The SUN has published this morning (as well as the Evening Standard and The Time)an article about me and my visit to UK on the 24th July which is full of wrong and misleading information.
1. I am not banned from France where I have my permanent office and a flat (Saint Denis Paris)
2. My working visa in the States was revoked last August by the Department of Homeland Security under the Patriot Act but with no explanation : I had gotten it on May 2004 after a two month of clearance procedure process. Colin Powell asked me to reply (which I did) and after more than five months of waiting I decided to resign from by position as Professor at the University of Notre Dame and not to go to the States. The US administration has never said that I cannot visit the States.
3. I never justified suicide bombings. My statements were always explicit. To kill innocent people is to be condemned. I have been going on repeating that we must understand and analyze the political contexts and environment in order to understand why people are using these ways to resist. For more than 40 years, the Palestinians have not used suicide bombings and they started to do so in 1994. Why? It was three years after the Barcelona agreement, one year after Oslo and just after the massacre in Hebron. They then had the feeling that they were lost, isolated and forgotten by the world. Suicide bombings started after this series of events. One can explain why it happened; it does not mean that one is justifying it. To explain is not to justify. This is my stand, this has always been my stand.
It is sad in these days, to make the headlines with such wrong and distorted information. I condemned the terrorist attacks in London the very day they happened and I called upon the Muslims to face up to their responsibilities from within the British society. Not only do they have to condemn the attacks but also collaborate with the British authorities to find the perpetrators of such crimes. Such headlines against a Muslim scholar promoting moderation, self criticism and partnership are not helping us to go beyond prejudices, rejection and discrimination. It is the worst we can expect in a time we need to remain wise and cautious.
Salam alaikoum
I have come to notice that some of us get paniked each time those blindmind people have come to achieve their consciousless acts,as if it is stated systematicaly that they have to be,no matter how, muslims.Thus,we condamn the act,its perpetators,and exclud them out of the muslim community.Already?! Why sould it be only muslims that are to be pointed out in the aftermath of a <> acts? Susch a behaviour became stressful for muslims around the world,specially since we know that all these acts were not being conducted on behalf of Islam,nor by muslims only.In my country (95% muslims),no body kills neither a stranger nor a country man.Those who kill have their own goals;they can be,and even are, from whatever religion,region,idealogy,and social conditions,but share one common goal:<> those,they believe,<> them.So why this selfaccusation,this panic,this disturbance from islamic leaders?
The vast majority of muslim countries are sided in Africa,then South-Asia.How many of their citizens is believed to be involved in terror activity?
He who kills has his mission that we don’t share,and those who unfortunately are getting killed know why they would point out islam.They are engaged in a psychological pressure against islam for their own strategic reasons that we don’t naturely share either.
I don’t thing we have to play the accusator,the judge,the guilty,in such a way that many muslims,now, fear to claim their religion.
I would like to call all muslim to stay relaxed,pride and wise enough to continue to be the example of a typic muslim.Muslims don’t have to behave as defendand because we cannot tolerate the attitude of those who ignore the paeceful message of islam and are not willing to know of it,but rather prefer knowingly campaign agaisnt it. Salam alaikoum. Taffa.