Sectarianism Beaming From Cali, a Response Required

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The recent BBC documentary “Freedom to Broadcast Hate” gives an in depth look at the proliferation of sectarian based tv stations being broadcasted to the Middle East after the Arab Spring. It clearly shows that both Sunnis and Shi’is are currently pronouncing takfeer and calling each other despicable names to arouse sectarian animosity.  What surprised me about the documentary was its uncovering of one of these television stations  promoting such hatred is being beamed from the United States.

Ahl-E-Bait (ABTV) which is based in San Diego, California has 24 hour programming in the languages of Arabic and Persian that can be viewed via satellite as well as streaming online.  Its director, Sheikh Hassan Allahyari, was one of the figures exposed in the BBC documentary for promoting hate in the Muslim world from America.

Though I’m a believer in freedom of speech and exchange of ideas, I’m not in favor of those who are being deliberately provocative and inciting enmity between Muslims.  This especially holds true when sectarian enmity continues to be translated into bloodshed.

We may not be able to have much influence on what is broadcast abroad, but we can influence what’s being said in the name of Islam in our own backyard. Less than one year ago, North American Muslim leaders, both Sunni and Shi’i, signed an agreement stating that they would cooperate with each other and eschew voices of division.  It’s now time to see the worth of this agreement.

Given that this station has a foreign agenda and is receiving funds from abroad, simply talking to them may not help.  At the least, there needs to be a robust denunciation of this station and its leader by North American Muslim leaders.  It should be clearly stated that these people hold extremist positions and that such views are not endorsed by the majority of American Muslims.  It’s time to put up or shut up about unity.

Not only do we not want America to be the platform for propagating vile sectarianism, but we also don’t want this speech to grow more within the American Muslim community.  Perhaps, we also need to put some positive pressure on those who signed this agreement regarding the consequences of ignoring this sectarianism

DawudWalid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a chapter of America's largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee. Walid has been interviewed and quoted in approximately 150 media outlets ranging from the New York Times, Wall St Journal, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, Walid was a political blogger for the Detroit News from January 2014 to January 2016, has had essays published in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, the 2014 book Qur'an in Conversation and was quoted as an expert in 13 additional books and academic dissertations. He was also a featured character in the 2013 HBO documentary "The Education of Mohammad Hussein." Walid has lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses as well as spoken at the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Conventions alongside prominent speakers such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Keith Ellison. In 2008, Walid delivered the closing benediction at the historic 52nd Michigan Electoral College in the Michigan State Senate chambers and gave the Baccalaureate speech for graduates of the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood Academy located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Walid was also a featured speaker at the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace and Tolerance Conferences at the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. He has also given testimony at hearings and briefings in front of Michigan state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, including speaking before members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the United States and Canada. Walid was a 2011 - 2012 fellow of the University of Southern California (USC) American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute (AMCLI) and a 2014 - 2015 fellow of the Wayne State Law School Detroit Action Equity Lab (DEAL). Walid served in the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy & Marine Corp Achievement medals while deployed abroad. He has also received awards of recognition from the city councils of Detroit and Hamtramck and from the Mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and community organizations.

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