It looks like a new smear campaign has started against a certain former leader of Malaysia. Now he is accused of contributing US$10 million to radical Islamic organisations in the United States, money that, in turn, allegedly supported extremist activities, possibly including terrorism.
And once again, Malaysias politicians and unquestioning press are whipping themselves into a public frenzy without having done their homework.
The New Straits Times and Bernama both have reported that Shaykh Muhammed Hisham Kabbani, the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of America ( ISCA ), as saying that a ... former Malaysian minister funded organisations in the US which may have links with certain extremist groups elsewhere, and because of that, ... Malaysia got connected with terrorist activities.
And now for the background, which is available openly on the Internet.
Shaykh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, a Sufi cleric, was born in Syria and graduated from the American University of Beirut. He received his Islamic Law Degree in Damascus. In 1991, he was sent to America to establish the foundation of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order.
Since then he has opened thirteen Sufi Centers in the United States and Canada.
Shaykh Kabbani has often criticised other Islamic leaders for their failure to condemn those who espouse more extremist forms of Islam. In this regard, his views seem no different from those of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose recent article in Time magazine (Who Hijacked Islam?) made the same point.
Ugly scenes
According to a 1999 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs , Shaykh Kabbani has been at odds with mainstream US Islamic organisations almost since his arrival in the US in 1991. In 1998, ISCAs magazine, The Muslim , described a series of confrontations between various US Muslim groups and the Shaykhs followers.
That article says leaders of other US Muslim organisations were unwilling to participate in Shaykh Kabbanis ISCA conventions in 1996 and 1998, and that there also were ugly scenes at a number of meetings of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
Shaykh Kabbanis followers were not invited or allowed to participate in those ISNA meetings after it was rumored that he was a Zionist agent and that his organisations magazine was sponsored by Zionist funding.
The Washington Report says the Muslim article implied that the dispute was a religious as well as organisational one, over differing interpretations of Islam. Shaykh Kabbani is a Sufi and the majority of American Muslims are Sunni.
But the differences within the US Muslim community were transformed into a political issue as a result of a speech that Shaykh Kabbani made at the US State Department in 1999, where he said that funds collected by Muslim groups in America for humanitarian aid were being used to buy weapons to fight in the name of Islam; that extremism had spread to 80 percent of the Muslims in the US; and that more than 80 percent of the 2,000 mosques in the US were being run on extremist ideologies.
(Since ISNA - the organisation that had not allowed his participation at its annual meetings - provides support to 80 percent of the mosques in the US, there was an implication that the Shaykh was singling out ISNA.
Astute Malaysian readers will recall that ISNA was the group that dis-invited Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad from making a speech in Chicago in 2000 but invited Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to address them in 2001.)
False information
Shaykh Kabbani also charged that extremist ideology is getting into US universities through various Muslim clubs. He said Iran is hiring nuclear scientists to miniaturise nuclear warheads, and that if these small warheads reach American universities, ... you dont know what these students will do.
Finally, he said those advising the US government are extremists themselves. The Washington Report says this apparently was a reference to national Muslim leaders.
The outrage from major American Muslim and Islamic groups was instantaneous. Those present asked Shaykh Kabbani to state whom he was talking about, and what his evidence was, but he did not do so.
Subsequently, eight major Islamic groups in America issued a statement saying that: Mr Kabbani has put the entire American Muslim community under unjustified suspicion. In effect, Mr Kabbani is telling government officials that the majority of American Muslims pose a danger to our society.
Additionally, Islamophobic individuals and groups may use these statements as an excuse to commit hate crimes against Muslims. We therefore ask Mr Kabbani to promptly and publicly retract his statements, to apologise to the American Muslim community, and to exert his utmost effort to undo the damage these statements have done.
The issue is not that of a mere difference of opinion within an American religious community, but involves the irresponsible act of providing false information to government officials.
The joint statement was signed by the American Muslim Political Coordination Council, the American Muslim Alliance, the American Muslim Council, the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Islamic Society of North America, and the Muslim Students Association of USA and Canada. Additional Muslim groups subsequently associated themselves with the statement.
