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Zuhdi Jasser, also known as M. Zuhdi Jasser, and Mohamed Zuhdi Jasser, is a commentator on the topic of the Islamic faith in the United States, and the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Arizona. A medical doctor, he is a former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, and staff physician to the U.S. Congress.

He has been a contributor to national U.S. media, particularly conservative outlets, and has been a frequent guest on the Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity shows. He came to national attention as a star witness in the March 2011 domestic terrorism hearings conducted by Republican U.S. Representative Peter King, (R-NY).

Biography

Jasser is the son of Syrians who immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, due to repression in their homeland. He was raised in the Sunni sect of Islam in Neenah, Wisconsin. His father was a cardiologist, and his mother is a pharmacist.

He attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, earning his B.Sc. in 1988; then attended the Medical College of Wisconsin on a Navy scholarship, receiving his M.D. in 1992. He served in the Navy for 11 years, receiving the Meritorious Service Medal and attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander by the time of his honorable discharge in 1999. His tours of duty included staff internist for the U.S. Congress, medical department head aboard the USS El Paso, and chief resident at Bethesda Naval Hospital. He moved to Arizona after his discharge from the Navy, taking over part of his father's medical practice.

He is the personal doctor of J.D. Hayworth who became a patient of Jasser's while he was serving in the U.S. Congress. Jasser has been described as a conservative Republican, who supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and commentator on "mostly conservative media to press Muslim leaders to aggressively oppose a 'culture of separatism.'" He resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife and three children, who are being raised as Muslims.

Views on Islam

Jasser describes himself as a devout Muslim. " is an advocate for Israel and says his faith harbors "an insidious supremacism."" He has said he is "not a formal expert in Koranic Arabic, or in sharia (Islamic jurisprudence)", but that he does understand the general principles, and underpinnings of religion. After attending Phoenix-area mosques for several years, he became disappointed that politics was being discussed from the mosque pulpits and was especially concerned about sermons that criticized U.S. government policies and portrayed Muslims as victims. Jasser began criticizing American Muslim organizations including: the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Imams Federation, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, Muslim Students' Association, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Muslim American Society, the Islamic Circle of North America, and the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, because he sees them as Islamist, meaning they support a mixing of Islam and politics. He has been especially critical of CAIR, a Muslim-American civil rights group, which according to Jasser, is focused on "victimology" and does not adequately condemn the goals of the terrorist groups. A CAIR official has responded, "With these people, nothing we would do would satisfy them".

Jasser has also engaged in interfaith activities, serving on the Board of the Arizona Interfaith Movement; helping to found both The Children of Abraham, a Jewish-Muslim dialogue group in 2000, and a chapter of Seeds of Peace in 2003.

Jasser has said that he and his family have helped build a number of small mosques in different cities using locally-raised funds, and at times encountering, but always overcoming local opposition. In 2010, Jasser strongly opposed the building of the Park51 project, a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site, which is also known as Ground Zero. He said he was concerned that the funding of the $100 million project might be coming from foreign, Islamist sources, and also said: "Ground Zero is purely about being American. It can never be about being Muslim." After President Obama defended the constitutional right of Muslims in America to build a mosque and community center on private property, but not the wisdom of its location, Jasser criticized Obama for "engaging in passive aggressive meddling".

Jasser believes acts of Islamic terrorism are rooted in an ideology he calls "political Islamism", or "political Islam". He has said that the goal of political Islam is to create an Islamic state in America under sharia law. He believes the U.S. needs a "coordinated existential strategy" to combat the ideology, and that this has been dangerously lacking, with the result that the number of home-grown terrorists is increasing. He has expressed the opinion that the 2009 Christmas Day attempted airplane bombing, the Fort Hood shooting and the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt have not prodded the United States into the appropriate action, but rather, have resulted in politically correct denial by U.S. government authorities, and inaction by most American Muslims. He believes that even the Bush administration took inadequate measures against Islamism in America. He says the U.S. needs to provide alternatives for Muslim youth and promote reformist groups. In his television appearances, Jasser has claimed that three to five percent of U.S. Muslims are militant and 30 to 40 percent do not believe in separation of mosque and state.

