I can’t help but wonder how it is that an organization with no track record of any activities on behalf of the American Muslim community, with no purpose other than promoting the political ambitions of one man, composed of individuals with no history or credibility as Muslim community activists, with no support from any known American Muslim organizations can be taken seriously enough to be given space in US News & World Report? I also can’t help but wonder how individuals like Alam, Hodge, and Barrett can have the nerve to promote their conspiracy theories and nonsensical plans for this march as having anything to do with the American Muslim community. These are the ideas and theories of a group of marginal individuals who happen to be Muslim. They may have changed the name of this planned event from “Million Muslim” to “Million American”, but clearly the identification of the event and of their organization with the American Muslim community has already been made. Choosing September 11th as the date on which they plan to hold this event can only be considered controversial. Claiming that the “issues” that are of concern to them are “of special importance to the Muslim community”, and that “there is a significant degree of agreement among Muslims” on these issues which “is censored by the current leadership” is misleading, and unsubstantiated. The Facebook page for this march has only 488 likes (which is 488 too many) and indicative of the fact that such an organization would be unlikely to draw more than a couple of hundred supporters (if they’re lucky), and they are likely to draw more protesters. The American Muslim community has enough problems to worry about without having such unscrupulous individuals attempt to involve us in their personal issues. Everything about this is distasteful and irresponsible. They have put themselves firmly in the camp of Muslim “useful idiots” by attempting a publicity stunt that can be used by the Islamophobia industry to humiliate Muslims generally - and that is about all that this will accomplish. The fact that AMPAC has received no support from the mainstream Muslim community, and the fact that no one showed up for this march should be a wake-up call. The Muslim community completely boycotted this event. No one is interested in the conspiracy theories and bigotry that they are promoting. I would love to ask Rabbi Alam if it was worth it to cause so much distress to so many people for a little publicity for his coming political campaign which is sure to fail. There was limited press coverage of the AMPAC event, but even that shows just how clueless the AMPAC organizers are. The Washington Times reported that Ruby Al-Sous (an organizer) said: “We want to stand here in solidarity with the American people against hate and violence.” Unless she is a visitor from some other country, then she is (or should be) one of the American people. Huge numbers of police needed to be called out to protect everyone, and all of this in addition to all the other problems it caused, was a huge waste of our taxpayer dollars. The 2 Million Bikers event may not have drawn 2 million, but it numbered in the tens of thousands. And, reading comments in articles, on the biker event Facebook page, and on twitter, it is clear that many of these tens of thousands were protesting Islam, and Muslims - not simply AMPAC and its leaders. Outright lies on the part of AMPAC about this event The Washington Times reported that AMPAC’s permit for this “million” whatever march was only for 1,000 people, which means that AMPAC leaders knew well in advance that what they were hyping was not ever going to happen. As I said earlier in this article, the list of supposed participants and speakers released by AMPAC was very suspicious. At this point the only well known individual outside of AMPAC that was actually there was Prof. Cornell West. And, it is my guess that he was misinformed about who this group actually represented. CAIR has posted a disclaimer: CAIR Has Not Endorsed the ‘Million American March Against Fear,’ Formerly Known as the ‘Million Muslim March’. CAIR staff have received reports that organizers of the “Million American March Against Fear,” which until February 2013 was called the “Million Muslim March,” claim that CAIR has endorsed or co-sponsored the event. While we believe in the right of every American to express his or her views, CAIR has not agreed to endorse or co-sponsor the “Million American March Against Fear” or the “Million Muslim March” on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Any assertions to the contrary are false. It is still not too late for AMPAC to make a public statement of apology, although I doubt that it will be offered. I was able to get in touch with Hussam Ayloush of CAIR-LA, and he sent me an email saying: My name and that of CAIR were listed without authorization from myself or from anyone at CAIR. When this issue came to my attention, I wrote the AMPAC organizers a strong email and sent text messages to the organizers asking that they remove the names immediately. The main person texted me back and apologized for adding my name and that of CAIR by mistake and without our authorization. Unfortunately, they removed the names form most of the pages, but kept it on one of the event pages, despite my repeated requests. I have to say that I am extremely disappointed with the organizer’s lack of ethics or professionalism. He obviously was trying to exploit people’s names without their permission in order to gain some legitimacy for his program, a program that I had little knowledge of until recently. Very shameful behavior. Al Arabiya reported that Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR-National said “We’re concerned that the event has aligned itself with so-called 9/11 truthers.” And, “Hooper said it was unlikely that any mainstream Muslim-American organization would participate in the march.” For the entire article, go to: theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/a-million-muslim-march
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 09:21:00 +0000
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