Al-AMOUDI ADMITS HE IS AGENT OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT WORKING AMONG
MUSLIMS
When Abdur Rahman Al-Amoudi was arrested, New Trend clearly pointed out
that this arrest seems to be the result of infighting among government
people. Now we find that in response to a Washington Post article,
Al-Amoudi has written a letter which clearly states that he was working and
travelling for the State Department.
Readers should carefully go through Al-Amoudi’s letter which has been
distributed by his friends, Mahdi Bray and Mauri Saalakhan. We urge
Muslims to beware that there might be others in their ranks who are
government agents. Our pages are open to Al-Amoudi to write and let readers
know whom did he pay among the Muslims. Did those whom he paid know that
he was a government agent? Al-Amoudi was a key figure in the world of
ISNA-ICNA-AMC etc. His AMC played a role in the imprisonment of Shaikh
Omar Abdel Rahman. He was a friend of Hosni Mubarak.
New Trend has nothing personal against Al-Amoudi and the ISNA
leadership but for years we have been pointing to the government’s infiltration
of the Muslims. It’s about time Muslims wake up and realize who are
their “leaders” with comfortable lives, cash on hand and no clear sources
of income.
[Al-AMOUDi’s LETTER PUBLISHED IN FULL BELOW along with Mahdi Bray’s
comment.]
By Abdurahman Alamoudi
Letter to the Editor
Washington Post
December 12, 2003
(Note from the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation Executive
Director Mahdi Bray:
MAS Freedom has long expressed its opposition to the government’s use
of the critical issue of fighting terrorism as a pretext for attacking
the law-abiding American Muslim community, its institutions and its
leadership.
The government’s attacks on the American Muslim community - based on
guilt-by-association, hysteria, political opportunism, and reports
provided by those with anti-Muslim agendas - denigrate the principles of
justice, not only for Muslims in America, but all Americans.
These tactics are an anathema to the principles of democracy and
freedom.
MAS Freedom will continue to oppose unwarranted violations of civil
rights and liberties, and the targeting of the American Muslim community
by our government. We will never be afraid to demand of our government,
or any government, what Allah has demanded of all of humanity; justice.
It is in this spirit that we provide the Washington Post prison
editorial by American Muslim leader Abdurahman Alamoudi.)
I would like to respond to the Dec. 1 front-page story about me,
“Jailed Muslim Had Made a Name in Washington; Alamoudi Won Respect as a
Moderate Advocate,” by Mary Beth Sheridan and Douglas Farah.
The story quoted from an interview I gave in 1999 while traveling for
the State Department; the quotation implied I supported terrorism. But
the story did not mention that the excerpt – inaccurately translated
from Arabic – was preceded by sentences in which I clearly and
unequivocally denounced terrorist violence.
I do know political and religious extremists. In my work for the State
Department, I spent time in embassies with diplomats, but also with
people on the fringes of society in the countries I visited. I believe
that maintaining a dialogue with those on the fringes is one of the free
world’s greatest defenses against terrorist violence. I talked to such
people, using their own rhetoric at times, to persuade them of the
uselessness and waste of terrorism. Everything I did on my State Department
trips, I did as a service to the United States.
This double role – of State Department representative and trustworthy
Muslim brother to potentially violent, misguided men – was not easy. I
am criticized by many of my associates for believing that violence is
never justified by any religion. Many have a deep mistrust of all
American things and people – including mistrust of me.
It is painful that after 15 years of work to improve Muslim
participation in the U.S. government, to improve daily life and help immigrants
adjust to this country, to improve the image of the United States with
Arabs and Muslims abroad, I am jailed in my own country by my own
government on the basis of one sentence spoken years ago in another language
to a different audience – badly translated and taken radically out of
context.
No charges against me merit my pre-trial detention. Rather than a
danger to my community, I am a longtime asset to it, as even The Post
reported. Sadly, I am not the only Arab or Muslim being held under such
circumstances. Court documents show that during the past 10 to 15 years,
U.S. taxpayers have spent an estimated $300 million to $500 million to
detain Muslims based on often arcane charges that include nothing violent
or dangerous to the community. The Post should use its role as a free
press of the people to investigate my situation and others like it. All
civic-minded Americans should remember the words that the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. wrote from jail – that “injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere” and demand that our government make itself
accountable to the Constitution that guides it.
ABDURAHMAN ALAMOUDI
Falls Church
The writer is being held in the Alexandria jail on charges of accepting
money from Libya, a U.S.-designated sponsor of terrorism. He has
pleaded not guilty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58203-2003Dec11.html