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Stealth Islamist: Khaled Abou El Fadl by Daniel Pipes

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Stealth Islamist: Khaled Abou El Fadl by Daniel Pipes Stealth Islamist: Khaled Abou El Fadl by Daniel Pipes hich Muslims in the West support Islamism; which do not? Those who have Al-Qaeda connections or deal in terrorism are relatively W easy to classify, once they are found out. The state has ways to investigate and punish illegal activities. In September 2003, for example, Taysir Alony, a star re- porter for the Al-Jazeera television network, was arrested in Spain on charges of be- longing to Al-Qaeda.1 In the United States, Abdurahman Alamoudi, “a well-heeled advocate who had represented American Muslims in White House meetings,”2 was arrested on terrorism-related charges. But what about individuals who break no laws but promote an Islamist agenda in a legal fashion, sometimes from within the heart of the establishment? One case is that of the renowned Swiss-French intellectual Tariq Ramadan, hailed by some as a moder- ate—a man who has stayed within the law but is believed by some to have Al-Qaeda connections.3 Another is Bashir Nafi, who teaches at the University of London but in February 2003 was indicted at a U.S. District Court in Florida as someone who “sup- ported numerous violent terrorist activities associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”4 Then there is the case of Khaled Medhat Abou El Fadl. Born in 1963, he is a professor of law at the University of California in Los Angeles, visiting professor of law at Yale Law School, President George W. Bush’s appointee to the Commission on International Religious Freedom, a consultant to the Texas Department of Criminal Jus- tice, an expert state witness on major cases, an advisor to major law firms, and a writer for prestigious publications.5 As this listing of his achievements suggests, Abou El Fadl has a reputation as a “Muslim moderate.” Here are a few of his exuberant press clippings: • The Boston Globe: Abou El Fadl is “a moderate voice urging Muslims in the United States and elsewhere 1 El Mundo (Madrid), Sept. 18, 2003. 2 The Washington Post, Dec. 1, 2003. to speak out against radical elements 3 Le Parisien, Nov. 13, 2003. of Islam.”6 4 Attorney General, “Indictments,” Feb. 20, 2003, at http:// www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2003/02202003press conference.htm. 5 For his self-description, see http://www.scholarofthehouse.org/ Daniel Pipes is publisher of the Middle East abdrabelfad.html. Quarterly. 6 The Boston Globe, Nov. 30, 2002. Pipes: Abou El Fadl / 55 • The Jerusalem Post: one of the few even a radical one, and also take a stand against Muslims who “take a stand despite the Wahhabism. Ayatollah Khomeini, and indeed the [personal] risks” in favor of a “pluralis- entire school of Shi‘ite radicalism, provides a tic, tolerant and nonviolent Islam.”7 dramatic example of this pattern. After a con- frontation with Saudi security forces during the • Los Angeles Daily News: “a leading pilgrimage to Mecca in 1987, which left hundreds 8 critic of Islamic radicalism.” of Iranians dead, Khomeini raged against “these • Los Angeles Times: a vile and ungodly Wahhabis, [who] are like dag- “longtime champion of gers which have always pierced the heart of the A body of human rights.”9 Muslims from the back.”12 evidence suggests Abou El Fadl, another such anti-Wahhabi that Abou El • National Review: Islamist, fits into an Egyptian tradition, currently “one of the most formi- called the “New Islamists,” that is outspokenly Fadl is not the dable weapons in the critical of Wahhabism. Sheikh Muhammad al- “moderate battle against Islamic Ghazali (1917-96), a leading New Islamist, remains voice” his fundamentalism.”10 one of Abou El Fadl’s chief intellectual influ- admirers believe • The New Republic: a ences. Although Ghazali had earlier taken ref- heroic moderate who uge in Saudi Arabia, he felt free to criticize the or hope him dominant interpretation of Islam there, especially to be. announces, “There may need to be sacrificial as concerns women. He also wrote a book in lambs. I’m going to play 1989 that accused the Wahhabis of a fanaticism this role and speak my conscience.”11 that harms the reputation of Islam. Raymond William Baker recounts how Ghazali “directly To judge from Abou El Fadl’s press, he is a attacked Saudi religious scholars, whom he path-breaking and fearless antidote to extrem- charged with mistaking the backward, inherited ism. But there is a body of other evidence sug- customs of the Arabian Peninsula for Islam and its revelation and then arrogantly seeking to gesting that he is something other than the “mod- 13 erate voice” his admirers believe or hope him to impose their limited understanding on others.” be. The Muslim Public Affairs Council of Los An- geles, with which Abou El Fadl was once closely affiliated, has a generally New Islamist outlook; WAHHABI MENACE it explicitly “rejects many of the ideas espoused by the doctrine of Wahhabism.”14 Abou El Fadl’s signature issue, the one that Despite Abou El Fadl’s general antipathy has most established his reputation as a moder- toward Wahhabi and Saudis, he nevertheless ate, involves his outspoken opposition to the has offered excuses for them. The Wahhabis, he Saudi regime. But one can be an Islamist, and says, “do not seek to dominate—to attain su- premacy in the world … They are more than happy living within the boundaries of Saudi 7 The Jerusalem Post, Sept. 13, 2002. 