Excerpts
from The Washington TimesApril 15, 2000
By: Geoffrey Smith
Excerpts
from The Washington Times
April 15, 2000
By: Geoffrey Smith
Radical
Islam has been called by many in the West one of the gravest threats
facing the world. Experts at a recent Washington conference, however,
said that most of the precepts espoused by radical Islam conflict with
that faith's ancient teachings.
For years now, news reports documenting the terrors of extreme, militant
Islam have been a mainstay
of U.S. and Western media. This has focused attention
on one subgroup of the faithful, often to the neglect of the thousands
of peace-loving, tolerant Muslims who abide by the true teachings
of their faith, said Sheik
Hisham Kabbani, chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council
of America, an organization of moderate Muslims….”
ISLAM
MISUNDERSTOOD IN WEST
Mr.
Kabbani, who acts as the khalifa, or deputy, for the North American followers
of Sheik Nazim, spoke from the first word about what he called misperceptions
in the West about the true nature of Islam.
Sheik Nazim heads the worldwide Naqshbandi-Hakkani Sufi order. The Naqshbadiyya
was founded in Central Asia and has been the dominant Sufi order
in Central Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, North Cyprus, Turkey and
the North Caucasus for the past 100 years.
The radical Islam of the late 20th century is not really Islam, Mr. Kabbani
contends. "There is
no radical Islam," he said. "Radical Islam is something
that is created. Islam is
not created."
Mr. Kabbani opened his remarks by quoting Islam's holiest scripture, the
Koran: " 'To each among
you we have prescribed a law and an open way. If God
had willed, he would have
made you all a single people,' " he read….
Much of the discussion centered around the Wahhabi movement founded by Mohammed ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703-92) - which is dominant in Saudi Arabia and was historically influential in India and Indonesia - a strict sect often criticized in other Islamic countries as un-Islamic and backward….”