To whom it may concern:
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem
Was-salaat was-salaam ala Sayiddina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam.
Sh. Hisham has tried to work with your organizations for so many years. Time and again, he was either being rebuffed or ignored. It doesn't take a genius to see why he was being received that way. First, his attire is completely different from yours. He wears a complete Islamic attire - loose garments, amamah, walking stick, & a beard that is full. Do these outward appearances intimidate or conjure negative imageries in all of you? Secondly, he brings with him the practices of traditional Islam, in contradistinction to revivalist Islam. With the former it entails the celebration of mawlid, tawasul, ziarat of maqams, zikir in jama'ah, just to name a few.
Regarding the second point above, at the very least we can argue that there are differences of opinion to the subject matter. Whatever the continuum of the debate, none would qualify the omission or commission of those practices as being kufr, bida'a, shirk or haram. In other words, let's leave it at that, i.e., we agree to disagree on those topics. Leave those who wants to practice them, and similarly leave those who do not want to practice. Let Allah be the judge.
Could it be then that your grievances with the sheikh aren't in what he said at the State Department in January, but has to do with something much more personal? What he said at the State Department is common knowledge to all those who have some understanding with the politics of the mosques and of Muslim organizations in the US. When Sh. Hisham was invited to the State Department, his intention was to educate the US authorities that any act of terrorism under the name of Islam can and should never be an aspersion to the larger Muslim population in this country. He rigorously differentiated between Muslims who are terrorist and Muslims in general. In short, he was trying to protect Muslims from those Islamphobics.
There is no such thing as "Islamic extremism" or "Islamic terrorism." Using "Islamic" as an adjective has to fulfill the inherent goodness in Islam - Islam is antithetical to all that is evil. There is of course nothing good from terrorism or extremism when it kills innocent lives, that is evil. Terrorism in whatever form it manifests performed by Muslims can never be seen as Islamic. There are, however, Muslims who are terrorist and extremist, unfortunately.
Therefore, if you all so kindly take away your own biases and prejudices against the sheikh, and really listen and hear to his words, it will be apparent that the sheikh was trying to protect the Muslim community from the very stereotyping that you claimed to fight against. It's pathetic that you have taken his words out-of-context, instead. Clearly you are trying to discredit Sh. Hisham - you deliberately refer to him as "Mr." when in fact Sh. Hisham is an authorized (ijazah) tariqat sheikh. You then sarcastically accused him of claiming to be the 'self-styled' leader ... that is so low of all of you.
I ask again, what is your real grievance with Sh Hisham? It cannot be for the statements that he made at the State Department, for those are true - Islam has nothing to do with terrorist actions. As a matter of fact you all should join him in that stand. How then could him educating US authorities and alerting them from those who want to harm innocent lives be deemed as causing harm to the Muslim community? On the contrary, it's your Media Alert that has caused more harm within the Muslim community in the US. You have let loose a fitnah within the Muslim community, shame on your coalition!
Besides trying to educate the US authorities, Sh. Hisham has also taken to task the leaders of the "80%" mosques along with leaders of the large Muslim organizations. In other words, his challenge is to you folks; organizational leaders, board of trustees, board of directors. Rather than meeting and have a shura with him, your coalition has taken this issue to the community in seeking their support. You're making it into a Sh. Hisham VS the rest of the Muslim Community, rather than Sh. Hisham VS the leaders. You have dragged and split the whole community by your careless and mischievous coalition. So who is running to "Mummy" now? Almost all of you realize that if the community is fully aware of the politicking in the mismanagement of mosques and organizations, your legitimacy and position is in jeopardy. Hence, before that could ever happen you let loose the juggernaut.
Your conspiracy to prevent the awakening of the Muslim community will not be successful, for Sh. Hisham has started a juggernaut of a different nature - an active discussion of your legitimacy as leaders of the Muslim community in USA. Time will show which of the two juggernauts will prevail. The irony to this episode is that there are more similarities than differences - unfortunately, your coalition has decided to polarize the community. If there is any Islamic adab in you, you should try to communicate with the sheikh personally and begin a shura.
"Whatever it be wherein ye differ, the decision thereof is with Allah: Such is Allah my Lord: In Him I trust, and to Him I turn" Quran, 42:10
Wa minnallahi taufiq.
Sincerely,
Zulkarnain Hatta & Family
