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February 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm02
Dear manager,
You assumed in your writing about Dr Walid Phares book “The War of Ideas” that he was talking about Muslims and US foreign policy. That is not accurate. Phares is very specific. He mentions the Jihadists, including Salafists and Khomeinists not Muslims at learge. His articles, lectures and interviews are all verty clear and specific. Your attribution to him are false and need to be corrected to maintain credibility. You may agree or disagree with his theories and analysis but you need to be correct in reporting about his arguments so that you are accepted as a debater.
February 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm02
Thank you very much Beth for your observation.
In all of the site I don’t believe I spoke of Walid Phares except for one single time which can be found here Absurd Comments of Western Analyst About Muslims
The only actual statement that I made of him was regarding a conference he was giving regarding his newest book that he held at the Heritage Foundation which was the following quote under the second point
2. Not recognizing Western Foreign Policy as the source for extremism and terrorism
In a social event celebrating the soon to be published book “War of Ideas”, he, Walid Phares, holds a conference explaining the details of his book. Within this lecture he explains how people “err” in interpreting that “jihadism” is a result of U.S. Foreign Policy and he argues the validity of this reality based on his observation that Muslims had prior enmity to the western world prior to 9/11, then he mentions prior to the end of the cold war, then mentions prior to the establishment of “Israel”, and even as far back as WWI.
that to my knowledge was the sum total of everything that I have ever relayed about Walid Phares.
So according to the sole paragraph that was mentioned about him by us above, the following claims were made
1. he holds a conference explaining his book “War of Ideas”
2. he explains how people “err” in interpreting that “jihadism” is a result of U.S. Foreign Policy
3. he argues the validity of this reality based on his observation that Muslims had prior enmity to the western world prior to 9/11, then he mentions prior to the end of the cold war, then mentions prior to the establishment of “Israel”, and even as far back as WWI.
these are the three argumentative claims that I made in representing his case which all of it can be found here
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1495000091459162943&ei=xQycScKQJIS4-QG07OzIBQ&q=walid+pharesat+heritage&hl=en
As for the first claim, the link above on google video is proof in itself that he speech was in regard to his new book “War of Ideas”
As to specifically pin point the exact minutes in where he said what he said then the place where the second claim that was made can be found exactly at 4:41 second and on up to 5 minutes in this lecture in which the link was provided above. He literally said verbatimly that
“I’ve tried in “Future Jihad” (his previous book) to talk about, analyze these global strategies of these movements (meaning the jihadist movements), that alone is an argument telling that uh we (the west) are not dealing with mere reactions to foreign policies, of course foreign policies bring about policies, reaction but the global ideological movement which he and others, and jihadist themselves said, has a doctrine” (everything in parenthesis are my words to clarify the intent of his speech)
that is the full exact quote of his words in this first excerpt that can be found from 4:41 all the way to 5:15 in this link above.
What I was trying to show in my articl in the first link given is that this information he gave is fundamentally incorrect even though on the outset it seems correct. It is true that jihad is a doctrine, an Islamic doctrine. The problem comes in two manners,
1. when western individuals l(like yourself which you just demonstrated in your reply to me) is in making a difference between jihadist and Muslims. Jihadist, academically is a term based on deception. It is neutralizing the Muslims from their religion. If a jihadist is one who is defined as believing in the doctrine of Jihad, then if compared to the very authentic textual narrative coming from the prophet of Islam himself which is “Whoever dies without intending to perform jihad, dies with nifaaq in his heart (which is a nullifier of Islam)”. The the classical legal orthodox jurist defined the “jihad” in this narrative as “jihad of qital” i.e. jihad of fighting. So according to the mass quantity of Muslims who had accepted the previous classical orthodox scholars centuries before the invention of this “jihadist movements” as explained by westerners, then by definition of the westerners, the mass amount of Muslims are “jihadist” and the only people who are not a jihadist are those who either left the religion or replaced a part of the Islamic viewpoint and incorperated an altered viewpoint in their thought, and the only peple to have done this in Islam are the progressives and extreme modernists. The vast majority of Muslims do not hold the viewpoints that the west are casting aspersion that the “vast majority hold”.
