2007 Press Releases

CIP Eid/Kurban Bajram Greetings, With Blessings for Hanukkah and Christmas, December 20, 2007

CIP Wishes All Muslims A Blessed Eid al-Adha/Bajram Sherif Mubarek Olsun!  

The Center for Islamic Pluralism welcomes the holiday of Eid al-Adha, on December 20, 2007. 

In keeping with our development of Balkan and Turkish relationships, we proclaim: Bajram sherif mubarek olsun! 

Given the coincidence of Kurban Bajram this year with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on December 4-12, and the Christian feast of Christmas on December 25, CIP notes the common monotheism of these observances.   Hanukkah recalls the triumph of Jewish faith over pagan tyranny and the cleansing of the Hebrew temple.  Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, a herald of renewed faith in one Creator.  Kurban Bajram commemorates the submission of Abraham, the common ancestor, to the will of God. 

We hope the essential aspirations of the three Abrahamic faiths will be redeemed by mutual respect, sincere dialogue, and cooperation among all believers in the year to come! 

Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC, USA
London, UK  

Denmark Recognizes Alevi Movement as an Independent Faith Community, November 21, 2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism is pleased to note that the Danish government has granted recognition of the Alevi movement as a distinct faith community, similar to its status in Germany.  Alevi secretary-general Aslan Erkan commented, "We are happy and proud of this outcome. The Alevis are still not recognized in Turkey. Everybody is aware that Alevis are victims of discrimination in Turkey, if they put forward their beliefs." 

The Alevi movement seeks recognition as a faith community in Turkey.  Unlike Sunni Muslims, the Alevis in Turkey are heterodox, combining Shia traditions, Sufism, and the Turkish spiritual legacy.  They do not receive funding or other support from the authorities.  The Turkish government does not support the construction of cem houses, the meeting halls for Alevi spiritual observances, or provide any other assistance to the group.   

Alevis in Turkey have also been subjected to physical attacks, including a reprehensible incident of mass murder at Sivas in 1993.  The Turkish government designates Alevism as a cultural, rather than a religious, phenomenon.  The Danish and German status of Alevis is significant in promoting the self-esteem of Alevis. 

CIP coordinates with the Alevi movement in Germany on issues of Western European assimilation of Muslims, minority rights within Islam, and women's status -- on all of which the Alevis are notably progressive. 

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz
Executive Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC, USA

CIP Meets With State Department-Sponsored Swedish Journalist Dilsa Demirbag-Sten, November 13, 2007 

Center for Islamic Pluralism Executive Director Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, and a CIP researcher on women's issues in the Islamic world, met in Washington, DC, on November 13, 2007, with Dilsa Demirbag-Sten, a columnist with the Swedish daily Expressen.  

Ms. Demirbag-Sten is of Kurdish ethnic background and is an expert on honor killings, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and other atrocities committed against women under the pretext of Islamic custom.  

She commented "honor killing happens all the time in Western Europe," adding, "the problem with the Muslim clerics is less one of open justification of such practices as a refusal to condemn them." 

Ms. Demirbag-Sten is visiting the United States as a guest of the Department of State.

URGENT: CIP International Director Al-Alawi Denounces Internet Threat Against UK Christian Leader Alan Craig, November 6, 2007

The Centre for Islamic Pluralism strenuously protests the threat against Councillor Alan Craig and calls on the government ministers and authorities to prevent dissemination of such incitement on the net.   

Dr. Irfan Al-Alawi
International Director
Centre for Islamic Pluralism
London 

Background: Alan Craig has been a prominent opponent of the Tablighi Jamaat megamosque project in London.  News coverage of the internet threat against him is accessible here: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=491977&in_page_id=1770

CIP Condemns Islamist Takeover of Dutch Muslim Broadcast Service, October 17, 2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism notes and condemns the reported takeover of the Dutch Muslim Broadcast service (NMO) by radical Muslim elements. 

Dutch media state that the subversion of NMO was a product of a policy decision by an official media monitoring agency, the Commissaariat voor de Media (CvdM), which dictated that NMO be combined with the "orthodox" Dutch Islamic Broadcast Organization (NIO) so that Muslims would have a single broadcast service in the Netherlands.   

NMO was previously run by Dutch members of the Alevi movement, which emphasizes Shia and Sufi as well as Turkish ethnic traditions.  It also included representatives of the Ahmadiyya sect.  Alevi and Ahmadi personnel have been expelled from NMO.   

