A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot's Fight to Save His Faith

by M. Zuhdi Jasser Ph.D.

Overview

Among the unsettling social shifts in the wake of 9/11 was the global attention paid to Islam. Here in the United States, we became divided, often sadly along partisan lines, between those who believed every Muslim was a potential threat and those who believed no Muslim could do wrong.

For conservative Wisconsin native and former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, these radical times meant facing a new reality as a devout Muslim and a patriot—a certain betrayal within his faith, and a need to answer a question that crossed the minds of even the most sensitive and politically correct: “Can a good Muslim be a good American as well?” Jasser founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) to instill in young American Muslims an appreciation for the distinctively positive impact that this nation’s ideals of liberty have had upon the world. As a nationally recognized expert on Muslim radicalization, he offers non-Muslims a definitive comprehension of the difference between Islam and the spiritual cancer known as Islamism, or political Islam, and how violence and extremism run counter to Islam’s true teachings. As he persuasively argues, until we acknowledge the threat of Islamism in all its forms, the majority of Americans will be gulled into recognizing only the most obvious: terrorism.

In A Battle for the Soul of Islam, Jasser embraces both his faith and his country while asking hard questions:

* Are American Muslim children learning entitlement as victims, or are they being taught individual responsibility and critical thinking?

* Are poisonous conspiracy theories dividing their American identity, or are they gaining exposure to reason, nationalism, and patriotism?

* Are Muslims publicly critical of the Islamist movements of the Middle East, or do they remain silent on aspects of religious doctrine that conflict with modernity and universal equality?

* Is the American press downplaying the seditious threat of homegrown Islamist radicalism and the influence of Islamists’ propaganda arm on our governmental policies?

* Is our culture of political correctness a major obstacle toward long-overdue Muslim reform against Islamism?

All these years after 9/11, it’s time for us to understand the true threat of Islamism. It is a Muslim problem that needs a Muslim solution, and A Battle for the Soul of Islam builds a solid, balanced, and imperative must-read foundation for the fight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451657982
Publisher:	Threshold Editions
Publication date:	06/05/2012
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser is the founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). Dr. Jasser is a first generation American Muslim whose parents fled the oppressive Assad regime of Syria in the mid-1960s for American freedom. A devout Muslim, Dr. Jasser founded AIFD in the wake of the 9/11 attacks as an effort to provide an American Muslim voice advocating for the preservation of the foundation principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, and the separation of mosque and state.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Muslim in America 23

1 American Patriots from Syria 25

2 Two Islams 51

3 A Muslim in the U.S. Navy 77

4 Islam in My Life 93

Part II America and Islam After 9/11 109

5 Changing the Paradigm 111

6 Arab Responses to 9/11 133

7 American Responses to Fort Hood 147

8 The Threat of Homegrown Islamic Radicalism 171

9 Engaging Congressman Ellison and the Islamists 201

Part III Islam and Islamism Today 217

10 Defeating Political Islam 219

11 How the Qur'an Is Misinterpreted 241

12 An Islam Compatible with American Principles 267

Epilogue: A Letter to My Children 283

Acknowledgments 291

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Zuhdi Jasser is a brave American patriot, a faithful Muslim and a good man. Dr. Jasser's Battle for the Soul of Islam proposes a cure for one of the greatest problems facing the world today: the violence and extremism of radical Islam." —Mark R. Levin, New York Times bestselling author of Ameritopia

"Dr. Jasser is one of the most courageous and relentless pursuers of truth and freedom in the Muslim world. Battle for the Soul of Islam takes you beyond the sound bites to show you what it really means to be a moderate Muslim fighting against those who have perverted your religion.” —Glenn Beck, New York Times bestselling author of Being George Washington

"A candid, patriotic pushback against Muslim stereotyping...a strident call to energize Muslim Americans to promote notions of pluralism, toleration and equal rights for women." —Kirkus

"Dr. Jasser is an American hero in the war radical Islam has declared on us. Whether we prevail in this long war may very well depend on how closely we listen to him." —William J. Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Man and former US Secretary of Education

Editorial Reviews

In this impassioned tome, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser answers the query, "Can a good Muslim be a good American as well?" For the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, the answer is strongly affirmative. This vigorous critic that virulent political Islamist movements betray both religious values and principles of modernity and universal equality.