He has said Muslims need to be held to a litmus test to see whether they recognize Israel as a state, specifically condemn groups such as Hamas and Al Qaeda, and governments such as the Saudi and Syrian dictatorships. "If they don't then you have to wonder where their allegiances are," said Jasser. He believes Muslim leaders should renounce Islamic scriptures that promote discrimination against women and non-Muslims and reject a role for Islam in government.

American Islamic Forum for Democracy

Jasser founded the non-profit American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) in 2003 with the goal of demonstrating the compatibility of Islam with democracy and American values. The group has a membership of about 1,500, about 13 percent of whom are Muslims. Jasser is the group's president and chief spokesperson. The AIFD supports separation of religion and state, religious pluralism, equality of the sexes, the unconditional recognition of Israel and the creation of an independent Palestine, "on the current 'occupied territories'". The organization rejects terrorism and any justification for it.

Media appearances

Jasser is a regular contributor to U.S. national media, particularly conservative outlets, and has been a frequent guest on the Glenn Beck show since 2007 when it was on CNN. He has also appeared on the Fox News Channel shows of Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, and on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. He has published opinion columns in various newspapers and internet sites such as FoxNews.com, the New York Post, and the New York Daily News.

According to The Washington Post, Jasser's group has "made two controversial films about the dangers of radical Islam". Jasser was featured in the PBS film Islam v Islamists. He was the main narrator in the Clarion Fund film, The Third Jihad, which claims that Muslim radicals have infiltrated the U.S. in order to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state. The claims of stealth jihad and cultural jihad are based on a single document written by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1990s that was used in a successful U.S. prosecution of an Islamic charity for laundering money to Hamas. According to The New Republic the producer of the film has ties to the Israeli settlement movement. Although Jasser has said he does not agree with everything in the film, he supports the overall message. Jasser also appeared in the 2010 Newt Gingrich film, America At Risk: The War With No Name, a production of Citizens United. The film claims there is a global movement to impose sharia law on all aspects of society and has been described as "anti-Obama" by The Nation.

On March 10, 2011, Jasser appeared as a star witness at the first of a possible series of hearings conducted by Republican U.S. Representative Peter King, (R-NY), into domestic terrorism and the threat posed by homegrown Muslim radicals. During his testimony, he said that American Muslim organizations had been "circling the wagons" and have too frequently cautioned Muslims against speaking to law enforcement without a lawyer present. He also said that political Islam was based on the idea that the government should be run under Islamic law, which he said violated the American concept of separation of church and state.

Reception

An article in the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America criticized Jasser's lack of credentials and his "right-wing rhetoric." On the contrary, self-described conservative Daniel Pipes has praised Jasser as truly moderate and whose activities shows up the falsehood of phony moderates.

Professional activities, honors and awards

Jasser practices internal medicine and nuclear cardiology in Phoenix. He served as the President of the Arizona Medical Association until June 2007, and has been on the Maricopa County Board of Health since 2005. In 2007, he formed a statewide Disaster Preparedness Task Force for physicians. He chairs a bioethics committee and teaches nuclear cardiology in Phoenix.

In addition to serving as the founder and president of the AIFD, he is a member of the Clarion Fund Advisory board.

He was honored in October 2007 by Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy as a "Defender of the Home Front" for his anti-Islamist activism. In January 2008 he was presented with the 2007 Director’s Community Leadership Award by the Phoenix office of the Federal Bureau of investigation.

