Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser Archives

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Recent ISIS Attacks Represent Part of Broader Threat, Muslim Reformer Warns

March 14, 2026/in Anti-Semitism, Assassination attempt, Courts & Law, Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Immigration, National Security, Radical Islamic Terrorism, Terrorism, Violence, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Signal

Amid concern that radical Islam is influencing violent attacks across America in the wake of President Donald Trump’s Operation Epic Fury in Iran, a Muslim reformer warns that Americans can expect more attacks in the short term, though he expects a positive result in Iran will bring the threat to an end.

“In the next few weeks, we need to be vigilant, there’s probably going to be more attacks,” Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim reformer who founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Friday. Jasser draws a clear distinction between political Islam or Islamism—the movement dedicated to imposing Islamic law, Sharia, on the broader society—and the practice of Muslims who stand for American values and religious freedom.

A White House official told The Daily Signal that the administration is closely monitoring intelligence regarding threats.

“The entire Trump administration is closely monitoring all intelligence and remains vigilant to deter potential threats if they arise,” the official said in a statement Friday. “This situation underscores how critical our efforts have been to deport criminal illegal aliens, institute travel restrictions from various countries, and restore integrity to America’s law enforcement organizations – even before any military action in Iran.”

Jasser, a primary care doctor and military veteran, noted that the people carrying out attacks in the U.S. “are not getting orders from Tehran, it’s just part of the Jihadi brand as they have a final opportunity to act out with the propaganda that’s coming out as a result of the war.”

Jasser, a Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona’s 4th Congressional District, predicted that Trump’s joint operation with Israel will give cover for the Iranian people to pursue their freedom and defeat “one of the primary global hive minds of radical Islam, which is Tehran.”

Violent attackers don’t represent the beginning of a new threat, but the last gasp of a long-term one, he argued.

“Many of these Islamists that have been waiting for that time in which they get to be soldiers and to the Jihadi ‘cool’ thing, which is to end their lives in what they feel is going to heaven but ultimately is a genocidal act… it’s their last opportunity to do so,” Jasser said. Their violence “proves that they are an internal threat to our democracy and our freedoms, and that we’re doing the right thing in Iran.”

The Muslim reformer spoke after America experienced at least four violent attacks seemingly motivated by Islamism after Operation Epic Fury began.

1. Texas Shooting

A gunman later identified as Ndiaga Diagne opened fire at a bar in Austin, Texas, early Sunday morning, about 24 hours after President Trump announced Operation Epic Fury. Diagne, a naturalized citizen who had been born in Senegal, killed two people and wounded 14 before police shot and killed him. He had been wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag and a hoodie reading “Property of Allah.” The FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism, possibly tied to the war.

2. Gracie Mansion Bombing

On Saturday, March 7, Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, attempted to detonate two improvised explosive devices, targeting protesters outside Gracie Mansion, the residence of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The protesters had been opposing radical Muslims. According to the Justice Department, both men expressed their support for the Islamic State, or ISIS.

3. Old Dominion University

On Thursday, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire inside a classroom for the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, according to an FBI special agent. Jalloh killed an Army ROTC instructor and injured two others. Jalloh, who died of stabbing injuries after the ROTC students responded in self-defense, had previously been convicted of attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

4. Temple Israel Synagogue

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a Lebanese-born naturalized citizen, rammed a vehicle into the building of Temple Israel Synagogue in West Bloomington Township, Michigan, on Thursday. He damaged the building and engaged in gunfire with armed security, who killed him. The FBI has described the attack as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community. A source in Michigan’s Lebanese American community told CBS News that an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed the suspect’s two brothers and other family members.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which bills itself as the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization but has faced criticism for historic ties to terrorist funding networks and for condemnations of Israel’s war in Gaza, condemned the recent acts of violence in the U.S.

“Regardless of whether the recent attacks were motivated by opposition to the U.S.-Israel bombing of Iran or motivated by ideological extremism, they are unacceptable crimes that the American Muslim community condemns,” a CAIR spokesperson told The Daily Signal in a statement Friday.

“American Muslims will, God willing, continue speaking out against all forms of criminal violence, whether terrorism and hate crimes here at home or ethnic cleansing and genocide overseas,” the spokesperson added.

Jasser attributed some of the threat to lax border enforcement under the previous administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

He warned of the “unvetted invasion” of the Obama and Biden years, where many crossing the border have been “known to be adherents to the ideologies of radical Islamism, be it on the Sunni side of ISIS, Hamas, or the Shia side of Hezbollah, the IRGC, and others.”

AUTHOR

Tyler O’Neil

Tyler O’Neil is senior editor at The Daily Signal and the author of two books: “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” and “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.” Tyler on X: @Tyler2ONeil.