8 Los Angeles Daily News, Aug. 14, 2003. 9 Los Angeles Times, Aug. 14, 2003. It also praises his “un- 12 Quoted in Martin Kramer, “Tragedy in Mecca,” Orbis, flinching scholarship” that breaks “intellectual ground with Spring 1988, p. 245. bold social critiques,” Dec. 29, 2000. 13 Raymond William Baker, Islam without Fear: Egypt and 10 Rod Dreher, “Inside Islam: A Brave Muslim Speaks,” the New Islamists (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), National Review Online, Jan. 8, 2002, at http://www.national pp. 97-8. review.com/dreher/dreher010802.shtml. 14 Muslim Public Affairs Council, A Review of U.S. 11 Franklin Foer, “Moral Hazard,” The New Republic, Nov. Counterterrorism Policy (n.p, 2003), p. 5, fn. 13. 18, 2002. 56 / MIDDLE EAST QUARTERLY SPRING 2004 Arabia.”15 This statement ignores the Saudi regime’s policy since the 1960s of spending billions of dollars to spread the Wahhabi ideology abroad, precisely in an effort to dominate.16 Abou El Fadl declares there has been “no examination” of the extent to which objectionable materials are found in Saudi- funded religious schools and mosques out- side the kingdom, calling for congressional hearings to learn more about this.17 But the U.S. government has already closed down several Saudi-funded institutions in the United States, such as the Institute of Is- lamic and Arabic Sciences in America.18 As Stephen Schwartz, author of The Two Faces of Islam, notes, “There is no doubt about official Saudi funding of Wahhabism, and there is little or no need for further expendi- ture of federal funds holding hearings on it.”19 Finally, Abou El Fadl has been known By the book: Khaled Abou El Fadl. to place his talents at the service of Saudi- funded terrorists. In November 1995, for ex- ample, he provided sworn testimony in an “Affidavit in Support of Application for Bail” repression of women, and treats non-Muslims for Mousa Muhammad Abu Marzook, a top Ha- as second-class citizens. “Shariah and Islam are mas official, assuring the court that, “pursuant inseparable,” he has written, “and one cannot to Islamic law,” Abu Marzook was obligated to be without the other.” In a revealing passage, he abide by any bail agreement he would reach with confesses that his “primary loyalty, after God, is the U.S. government.20 to the Shariah.”21 Given that Islamic law is Abou El Fadl’s academic specialty, this profound alle- giance to its goals has great significance and SHARI‘A PARAMOUNT provides a key to his outlook. To make Islamic law more appealing, he blurs In common with other Islamists, Abou El or conceals some of its unpleasant realities. Con- Fadl wants Muslims to live by Islamic law (the sider the sensitive issues of adultery, jihad, and Shari‘a), the law that among other things en- relations with non-Muslims. dorses slavery, execution for apostasy, and the Adultery: A Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, was convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning in March 2002. When asked about this case by talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, 15 “The Gil Elan Show,” KKOL (1300 AM, Seattle), Dec. 22, 2002, on tape. Abou El Fadl replied that the Nigerian authori- 16 Dore Gold, Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Sup- ties had made a mistake because, “The punish- ports the New Global Terrorism (Washington: Regnery, 2003), esp. chap. 8. 17 The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 10, 2003. 18 Ibid., Dec. 3, 2003. 19 Ibid., Nov. 18, 2003. 20 United States District Court, Southern District of New 21 “Dr. Abou El Fadl’s Response to CAIR,” July 20, 2002, at York, Nov. 16, 1995. http://www.scholarofthehouse.org/drabelfadres.html. Pipes: Abou El Fadl / 57 ment for adultery is really a symbolic punish- historically quite unrecognizable—“money col- ment. It’s a punishment that is designed to make lected by the Islamic polity from non-Muslims a point about how bad this crime is.”22 This is in return for the protection from the Islamic nonsense, for the punishment of adultery is bru- state.”27 Again, this is deception to excuse a tal, deadly, and real. It has been applied repeat- discriminatory practice.
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