See also

• Brigitte Gabriel
• Walid Shoebat

References

1. ^ Timothy R. Furnish (April 19, 2010). "Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.: Islam's Luther—or its Don Quixote?". History News Network. George Mason University. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
2. ^ M. Zuhdi Jasser (May 24, 2010). "Mosque unbecoming - Not at Ground Zero". New York Post. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
3. ^ M. Z. Jasser (Winter 2008). "Exposing the 'Flying Imams'". Middle East Quarterly. pp. 3–11. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
4. ^ Michelle Boorstein (February 27, 2011). "Anxiety on all sides of upcoming House hearing on radicalization fo U.S. Muslims". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
5. ^ T.A. Frank (March 10, 2011). "Meet Peter King's Star Witness". The New Republic. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
6. M. Zuhdi Jasser, MD (March 10, 2011). "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and the Community's Response". Statement to House Homeland Security Committee.
7. ^ "Biography: M. Zuhdi Jasser, President, American Islamic Forum for Democracy". The Hudson Institute. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
8. ^ Sarah Posner (March 8, 2011). "Meet Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Star Witness in Peter King's Anti-Muslim Show Trial". The Nation. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
9. ^ Stu Bykofsky (November 16, 2009). "American Muslims must stand up for America". Philadelphia Inquirer.
10. M. Zuhdi Jasser (September 12, 2007). "Which Islam? Whose Islam? All Muslims Own Interpretation of the Koran". Family Security Matters. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
11. Barry Kluger (November 7, 2003). "Sow Peaceful Seeds, Reap Changed Minds, Hearts". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, AZ. Retrieved March 7, 2011.
12. Diana Balazs (February 12, 2003). "Groundbreaking set for mosque - Muslims envision a place for unity". Arizona Republic. Retrieved March 9, 2011. Groundbreaking for Scottsdale's first mosque will take place next month, culminating a nearly five-year effort by the northeast Valley's Muslim community to build a cultural center Between 200 and 250 guests are expected for the 11 am ceremony, said Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Valley physician and chairman of the Community Outreach
13. "American Muslim organization says President Obama is wrong". American Islamic Forum for Democracy. August 15, 2010. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
14. ^ M. Zuhdi Jasser (May 7, 2010). "My Fellow Muslims, We Must Wake Up" (Opinion). Fox News. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
15. "Boston Globe – Denial over the bomb plot". Boston.com. May 6, 2010. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
16. Diane Macedo (June 16, 2010). "Radical Islamist Group Is Returning to Chicago for Major Recruitment Drive". Fox News. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
17. Zuhdi Jasser (October 29, 2007). "Americanism vs. Islamism: A Personal Perspective". 12th Annual Templeton Lecture on Religion and World Affairs. Foreign Policy Research Institute. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
18. ^ "AIFD's Founding Principles and Resolutions". Aifdemocracy.org. March 3, 2003. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
19. M. Zuhdi Jasser (December 29, 2010). "Why Muslims Must Look in the Mirror". New York Post. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
20. Kari Huus (March 9, 2011). "'Islamic radicalization' hearing stirs hornets' nest". MSNBC.
21. ^ Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Laurie Goodstein (March 11, 2011). "Domestic Terrorism Hearing Opens With Contrasting Views on Dangers". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
22. Malcolm, Andrew. "Even liberal Media Matters pays Fox News ($35k) to reach its prized audience". LA Times.
23. Adamson, Rondi. "Soros-Funded Media Matters Attacks Conservatives". HumanEvents.
24. Powell, Bruce. "Who Is Zuhdi Jasser, Star Witness For Rep. Peter King's Muslim Radicalization Hearings?". Media Matters.
25. Scrutiny Increases for a Group Advocating for Muslims in U.S.
26. Pipes, Daniel. "Zuhdi Jasser and "Monitoring Islamist Media"". DanielPipes.org.
27. "About Clairon Fund". Stop Radical Islam. Retrieved March 11, 2011.

External links

• "The Third Jihad". Movie website.
• Nick Carey (April 16, 2010). "Special Report: U.S. shifts gears to tackle homespun terrorism". Reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved March 9, 2011.

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