Muslim Cheers for Wolfy

[CYLLON]

By Stephen Schwartz
New York Post | June 2, 2003

"LAST Sunday saw a remarka ble event in Washington - one that defied
stereotypes about Muslims and the Bush administration's "hard-liners":
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, widely identified (and
denounced) as the main architect of America's Iraq intervention, won
multiple standing ovations from an audience of hundreds of Muslims

He praised the coalition's use of force to remove evil, and he hailed the
new reality in Iraq. For the first time in 26 years, he said, Shia Muslims
had freedom to observe their Arbaeen festival in Iraq. The room
exploded in applause.

The venue: the first-ever national convention of Shia Muslims from the
United States and Canada.

Wolfowitz is said to be the hardest of neoconservative hardliners. The
Shias have a reputation as the most extreme, anti-Western, ultra-radical
Muslims. Yet they came together through the ideal of freedom, and the
principle of liberation through the exercise of U.S. military power.

Pundits and experts have been wrong about both Wolfowitz and his Shia
hosts.

Most of the media paint Wolfowitz as an arch-conspiratorial fanatic. Yet
the truth, as anybody who has met with him quickly learns, is that he has
an extensive and nuanced understanding of Islam. He served as U.S.
ambassador to Indonesia for three years under President Ronald Reagan.

He is also a defender of democracy, taking pride in his key role in
helping change the Philippines in the 1980s. He supported the removal of
dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the triumph of democratic champion
Corazon Aquino.

Shia Muslims, for their part, are typically described as extremists in the
mold of Ayatollah Khomeini - dismissed with claims that all Shias
everywhere support the Lebanese radicals of Hezbollah. The most recent
dire prediction is that the Shia majority in Iraq will establish a rigid
Islamic order.

But Shias are victims of mass murder in Pakistan, where followers of the
Saudi-backed Wahhabi sect hunt and kill them relentlessly. When the
Pakistani group Sipah-e-Sahaba (Order of the Prophet's Companions)
murdered American reporter Daniel Pearl, he was their first victim who
was not a Shia Muslim. Before him, the group had slain hundreds of
innocents.

In addition, Shia Muslims, including a considerable community in the
New York area, are better educated than many other Muslims. Their
dedication to self-improvement often makes them a target.

In Saudi Arabia, where they are the majority in the oil-rich Eastern
Province, they are also an economic elite. But within the Saudi kingdom,
they still suffer extraordinary cruelties at the hands of the Wahhabis, who
teach in Saudi schools that Shia Islam is the product of a Jewish
conspiracy.

Life is tough for Shias, a minority of 200 million, or 15 percent of the
world's Muslims. In America, where estimates of the total Muslim
population vary from 2 million to 10 million, one in four is Shia. Most
came here from Pakistan and Iraq to escape violence.

The Shia national convention in Washington, held by the Universal
Muslim Association of America (UMAA) with 3,000 participants,
represented a new trend in American Muslim life. Until now, the
discourse on Islam in America was dominated, from the Muslim side, by
the "Wahhabi lobby" - groups toeing the extremist line of the Saudi
regime.

The "Wahhabi lobby" includes such entities as the Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America
(ISNA). These groups have skewed discussion of Islam and Muslims in
this country, by presenting America as an aggressive power
internationally and as an enemy of Muslims.

Shia Muslims living in America see the world in very different terms.
Agha Shaukat Jafri, a Shia community leader in New York and organizer
of the UMAA convention, said, "We see America as our homeland and
ourselves as American Muslims. We consider ourselves an integral part
of its body politic. We condemn all forms of terrorism, and we consider
these so-called Muslim fighters, who carry out terror, as enemies of our
faith."

He described the reception for Wolfowitz as "very warm." He added:
"We should thank the Bush administration for liberating the Shias of
Iraq. I think Dr. Wolfowitz understands our viewpoint and our deep
opposition to extremism. We were thrilled to have him attend and to hear
his words."

Others, including non-Muslims, who attended the event were struck by
the enthusiasm shown to Paul Wolfowitz. But Jafri put the emphasis in
the right place: "The convention inaugurated a new period in the history
of American Muslims, of heightened awareness of our responsibilities to
the country we live in and hope for the future flourishing of Islam and
democracy. At our convention next year, we would like to have President
Bush as a guest."

And why did a story like this go unreported in the rest of our media? "



I wonder why?