American Muslim Agenda - What is it?

What is that Americans Muslims want? How close are they to what you want? What can they do about it? What are your issues with each other? If you are a conservative, grudgingly, you'll see the value in this book, and if you are a moderate, you'll dance and sing along with joy.

You and I have a responsibility to create a world where, you, me, and our grandchildren can live without apprehensions. No matter we go, we should feel secure about faith, race, ethnicity, culture and our political and sexual orientation.

Would the book American Muslim Agenda bring attitudinal change among Muslims?  Yes, it will, it’s akin to planting seeds and nurturing it to give the beneficence to the next generation. I know most American Muslims will wholeheartedly subscribe to the refreshed understanding of Islam, we need to expand it to more Americans.

Some of the reservations we have about Muslims and Islam are based on what we have heard from our parents, teachers, clergy, favorite media people and others.  We need to find the truth on our own and find freedom from misunderstandings. It is a blessing to be free.

Muslims have shied away from confronting difficult issues about their faith, and most of them don't even have a clue about the essence of Islam, it was never articulated before in the history of Islam. 

A few medieval scholars have reduced Islam to rituals, five pillars, dhimmi, jizya, sharia, externalities, and enforcement of your rules on to others. That is not Islam, and most Muslims can recite verses that Islam is about free will. God uploaded free will into Adam’s DNA, and emphasized it in the Quran, the prophet practiced ‘freewill’ and established examples for it. Sadly, Muslims know the truth but were bullied into silence with fatwa bombs. All I have done is articulated what Muslims believe, but dared not say it. The book is the voice of the majority of ‘American’ Muslims.

This book is a product of twenty years of research and thousands of discussions in which Muslims, non-Muslims, and “Islamophobes” have participated in it, including debates on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney, Pamela Geller, Brigitte Gabrielle, Robert Spencer, Jamie Glazov, Raymond Ibrahim, Walid Shoebat, Wafa Sultan, and several others.  

Islam is about living your life and letting others live theirs. Islam is about building cohesive societies where all of God's creation lives with dignity and freedom. In God’s universe, we are merely a speck, and no one is more privileged than the other. If you are a moderate individual of any faith, you will find the book in tune with you.

It is time to go beyond the five pillars of Islam, and I hope the Imams and Muslim scholars who are free thinkers would appreciate the contents of the book. This book may indeed become a reference manual for teaching Islamic values that contribute to creating a better world for all humanity.

The American Muslim Agenda offers guidance to Muslims to be one with all, and it voices what Muslims believe and live with and empowers them to live their lives and let others live with free will.  The book opens the door to people of other faiths to shed their biases and join hands in creating a world of safety, security, and harmony for all humanity.

Islam is a public religion, and Muslims don't own it exclusively. You are invited to participate in discussions, including your faith.  The book is expected to initiate conversations about the nature of Islam and fellow humans. I welcome your criticism (after reading the book).

You can get the book by calling 1-888-795-4274 x 4528 or get it from Amazon online or a book store. You can find the talking points at www.AmericanMuslimAgenda.com.

Dr. Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His new book, the “American Muslim Agenda” is about everything you wanted to know about Muslims. The book is available at Xlibris and Amazon. Mike is a public speaker, author, interfaith wedding officiant, and the executive director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. More about him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/

Brouhaha over Ahmedinejad consoling Chavez’s mother, it angers Iranian clerics.

The photo, released by Venezuela's Miraflores Press Office, shows Elena Frías' right hand clutching Ahmadinejad's left, her head against his, as they stand near the flag-draped coffin of her son at a military academy in Caracas, Venezuela, on Friday.

Yahoo reports, "The image drew the immediate fury of Tehran's religious conservatives. "No unrelated women can be touched unless she is drowning at sea or needs medical treatment," Hojat al-Islam Hossein Ibrahimi, a cleric at the Society of Militant Clergy, said, according to Iran's Al-Monitor."

