"The best resolution for the innocent citizens of Iraq is to eliminate the leadership of Saddam Hussein."
- Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, ISCA Chairman
"Let there arise out of you a band of people, inviting to all that is good enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong." [3:104]
- Prophet Muhammad (s) said, "…the best of our leaders are those whom you love and they love you; you pray for them and they pray for you. The worst of your leaders are those who anger you and you anger them and you curse them and they curse you…"
(WASHINGTON, DC – 12/21/98)
--"The people of Iraq are oppressed," says Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, chairman of the council and a scholar in Islamic Law. "They cannot voice their own opinion, as there is no democracy in their country which is currently ruled by the Ba’ath Communist-Socialist Party. Our sources indicate the majority of Iraqis oppose Saddam Hussein, but they have no means to remove him. We call on the UN Security Council and the US government to implement a peaceful solution for the innocent citizens of Iraq who are suffering greatly and to help eliminate the current tyrannical leadership."
ISCA reiterates that the situation in Iraq is not a "Muslim" issue; but a political one. Some protesting the current action use Islam to justify their desired end: that Iraq retain its weapons of mass destruction. "What they fail to understand," says Shaykh Kabbani, "is that these weapons may fall into the hands of terrorists or they will be used against innocent victims in or around Iraq. Those who bring Islam into the issue," he continued, "need only reflect on recent history when Iraq’s weapons were turned first on Iran, then Kuwait, the Kurds and the citizens of southern Iraq—all of whom were Muslim."
Shaykh Kabbani stressed that even today the Iraqi opposition, both internal and external, consists of Muslims working jointly with other religious and ethnic groups to eliminate the current regime, backed by many Muslim nations.
"I remind my Muslim brothers and sisters," says Shaykh Kabbani, "that America has repeatedly shown support for many Muslim nations: support for the Afghan mujahideen, enabling them to expel the Soviets; the defense of Kuwait; support for development in the newly freed republics of Central Asia, and support for Bosnia and Kosova.
ISCA wishes to stress five important points regarding the current situation in Iraq:
ISCA deplores any actions which result in harm to the innocent civilian population of Iraq.
ISCA calls on the U.S., the U.K. and the other members of the U.N. Security Council to implement decisive action to assist the Iraqi opposition, which consists of Iraqi Muslims, Christians, Jews as well as Chaldeans, Assyrians and Kurds and people of other religions and ethnic origins, in order to install a truly representative government in its place.
ISCA insists that the U.N., including the US and the UK immediately eliminate sanctions on Iraq. ISCA requests that emergency relief be sent to assist the ill, wounded and hungry caused by the current action and existing sanctions. The council does not fully agree with all US foreign policy decisions that have thus far been implemented.
ISCA calls upon all Muslim non-profit organizations to work for our peaceful and prosperous Muslim community without involving them in extremism. Organizations secretly affiliated with extremist groups overseas must stop claiming to represent interests other than their own. We call them to reveal their affiliations so that the cloud of suspicion will be removed from the rest of the Muslim community.
While extremism may be the operative norm for political opposition in the nations of origin of many of the immigrant Muslims who lead non-profit organizations, ISCA reminds this earlier-generation of immigrants that the 3rd and 4th generation, as well as the large indigenous community have a different approach, participating in our democratic system as integral members of the society at large. Immigrants must not import problems from their homelands nor inflict this inheritance on a new generation who have been raised in this nation with a different set of political mores.
For more information or comments, contact Ms.Dilshad Fakroddin at (202) 661-4654 or (202) 438-1250 (mobile)