Majority not radical
A prominent Muslim leader in America told me recently that to this day Shaykh Kabbani has not provided any evidence for his assertions made at the State Department, or apologised. As a result, he basically has been ostracised by a large part of the Muslim community in the US.
When told what the Malaysian press articles said, the Muslim leader commented, Isnt it interesting that he makes these accusations but does not name names or provide any evidence. That is the same thing he did at the State Department in 1999. Who gave the money and who received it? Who told him this? If what he says is true, why doesnt he say so? And US$10 million dollars? No Islamic organisation in America ever got US$10 million from Malaysia.
My point in providing this background is not to take sides in what clearly seems to be a religious, political, and now even personal, dispute within the American Muslim community. Rather, it is to point out that such a dispute exists, and that comments made in Malaysia should be understood with this background in mind.
I agree with Shaykh Kabbani that more moderate Muslim leaders and organisations around the world should speak out against the more extremist Islamic ideologies that are being propagated and the violent actions that sometimes flow from them.
But I disagree with his assertion that the majority of our mosques are under radical influences, or that those Muslim leaders who advice our government are extremists. Yes, there are some Islamic radicals in the US, and the government has shut down two foundations for allegedly channeling funds to terrorist groups overseas.
But the overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans, and the mosques and groups with which they are affiliated, are not extremist or radical. The organisations that criticised Shaykh Kabbani are the very same ones that have met with President George W Bush and members of Congress since Sept 11; if they were radical, they never would have gotten through the front door of the White House.
Indeed, it was the president of ISNA, the group that is not supportive of both Prime Minister Mahathir and Shaykh Kabbani, who read the Islamic prayer at the National Cathedral service for the victims of Sept 11 and later met with President Bush at the White House.
No proof, no evidence
Which leads the story back to Malaysia. Shaykh Kabbani has made a statement in Malaysia that has all the necessary ingredients to condemn a former minister. No wonder people leaped on it so quickly. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, so it must mean that the former leader is corrupt.
And you say the money went to radical Islamic groups? Even better - weve being trying to convince people that the guy is an extremist and dangerous. And the money was then channeled to terrorist organisations to boot? Great - now we can link him to KMM and al-Qaeda. And the bad press we have been receiving in the US? Its all his fault, too.
It seems like a real gift to those who want to continue the campaign to smear the former minister. But the only problem is, no proof and no evidence have been offered to back up these assertions. And in the absence of such evidence, such accusations - and their repetition - can quickly appear libelous.
Even if a Malaysian court is not sympathetic to a case brought by a jailed former leader, a US organisation falsely accused of taking money and channeling it to terrorist groups would not hesitate to seek restitution in a US court.
And the bad press? Asked about the Kabbani report, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said, Now we know why the US and its media made so many accusations against us.
Actually, sir, no one in America has ever heard these accusations, because we dont have the pleasure of receiving the New Straits Times every morning. In recent weeks, the New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , the Washington Post , USA Today , Time and Newsweek have all written major stories on the Malaysian connection to al-Qaeda and the Sept 11 attack.
They are very factual stories and based in a large part on information from Malaysias own Special Branch. They never once mentioned Shaykh Kabbani or payments to US Muslim organisations.
Instead, they detailed such things as meetings in Malaysia between hijackers and others, as well as direct payments and logistical support from Malaysian sources for hijackers and other al-Qaeda operatives.
Silly notion
The government of Malaysia does not support terrorism and cooperates fully with the United States in opposing it. However, they have been embarrassed by these stories, and one of their cabinet ministers even threatened to sue Newsweek over its article.
But as more articles came out, it became harder for the government to threaten to take legal action, especially since the reporters were quoting Malaysian police officials and US diplomats as their sources. So the silly notion of suing one of the worlds most prominent magazines was quickly dropped.
This silliness over Shaykh Kabbanis outburst ought to be dropped just as quickly, before people get embarrassed again.
JOHN R MALOTT is a former United States ambassador to Malaysia.