Pamela Geller, America's profiteer from maligning Islam will have a hay day tomorrow, she profits from selling hate to the dumbos out there. But some Rabbi will tell her to shut up; it is not the creeping Muslim Brotherhood thing, but a Rabbi thing also. She has done many stupid things in the past, like jumping all over Muslims for the Halal slaughter of Animals, the Rabbis (and I believe the ADL also) had to tell her to shut up that is precisely a Jewish practice. In December 2012, I was on Fox News twice (Not Hannity) telling that it was a wrong idea to put billboards in the subways, and mentioned the consequence of a nutcase making threats to a Muslim woman, sadly a Hindu man was killed.

In February, on Hannity she wrote on her site that she is going to drag down this Islamist guy Mike Ghouse, fortunately I was able to shut her up and drag her down on Hannity show, so she changes my title from Islamist to a Moderate Muslim the next day.  I like Pamela's passion, she and I have no ill-will or animosity between us we are good and civil to each other. If she can apply that in building peace she will be successful. 

As a pluralist, I always ask is this act exclusive to one community or does the shoe fits the others as well.  In this case, is not hugging or handshaking exclusive to Muslims?  Do others hold similar views? Hold it before you laugh at the Iranian religious clergy, more than likely your Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, Sikh Gyani, Buddhist Monk, Hindu Pundit and few Christian priests and others will not even shake hands with a woman.  I was even shocked to hear Congressman Ron Paul say, "I will not travel with an un-related woman" during the campaign trial last year.

It is neither a bad practice nor a good one. It is just a precautionary practice. Most of the abuse of women occurs from close relatives and the people they trust, given that it is safer to keep physical contact out of the relationship.

It also depends on how comfortable you are with the others. Personally, I am comfortable with hugs with men and women equally, and hesitation never crawls through my mind.

My Jewish friend Muriel and I always give a hug, then she laughs at me, how dare you are, a Muslim giving a hug to a Jewish princess? In one of the Unity Day events some seven eight years ago, I was under the weather, so I kept my distance, one lady walked up for the hug, and I held back… she started telling you Muslims don't hug women… I said; hold it dear, I am holding back because I have colds. You and I have hugged far too many times before for you to draw such conclusions. 

Our Imams and Rabbis are super careful in shaking hands or hugging women, and we need to respect their space.

After I married Yasmeen, we went to several of her friend's houses and when some pictures were taken, I was my usual self, and put my hand over the shoulders of her friends, forgetting the difference in culture, my wife reminded me that it is not a comfortable thing to do. It was re-learning to me, no one was ever uncomfortable with me before. The guy who teaches multi-culturalism goofed up himself. Ha!

- - - - - -
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam,Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building aCohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day atwww.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.

Ghouse knocks down Pamela Geller on Hannity Show

Indeed, it was a knock down drag out with dissembler Pamela Geller. Sean Hannity asked me to cut down on expletives, an unusual for me.
I just read Pamela Geller’s note on her blog, “I will be on the Sean Hannity radio show at the top of the hour (4pm) for a knock down drag out with dissembler Michael Ghouse. http://www.wsbradio.com/s/inside/seanhannity/  and http://www.hannity.com/show/2013/02/07

We argued over the word Jihad. The word was used for the first time when Prophet Muhammad’s army came home from a victorious war.  The associates asked him, what next? The prophet said, the greater Jihad begins now. The "greater jihad" is the inner struggle to hold on to the temptations to take revenge, or oppress the captured. Instead, he taught one to be humble, and be charitable and kind to them. However the meaning of the Jihad was screwed up around the 10th century to mean war on non-Muslims.

Pamela was belligerent and going on and on, that’s when I got to her. I guess this must be a first time on Hannity show. I told her “Pamela, first, you did not listen to what I said - that is the screwed up meaning of Jihad, that was an add on, and not Qur’anic or Islamic, you did not hear me, that it was in the middle ages that it was added, and unfortunately it is believed by many Muslims.”

Secondly, we are having a dialogue here, you tell a point and cut it out and I will do the same, you got this non-sense memorized and rolling it on, breath in between your sentences, let it be a dialogue… there was a dead moment, and I realized, that was the right thing for me to do. Thanks Hannity for letting it pass, I am glad he did, otherwise neither will make the points.

