Homegrown Extremism - An open letter to President Obama

29.06.2016

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,

Washington D.C., 20500

Dear Mr. President:

In this sad and tragic moments of our life, let me congratulate you for realizing the fact that there is, as you rightfully said, a”Homegrown Extremism” facing us in this “land of opportunity.” I am sure, since you brought up this topic, there is a concerted effort to diagnose this problem, and find out how this social malaise entered into the heart of the oldest democracy.

Before I share my thought with you as a Muslim-Afghan-American, on behalf of all Afghan-Americans, we express our deepest sorrow for what has happened in Orlando, Florida. We send our condolences to not only those who lost their loved ones but to the entire nation.

The question is this: How come an American citizen has been brain-washed by Muslim extremists? The easy answer is: through the Internet. This is a cover-up of the truth. As a matter of fact it is the flow of funds from Gulf States, particularly, your closest ally, the Saudis who propagate Wahabism around the world, the U.S. included. Under “charity,” they fund many mosques in this country and buy out the Imams to propagate their brand of Islam—that is there is no equality between men and women, that no one can speak their mind about the Qur'an and the hadith, (The Prophet Muhammad sayings), that out of context interpretations of the Qur'an are true, that women should be excluded in mosques while it is the tradition of the Prophet that women performed prayers behind men in the same hall, that music is haram(forbidden) and children should not learn music, that Jews and Christians are infidels while the Qur'an calls them “People of the Book,” that it is OK to marry minor children, that mysticism is infidelity and Muslims should stay away from it, while Mawlana Rumi Balkhi, whom I am sure you are familiar with through his poems, was a great spiritual mystic and is, among classic literature of the Eastern world, the most read in this country, and the list goes on. They even finance some of our television stations and only those preachers are invited through “Skype” to propagate hate, misogyny, while banning Muslims to freely questions their religious literature. In Islam, everyone is responsible for his own deed and creed and freedom of mind is one of the major pillar of Islamic civilization. That is why many Ulema (men of knowledge) have been questioning the issues, and are coming out with their own school of thought. Wahabis want people to believe only what they propagate not other ulema. They finance some young individuals their radical schools in backward countries in Africa and Asia to learn Arabic and to memorize a few verses of the Qur'an and hadith and they send them back with the tile of sheikh to preach Islam in our mosques.

Mr President,

If you want to stop terrorism, investigate the low of money to our mosques in this country. Initiate a seminar to discuss the issue of terrorism in this country and invite general public to question those who are in charge of our mosques. This is what democracy is all about.

Have you ever questioned yourself who finance the ISIS or the Taliban or any other radical Islamic group? I am sure you know the answer and that it is your closest ally, the Saudis. Saudis try very hard to establish their brand of Islam in the Middle East. They propagate hate against the Shia of Iran. Iranians who are demographically a minority in the region must defend their own way of life and school of thought. The result is chaos in the Middle East. I respectfully recommend that before the end of your term, normalize American relations with Iran as you did with Cuba to bring a balance between the two strategic powers in the Middle East namely Iran and the Saudi Arabia.

I, as a Muslim-Afghan-American who neither an Iranian nor Shia, and am Professor of the Middle Eastern studies believe that normalization with Iran will partially solve the problem of terrorism not only in this country but around in the world.

In your speech in Vietnam you said that America is a country of ideas. That encouraged me to share with you what many Muslims know about the causes of terrorism. Thank you for your time.

Dr Farid Younos is Professor of cultural anthropology of the Middle East and Islamic philosophy at California State University East Bay and anchorman at ATN News, an Afghan-American television outlet in the United States. He can be reached at farid.younos@csueastbay.edu

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