A widely known Muslim-American reformer has accused U.S. President Barack Obama of kissing up to Middle Eastern dictators, at a time when radical Islamist terrorism is running rampant worldwide.
Obama refuses to use any term equating Islam with terrorism, such as “radical Islam” or “Islamic extremism.” That’s because he does not want to offend U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia – the dictatorship that regularly carries out public executions by beheading, Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told Borderless News Online.
Jasser’s statements come at a time when terror attacks are being carried out by radical Islamists nearly every day across the globe, and recent weeks have seen scores of terrorist attacks in Orlando, France, Germany, Turkey and Iraq, just to name a few. The statements also come at a time when brutal dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to commit horrendous human rights abuses daily, due to their extremist brand of Islam.
“(The Saudis) would become upset (if Obama used the term radical Islam), but they’re not our allies. We need to re-define what it means to be allies,” said Jasser, author of A Battle for the Soul of Islam, speaking of countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which are bastions of radical Islam.
The root cause of Islamist terrorism, he says, is the 13th century Islam that’s coming out of Saudi Arabia and other such countries with which former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has been knee-deep, he said of the Democratic candidate for president.
Saudi Arabia is a “cauldron for radical Islam,” he said, noting that radical group ISIS’ ideology is based on Wahhabi Islam – the draconian version of Islam that was invented by Saudi jurists, and which dictates the law of the land in Saudi Arabia.
On Iran, he said, “When the Islamic Republic of Iran, which assassinates homosexuals and treats women as fourth class citizens, and doesn’t allow anyone to carry bibles or build churches or do any of these things, when they’re called the ‘Islamic Republic,’ their Islam is very relevant,” he said, adding that the massive 2009 protests in Iran were “all about fighting back against their Islam.”
“In Saudi Arabia there are Islamic laws, in Pakistan, they’re called ‘Islamic,’ so yes, (those) allies would become upset (if Obama used the term “radical Islam”) but they’re not our allies. We need to re-define what it means to be allies,” he said.
“To say that we’re just fighting the ISIS byproduct of radical Islam is foolhardy. We are fighting the root cause, and that root cause is not only the 13th century Islam that is coming out of Saudi Arabia and many of these countries that secretary Clinton has been knee deep with, but we are also fighting the dictators…many of which we perceive to be our allies but yet they create environments in their countries that are cauldrons for radical Islam, because…their people are not allowed to have a free exchange of ideas,” he said.
The coalition of a dozen Muslim-American leaders to which Jasser belongs – the non-partisan Muslim Reform Movement –is calling for a worldwide overhaul of Islam, including an end to human rights abuses, including against woman and minorities, and freedom of religion in Muslim nations worldwide.
The recent Democratic Convention in Philadelphia saw the threat of radical Islam put on the back burner, and Jasser lambasted Clinton for making no mention of the brutal dictatorships that spur radical Islamist movements.
“There was absolutely none of that in the (Democratic Convention) conversation, other than a dismissal that, because she traveled in her airplane as secretary of state, that somehow solutions happened,” he said.
The U.S. has an ongoing relationship with the Saudis despite their medieval-style dictatorship that carries out beheadings and crucifixions for such “crimes” as adultery. Expressing opinions about Islam – even in private to a friend – can land people on death row, where they wait in line to have their heads lopped off in front of a crowd of onlookers, TV news cameras and news photographers.
Those deemed guilty in the country’s kangaroo court system of “crimes” such as hooking up with someone they’re not married to, or of whispering to a friend something like ‘I’m not quite sure I agree with this line of the Koran,’ can get people killed.
Jasser said there is very little difference between the Saudis and the doomsday cult ISIS, as both lop off people’s heads for apostasy, the only difference being that the Saudis live in opulent palaces. The Saudis argue that they have rule of law and that these punishments are carried out through their legal system, although defendants often have few rights in such proceedings.
Saudi Arabia, a major oil supplier to the U.S., last year saw 100 beheadings in a six-month period. The executions are carried out in public, with the victim on his or her knees in a public square and a masked executioner standing over him or her and lopping off their head with a sword in a practice right out of the middle ages.
One person awaiting execution is Ali al-Nimr , for participating in Arab Spring protests four years ago at age 16. He has been sentenced to beheading for his actions, and his so-called crime carries the additional sentence of having his headless body strung up in public for three days in a crucifixion pose.
While Saudi Arabia has signed onto international treaties barring the execution of children, the country is ignoring it in his case.
Others have been beheaded on charges of sorcery and witchcraft, as in the 2012 case of a man named Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, who was found in possession of books on sorcery and had allegedly admitted to adultery with two women.
There’s a large population of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia working low level service jobs, and the country’s Islamic religious police, whose job it is to enforce morality, regularly harass foreign infidels there, who have little to no rights. Even pilgrims during the Hajj to Mecca have been roughed up by the religious police.
In her book Infidel, Ayaan Hersi Ali described her teenage years in Saudi Arabia, saying her high school teacher regularly referred to her with a term that means “slave,” singling out the young black woman from Africa with racist slurs in front of her peers on a daily basis.
Saudi Arabia’s death penalty for adultery is ironic, given that so many Saudi men are known to travel frequently to Thailand without their wives and kids to decompress in Bangkok’s soapy massage parlors – where customers receive a bath and a body-to-body nude massage by a young Thai sex worker. The one to two-hour experience is capped off by the customer receiving oral sex or intercourse with the masseuse. The use of condoms is often negotiable, depending on the establishment. Saudi men are regularly seen frequenting such establishments in Bangkok’s red light districts.
But Saudi’s religious police do not investigate these cases, as Saudi sex tourists are often wealthy and well-connected.
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