PODCAST: Pakistani Terrorist Camps in the United States

January 5, 2016/in National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jerry Gordon

Listen to this podcast of the January 3, 2016 Lisa Benson Show on KKNT 960 AM Radio – The Patriot. Lisa Benson and New English Review Senior Editor Jerry Gordon co-hosted this show with the assistance of Board of Advisers member, Richard Cutting.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Foundation of Islam and Democracy and the U.S. Commission for international religious discussed the recently launched Freedom Muslim Reform Movement, the deteriorating situation inside Syria and U.S. failure to contend with NATO ally Turkey under Islamist President Erdogan in the war against ISIS.

Shoshana Bryen, senior director of the Washington, D.C.-based Jewish Policy Center, addressed allegations in a recent Wall Street Journal expose of NSA spying on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, U.S. Congressional Members and American Jewish leaders, Israeli preparedness against ISIS threats in Syria and the Sinai and the tacit cooperation with Egypt and the fascinating understanding struck with Putin’s Russia to contain Hezbollah. We will be posting Bryen’s written responses to these and other questions, separately.

FBI agents embracing members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a Pakistani based terrorist group in the United States.

Ryan Mauro, National Security Analyst at The Clarion Project addressed the terrorist training camps established in both Canada and America by radical Pakistani Sufi Sheik Mubarak ali Gilani, who has not been investigated by the FBI despite his founding a network of Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslim of America (MOA) paramilitary camps in both Canada and the U.S. that conveyed extremist Islamist ideology and provided weapons training for prison converts to Islam. These MOA camps fostered a three decade record of attempted assassinations, criminal activities supporting terrorism akin to that of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino massacres. Yet, as Mauro pointed out, Sheik Gilani does not support ISIS.

Our usually astute European listener had these comments on the January 3, 2016 Lisa Benson Show:

To hear Dr. Jasser state the plan to reform the religion of Islam was very interesting. The Sharia Islamic law actually promoted by Sunni Islam is both political and religious. For these extremists their ideology requires them to conquer the world and forcefully ask all the non-Muslims to convert to Islam or become third class citizens of their caliphate.

What Dr. Jasser is proposing is to separate religion state from religion in Islam. A modernized religious law will take a lot of time. However, this is the only way to advance eliminating extremist Islam from all around the world. Dr. Jasser should not call this reform a new Sharia law, but the New Moslem Religious law. The word Sharia has another meaning for all Moslems. It will be interesting to watch how many mosques and Imams would adopt Dr. Jasser’s propositions because many are still funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Moslem Brotherhood. Let us not forget that Muslim Brotherhood/CAIR members have been engaged by the Administration in such policy considerations.

Dr. Jasser has to be congratulated for the dangerous and wonderful work he is doing.

Wonderful to hear Shoshana Bryen giving her opinion and analysis. The Israelis know that they are being tapped and they know quite well what encryption services they can use for their communications which are Top Secret. Shoshana knows all about what is going on and she writes about it explicitly.

The details that Ryan Mauro provided are diagnostic of the chronic illness of these Islamist Muslim of America camps. It is unbelievable that the FBI, even with limited resources, has not taken the necessary steps to indict all those who are embedded in these groups. I sincerely hope that there will not be a major terror attack in the US perpetrated by members of these Islamist camps.

I think the radio show is really getting better and better. The American public needs to hear these comments to wake up and contact their law makers in order to have a safe America.

EDITORS NOTE: This podcast originally appeared in the New English Review.

Declaration of Muslim Reform nailed to door of Islamic Center in Washington, D.C.

December 7, 2015/in Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jerry Gordon

In the midst of the swirl of events following the Jihad massacre in San Bernardino, a “Summit for 20 Western Muslim Voices for Reform against the Islamic State and Islamism,” was organized in Washington, D.C. At the conclusion a news conference was held at the National Press Club. The press conference capped a two day conference the purpose of which was to publish Declaration of Muslim Reform principles. At the rostrum was an international contingent of reformers from Canada, the U.S., Europe and Pakistan. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Forum for Islam and Democracy was the organizer and moderator of the event. A list of the organizations and participants can be found here. The principles of the reform declaration, as published in a Gatestone Institute article, co-authored by Dr. Jasser and Raheel Raza are:

We reject interpretations of Islam that call for any violence, social injustice and politicized Islam. We invite our fellow Muslims and neighbors to join us.
We reject bigotry, oppression and violence against all people based on any prejudice, including ethnicity, gender, language, belief, religion, sexual orientation and gender expression.
We are for secular governance, democracy and liberty.
Every individual has the right to publicly express criticism of Islam. Ideas do not have rights. Human beings have rights.
We stand for peace, human rights and secular governance. Please stand with us!

Watch this You Tube video of the Muslim Reform Summit press conference:

Washington Islamic Center custodian removing Muslim Reform Movement Declaration December 4, 2015. Source: Muslim Reform Movement.

