American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is an American Muslim

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

formed in 2003 by

Zuhdi Jasser Zuhdi Jasser, also known as M. Zuhdi Jasser, and Mohamed Zuhdi Jasser ( ar, محمد زهدي جاسر; born 17 November 1967) is an American religious and political commentator and medical doctor specializing in internal medicine and nuclear ca ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. AIFD advocates for the

separation of religion and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

and confronts the ideologies of

political Islam Political Islam is any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It can refer to a wide range of individuals and/or groups who advocate the formation of state and society according to their understanding of Islamic pri ...

and openly counters the belief that the Muslim faith is inextricably rooted to the concept of the

Islamic state An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

Mission

AIFD's mission statement as found on their

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

states, "is to advocate for the preservation of the founding principles of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state."

Founder

AIFD was founded by

in March 2003. A former Lieutenant Commander in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, Jasser served 11 years as a medical officer. His tours of duty included Medical Department Head aboard the which deployed to

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

during

Operation Restore Hope The Unified Task Force (UNITAF) was a United States-led, United Nations-sanctioned multinational force which operated in Somalia from 5 December 1992 until 4 May 1993. A United States initiative (code-named Operation Restore Hope), U ...

; Chief Resident at Bethesda Naval Hospital; and Staff Internist for the Office of the Attending Physician to the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

. He is a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal. Timothy R. Furnish said that Jasser's quest is to resurrect the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah, a group in early

Islamic history The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims r ...

which stated that reason was as important as revelation, and 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. ...

was created rather than eternally existent and that humans had

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...

.Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.: Islam's Luther—or its Don Quixote? By Timothy R. Furnish, History News Network, 4-19-1

/ref>

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.aifdemocracy.org Islamic organizations based in the United States Muslim reformers Liberal and progressive movements within Islam Think tanks based in the United States Think tanks established in 2003