Sufist Conversions are not the same as Salafist Conversions

Submitted by GK (United States), Mar 18, 2006 at 04:35

One small comment regarding Michael Tyson -- I believe he practices the Sufi tradition -- a much more open and accepting form of Islam than either conventional Sunni Islam or Shiite Islam.

Among muslims there is a wide range of beliefs, and journalists ought to not "boogey man" all conversions to "Islam" as a great and fearful threat. Rather, a spotlight ought to be cast on which mosque and which subset of Islam a person adopts.

Clearly the Saudi government would be delighted to have all celebrities convert and to promote the public announcement of all conversions. (After all, an influx of American dollars into the Kingdom of Wahhab would strengthen its economy and help it deal with its out-of-control birthrate that has to be financed from the public coffers.) But they would be less delighted to have those conversions be to Sufi or Shiite mosques.

In addition, by shining light on the nature of the conversions, it would be possible to non-Muslims better understand which Muslim groups are bent on Islamic control under Salafist (Wahhabi) rules and which are less inclined to support theocratic totalitarianism. (For example the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) controls nearly 1/3rd of America's mosques, and is part of an umbrella organization strongly influenced by Saudi Arabia called the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).

This organization has been behind the regression in Muslim integration in America and works in close coordination with the Muslim World League (MWL) and the World Assembly of MuslimYouth (WAMY), Saudi state entities identified as participants in the funding of al-Qaida. See: http://www.aim.org/aim_column/2778_0_3_0_C/ and http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/sc062603_schwartz.pdf.)

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