That The Muslim American Society (MAS) is an American splinter of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is fairly well documented, primarily exposed in the
September 2004 Chicago Tribune article "A rare look at a secretive Brotherhood in America" (The last3-4 pages deal most specifically with MAS, the rest with the MB). Go read, then come back.
Although MAS leadership proclaims that the two organizations are now separate and independent of each other, many of their own materials show that the base ideology (Islamic Rule for the entire world) is the same.
Daveed Garterstein-Ross, in the
Weekly Standard,
points out that their curriculum of reading includes (and emphasises) the views and writings of MB founder Al-
Banna (that all governments should be Islamic),
Fathi Yakun (That "Until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful") and
Syed Qutb (that Jihad is for the establishing of Allah's authority on Earth).
Although not as noisy as
CAIR or
MPAC, MAS claims 53 chapters and 10,000 members, it is clearly a group to be watched. A visit to
their site [http://www.masnet.org/index.asp] leaves one sniffing their air, identifying the scent of
Eau de Victime, in the classic
CAIR style. Browsing through the site, I found myself thinking "What would
Robert Spencer say?" He would say what he says so much-- that they keep blaming bigots for the distrust of Islam, not the violence perpetrated in its name, nor the writings they themselves have on their curriculum. Or as I've said in other places, "blaming everyone else before themselves, starting with the Jews, down through the martians, or catfish in Lake
Pontchartrain." Truly, such whining is unbecoming of civilized people. Why are you distrusted? Maybe '
cuz you keep trying to kill us. . .
One of the efforts of the MAS is the Council of Islamic Schools (
MASCIS) [http://www.masnet.org/school.asp]. They introduce this "department" as follows:
MASCIS operates as the educational branch of the Muslim American Society
(MAS). Through the Council of Islamic Schools, MAS offers several technical and
support services as well as professional training programs for teachers and
administrators of full-time and part-time Islamic schools. MASCIS is working to
establish an effective network of Islamic schools in order to exchange
information and expertise, and upgrade and unify curricula.
Not very enlightening (as with much of the site, there is a plethora of nice-seeming generalities which, to educated eyes, look at lot like newspeak. "Meltdown is such a buzzword. We prefer Unscheduled Fission Surplus" -- Montgomery Burns). But as a fellow 910-er noted, the last paragraph sort of says it all.
The future of the Muslim community in North America is dependent upon
securing all of our possible human and financial resources. Only in this way
can we prepare and protect the next generation of Muslims to carry the
banner, convey the message, and meet the challenges of the future. Alone, we
may not achieve much, but indeed together we can achieve more. Therefore, we
ask that you take a moment to reflect on this opportunity, and agree to lend
support to this organization's program. May Allah accept our work and yours,
Ameen.
The intervening paragraphs tell of wanting to network schools, be a resource, develop a unified curricula, etc. . . And these things are not, in and of themselves, negative. Indeed, if Muslims could get together and give a definitive answer to many of our questions -- as opposed the usual contradictory
taqqiya BS-- it would be useful. However, when it's the MAS trying to do this, in consideration of their own curricula, one must be a bit more wary. It's kinda like the KKK deciding to
standardise the curricula of our schools, or having Opus
Dei or
CTA run the Vatican
CDF. None of these are
spectacularly brilliant ideas, and I worry that MAS will stifle the much needed interior dialogue and reform needed in American Islam.
In the end, MAS and their various projects are something to be aware of. USA Today noted that they were involved with that whole
Taxi-thing a few months ago--which itself says something about their ideas and values. If Muslims in America wish to be treated like other
Americans, MAS is not the way to go. If, however, Muslims want to force their ways upon the rest of us in religious apartheid, then MAS may be on to something.
Writings Referenced:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0409190261sep19,1,3910166.story?coll=chi-newsspecials-hed&ctrack=1&cset=truehttp://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/651lbxol.asp
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2006-10-10-cabbies-culture_x.htmAlso related:
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/461http://www.blogofascists.com/blog/_archives/2006/10/26/2449604.html
