Here We Go Again

By Ambassador (Ret.) John R. Malott

It looks like a new smear campaign has started against a certain "former leader" of Malaysia. Now he is being accused of contributing USD 10 million to radical Islamic organisations in the United States, money that in turn allegedly supported extremist activities, possibly including terrorism. And once again, Malaysia’s politicians and unquestioning press are whipping themselves into a public frenzy without having done their homework. Calm down, people.

The New Straits Times and Bernama both have reported that Shaykh Muhammed Hisham Kabbani, the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of America (ISCA), said that a "former Malaysian minister funded organisations in the US which may have links with certain extremist groups elsewhere," and because of that, "Malaysia got connected with terrorist activities."

And now for the background, which is available openly on the internet.

Shaykh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, a Sufi cleric, was born in Syria and graduated from the American University of Beirut. He received his Islamic Law Degree in Damascus. In 1991 he was sent to America to establish the foundation of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order. Since then he has opened thirteen Sufi Centers in the United States and Canada. (For further information on ISCA, see their website at www.islamicsupremecouncil.org).

Shaykh Kabbani has often criticized other Islamic leaders for their failure to condemn those who espouse more extremist forms of Islam. In this regard, his views seem no different from those of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose recent article in Time magazine ("Who Hijacked Islam?") made the same point.

According to a 1999 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Shaykh Kabbani has been at odds with mainstream US Islamic organisations almost since his arrival here in 1991. In 1998, ISCA’s magazine, The Muslim, described a series of confrontations between various U.S. Muslim groups and the Shaykh’s followers.

That article says that leaders of other U.S. Muslim organisations were unwilling to participate in Shaykh Kabbani’s ISCA conventions in 1996 and 1998, and that there also were ugly scenes at a number of meetings of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Shaykh Kabbani’s followers were not invited or allowed to participate in those ISNA meetings after it was rumored that he was "a Zionist agent" and that his organisation’s magazine "was sponsored by Zionist funding."

The Washington Report says that the Muslim article implied that the dispute was a religious as well as organisational one, over differing interpretations of Islam. Shaykh Kabbani is a Sufi and the majority of American Muslims are Sunni.

But the differences within the US Muslim community were transformed into a political issue as a result of a speech that Shaykh Kabbani made at the US State Department in 1999, where he said that funds collected by Muslim groups in America for humanitarian aid were being used to buy weapons to fight in the name of Islam; that extremism had spread to 80 percent of the Muslims in the US; and that more than 80 percent of the 2,000 mosques in the US were being run by extremist ideologies.

(Since ISNA – the organisation that had not allowed his participation at its annual meetings – provides support to 80 percent of the mosques in the US, there was an implication that the Shaykh was singling out ISNA. Astute Malaysian readers will recall that ISNA was the group that "disinvited" Prime Minister Mahathir from making a speech in Chicago in 2000 but which invited Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah to address them in 2001.)

Shaykh Kabbani also charged that extremist ideology is getting into US universities through various Muslim clubs. He said that Iran is hiring nuclear scientists to miniaturize nuclear warheads, and that if these small warheads reach American universities, "you don’t know what these students will do." Finally, he said that "those advising the U.S. government are extremists themselves." The Washington Report says that this apparently was a reference to national Muslim leaders.

The outrage from major American Muslim and Islamic groups was instantaneous. Those present asked Shaykh Kabbani to say whom he was talking about, and what his evidence was, but he did not do so. Subsequently, eight of the major Islamic groups in America issued a statement saying that "Mr. Kabbani has put the entire American Muslim community under unjustified suspicion. In effect, Mr. Kabbani is telling government officials that the majority of American Muslims pose a danger to our society. Additionally, Islamophobic individuals and groups may use these statements as an excuse to commit hate crimes against Muslims...We therefore ask Mr. Kabbani to promptly and publicly retract his statements, to apologize to the American Muslim community, and to exert his utmost effort to undo the damage these statements have done. The issue is not that of a mere difference of opinion within an American religious community, but involves the irresponsible act of providing false information to government officials."

