No, this is not me speaking. I want everybody to vote, even
Republicans.
So who is exhorting American Muslims to stay home from the polls? It is the Shumukh al-Islam Forum about which, frankly, I know not almost
nothing but nothing, plain and simple. But I did notice that there
wasn't much attention being paid to Muslims or Arabs in the
campaign. My guess is that effort by the presidential candidates
would not be rewarded. And that is primarily because these cohorts (both
Arabs and Muslims) keep themselves apart. Coming from countries
where there is no real sense of citizenship they have no primordial wish
to participate. Moreover, there is a real sense of the
"other." In Dearborn, Michigan, where roughly half of the
population is Arab (and partially Christian Arab), the alienation between
Shi'a and Sunni (mostly Lebanese) runs deep but is hardly noticed in
newspaper articles about the most Arab American city.
So what does the film message of the forum convey? hat voting is
kufr or what the Jews call treyf. Disbelief or
heresy.
MEMRI has this report on the phenomenon.
The upcoming presidential elections in the U.S. are much discussed on
Islamist forums. The Shumukh Al-Islam forum announced the imminent
release of a film series called "Why Voting Is Kufr (i.e., disbelief)."
The films are obviously intended for American Muslims, and seem to be
aimed at discouraging them from voting.
For the full report, visit http://www.memriiwmp.org/content/en/report.htm?report=2890.
An Associated Press dispatch reports another phenomenon. The
foreign minister of Egypt has called on the Arab states to "combat" sea
piracy. Thomas Jefferson also called on the Arab states to combat sea
piracy more than two centuries ago. Progress is, alas, very slow in
these countries. And piracy may not be kufr.