The broadcast service now has three questionable directors, including Yahia Bouyafa, who is viewed as an associate of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Abdelmajid Kayoun of the Al-Farouq mosque in Utrecht, the imam of which was deported from the Netherlands.      

CIP actively supports the rights of Alevis in Turkey as well as in Europe, and publicly advocates for the freedom of journalists in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Balkans.  CIP Executive Director Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, a journalist and former media trade union officer, commented, "the European systems of state media monitoring have failed when compared to the American system of media freedom, and their involvement in Muslim countries and Islamic issues has so far been counter-productive." 

Dutch news report: www.nisnews.nl/public/131007_2.htm 

Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC -- London, UK -- Koln, Germany 

The Center for Islamic Pluralism extends Eid ul-Fitr Mubarak greetings to all Muslims and friends of Islam at the conclusion of the holy month of Ramadan.  To our associates and friends in the Balkans and Turkic lands, we say Bajram sherif mubarek olsun! 

At the same time, however, I call on all Muslims to meditate on the intersection of good and evil in human affairs with the celebration of Eid ul-Fitr. 

In the category of good, we may take pleasure in the award of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature to Doris Lessing, a sensitive writer strongly influenced by Sufism, or Islamic mysticism. 

At the same time, Muslims must strenuously protest the cruelty and loss of life in the bombing of the shrine of the honored Moinuddin Chishti, leading figure in the Chishtiyya order of Sufis, on October 11, in Ajmer. India.  Early reports say two people were killed and up to 20 injured in the explosion.  While an investigation has just begin, it is difficult to imagine that this atrocity was not committed by Islamist ideologists impelled by elements in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. 

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz
Executive Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC, USA -- London, UK 

The Center for Islamic Pluralism, an international non-profit organization operating in the U.S. and Britain, strenuously protests reports in the Saudi daily Al-Watan (The Nation), of July 24, that Saudi clerics have issued fatwas calling for the destruction of Shia holy sites in Iraq. 

CIP calls on Saudi King Abdullah to suspend the authors of such fatwas from state clerical subsidies as a first step toward ending all government support to the Wahhabi structure in the kingdom. 

CIP further appeals for an immediate end to all Wahhabi efforts at vandalism of Islamic architectural and cultural heritage, especially in the Saudi kingdom itself.

The Center for Islamic Pluralism joins the religious community and leadership of Bosnian Muslims in requesting imams and Muslims throughout the world to commemorate the terrorist attack against Bosnians at Srebrenica in July 1995.  The Bosnian ulema have called for a pledge of "never again" in Friday khutbat [sermons] this week.  They have also requested that such actions be carried out in a calm and dignified manner. 

We join them in these sentiments and requests. 

Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington
London

 CIP Protests Turkish Restrictions on Orthodox Christian Ecumenical Patriarch 

Washington, DC, USA

July 1, 2007 

The Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) joins with others in protesting the judgment of a Turkish court on June 26, 2007, reaffirming state limitations on the religious status of the Orthodox Christian Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomaeus I, who resides in Istanbul.   The Turkish authorities have curbed the freedom of movement and other activities of the Ecumenical Patriarch in ministering to Orthodox believers outside Turkey.  The Turkish government insists that the Patriarch function only as a local religious official of Turkish nationality, subject to harsh state regulation.   In so doing, the Turkish government denies the Ecumenical nature of the Patriarchate.    

This policy, with other Turkish restrictions on Orthodox Christian religious life, represents one of several significant failures by the Turkish government in recognizing the rights of religious minorities – Muslim as well as non-Muslim – within its borders.  Turkish media also engage in demagogic propaganda alleging that the Ecumenical Patriarch seeks to undermine the Turkish Republic. 

CIP calls on the Turkish regime to bring its policies in line with European democratic standards in the treatment of all religious minorities, including Alevi Muslims, Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenians, and Jews. 

CIP is an organization of Muslims committed to moderate theology and practice, with affiliated members and correspondents in the U.S., Europe, and across the Muslim world.   

The Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt public charity. Contributions are deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.  It is qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers, and gifts under sections 2055, 2106, or 2622 of the code.