Jasser, a medical doctor, Navy veteran, and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, attempts to cast light on the “war on terror” in this book. He makes his own condition central to his writing, settling scores with those who have crossed him—from his father all the way up to President Obama himself, as well as Attorney General Eric Holder, author Reza Aslan, an old family friend (unnamed), his local Muslim newspaper and mosques, and more. According to Jasser, Obama passed him up for an all-but-confirmed appointment to a public diplomacy council in favor of his own campaign donors. Jasser also fails to delineate policy solutions or distinguish between Arab culture versus true Islam. Other than his personal life, Jasser offers no proper research; for instance, he devotes an entire chapter to attacking the much admired Congressman Keith Ellison, solely on the unproven basis that Islamists are funding Ellison. Although this book has a few nuggets, such as Jasser’s description of his use of the Syrian-American community network to find a wife, it is, overall, anecdotal and alarmist. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Zuhdi Jasser is a brave American patriot, a faithful Muslim and a good man. Dr. Jasser's Battle for the Soul of Islam proposes a cure for one of the greatest problems facing the world today: the violence and extremism of radical Islam." —Mark R. Levin, New York Times bestselling author of Ameritopia

"Dr. Jasser is one of the most courageous and relentless pursuers of truth and freedom in the Muslim world. Battle for the Soul of Islam takes you beyond the sound bites to show you what it really means to be a moderate Muslim fighting against those who have perverted your religion.” —Glenn Beck, New York Times bestselling author of Being George Washington

"A candid, patriotic pushback against Muslim stereotyping...a strident call to energize Muslim Americans to promote notions of pluralism, toleration and equal rights for women." —Kirkus

"Dr. Jasser is an American hero in the war radical Islam has declared on us. Whether we prevail in this long war may very well depend on how closely we listen to him." —William J. Bennett, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Man and former US Secretary of Education

From the Publisher

A candid, patriotic pushback against Muslim stereotyping by a deeply anti-Islamist Navy veteran and physician in Arizona. Born in 1967 to Syrian refugees in Ohio, raised in Wisconsin, a committed conservative and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Jasser has been moved to speak out by what he believes is the Muslim community's inadequate stand against Islamist terrorism and political tribalism. He believes in the separation of mosque and state and is often horrified to hear Muslim Americans assert the supremacy of the Qur'an over the principles of the U.S. Constitution. He details his background and family, including his unease serving in the Navy, which was dominated by a hard-drinking, womanizing culture while he was abstemious and chaste, according to his religion; and his early professional tensions with his physician father, who was overbearing, proud and disputatious. Married in a traditional fashion to another high-achieving young Syrian American, Jasser settled down to start a family and private practice in Phoenix as a primary care physician, chosen as part of his dedication to the "holistic appreciation of the patient" urged by his Islamic faith. The attacks of 9/11 shattered his complacency, and Jasser looks hard at the Arab responses, dictated by what he sees as lingering effects of tribalism. He weighs the eerie parallels between himself and the Army psychiatrist who went on a murderous shooting spree at Fort Hood, a tragedy he blames on Islamist ideology. Branded an "Uncle Tom Muslim," Jasser spoke to the House Committee on Homeland Security against what he calls "PC blindness" to the threat. His paranoia aside, the author draws from his father's own translations of the Qur'an for an intelligent reassessment of its message along the lines of Jeffersonian democracy. A strident call to energize Muslim Americans to promote notions of pluralism, toleration and equal rights for women.

Kirkus Reviews