Writer Issues Call for 'Appropriate Actions' Against MWU!, Accuses Us of 'Sowing Terror'

By Ahmed Nassef

By now we've gotten used to the ad hominem attacks that grace our mailboxes: for every fundie who charges that we're agents of the devil, there is a right-wing racist nut who charges us with, yes, being agents of the devil.

But the latest attack on MWU! comes courtesy of a progressive online magazine, Media Monitors Network, in a piece published today and authored by Abid Ullah Jan.

Jan starts off with an ominous maxim--"Nothing is more dangerous than taking enemies for friends out of utter ignorance," he writes.

We couldn't agree more, which raises the question of why this advocate of an Islamic state (read this gem where Jan also claims that the Afghan and Iraqi victims of war were merely "manifestations of Divine punishment") is writing in a progressive forum in the first place.

Jan begins his parade of lies with the claim that the Neocons have forged an alliance with "opportunists" calling themselves moderate, liberal, and progressive. So there you have it--if you consider yourself any of these, then watch out--you're in bed with the Neocons and you didn't even know it.

After advancing some of his half-baked theories regarding the import of the 9/11 attacks, Jan moves on to his real objective in the article--his slander against muslimwakeup.com.

The first tactic is to use guilt by association--Jan writes a short paragraph about Kamal Nawash, founder of the right-wing Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism, and his association with noted anti-Muslim pundit Daniel Pipes. Now that he's mentioned Pipes, he can go full throttle with his attack on MWU! But wait a minute, what does MWU! have to do with Pipes, or Nawash for that matter? It's OK--when you're dealing with a man on a mission, no need to ask questions.

What's even more laughable is that his diatribe against MWU!, instead of focusing on some alleged link with the Neocons through our writing on US foreign policy or the Iraq war, is mostly around our Sex & the Umma section, which, Jan writes, "leaves Salman Rushdie and Naguib Mahfouz look[ing] like saints."

It seems that, according to Jan, whenever Muslims have a frank and open discussion on sexuality, then we're doing the work of Paul Wolfowitz. I wonder who the countless Muslim writers of love poetry and sex manuals during the Middle Ages were working for.

Now, we understand that not everyone will like or want to read our Sex & the Umma section. That's Ok. But to claim that muslimwakeup.com is "sowing terror" and that we "give free licence to the war lords from another land to invade, occupy, torture and annihilate whole populations" through our "filth" is downright dishonest, sinister, and slanderous.

Jan has such disrespect for his readers that he even mischaracterizes a piece we published about the anti-war march at the Republican National Convention. He writes, "With a Photo from an anti-Bush protest rally in New York, the headline reads: This Is What Democracy Looks Like: Joining a Quarter of a Million Marchers in New York to Welcome the Republicans." Thus, hoping that no one will actually read the piece, he tries to turn it from a mother's anti-war reflections into some pro-Bush apologetic.

Another "proof" he cites for our Neocon connection is that we include a link to Muslims for Bush on our site. He neglects to mention that it is included as part of our Elections Blog, along with links for Muslims for Kerry and Muslims for Nader. I wonder what Jan thought of the article published in Media Monitors just a day earlier calling for progressives to consider voting for George W. Bush.

But in his most dangerous call-to-action, Jan calls for some sort of "appropriate actions" to make us "accountable" for being "the real culprits behind 9/11 and subsequent mass killings."

Is there no end to this man's deceptions, no limit to his irresponsibility--to the point where he is willing to call for some kind of "actions" against us?

What sort of actions are you thinking of exactly, Mr. Jan?

There's only one action that we call for, and that is that Media Monitors Network, a magazine that ironically calls for the elimination of "corruption, fraud and disinformation" in the media, should remove that dangerous and libelous article and issue an unequivocal statement disassociating itself from its sentiments.

Ahmed Nassef is editor-in-chief of muslimwakeup.com.