Executive Director Schwartz, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Panel on Iraq, June 18, 2007

Center for Islamic Pluralism Executive Director Stephen Schwartz participated in a panel called by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on June 18, 2007 in Washington, DC, to discuss the proposal for a “high devolution state” or “soft partition” of Iraq put forward by U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-R.I.) 

The discussion was moderated by Prof. Amitai Etzioni of George Washington University.  The panel comprised 

Pureet Talwar, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Michael O'Hanlon, The Brookings Institution
Marina Ottaway, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carlos Pascual, The Brookings Institution
Alexander B. Downs, Dept. of Political Science, Duke University
Alexander Dawoody, Dept. of Government, University of Texas at Brownsville
Ivan Eland, The Independent Institute
Frederic Pearson, Center for Peace & Conflict Studies, Wayne State University
Christopher Preble, The Cato Institute
Stephen Schwartz, Center for Islamic Pluralism 

CIP will release a report or commentary on the hearing in succeeding days.

The Center for Islamic Pluralism strenuously protests the bombing of the Askariyya Shrine in Iraq and expresses its full solidarity with the embattled Shia Muslims of that country.

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz
Executive Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC - London

CIP Recommends New Book From RFE/RL on Al-Qaida in Bosnia-Hercegovina, June 4, 2007 

The Center for Islamic Pluralism is pleased to take note of and recommend a new book published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al-Kai'da u Bosni i Hercegovini, by Vlado Azinović.  The volume, issued in Sarajevo and Prague, is presently available only in the Bosnjak language, but would be a useful publication if translated into English.  The text may be downloaded at www.slobodnaevropa.org/al_kaida/index.html.

 Mr. Azinović included extensive interview material from CIP Executive Director Stephen Schwartz in this book, which is both timely and authoritative.

CIP Protests Arrests of Egyptian Religious Intellectuals, June 3, 2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism vigorously protests the reported arrests of four Egyptian religious intellectuals affiliated with the International Quranic Center established by one of our founders, Imam Ahmed Subhy Mansour.   We are informed that the arrests were purely ideological in nature and have no basis in any legal proceeding. 

The four arrested are:

•   Adellatif Mohamed Saied, aged 40; 

•   Ahmed Dahmash, 30;

•   Abdelhamed Abdelrahman, 26,

•   and  Amr Tharwat, aged 25.

CIP calls on the Egyptian authorities to release the arrested men, and on U.S. diplomats, as well as international human rights monitors, to demand a full accounting of this case from the Egyptian government. 

CIP Protests Bombing of Shaykh Gailani Shrine in Baghdad, May 28, 2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) strenuously protests the terrorist bombing on Monday, May 28, 2007, of the Shaykh Abd Al-Qadir Gailani mosque in central Baghdad, Iraq, which killed some 21 people.  The mosque is named for the inspirer of the Qadiri Sufi order and is considered one of the outstanding Sufi shrines in the Muslim world.  Early news reportage strongly suggests this atrocity was carried out by Wahhabi Sunni terrorists.  CIP calls on all Muslims and believers of good will to oppose terrorism in Iraq and to assist the Sufi and other moderate communities in that country. 

Kemal Silay, President
Stephen Sulejman Schwartz, Executive Director 
Irfan Ahmed Al-Alawi, International Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC -- London -- Baghdad

In Memoriam Tashbih Sayyed, 1941-2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism expresses mourning at the recent death of Tashbih Sayyed, a noted journalist in the global Muslim community, opponent of radical ideology, and early participant in the deliberations that produced the Center. 

We call on all Muslims to recite Fatiha for Brother Tashbih.   

Bismillah irrahman irrahim
Alhamdulillah wa'rabb al'alamin
Irrahman irrahim
Maliki youmi deen
Wa'iyyaka na budu, wa'iyyaka nastaeen,
Ihdina assirat al-mustaqeem,
Sirata allatheena anamta alayhim
Ghayri almaghdoobi alayhim
Wala dalleen. 

Amin. 

Kemal Selay, President
Stephen Sulejman Schwartz, Executive Director

CIP Urgent Bulletin: Presidency of the Albanian Muslim Community in the U.S. on Fort Dix Incident, May 9, 2007

[There is no website for this text, which was furnished to the Center for Islamic Pluralism.] 

The Presidency of the Albanian Muslim Community in the United States and Canada

PRESS RELEASE

On behalf of the Presidency of the Albanian Muslim Community in the United States and Canada, and the 14 mosques it represents, we were shocked and appalled to receive the news of the possible terror act on Fort Dix Military Base in New Jersey. We strongly condemn violence and terrorist activities perpetrated in the name of Islam.