2. the claim that the behavior of the “jihadist” is not a result of foreign policies which is a corruption of reality. The fatc that history bears witness against him is enough of a refutation of this point as we, as a world, have only witnessed the uprising of something called terrorism from our side within the last half century AT MOST. In other words, before the west took on more crucial tactics and before they placed the Jews on Palestine and allowed for the continual genocide of our brothers in order to gain more land from Palestine, and ultimately the degradtion and social upheaval the west has brought on us by placing in despots in our lands who will ensure that justice will not take place in our lands (by not implementing Islam as law), then with all of these factors of social upheaval, all of this brought the birth of modern day terrorism from our side of the aisle. before 50 years ago in the Muslim world, it was never dreamed that the Muslims would or could do such things. This fact alone shows that these actions is not part of Islam, and specifically, it is not part of the Jihaadi beliefs of Islam.
As for the third claim, he argues the validity of this reality (that people misjudge the issue by claiming jihadist are merely reacting to foreign policies) based on his observation that Muslims had prior enmity to the western world prior to 9/11, then he mentions prior to the end of the cold war, then mentions prior to the establishment of “Israel”, and even as far back as WWI.
This claim that I have conveyed can be seen after the second reporting of his views sometime after he talks about the division of jihadist ideology which are, in his awkward view,
1. salafist
2. khomeinist
If you would so kindly refer to this link “The Fallacy of Salafi Trends“, near the middle of the article, you would understand the absurdity of Walid Phares views about “jihadism” being the doctrine to be espoused since after the second world war, particualrly when I quote a passage of Uthman ibn Foday, commonly knonw as Uthman Don Fodio, a sufi, espousing “jihadist” asperations in 1800 whcih is likewise decades befor the “wahhabist” ever gained ground, which only shows that this understanding is not the deemed “jihadist” or “wahhabists” or “khomeinist” understanding of Islam, it is Islams understanding of jihad adopted by the vast majority of Muslims and was misrepresented by a modern group involved in actual terrorism today, and continues to be misrepresented by media and pundits like Walid Phares.
I do disagree with his theories, but one thing I am sure, is I will not misrepresent what he actually says, and the above claims are things he has actually said. If you can prove my error by actually providing a transcript of his statement which intellectually is contradictory to what I represented of his views, then by all means I am open to correction and change, but please cite the exact location and an actual transcribed quote by which you have a solid case against me.
secondly, I am opeb to debate, anyone and all about him, including Walid himself, or anyone of his collegues, any foundation, any think tank, and I am willing to decipher and expose the inaccuracies of their statements via transcription (I do not do talks, my main theme or mode of argument is through the channels of literature rather than through speech). If you can refer any of them here and discuss with me, I’ll even open an entire page dedicated to this if they can challenge me.
In conclusion, I do not believe I have misrepresented his views. i quoted him when I made these claims verbatim, or the spirit of his intent at least. If you can bring us the proofs regarding our inaccuracy of relaying what he actually says, then we are open to change and correct what we mistook.
thank you for your reply once again
March 1, 2009 at 12:00 pm03
Salaam Alaykum
How can I contact you by email?
March 3, 2009 at 12:00 am03
Wa’alaykum Salam
the email is posted above in this comments section.
asalamu alaikum
March 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm03
You guys need to seriously get to work on attracting visitors to the blog. Get a online marketing expert! Not to be rude but the anti-islam site have much more interesting layouts and are attracting a 1000000% more views. Stop playing second fiddle to these scummy sites and get on with it!!!
March 19, 2009 at 12:00 am03
Thank you for your contribution Adam.
You are correct indeed. Right now, Im pretty much the single entity that is running the site now. Im in the process of recruiting which will take some time due to certain methodological tweaks that need to be built which is taking the process just that much longer.
I myself am not a technical marketer where I could improve the look of the site. Adding to this I have not had the time to actual promote and thus market the site.
Do you have any specific suggestions?
September 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm09
Salaam Alaykum,
Brother I see you have extremist watch list… everytime a site links to a site it brings up those sites higher up in the search engines.
September 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm09
Jazakallahu Khairan Akbar
So how should not do that while at the same time informing readers of the extremist content on those sites
asalamu alaikum