Scratch & Sniff: Kamal Nawash & Free Muslims front for GOP

Posted on September 17th, 2004 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates.

The Blogging of the President: 2004

Well I had a piece here on Freemuslims.org, feeling sorry for 9/11 and so on. I had a funny feeling about it, the apologies I mean. Someone looked into it more deeper and found out they are a front group for the Republican party. Well, I like to say that also for Republican muslims it is not forbidden to apologize…;-), but the question is do they have to? Another thing, ok call me a cynic, who sincere is this before election (believe me, I would have said the same thing if they were democrats).

The one who informed me on this Shaula Evans. Her blog: http://tsuredzuregusa.blogspot.com

3 comments.

Shaula Evans

Comment on September 17th, 2004.

Hi, Martin.

My issue is not that at all the Free Muslims are Republican Muslims (although, at this point, that makes as much sense to me as the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights advocacy caucus inside the Republican Party that are frequently analogized with Jews for Hitler, given that the Republicans have an overt national platform of institutionalizing homophobia).

The problem is that they are Republican Party Operatives, who do not present themselves as such. Instead, they dissemble as “moderate Muslims” and purport to speak for the whole moderate muslim community.

It is a common and accepted practice in the Republican party to hire PR firms to create ersatz grassroots organizations, to be spokespersons for Republican policy, OR, to influence public opinion. It amounts to hijacking and appropriating a community’s voice. The Republicans do this all the time, and their corporate friends increasingly use the same tactics to put corporate collars behind faux grassroots groups that lobby the government and sway the public.

I support moderate Muslims in saying anything they have to say, but I take great offence at Nawash and Huber and their ilk co-opting someone else’s voices in order to manipulate the American public for political gain.

Martijn

Comment on September 19th, 2004.

Dear Shaula,

quote:
“I take great offence at Nawash and Huber and their ilk co-opting someone else’s voices in order to manipulate the American public for political gain”

That is why I was trying to be cynical in my last entry.

Shaula Evans

Comment on September 21st, 2004.

Sorry to be a dull reader; cynicism doesn’t always carry on the internet somehow.

Also, I keep misspelling your name. My apologies.

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