Terrorism in any form has no religion, nationality or justification. Islam teaches us that human life is sacred; and we condemn all acts of terrorism. It is forbidden for a Muslim to cooperate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence. It is the civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of all humans. In this regard, Islam is a religion of peace and justice, and the Albanian community condemns terror and terrorists wherever they are and whoever they are.

Further, this alleged heinous act evokes an acute sense of grief for the Albanian people. During the war in Kosova, Fort Dix Military Base in New Jersey was a shelter for the Albanian victims of the Serbian regime. The Albanian Muslim Community of America and Canada cooperated fully with US institutions to help Albanian refugees from Kosova. The people of Fort Dixprovided a sanctuary for many of our refugees; and for this we hold them in high regard.

We are grateful to the US Government and its military forces for helping Muslims in Kosova and Bosnia and Hercegovina. We appreciate those who helped end the horrendous genocide and atrocities perpetrated against the people of the former Yugoslavia. The Presidency of the Albanian Muslim Community in the United States and Canada fully supports United States Government efforts to end terror. We pray for peace and stability in the world.

We are against all those “so-called Muslims” who misuse and humiliate Islam and create ugly images of the Muslim people. Islam is a religion of peace and we appreciate the fact that the US Government does not identify Muslims with those who commit acts of terror.

The Albanian Muslim community has worked and continues to work together with different religious groups and organizations in United States and Canada. It is our goal to increase the awareness of people of the peaceful nature of Muslims and bring an end to the modern disease called terrorism.

We pray to Almighty God to save and protect the United States, which provides shelter to those in need from around the globe. We pray to Almighty God to bring love to the people of the world and bring all of mankind to the path of peace. May God bless the people of our great country.


Imam Vehbi Ismaili, President
Ferid Bedrolli, General Secretary
Staten Island, NY 10301

[Further contact information available from the Center for Islamic Pluralism)

Center for Islamic Pluralism President Kemal Silay will represent the organization on a panel at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Washington, DC, during the plenary session on Wednesday, May 2.

Professor Silay's contribution, on the topic of "New Currents in the Religious Sphere: Islam and Modernity," will be posted to our sites and otherwise publicized.   A live webcast of the Annual Meeting will be accessible at www.ajc.org. 

CIP congratulates AJC on its anniversary. 

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz
Executive Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC
London, UK

CIP Video Now Online! Schwartz, Jamal Badawi, Irshad Manji Debate

The Center for Islamic Pluralism is pleased to announce the inauguration of a video programme on the UK website www.islamicpluralism.eu.   Among the first videos accessible for viewing is a debate on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2003 featuring CIP Executive Director Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, Canadian Islamist Jamal Badawi, and author Irshad Manji. 

CIP Video has a large inventory of material in several languages, which will be posted forthwith. 

July 27, 2007
Washington, DC

Executive Director Schwartz Meets With State Department-Sponsored German Muslim Delegation, April 20, 2007 

Center for Islamic Pluralism Executive Director Stephen Suleyman Schwartz met in Washington, DC, on April 20, 2007, with a delegation of German Muslims and non-Muslims to discuss the situation of Islam in the U.S. 

The visitors were invited to the United States under the auspices of the Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program. Their program is arranged by Meridian International Center.

A lively discussion included particular attention to the situation of Islam in the American prison system and the need for alternative means by which convicts drawn to Islam may be counselled and otherwise assisted in transforming their lives.  This means helping Muslim convicts leave behind their involvement in criminal subcultures as well as the radical interpretation of Islam promoted in the prisons, typically through intimidation, by Wahhabi chaplains.

Schwartz emphasized the problem of the Wahhabi monopoly over prison chaplaincies at the federal, state, and local level, and the leading role of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in dealing with this issue.

Members of the delegation included a Sunni imam, an Alevi woman journalist, and two non-Muslim social workers.

CIP closely monitors the situation of Islam in Germany.

