte area. Make no mistake they are part of the Islamist movement."

Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA), the national Muslim American non-profit that is coordinating the two days of events for leaders of the separatist, American Islamist movement, are receiving "a national stage and as much credibility as the DNC can muster," said beforeitsnews.com . 

There are many baffling and troubling concerns here. The first may be how any organization can be taken seriously when referring to "indigenous" Islamic Americans--but many must be doing so, including the DNC. 

Second, why is the DNC giving a religious platform to any group, let alone to those who in the past have advocated replacing the Constitution with sharia, as some of the participants have?

Third, why didn't the DNC vet the leaders better? Oh, wait--they did. Siraj Wahhaj's own website says lists his upcoming events as an Islamic Relief fundraiser, the funds of which will go to Iran and Myanmar, among other nations. It also lists a fundraiser for the Council on Islamic-American Relations, called radical and Islamicist by other American groups of Muslims.

CAIR was founded in 1994 by alumni of an older group, the Islamic Association for Palestine. The IAP, founded by senior Hamas figure Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state under Islamic law in Israel's place. (In 1996, CAIR would condemn the U.S. government's decision to deport Marzook as an "anti-Islamic" act.)
CAIR's first executive director, Nihad Awad, publicly declared himself a supporter of Hamas at a 1994 forum at Barry University in Florida.
One of CAIR's original advisory board members, Siraj Wahhaj, served as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman is the blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks. CAIR described Rahman's conviction as a hate crime. source

"The FBI [severed] its once-close ties with the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, amid mounting evidence that it has links to a support network for Hamas." source

There is no thought of original intent or original meaning in the way the Democratic leaders are giving this nation away to those who would see its downfall, and who must have applauded on September 11, 2001. No patriotic Muslim American would need an 'official' jumah at the DNC.

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© Curtis Edward Clark 2012

Arab Revolutions and Popular Sovereignty

     As for the point of calling the government the "popular sovereign", Locke is relevant in today's world of Arabic/Islamic revolutions. It is unlikely that in today's world any nation, let alone an Islamic nation, is capable of going the distance as America's Founders did, by making the sovereign the individual.

     Jefferson and the other founders conceived that if the people (individuals taken as a single body politic) had the right to turn over to the government some of their rights, then the individuals were the actual sovereigns, because they cannot turn over what they do not already have. In other words, you can't give away what you don't have.

     "Individual sovereignty was not a peculiar conceit of Thomas Jefferson: It was the common assumption of the day..." http://www.friesian.com/ellis.htm

     This was carried through to the 20th century by Ayn Rand, who used many of the same phrases as the Founders:
"Individualism regards man—every man—as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights—and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members."
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/indivi…

     However, this kind of thinking was rejected in the 12th century by the Muslims when they rejected the philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes) who fled to Spain to save his own life. Ibn Rusd didn't advocate individual sovereignty--it would take Americans to do that, by adapting to what Locke taught them. Locke learned from Aquinas who learned from Ibn Rushd and worked from many of the man's translations of Aristotle.

     And so, in today's world it probably isn't possible to see another America rise from the ashes of any nation whether Western, Eastern, or Middle Eastern because the idea of individual sovereignty cannot return in the U.S. until the States take back their 10th Amendment rights, after which the people can then take back their 9th Amendment rights (notwithstanding the recent controversy that the 9th is also tied directly to States' rights).

     Locke referred to "popular sovereignty". Thus, Madison wrote that "Individual rights and governmental powers were understood to be reciprocal—two sides of the same coin. As Madison wrote in a letter to Washington: 'If a line can be drawn between the powers granted and the rights retained, it would seem to be the same thing, whether the latter be secured[] by declaring that they shall not be abridged, or that the former
shall not be extended.'” http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/se… page 14

     It seems however that they have been abridged, and that "the former" has been extended. Locke's "popular sovereignty" may be composed in any way the individuals of the nation wish to compose it. Turkey has had "popular sovereignty" since the Second world war and Iraq is now trying to follow in Turkey's tracks, both nations operating in the manner of the Arabs, not the way of Europeans; and of the Islamic nations now undergoing revolutions and convulsions, some may turn to Arab popular sovereignty.

     It is unlikely, however, that any of them will turn to natural rights as fully as America did. They don't understand natural rights because that is what Ibn Rushd would have led to--an Islamic Locke (or Hobbes or Rousseau). Muhammad and Allah cannot allow western individualism which "regards man—every man—as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life."

© Curtis Edward Clark 2011

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