Then I laid it on her that she is robbing the American public by not telling the whole truth. In Islam, there is no offensive war, per Islam no Muslim can wage a war, unless in self-defense, all else about Jihad is non-sense.

An another point, although I do not like Ahmedinejad’s loose mouth, he did not say to wipe out Israel, he said to wipe out Zionism and not Israel… of course; it was over loud conversation between Pamela and I.

I am against supplying F-16 fighter planes to Egypt.  What is it for? The only possible enemy Egypt has is Israel, and Masri has said he will continue to honor the peace accord. This is the dumbest thing we are doing to supply them with arms.

Hagel should be confirmed for Secretary of Defense, for a change we need someone who is not a damn war monger.

John Brennan - He needs to clarify about the operations of drone, we are creating more ill-will through our indiscriminate killing of the innocents.


Reference points

http://www.hannity.com/show/2013/02/07

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/the-emerging-egyptian-iranian-strategic-alliance/

Ahmadinejad warned, “The Iranian people are ready to march on Israel to destroy it if it launches an attack adventure against Iran.”

and feeling encircled by hostile governments in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf states, the Iranian regime is looking for a new dance partner.

Moreover, Egypt has to walk a tightrope in its relationship with the United States if it wants to receive billions of dollars in financial aid and advanced weapons such as F-16s to build up its military. On the other hand, Morsi sees some leverage in hedging his bets and keeping the U.S. on edge as to just how far Egypt is willing to go in pursuing deeper ties with Iran.

Second, while Egypt may not formally break diplomatic relations with Israel and withdraw from the Camp David peace treaty in the foreseeable future, it can revert to a cold peace and allow Iranian arms to transit the Sinai on the way to Hamas in Gaza.

Ayotallah Khameini

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/world/middleeast/irans-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khameini-rejects-direct-talks-with-us.html?_r=0

The ayatollah’s objection is an edict to which other Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, must adhere,

“The Iranian nation will not negotiate under pressure,” he said. Noting the international sanctions against Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “The U.S. is pointing a gun at Iran and wants us to talk to them. The Iranian nation will not be intimidated by these actions.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/fischer-a-no-on-hagel-he-fell-short-87310.html

Sen. Deb Fischer will not support her fellow Nebraskan, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, for Defense Secretary, she wrote in an op-ed published Thursday.

“Sen. Hagel had a chance to clear the record and address bipartisan, well-intentioned concerns,” Fischer (R-Neb.) wrote for the Omaha World-Herald, referencing the former Republican senator’s performance in confirmation hearings last week. “He fell short, consequently failing to reach the heightened standard to which nominees to this position are held. I cannot support his nomination.”

John Brennan

 Brennan, 57, was expected to be examined closely about U.S. spy activities from waterboarding to the use of drones at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EST/1930 GMT.

Even so, there has been no groundswell of objection to Brennan's nomination, and he was expected to win confirmation from both the panel and, later by the full U.S. Senate.

Brennan is Obama's counterterrorism adviser and was a top CIA official under former President George W. Bush.

The biggest concerns about the nominee have come from liberal Democrats, not the conservative Republicans whose reservations about Obama's nominee to head the Pentagon, Chuck Hagel, prompted a delay in the vote to confirm the former Republican senator.

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic member of the intelligence committee who has pledged to press Brennan on drones, said in television interviews on Thursday he was encouraged by Obama's to provide classified documents, but that more action is needed.


Senate Committee Postpones Vote on Hagel Nomination

The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) decided to postpone its tentatively planned markup of Chuck Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of Defense.

SASC was planning to vote on the nomination today, but committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) decided to delay action saying that the committee's review was not complete.

Although he did not reference it, several media sources report that more than two dozen Republicans wrote Levin calling for more time to review Hagel's financial records, which they argue are incomplete.  Politico quotes a passage from the letter where questions are raised by the Republicans about whether Hagel was paid "directly or indirectly, from foreign sources" in relation to speeches or consulting work.  Hagel reportedly had been asked about this previously and replied that the financial information requested "regarding private corporate and non-profit entities ... is not mine to provide. ...I do not believe I have any of the information requested," according to Politico.

....
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place and standing up for others as an activist. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him.