eriksandvik

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Today Anwar Al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were killed in an airstrike attack conducted by the United States in Yemen. They where both important figures in the Al Qaeda, but they where also both US citizens. Doesn't the constitutional rights apply for people the state don't like?

Anwar Al-Awlaki is a very influential person in the muslim extremist environment. Of the 26 latest terror plots in the US Al-Awlaki has planned or been an inspiration in 16 of the cases according to the media. Among them is Nidal Hassan, who executed the Fort Hood shootings, killing 13 people. They had been sending e-mails to each other and Al-Awlaki did say that  "I cant wait to join you in the afterlife"

Its not so much focus on Samir Khans death in the media yet, but he was the editor of Al Qaedas monthly english magazine "Inspire". Here he wrote articles about making bombs in the kitchen and other types of jihadist propaganda.

There is no doubt that these are people that needed to be caught. What is interesting here is that the United States strikes and kills two of their own citizens. Doesn't democratic principal like equality for the law, and that you are entitled to a trial count when you are defined a terrorist? These are some very important rules that have been bent in the war against terror today.

The view on muslims have long been affected by negative stereotypes like 9/11, the treatment of women in the Middle East and lack of democracy in the region. All these topics make the media write negatively about muslims and Islam. After the Arab Spring started this winter, all eyes are now fixed upon the region. I will therefore use my first blog post as an opportunity to present a couple of the people I already have met in my short stay here in DC. They are muslims, but their thoughts and ideas are what many people would call secular. Is this a clash? Absolutely not according to these people.

Last thursday I started working as an intern for the Muslims Public Affair Council. The MPAC is an advocacy organization working to promote the muslim voice in the media, in politics and in movies. One of the first things I did as an intern was attend a meeting in the Library of Congress. The meeting was between Congress member Keith Ellison and author Irshad Manji. Keith Ellison is the first muslim member to be elected to the United States Congress. He was also the first not to swear on the bible, instead he swore his oath on Thomas Jeffersons Qur'an. One of the things he said was that even though the cartoon drawings on the prophet Mohamed were offensive and insulting for muslims, it was something they were welcome to do. The best way to respond to this was to demonstrate with democratic methods as non-violent rallies and tell the world why this is such an offensive act for muslims. Irshad Manji is an author and journalist from Canada. She is also a lesbian muslim and The New York Times has called her Osama bin Ladens worst nightmare because of her liberal views on Islam. The way they mixed secular ideas with phrases of the Qur'an was very interesting and an angle of islam that media doesn't give much attention.

This Tuesday we attended a debate called Women and Democratic Transition in the Middle East at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The panel was filled with women, mostly from the Middle East talking about freedom, human dignity and the woman position after the Arab Spring. Asma Khader, a human rights activist from Jordan talked about how the reflection of female education did not reflect the labor market where women had an unemployment rate twice as high as men. She was speaking as a woman, feminist and human rights activist first, and as a muslim second.

What these people have in common is that they are muslims who are fighting for democratic rights and peoples freedom. With the media and a discourse that focus so much on the othering and alienation of muslims, there is something refreshing about these liberal muslims. They use the Qur'an as a foundation and at the same time preach about human rights, democracy and the position of woman. They want the focus to be on what they say and not who they are. Then the debate can get more healthy and progress can be made around decreasing the stereotypes of muslims. Or are these secular muslims actually just making it harder for the more traditional and conservative muslims to live their lives the way they want?

Dette er den første posten på min nye blogg ;)