“The only way to counter radicalisation is to inoculate Muslims against the separatism of political Islam.” These are the words of Zuhdi Jasser, words that could get him killed in some parts of the Middle East.
Jasser, the controversial founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, visits Australia this month for a series of talks and meetings with Australian Muslim groups. He will also meet Jewish leaders and some secular Christian leaders.
Jasser is something of an anomaly in the Islamic world. Born in the US to a Syrian family that fled the Assad regime, he is a practising Muslim who served in the US Navy for 11 years as a doctor and was deployed to the Middle East.
However, at a time when Islam (and religion in general) is on the nose, he is a brave reformist, a civil libertarian and a passionate American patriot.
“If I had started this organisation in the Middle East, I would probably be dead by now,” he says.
Jasser makes no bones about the core teachings in Islam that need reformation. Basically, it is the idea of political jihad. “This is a big issue because a quarter of the world’s population is Muslim.”
Jasser points out that after every terror threat or attack since 9/11, there have only been two responses from imams, and both have been “unacceptable”.
Read the article by Angela Shanahan in The Australian.
Refer to the Jmedia Online event page covering Dr Zuhdi Jasser’s visit to Australia starting March 12 in Melbourne and reaching Sydney March 19th.]