Weekend Open Thread: Remembering that OC Has One of the Best Civil Rights Leaders Around

By
Greg Diamond
– December 4, 2015Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

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I don't see a way to embed this interview here, but the URL of the Facebook page where it appears is just below.

I can’t seem to embed this interview here, but the URL of the Facebook page where it appears is just below for cut-and-paste.

https://www.facebook.com/cairlosangeles/videos/10156327658820173/

As many politically aware people in Southern California know, the man being interviewed here is Hussam Ayloush, Director of CAIR-LA (the Los Angeles Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.) He is, as you will see from the video, thoughtful, well-spoken, knowledgeable, humane, and politically astute — pretty much everything you could want in a civil rights leader for a beleaguered community. (If other Muslim communities don’t already have someone of the caliber of Hussam, they should try to find one — although it’s not going to be easy.  Cloning is haram.)
 
His core message is simple: good people who are Muslim (not all of whom can be as great as Hussam) are necessarily going to be the ones to fight and win the battle for the hearts of minds of Muslims — just as is the case for Jews, Christians, Hindus, etc. We need their cooperation and their alliance. We should CERTAINLY not want to drive them away.
 
WHY WOULD ONE POSSIBLY WANT TO ALIENATE GOOD PEOPLE — INCLUDING SYED RIZWAN FAROOK’S ELDER BROTHER, DECORATED NAVY MAN SYED RAHEEL FAROOK — BY INSULTING THEM, THREATENING THEM, AND TREATING THEM LIKE DIRT? DO PEOPLE NOT UNDERSTAND THE IDEA OF WHAT CULTIVATING AN “ALLY” MEANS?
 
We should certainly beseech Muslims to take a leading role in fighting terrorist attacks by Muslims. And they should do the same when it comes to terrorist attacks against them by Muslims AND Christians AND Jews. (And bear in mind that what Hussam is doing here, calling out both DAESH and Assad, is literally RISKING HIS LIFE for interests that most of us value.) But we’re American non-Muslims not in a position to DEMAND or to ORDER Muslims — domestic or foreign — to put OUR PERSONAL SECURITY BEFORE ALL ELSE. We’re not the rulers of the world, and when we act like we are, we alienate people whose help we need. (And our blindness to their suffering, such as last year’s widespread destruction in Gaza, doesn’t help things ether.)
 
So yes — loose and generalized talk about “Islamic terrorism” is not only factually wrong, it’s STRATEGICALLY STUPID. It invites a response of “hey, I don’t like what happened in San Bernardino, but if they’re going to treat us all like monsters then they can just deal with it without our help.” That’s a completely understandable human reaction to degradation.
 
The reporter. who did a good job except when venturing into a discussion of “Islamism” (that he’d probably not do regarding the word “Christianism” — which is an actual category describing certain terrorists), didn’t ask Hussam what I think would have been a very good question: whether he thinks it offensive to describe the Muslim of DAESH and Al Qaeda as “Wahhabist.” THAT is an accurate category to use for them — a sort of radical theological splinter group within Islam — and while I’d defer to him I hope that Hussam would agree that it’s use here would not be offensive to most Muslim’s sensibilities.
 
There’s only one problem with our denigrating Wahhabism: it emanates from and is financially supported by our ally, Saudi Arabia. So it’s a “sensitive topic.” But if we ever do plan to spend enough money to fight a war, maybe it should be a war for independence from fossil fuels, so that we can tell the Saudi royalty that we are no longer their economic vassals.
This is your Weekend Open Thread.  Talk about that, or whatever else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of discretion and decorum.

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)