CIP Protests Further Harassment of Iraqi daily Al-Sabah Al-Jadid, April 4, 2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism strenuously protests against ongoing terrorist attacks and other harassment against the Baghdad daily Al-Sabah Al-Jadid, as described in the following bulletin: 

Iraqi security forces prevent printing of independent newspaper 

Arbil, 4-4-2007 - Iraqi commandos patrolling the Waziriya district in Baghdad on Tuesday arrested an employee of the Iraqi independent newspaper Al-Sabah Al-Jadeed (The New Morning) and confiscated the cd-rom needed to print the newspaper, that the employee was carrying to the printing house.   Al-Sabah Al-Jadeed was not printed, which caused a substantial financial loss for the newspaper. 

The employee pleaded in vain with the commandos to let him go to the printing house and was transferred to the police station of the Bettaween district, far away from Waziriya. He was beaten up and all attempts to have him released have failed, Dafer Zayer, the manager of the printing house, said when contacted by telephone in Baghdad.

In the past two months the printing house has suffered a mortar attack that destroyed the front of the building. US troops have accidentally set the paper store of the printing house on fire, after flares to illuminate the sky during a battle in the area came down on its roof. Twenty-five tons of paper were destroyed and the compensation has not been paid yet.  

The newspaper’s editor in chief, Ismael Zayer, was almost ambushed one year ago. The printing house manager has survived various attacks while driving on the roads of Baghdad. The newspaper has also faced trials for libel, brought against it by a lawyer of the former Baathist journalists union.  

For security reasons part of the newspaper has already been transferred to Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, but it is still printed in Baghdad and distributed nation-wide. A project is underway to guarantee the daily publication of the newspaper on a new multimedia website, in case printing is impossible because of fighting, curfews and vehicle bans in the capital.

In Memoriam: Harvey Sarner, 1934-2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism asks for prayers and other memorials to Harvey Sarner, who died at 73 in Palm Springs, California

The Center for Islamic Pluralism asks for prayer and other memorials to Harvey Sarner, who died at 73 in Palm Springs, California. 

Harvey Sarner was a doctor and lawyer, and a major contributor to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  He is best known, however, for his documentation of the actions by Albanians to save Jews during the second world war.  Dr. Sarner, a praiseworthy member of the House of Israel, recorded the deeds of Albanians, most of them Muslim, who put their lives at risk by defying the Nazi authorities.  Albania was the only country in Axis-occupied Europe to have a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than at its beginning, mainly comprising refugees. 

Thanks to Dr. Sarner, who will be buried in Jerusalem, Albanian Muslims who saved Jews are now honored at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial complex. 

CIP will call for honors to Harvey Sarner at the Harabati Bektashi institution in Macedonia during Nevruz Sultan later in March, and asks that he be remembered and commemorated by all Muslims. 

Kemal Silay, President
Stephen Sulejman Schwartz, Executive Director
Khaleel Mohammed, U.S. West Coast Director 

www.islamicpluralism.org
www.islamicpluralism.eu

Bosnian Muslims in North America on Utah Mass Murder, February 15, 2007

The Center for Islamic Pluralism fully supports the following statement addressed to the Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, regarding the recent tragedy there.  CIP recommends prayers, and donations to a fund for the families of the victims. 

Stephen Sulejman Schwartz
Executive Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC, USA 

* * * 

Mr. Rocky Anderson
Mayor of Salt Lake City
451 South State Street
Room 3006
Salt Lake City, UT 84111 

02. 15. 2007.  

Dear Mayor Anderson, 

On behalf of the Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) and the Islamic Association of Bosniaks of North America (IABNA) we wish to offer you, the families, friends and neighbors of the innocent victims, as well as the people of the State of Utah and of the United States of America, the sentiments of deep sorrow and most sincere condolences for the tragic loss of your dearest and for the tragic loss of precious human lives. 

The Congress of North American Bosniaks and the Islamic Association of Bosniaks of North America wish to advise that this crime committed by Sulejman Taloviæ ought not to be construed to be in any way associated with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks or Islam. 

Please allow us to emphasize that the Bosniaks respect and cherish the United States of America and the American people who have opened the door to their new home during, and following, their struggle for survival. 

The  Islamic Asociation of Bosniaks of North America, will explore establishing a fund for the families of those senselessly murdered. 

With respect,

Prof. Emir Ramiæ
President of the CNAB 

Dr. Bajram ef. Muliæ
President of the IABNA

Statement on the Murder of Hrant Dink, January 23, 2007

Protest Against Mortar Attack on the Printing House of the Iraqi Daily Al-Sabah al-Jadid, February 8, 2007