Muslim immigrant in U.S. calls on West to deport all Muslims

Khudayr Taher, an Iraqi Shi’ite writer living in the U.S., is a man of refreshing honesty and unanswerable logic. Below is his statement at Elaph, a liberal, Arab language website. It is so remarkable that it may seem like a hoax, but it was translated and posted at MEMRI, and they are not known for gullibility. Also, if Taher had been looking to fool the public, it seems likely that he would have written his comment in English so as to assure a wider readership. Yes, it’s possible that the statement is a fraud and that it was posted in Arabic to make it seem genuine. However, my own feeling, based on the statement’s sincere tone, is that it’s real. I think that Taher simply wrote down his honest, unadorned thoughts about what the Western countries must do if they are to rid themselves of the terrorist threat—thoughts that any sensible person would have whose mind was not clouded by liberalism or twisted by hatred of the West. Here is what he said:

Countries have the right to defend themselves and assure their citizens’ safety from terrorism. Likewise, it is clear that the source of the terrorist crimes in Europe and America is the Muslims who live in these countries.

The security services cannot know people’s intentions and sort out who is the noble immigrant and who is a terrorist criminal. [But] wherever there are Muslims, their presence has produced crimes of terrorism and murder.

Among those Muslims in Europe and America who do not practice terrorism, most of them do not have loyalty and sincere attachment to these countries that have offered them all of the means of life in dignity—housing, studies, work, and citizenship…

The legitimate question is this: Since the security services cannot sort out the good immigrant from the bad terrorist… why don’t these countries deport all Muslims, of all races, from Europe and America, and [thus] find rest from the danger of terrorism, and protect their peoples?

I, as an Arab Muslim immigrant, sincerely call on the countries of Europe and America to deport all Muslims from their territories—including myself, despite my love and my sincere attachment to the U.S.

Now, Khudayr (I hope he doesn’t mind if I call him by his first name, but my feeling of friendship for him overflows) has gone much farther in this area than I’ve ever gone. While I’ve called for a graduated process of forced and voluntary departures, starting with the deportation of non-citizen sharia supporters, then moving up to deporting naturalized citizen sharia supporters, and, if necessary, deporting native-born sharia supporters, and also closing down mosques so as to encourage other Muslims to leave the U.S. on their own, Khudayr cuts right through all those steps and simply says that the West should deport ALL Muslims, period. He would thus have us put into practice, without shillyshallying, my long-time idea that “significant numbers of Muslims do not belong in any Western society, period.”

An intriguing question is: how many Islamo-critical conservatives in America and Britain will quote Khudayr’s statement? Will it be too strong for them? Will they find it embarrassing? What an interesting world this is.

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James P., who told me about the Khudayr Taher’s statement, writes:

When I first saw the passage he wrote, I posted at a web discussion that Khudayr was the greatest Muslim of all time, or at least since Ataturk, and that finally the search for the semi-mythical Moderate Muslim (TM) was over. Let’s hope this gets maximum publicity. I wonder if this will stiffen the spines of the Usual Suspects; maybe if a Muslim says it first they’ll work up the courage to parrot him.

James P. continues:

That’s a good point, that it could be fake. I didn’t even think of that. The only other information I have on Khudayr is him saying that Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki is privately an anti-American Islamist. So that’s a good sign. I’m going to google him again—with my fingers crossed that he’s the real deal.

James S. writes:

Have you googled his name? He was friends with Maliki according to this.

Here is the item James S. mentioned. It was posted April 29, 2006 at Joshua Landis’s blog:

Here is a bit more information on Maliki provided by Sami Moubayed’s recent article:

The only contradictory statement, which shatters much of the flattering talk revolving around Maliki, was made by Khudayr Taher, a US-based Shi’ite writer who has known Maliki since their days in exile in Syria in the 1980s.

Taher wrote an editorial in Arabic saying that he used to meet Maliki at the local library in Syria, where he would be doing research for his master’s degree in Arabic literature, pointing out: “I do not claim that we were friends.” Taher said Maliki had “modest general knowledge … he will be a puppet in the hands of Jaafari, Hakim, the Kurds and Sunnis”. He added that Maliki “does not believe in democracy because of his ideological commitments” in al-Da’wa Party, claiming that political Islam and democracy do not meet for someone like Maliki.

In a private discussion held when both men were in Syria, Maliki told Taher: “We declare our acceptance of democracy, but in reality, we are tricking them [the Americans] in order to topple Saddam and come to power.” Taher writes: “I swear to God that this is exactly what he said!”

Taher adds that Maliki does not believe in the equality of women and will refuse to give any cabinet posts to Iraqi women, unless those imposed by the Kurds. He wraps up by saying that Maliki is anti-American, and has expressed his anti-American views to friends and in private discourse. He predicts that if Maliki succeeds in creating a cabinet, “it will not last long and will collapse after a few months”.

The Iraqi prime minister will have a difficult time indeed warding off the accusations of someone like Khudayr Taher, pleasing the Americans while courting the Iranians, and winning the confidence of the Sunnis.

For now, he is on good terms with Washington, but if he is unable to break with Muqtada, the Americans will quickly abandon him. His remarks about disarming the militias, which unless specified also include Sadr’s Mehdi Army, mean that he is not too keen about maintaining his friendship with Muqtada. If he loses it, however, how strong will his influence remain within the leading Shi’ite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA)?

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Josh writes:

I remain skeptical of Taher’s true intentions in advocating for the mass deportation of Muslims although I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with him. I say necessarily because Mr. Taher’s true intention could be the triggering of mass suicide attacks on American and the West. He is after all, a Muslim. And I can think of no better provocation than the swift and rapid acceptance of the mass deportation of Muslims amongst Europeans and Americans in triggering such potentially murderous suicide attacks.

LA replies:

The man seems to be without fanaticism.

Josh replies:

I agree that Taher may seem “without fanaticism.” But, he also says that we in the West “cannot know people’s intentions and sort out who is the noble immigrant and who is a terrorist criminal.” He then explains that “[a]mong those Muslims in Europe and America who do not practice terrorism, most of them do not have loyalty and sincere attachment to these countries that have offered them all of the means of life in dignity—housing, studies, work, and citizenship…” This means that even if Taher represents that very small slice of Muslims that may have some sense of loyalty to the Western countries that give them a livelihood, we cannot but guess as to whether he is really a “noble immigrant” or a terrorist sympathizer. These are his own words. He is arguing the idea that we should treat good Muslims in an equal manner to terrorist Muslims and mass deport all of them. Such an idea, if swiftly and rapidly accepted by the Western masses due to its advocacy by “good” Muslims, would undoubtedly be a provocation like no other and one could certainly imagine mass suicide attacks at a last ditch effort at establishing the caliphate in Western nations. I still remain skeptical of Taher’s intentions.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 11, 2007 09:00 PM | Send