The Minaret of Freedom Institute is an
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
organization established in 1993 and based in
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...
. It is dedicated to educating both
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
and non-Muslims.
[Mission Statement](_blank)
at Minaret of Freedom Institute web site. It was co-founded by
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad (also known as Dean Ahmad) (born August 11, 1948) is a Palestinian American scholar and the president of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, a libertarian 501(c)(3) tax-exempt think-tank. He also is president of the Islamic-Americ ...
, its president, and Shahid N. Shah, its treasurer.
[Staff and Board listing]
at Minaret of Freedom Institute web site. Its early board of advisers included former
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
advisor
Robert D. Crane, a convert to Islam, and
Charles Butterworth, a
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
Islamic scholar. Its current board of directors and board of advisers include religious, academic and business leaders.
[
]
Mission
Its Mission Statement aims for non-Muslims are:
* "to counter distortions and misconceptions about Islamic beliefs and practice"
* "to demonstrate the Islamic origins of modern values like the rule of law and sciences like market economics
* "to advance the status of Muslim peoples maligned by a hostile environment in the West and oppressed by repressive political regimes in the East"
Its Mission Statement aims for Muslims (in concert with Qur'an and the Sunnah obligations) are:
* "to discover and publish the politico-economic policy implications of Islamic law (shari`ah) and their consequences on the economic well-being of the community"
* "to expose both American and Islamic-world Muslims to free market thought"
* "to educate Islamic religious and community leaders in economics and in the fact that liberty is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for the achievement of a good society"
* "to promote the establishment of free trade and justice (an essential common interest of Islam and the West)"
It implements these goals through independent scholarly research into policy issues of concern to Muslims; publication of scholarly and popular expositions of such research; translation of appropriate works on the free market into the languages of the Muslim world; and the operation of a scholars exchange program.
Religious views
Sharia law
The Institute holds that adherence to Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
law and even Islamist politics can be compatible with libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
ideas.[Tim Cavanaugh]
Revealed Libertarianism: Minaret of Freedom tries to square the Quran with the free market
, Reason Magazine
''Reason'' is an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 50,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the ''Chicago Tribune''.
History
''Reas ...
interview with Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, July 28, 2003. In a paper delivered at a 2005 Center for the Study of Islam and
Democracy conference Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad noted the similarities of American secularism and Islamic law, argued that the free exercise of religion is inherently part of Islamic law and outlined a vision of "Islamic pluralism" where the traditional dhimmi
' ( ar, ذمي ', , collectively ''/'' "the people of the covenant") or () is a historical term for non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the state's obligatio ...
system of protection of non-Muslims must be explicitly protected constitutionally.
In 2006 Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad commented on the Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
n Embassy's Islamic Affairs Department distribution of " The Noble Koran" which included commentary that disparaged Jews and Christians. Ahmad told The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
"The outcry was so great...People were disgusted. And it wasn't just liberals. I couldn't find an American Muslim who had anything good to say about that edition. I would call it a Wahhabi Koran."
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad has been quoted as calling the September 11th attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
in the name of Islam as an offense against Islam. He has written that it is the moral duty of Muslims to identify the perpetrators and their supporters and “confront them with the fact that their actions have violated sharia’ah (sic) in a most egregious manner, to urge them to repent and to punish them if the families of the victims are unwilling to be merciful and accept compensation.”
Loan interest
The institute deviates from orthodox Islamic thinking in its belief that the Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
ic prohibition of riba
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
(usury
Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...
) does not prohibit all lending at interest
In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct ...
, only that which is excessively high.
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad has stated that the Islamic world pioneered the scientific method
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...
, but may have been unable to progress to an industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
because the prohibition of interest prevented would-be inventors from obtaining the necessary financing to develop their inventions.
Circumcision
With regards to female circumcision
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
, Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad writes that clitoridectomy
Clitoridectomy or clitorectomy is the surgical removal, reduction, or partial removal of the clitoris. It is rarely used as a therapeutic medical procedure, such as when cancer has developed in or spread to the clitoris. It is often performed on i ...
and infibulation
Infibulation is the ritual removal of the external female genitalia and the suturing of the vulva, a practice found mainly in northeastern Africa, particularly in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan. The World Health Organization refer ...
should be viewed as practices prohibited by Islam because they jeopardize the girl's future ability to enjoy sexual relations with her husband, and hence should be considered disliked. He dismisses hygienic or religious justifications for "this painful and potentially harmful practice."[ Ahmad supports male circumcision, writing that although it is not prescribed in the Qur'an "]male circumcision
Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Topic ...
is clearly a Muslim tradition."[Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D.]
Female Genital Mutilation: an Islamic Perspective
Minaret of Freedom Institute Pamphlet #1, 2000.
Political views
Civil liberties
In 1999 the Institute sponsored a panel on “Secular Threats to Freedom of Expression,” which was labeled “secular fundamentalism," and identified as being as great a threat to liberty as religious fundamentalism. Two speakers shared their personal stories, Merve Kavakçı Merve is a feminine Turkish given name of Arabic origin.
It has two meanings:
# Pebble
# One of the two sacred hills in Mecca, Saudi Arabia between which Muslims travel back and forth seven times as part of the ritual pilgrimages. Merve is mentioned ...
