M. Zuhdi Jasser
<youtube size="medium" align="right" caption="Reza Aslan accuses M. Zuhdi Jasser of Islamophobia for making false claims about the funding of a new Islamic Centre in Manhattan">JOp4O9FwzRw</youtube>M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Syrian-American, runs the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a right-wing one-man-show he founded in 2003. He is also 'one of the founding members' of Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), an organisation set up by Daniel Pipes.[1] [2] The group also has Pipes' endorsement.[3] In a debate on CNN, he was accused of Islamophobia by Islam scholar Reza Aslan for making accusations about the funding of a new Islamic centre in New York. He is a backer of far-right pro-Israel Republican Joshua Scharf;[4] and he was also an active player in the Islamophobic 'Ground Zero Mosque' campaign.
In June 2015, Jasser spoke on Fox in support of a methodologically dubious poll of Muslim-Americans carried out by the Center for Security Policy.[5]
Affiliations
Organisations
- Center for Security Policy - Contributor to CSP front group Family Security Matters
- American Islamic Forum for Democracy - founder and sole member until 2007
- Center for Islamic Pluralism - a founding member
- Center for Security Policy - winner of the 'Defender of the Home Front' award at CSP's annual Keeper of the Flame Dinner.
- Clarion Fund - Jasser narrates and makes an appearance in Aish HaTorah Rabbi Raphael Shore's 2008 film The Third Jihad, described by writer Richard Silverstein 'an anti-Muslim train wreck of a film 'that reeks of partisan political bias'. As of 2015 Jasser is one of three members of the advisory board of the Fund's successor organisation, the Clarion Project.
- Committee on the Present Danger - member
- Family Security Matters - a far right publication to which Jasser contributes.
- Gatestone Institute - sits on the board of this organisation run by the 'sugar mama of Islamophobia', Nina Rosenwald
- Middle East Forum - Jasser is a contributor to Daniel Pipes's far right Middle East Quarterly.
- Hudson Institute - Jasser is a contributor to its in-house publication Hudson New York
Associates
- Daniel Pipes - Jasser is 'one of the founding members' of Pipes's Center for Islamic Pluralism.
- Zeyno Baran - Jasser has contributed a chapter to Baran's new book The Other Muslims: Moderate and Secular (Palgrave Macmillan)
Publications
- Author of The Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith (Simon & Schuster, June 2012).
- Is featured in four documentaries America at Risk, Islam v Islamists, A Question of Honor and The Third Jihad.
References
- ↑ About (AIFD)
- ↑ AIFD News: A moderate voice of Muslim pluralism with a Washington address
- ↑ Andrew Maykuth, "Battle for the Heart of Islam," The Philadelphia Inquirer, 30 December 2005
- ↑ Richard Silverstein, Radical Islam wants you...and America, Tikun Olam, 2 October 2008
- ↑ Trump Calls for Ban on Muslims, Cites Deeply Flawed Poll, The Bridge Initiative, 7 December 2015.