Following the conclusion of the National Press Club event, two women from the group headed over to Massachusetts Avenue, the location of the Saudi financed and controlled Washington Islamic Center. They nailed a signed copy of the Muslim reform declaration to its door. That was modeled on the 95 Theses that Martin Luther nailed to the door of the All Saints Church on October 31, 1517 that purportedly sparked the Protestant reformation. However, within seconds a caretaker came out and tore it off the Center’s door.

The daunting problem that the Muslim reformers face is that normative Islam believes that there is no need for reform since any distortion of the uncreated words of Allah, would be deemed idolatrous. However, given the declarations by Egyptian President El-Sisi in a meeting with leading Sunni clerics at Al Azhar University in Cairo on New Year’s 2015, at least one Muslim country leader believes that Islam is in dire need of reform. He says that is required to combat the apocalyptic pure Islamic terrorism espoused by the self-declared Caliphate of the Islamic State.

One of the women who participated in the Washington Islamic Center event was former Wall Street Journalist and author of Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam, Asra Nomani. Normani was a colleague of the late Dan Pearl in Pakistan. She saw him off in October 2002, never to return, kidnapped and slaughtered by 9/11 Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM). She was also involved in the 2011 investigations that led to KSM being identified as Pearl’s killer. Nomani is U.S. born, the daughter of Indian Muslims from Mumbai who settled in Huntington, West Virginia. She is a graduate of both the University of West Virginia and American University.

Asra Q. Nomani

Nomani is in league with other Muslim and former Muslim women like Raheel Raza, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji and other like minded reformers who believe the effort to reform should be started. Nonetheless, she is doubtlessly viewed as an apostate, heterodox in the standards of normative Sunni Islam. Having said that she is a fearless defender of personal freedoms for Muslim women reflected in her proposed Muslim women bill of rights. Further she recognizes the problems that both she and the others at the Reform Summit see as persisting in Political Islam. Sharia that follows of way of Allah demanding devotion to Jihad against unbelievers.

This morning Nomani was paired off against Dalia Mogahed, a former Gallup pollster on Islam ,now director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Mogahed is what the Obama White House considers as an exemplary American Muslim woman, resplendent in her Hijab.

Back in July 2010, we wrote about Mogahed’s appointment by President Obama to the White House Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She is coauthor of the book and film Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. She worked Dr. John L. Esposito, a Georgetown University colleague at the Prince Alaweed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding. At the Jasser contended in a report by The Investigative Project that Ms. Mogahed’s outreach to radical Muslim groups did not help.

Dalia Mogahed

The damage is immeasurable to Muslims seeking non-radical alternatives. They are going to say, why bother? The government has chosen sides in the conflict.

Note this exchange among Rich Lowry of the National Review, Dalia Mogahed and Asra Nomani from today’s NBC Meet the Press transcript:

RICH LOWRY:

Well, it seems to me that this debate, whether Islam is a religion of peace or not, really, it’s irrelevant for outsiders. It’s for Muslims to decide whether it’s a religion of peace or not. And if enough of them do, then you cut off the oxygen to the radicals. But at the moment, the extremists have significant financial popular and theological backing in the Middle East. And that is an enduring phenomenon. And it’s one that is going to require a long, ideological war to win.

DALIA MOGAHED:

I’m sorry, I’m going to have to disagree with you. They simply do not have ideological, theological, or popular support. And this is a criminal organization that is funding their criminality with things like drug trade and selling oil. They do not have the ideological support that you’re describing at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. They’ve had a number of voices from across the spectrum say that what they’re doing is completely un-Islamic. They have no support popularly, in terms of the general public. So–

RICH LOWRY:

But yet they’re still there.

DALIA MOGAHED:

But so are many other terrorist organizations. And their primary victims are Muslims. I think that’s very important.

ASRA NOMANI:

And to that point, I think what speaks loudest and what speaks to your point is the blood that’s spilling from Australia, to now California. I mean, how much blood has to be spilled until we recognize inside of a Muslim community that we do have an ideological problem? And that we do have support? I mean, there are–

DALIA MOGAHED:

I think the blood is spilling in Syria and it’s mostly Muslims–

ASRA NOMANI:

Excuse me. There are hundreds and hundreds of followers of Islamic State around Europe and the U.S. The Saudis are showing this. And all you have to do is look at the conversation inside of our mosques and inside of our communities. And you will hear it. And I hear it. And I have to say that I saw it in 2002, went to Islamabad, Pakistan, and met women who were supporting this ideology. I call them the Taliban Ladies Auxiliary back then. This young woman in California would’ve been a star member of it.

Watch the Meet the Press segment with Asra Nomani dueling Dalia Mogahed:

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.