M. Zuhdi Jasser to Testify before U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security

Committee to discuss Muslim reaction to radicalization hearings

M. Zuhdi Jasser, President and Founder of The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), will testify today before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security on “The American Muslim Response to Hearings on Radicalization within their Community.”  The hearing will be held at the 311 Cannon House Office Building and a live video feed will be available HERE.

In M. Zuhdi Jasser's new book, A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot's Fight to Save His Faith, he offers non-Muslims a definitive comprehension of the difference between Islam and the spiritual cancer known as Islamism, or political Islam, and how violence and extremism run counter to Islam's true teachings. As he persuasively argues, until we acknowledge the threat of Islamism in all its forms, the majority of Americans will be deceived into recognizing only the most obvious: terrorism.

The hearing will be the fifth in a series of hearings that have examined the threat of radicalization within the American Muslim Community. Dr. Jasser testified at the first in the series in March 2011 where his testimony focused on the threat that the separatist ideology of political Islam poses to the radicalization of American Muslims and its impact on the United States.  Subsequent hearings have looked at how radicalization occurs in U.S. Prisons, the threat posed to the American Somali community from the Al Shabab terror network and the impact that radicalization is having on the U.S. military.

“This series of hearings from Chairman King’s committee have been an incredible first step towards the U.S. finally entering the ideological battle against political Islam,” said Dr. Jasser.  “Despite the vitriol that has been leveled against the committee, at AIFD we have seen a tremendous amount of support from American Muslims in favor of this dialogue. The hearings have opened the door for alternative and pragmatic Muslim voices to be part of the long overdue national conversation about radicalization and the threat.”

The author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam,” Jasser is a former Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy and a practicing physician in Phoenix, AZ.  He founded AIFD to be a Muslim voice that advocates for the founding principles of the U.S. Constitution and for the separation of mosque and state. The Homeland Security Committee announced that he will be joined by fellow American Muslims Ms. Asra Nomani and Dr. Qanta Ahmed.  Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and current journalism lecturer at Georgetown University and the co-director of the Pearl Project.  She authored Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Milestones for a Spiritual Jihad: Toward an Islam of Grace.  Ahmed is also a practicing physician and is a recognized expert in health issues pertaining to the Hajj.  She is author of In the Land of Invisible Women, a personal memoir of living and working as a western Muslim woman in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The committee will also hear from Mr. John Cohen, principal coordinator for Counterterrorism, Department of Homeland Security.

Congressman King stated that “Next week’s hearing will expand on the prior hearings to examine the impact they have had in the Muslim Community’s ability to address this issue and on U.S. efforts to counter al-Qaeda and affiliated groups’ radicalizing of Muslims in this country to carry out terrorist attacks on the homeland.”

American Muslims are the primary victims of Islamist radicalization and these hearings are giving voice to members of this community who take seriously the root causes of radicalization and who see the freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution as the best protection for the practice of their Islamic faith.