, an elected Turkish parliamentarian removed from office because she insisted on wearing the hijab
In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...
(Islamic headcovering) and Sami Al-Arian
Sami Amin Al-Arian ( ar, سامي أمين العريان; born January 14, 1958) is a Kuwaiti-born Islamist and political activist of unverified Palestinian origin who was a computer engineering professor at University of South Florida. During ...
, a tenured University of South Florida
The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...
professor who at the time was threatened with dismissal because a former leader of his dialogue group of Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals later was identified as the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist par ...
. Al-Arian described how the 1996 immigration legislation had led to 29 individuals being held in prison for years under “secret evidence” provisions, noting that 28 were Muslims.[Ayesha Ahmad]
Muslim Activists Reject Secular Fundamentalism
originally published at IslamOnline
IslamOnline is a global Islamic website on the Internet providing services to Muslims and non-Muslims in several languages. Its motto is "credibility and distinction".It was founded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Contents
The website consists of forum ...
, April 22, 1999. See als
Minaret of Freedom 5th Annual Dinner, Edited Transcript
Minaret of Freedom Institute website.
After the September 11th attacks Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad spoke out about suspicion of and accusations against Muslims that worried many American Muslims, making them more cautious. After the U.S. government closed down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development
The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) was the largest Islamic charity in the United States. Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, and run by Palestinian-Americans, it was originally known as Occupied Land Fund. The organization's mission was to "find a ...
charity and convicted its leaders of financing terrorism, Ahmad stated that the convictions shocked Muslims, confused donors and “seems to give a green light for further intimidation of Muslim charities.”
In 2006 Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad and Minaret Vice President Aly R. Abuzaakouk signed a letter in “defense of free speech” condemning “any intimidation or threats of violence directed against any individual or group exercising the rights of freedom of religion and speech; even when that speech may be perceived as hurtful or reprehensible.” They expressed concern about threats “made against individual writers, cartoonists, and others by a minority of Muslims” and called on all Muslims to “refrain from violence.”
Sami Al-Arian
The Minaret of Freedom has supported Sami Al-Arian
who was indicted in 2003 for alleged terrorist ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, acquitted of most charges by a jury that deadlocked on other charges. After spending more time in jail, in 2006 Al-Arian plead guilty to conspiracy and was sentenced to 57 months in prison and deportation upon release.[MegLaughlin]
In his plea deal, what did Sami Al-Arian admit to?
, St. Petersburg Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...
, April 23, 2006.
In 2006 an Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
grand jury subpoena was issued to the Minaret of Freedom Institute seeking notes about the symposium on “The United States and Iran: It’s Time to Talk” that he moderated in 1999. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad told the New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...
that he believed the agents sought information because Sami Al-Arian had attended the event. He noted that the same prosecutor seeking Al-Arian’s grand jury testimony at the time had signed the subpoena. Ahmad never was required to testify to the grand jury.
Anti-imperialism
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad told ''Reason'' magazine that Western liberals had abandoned their anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
views, including by invading Iraq, and thus had alienated Islamists from pro-liberty viewpoints. He stated Western government financial support for various factions in Muslim and Arab countries tends to prop up the most oppressive elements.
Opposition to Zionism
The Institute defines the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
in terms of Israel's violations of individual property rights, starting with the fact that Jews owned only 7 percent of the land in Palestine in 1948 but have gained control of most of it as of today. Ahmad states that "Israelis employ a series of strategies to keep pressure on the indigenous people to leave."
In his address to the First Conference on Jerusalem in Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
, Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
in 2001 Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad expressed his desire for the "liberation of Jerusalem." He stated that American’s support for Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
was due to their hearing “only what the Zionist-controlled media and politicians have let them know” and the failure of Palestinians to be "frank and direct with the people of America and the world, preferring to work with corrupt governments in the Muslim world or with power-hungry revolutionary movements." He stated the American people were unaware of "Zionism’s history, its racist foundation, its colonialist nature, and the systematic brutality of its daily dealings with the indigenous people of Palestine.”[Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad]
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad's Address to the First Conference on Jerusalem
in Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
, Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
, January 29, 2001, at Minaret of Freedom Institute web site. In 2003 Ahmad told Reason magazine that the Zionist movement had socialist and fascist wings, neither supportive of classical liberalism and that Israel today is “characterized mostly as a socialist, militarist and racist entity,” which he held are incompatible with “libertarian ideals.”
References
External links
Minaret of Freedom Institute web site
Minaret of Freedom Institute blog
Organizational Profile
– National Center for Charitable Statistics
The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is a clearing house for information about the nonprofit sector of the U.S. economy. The National Center for Charitable Statistics builds national, state, and regional databases and develops st ...
(Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that carries out economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions". The institute receives funding from government contracts, foundations and pr ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minaret Of Freedom Institute
1993 establishments in Maryland
Anti-Zionism in the United States
Anti-Zionist organizations
Bethesda, Maryland
Islam in Maryland
Islamic organizations based in the United States
Libertarian organizations based in the United States
Libertarian think tanks
Non-interventionism
Political and economic think tanks in the United States
Syncretic political movements