Pro-Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Eyes Public Office
by Shireen Qudosi
Family Security Matters
May 13, 2009
http://www.meforum.org/2135/pro-muslim-brotherhood-public-office
In an April 2004 speech at a Muslim
American Society (MAS) conference in Overland Park, Kansas, Dr. Esam
Omeish stated that either Islam will "become
the dominant religion of the next century" or "we may be forcibly rejected
from the West because of forces of intolerance, racism, and bigotry."
In 2006, the Muslim American Society made a bold statement
at their regional conference in Los Angeles, California, encouraging
Muslims to redirect their traditional career paths as doctors, lawyers,
and engineers to taking on key roles in media and politics. Speakers
hailed media and the political arena as the new battlegrounds where power
could be united to forge a Muslim agenda for the United States. One such
speaker was Dr. Esam
Omeish.
Present at this conference, I found it interesting that
while several speakers from the Muslim American Society spoke of a dual
identity, being American and Muslim, Omeish's charged rhetoric was
distinctly Islamist. Islamists believe Islam is not merely a private
faith, but a religious-political movement that should be the basis for
governing society.
Fast forward to 2009. Omeish is now a candidate for the 35th
district of the Virginia House of Delegates. Omeish's candidacy draws
across-the-board scrutiny on the difference between American Muslims and
Islamists.
In the United States, many Islamists are mistakenly
considered moderates because they work to lawfully indoctrinate Islamic
ideology "by persuasion" rather than force. Such "progressive" Islamists
denounce the violence of groups like al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but not the
ideology behind them.
Omeish now brings this rhetoric to the voters of Virginia's
35th district, who, on June 9, will decide whether Omeish should represent
them as the Democratic Party candidate. It is critical that Virginians
examine Omeish's previous public statements and question his
allegiances to determine whether they are in conflict with the duties
he will assume should he be elected.
Islamism was founded by Egyptian Hasan al-Banna and the
Muslim Brotherhood in 1928. President Barack
Obama has called this desire for a global caliphate "repressive."
Omeish, it seems, feels otherwise. In a 2004 letter
from Omeish while president of MAS to the Washington Post, he
stated that "the influence of Muslim
Brotherhood ideas has been instrumental in defining our
understanding of Islam within the American and Western context."
An online video captured Omeish calling for "the jihad way"
at a 2000 rally.
He was subsequently forced
to resign from his appointment to a Virginia immigration
commission in 2007.
Recently, on April 11, 2009, in Oakton, Virginia, Omeish
held a "meet the voters" rally, where he publicly stated Sharia is "wonderful"
for the rest of the world. Sharia,
or Islamic law, though differing in specifics from Muslim country to
Muslim country, has consistently raised human rights issues regarding
women's, minority, and gay rights. In the U.S., such extreme humanitarian
violations are not likely.
Islamism is considered dangerous by its critics because it
does not hold the U.S.
Constitution as the supreme law of the land. Islamists who do not
wield a sword or strap on a bomb are more dangerous than violent Islamists
because they take advantage of "soft" political language like minority
rights rhetoric in secular democracies to turn those principles on their
head once in political power. By encroaching in the public sphere with
individual innocuous challenges to separation of church and state,
Islamists impose their religious beliefs on the rest of society.
Some examples include cab drivers refusing to give rides to
individuals carrying
alcohol in Minnesota, public schools using taxpayer money to
provide footbaths
in Michigan, and attempts to enforce hijab
on Muslims who do not wish to wear them in the UK.
One critic of Islamism is the Responsible for Equality and
Liberty (R.E.A.L.) in
Virginia. R.E.A.L. focuses on protecting human rights in the U.S. and has
denounced Islamist supremacism as a threat to Western universal principles
of equality.
Spearheading R.E.A.L., Jeffrey Imm stresses the group is
"focused on tactical issues to educate
35th Virginia district voters on Esam Omeish" so voters can make an
informed voting decision in June. Imm believes that a candidate for office
should encompass democratic values rather than a supremacist worldview. He stresses that
"we must recognize that supremacist organizations have been leveraging
these freedoms to gain institutional support within America by disguising
their supremacist goals with 'religious' identities."
R.E.A.L. is planning a rally at the U.S.
Capitol challenging Islamist supremacism on May 17. Readers wishing to
support or question Esam Omeish's candidacy are encouraged to
participate.
Shireen Qudosi is a writer on Islam in the 21st century
and editor-in-chief of The Qudosi
Chronicles. She is also a regular contributor to Islamist Watch,
with a special focus on Southern California. To contact her directly,
email Shireen.Qudosi@hotmail.com.
Related Topics: Muslims in the United
States, Radical
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