ADL Wrongly Condemns Legitimate Concerns About Khizr Khan as Baseless “Anti-Muslim Extremism”

By the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)

Sadly, instead of focusing its energies on where they are most needed – namely, combating anti-Semitism – the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been accusing fellow Jews and Americans who are understandably concerned about radical Islamic terrorism of being “Islamophobic” and “anti-Muslim extremists” and “anti-Muslim bigots.”

For instance, ADL Director Jonathan Greenblatt accused members of the Jewish community of “exhibit[ing] Islamophobia” during Greenblatt’s April 17, 2016 address to the anti-Israel group J Street U.

Clinton convention speaker Khizr Khan matter has become another occasion for ADL to accuse concerned fellow Jews and Americans of being “anti-Muslim extremists” and anti-Muslim “bigots.”

By way of background, prior to publishing this release, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) never said a single word about Khizr Muazzam Khan, and we had not planned to do so. There are far more important issues for us to worry about. Nonetheless, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) inserted ZOA President’s Morton Klein name into ADL’s ludicrous Khizr Khan blog. In its Khizr Khan blog, ADL bashes fellow Jews and Americans (the distinguished speakers at the”Islam and Western Civilization” conference in LA keynoted by Former U.S. ambassador to the UN) as “anti-Muslim extremists” and “bigots.”

Here, then, is a response:

Khizr Muazzam Khan is the Gold Star father who harangued Donald Trump as to whether Mr. Trump had read the U.S. Constitution. Following Khizr Khan’s harangue, journalists and others uncovered worrisome information about Khizr Khan, including that Khizr Khan is an immigration lawyer with Saudi connections who had authored several troubling articles, including “Juristic Classification of Islamic Law” (Houston Journal of International Law, 1983-1984); a review of the compilation book from the “Human Rights in Islam” conference in Kuwait, that praised a keynote address by Pakistani pro-Jihad Islamist Allah K. Brohi; and In Defense of OPEC. (Although we have not been able to locate a copy of Khizr Khan’s In Defense of OPEC, from the title it appears to be a defense of the oil cartel that conspired to jack up oil prices and cause oil and gasoline shortages throughout in the U.S. in the 1970s, wreaking economic harm on U.S. families.)

ADL should be focusing on anti-Semitism, instead they are accusing fellow Jews/others who are understandably concerned about radical Islamic terrorism of being “Islamophobic”, and “anti-Muslim bigots and extremists.”

ADL’s blog, entitled “Anti-Muslim Extremists’ Disgraceful Attack on the Family of an American Hero” (April 3, 2016) begins by claiming that “anti-Muslim activists” (another ADL name for individuals who are concerned about radical Islam) are seeking to discredit Khizr Khan. ADL’s blog then ludicrously states that the attempt to discredit Khizr Khan is based on “a scholarly paper . . . titled Juristic Classification of Islamic Law, which [Walid] Shoebat claims was written by Khizr Khan. However, it is not clear that this is the same Khizr Khan who is the father of the slain Cpt. Khan.” And another sentence later, ADL accuses “Shoebat and others like him [of] fabricating absurd claims to attack opponents.”

ADL’s assertion that “it is not clear” that the same Khizr Khan wrote the Islamic Law article, and ADL’s assertions about “fabrications” are what is patently absurd. Khizr Khan’s supporters and detractors both agree that Khizr Khan wrote the Islamic Law article (and other troubling articles).

Khizr Khan’s supporters and detractors do disagree as to what Khizr Khan meant in somewhat ambiguous portions of Mr. Khan’s Islamic law article, including the following passage: “The structure of Islamic law – the Shari’ah – was completed during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammed, in the Quran and Sunnah. This brings up an important fact that is generally overlooked, that the invariable and basic rules of Islamic Law are only those prescribed in the Shari’ah (Quran and Sunnah), which are few and limited. All other juridical works which have been written in more than thirteen centuries are very rich and indispensable, but they must always be subordinated to the Shari’ah, and open to reconsideration by all Muslims.”

The issue that various writers have been debating is whether Khizr Khan was saying that the U.S. Constitution and laws are among the “all other juridical works” that always must be subordinated to Islamic Shariah, or whether Khizr Khan was saying that some unidentified internal Islamic principals must be subordinated to Islamic Shariah.

However, ADL ignores the issues being debated about Khzir Khan’s articles, and instead simplistically and absurdly tries to pretend that Khzir Khan did not write his articles to begin with.

ADL does not stop there. ADL goes on to accuse others who are allegedly “attacking the Khan family” of being “anti-Muslim extremists.” ADL then says: “Some of them are planning to attend an anti-Muslim event in Los Angeles about Islam and Western Civilization. The event will feature speakers known for their anti-Islamic bigotry… The event will also feature Morton Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) as a speaker. By attacking the Khan family, who made the biggest sacrifice a human can endure, the hateful agenda of anti-Muslim extremists has reached a new low.`”

In fact, it is the ADL that has reached a new low. The “Islam and Western Civilization” conference has nothing to do with Khizr Khan: most of the speakers, including ZOA President Klein, had never mentioned a word about Khizr Khan. Moreover, the conference speakers are not “anti-Islamic bigots.” The conference will feature a stellar line-up of distinguished experts as speakers – including former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, ZOA’s Mort Klein, Wafa Sultan, Nonie Darwish, Lt. Col. White, Philippe Karsenty, Guy Millière, Jim Simpson, Frank Gaffney, Stephen Coughlin, Daniel Greenfield, Admiral James Lyons, Richard Miniter, Robert Spencer, Andrew Bostom, and others.

The ZOA respectfully suggests that the ADL concentrate on its primary mission of fighting the frightening and growing issue of anti-Semitism and not on the overblown issue of “Islamophobia”. After all the latest FBI statistics show that of all American hate crimes, 57%of them are against Jews, while only 16% are against Muslims.

{Matzav.com}