The joint press release was issued by the American Muslim Political Coordination Council, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council, Council on American Islamic Relations, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Society of North America, and the Muslim Students Association of USA and Canada. Additional Muslim groups subsequently associated themselves with the statement.

A prominent Muslim leader in America told me on Wednesday that to this day Shaykh Kabbani has never provided any evidence for his assertions at the State Department, or apologized. As a result, he basically has been ostracized from the majority Muslim community in the US. When told what the Malaysia press articles said, the Muslim leader commented, "Isn’t it interesting that he makes these accusations but does name names or provide any evidence. That is the same thing he did at the State Department in 1999. Who gave the money and who received it? Who told him this? If what he says is true, why doesn’t he say so? And 10 million dollars? No Islamic organisation in America ever got 10 million from Malaysia."

My point in providing this background is not to take sides in what clearly seems to be a religious, political, and now even personal dispute within the American Muslim community. Rather, it is to point out that such a dispute exists, and that comments made in Malaysia should be understood with this 10-year background in mind.

I agree with Shaykh Kabbani that more moderate Muslim leaders and organisations around the world should speak out against the more extremist Islamic ideologies that are being propagated and the violent actions that sometimes flow from them. But I disagree with his assertion that the majority of our mosques are under radical influences, or that those Muslim leaders who advice our Government are extremists. Yes, there are some Islamic radicals in the US, and the Government has shut down two foundations for allegedly channeling funds to terrorist groups overseas.

But the overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans, and the mosques and groups with which they are affiliated, are not extremist or radical. The organisations that criticized Shaykh Kabbani are the very same ones that have met with President Bush and members of Congress since September 11; if they were radical, they never would have gotten in the front door of the White House. Indeed, it was the President of ISNA, the group that is the apparent nemesis of both Prime Minister Mahathir and Shaykh Kabbani, who read the Islamic prayer at the National Cathedral service for the victims of September 11 and later met with President Bush at the White House.

Which leads the story back to Malaysia. Shaykh Kabbani has made a statement in Malaysia that has all the necessary ingredients to condemn the "former Minister." No wonder people leaped on it so quickly. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, so it must mean that the "former leader" is corrupt. And you say the money went to radical Islamic groups? Even better – we’ve being trying to convince people that the guy is an extremist and dangerous. And the money was then channeled to terrorist organisations to boot? Great -- now we can link him to KMM and al-Qaeda. And the bad press we have been receiving in the US? It’s all his fault, too.

It seems like a real gift to those who want to continue the campaign to smear the former Minister. But the only problem is, no proof and no evidence have been offered to back up these assertions. And in the absence of such evidence, such accusations – and their repetition – can quickly appear libelous. Even if a Malaysian court is not sympathetic to a case brought by a jailed former leader, a US organisation falsely accused of taking money and channeling it to terrorist groups would not hesitate to seek restitution in a US court.

And the bad press? Asked about the Kabbani report, Deputy Prime Minister Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said, "Now we know why the US and its media made so many accusations against us."

Actually, sir, no one in America has ever heard these accusations, because we don’t have the pleasure of receiving the New Straits Times every morning. In recent weeks, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Time and Newsweek magazines all have written major stories on the "Malaysia Connection" to al-Qaeda and the September 11 attack. They are very factual stories and based in large part on information from Malaysia’s own Special Branch. They never once mentioned Shaykh Kabbani or payments to US Muslim organisations. Instead, they detailed such things as meetings in Malaysia between the hijackers and others, as well as direct payments and logistical support from Malaysian sources for the hijackers and other al-Qaeda operatives.

The Government of Malaysia does not support terrorism and cooperates fully with the United States in opposing it. However, they have been embarrassed by these stories, and one of their Cabinet Ministers even threatened to sue Newsweek over its article. But as more articles came out, it became harder for the Government to threaten to take legal action, especially since the reporters were quoting Malaysian police officials and US diplomats as their sources. So the silly notion of suing one of the world’s most prominent magazines was quickly dropped.

This silliness ought to be dropped just as quickly, before people get embarrassed again.