No words can adequately express the horror felt by the ADAMS Community on hearing of yet more terrorist attacks, in Brussels this week and Turkey last week, and in San Bernardino and Paris and too many other places before that. We are outraged not only by this monumental loss of life, but by the utter callousness of the perpetrators of these cowardly attacks. These groups may want to claim to be defending Islam, but in fact they are simply depraved louts who lack any real knowledge of their faith, and have by their actions surely earned the condemnation of Almighty God, and of every person of faith, everywhere in the world.
These evil brutes have either forgotten or never knew the most basic teachings of Islam, which hold that the taking of a single life is the equivalent of the killing of all humanity. Every true Muslim knows that nothing can ever justify terrorism and murder. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, and we deeply regret that anyone would ever feel that Islam could possibly condone such despicable acts.
We are all the victims of these immoral criminals, who are not acting like Muslims, but have rather become a cancer on our faith. Today we are all Belgians, and Turks, and citizens of every country that has ever faced such terror. We share the pain of every person affected by these actions.
All people of faith and conscience must stand up against terrorism, extremism, bigotry, racism and hate. As Muslims are the vast majority (82 – 97%) of victims of terrorist attacks worldwide, we call on all members of our faith to not only remain vigilant, but to take action against and report anyone they know – or even suspect – of having any involvement in such heinous actions, and even in the discussion and planning for them.
American Muslims are partners with national security and law enforcement to counter any extremism. While all communities must increase our vigilance, we also urge our media to emphasize the major threat in America is from domestic terror from white supremacists, anti-government, sovereign nation, and similar groups. All Americans must work together to stop terrorism from any source, and against any faith groups.
Since 2002, ADAMS has been a key member of the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO) Arab, Muslim and Sikh Advisory Committee. We continue to stress the need to protect our nation’s safety, while safeguarding our rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. We are currently developing several programs to help achieve this goal, and we welcome the cooperation and support of all people of faith and conscience in that effort.
Again, our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of these outrages.
Additional References:
Fatwa(Religious Ruling) Against Terrorism
https://www.adamscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/FATWA_Muslims_Against_Terrorism.pdf
ADAMS is a National Community Outreach Partner with the FBI in its Arab/Muslim/Sikh/South Asian-American Category (see “Our Outreach Partners” on the FBI website):
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/partnerships_and_outreach/community_outreach/outreach_contacts
ADAMS has also been a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism Working Group: (http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/hsac_cve_working_group_recommendations.pdf)
Approximately, 40% of leads come from Muslim Community Tips to Law enforcement that result in arrest of alleged terrorists, showing the Muslim community is doing its part to protect the nation
http://sanford.duke.edu/centers/tcths/about/documents/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_Since_911_An_Accounting.pdf
http://sanford.duke.edu/centers/tcths/about/documents/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_Since_911_An_Accounting.pdf
MUFLEHUN – Counter-Radicalization organization – Chaired by Imam Magid (ADAMS) and Humera Khan (Executive Director): http://www.muflehun.org/
One True Islam – Led by Imam Magid(ADAMS) and Community Members of ADAMS
One True Islam Foundation http://onetrueislam.org/
The Foundation hopes to establish an Operations Center as Phase II of its counter-messaging campaign to counter recruitment efforts in digital forums (social media, chat rooms, etc.), where extremists are most active.
ADAMS Hosts Seminar on Preventing Violent Extremism in the Muslim American Community since 2011:
http://muflehun.org/event-internet-safety-workshop-what-parents-need-to-know/
New York Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/us/muslim-leaders-in-us-seek-to-counteract-extremist-recruiters.html
One True Islam – Led by Imam Magid(ADAMS) and Community Members of ADAMS
One True Islam Foundation http://onetrueislam.org/
The Foundation hopes to establish an Operations Center as Phase II of its counter-messaging campaign to counter recruitment efforts in digital forums (social media, chat rooms, etc.), where extremists are most active.
ADAMS Hosts Seminar on Preventing Violent Extremism in the Muslim American Community since 2011:
http://muflehun.org/event-internet-safety-workshop-what-parents-need-to-know/
New York Times Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/us/muslim-leaders-in-us-seek-to-counteract-extremist-recruiters.html
Gallup:
Muslim Americans are More AGAINST attacks on civilians as compared with members of other religious groups
Pew Forum:
A 2014 study by University of North Carolina found, since the 9/11 attacks, Muslim-linked terrorism has claimed the lives of 37 Americans. In that same time period, more than 190,000 Americans were murdered by NON-Muslims.http://sites.duke.edu/tcths/files/2013/06/Kurzman_Muslim-American_Terrorism_in_2013.pdf
There were 74 school shootings in an 18 month period from 2012 to 2014) done by NON-Muslims. (Reference: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/11/us/school-shootings-cnn-number/index.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States)
FBI: 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs with about 1.4 million members are criminally active in the U.S. today. – These are NON-Muslim Gangs https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs
Bureau of Justice: Almost 7 Million American In Jail, Prison, Parole, and Probation
Two Percent of Americans committing crimes
Gallup : Research shows that the U.S. identified more than 160 Muslim-American terrorist suspects and perpetrators in the decade since 9/11, just a small percentage of the thousands of acts of violence in the United States each year. However, Gallup also noted “an efficient system of government prosecution and media coverage brings Muslim-American terrorism suspects to national attention, creating the impression – perhaps unintentionally – that Muslim-American terrorism is more prevalent than it really is.” In fact, since 9/11 the Muslim-American community has helped security and law enforcement officials prevent nearly two of every five al Qaeda terrorist plots threatening the United States[2, and tips from the Muslim-American community are the largest single source of initial information to authorities about these few plots.[3]http://www.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx
As policy institute New America has documented, 45 Americans have died in jihadist attacks since September 11, 2001. Meanwhile, 48 have been killed by homegrown, white extremists, in a decided uptick in anti-government and supremacist views after the election of Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008. http://securitydata.newamerica.net/extremists/deadly-attacks.html
An FBI study of terrorism on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 found that 94% of terror attacks were committed by non-Muslims: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005/terror02_05#terror_05sum
As Europol, the European Union’s law-enforcement agency, noted in its report last year, the vast majority of terror attacks in Europe were perpetrated by separatist groups. For example, in 2013, there were 152 terror attacks in Europe of which only two of were “religiously motivated,” while 84 were based on ethno-nationalist or separatist beliefs.
Less Than 2 Percent Of Terrorist Attacks In The E.U. Are Religiously Motivatedhttp://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609796/islamist-terrorism-europe/
Professors Charles Kurzman of the University of North Carolina and David Schanzer of Duke University released a survey of law enforcement’s main worries showing that nearly 74 percent of Agencies reported anti-government extremism as among their top three concerns, and only 40 percent who said the same about Al Qaeda-inspired attacks.