Summary of MFI Activities

Upcoming Events

• On Monday, May 12th, at 1:15 p.m. EDT MFI President Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad will be interviewed by Scott Horton of http://antiwar.com/radio/ on "Libertarianism and Islam". You may hear the interview live at antiwar.com/radio.
  
• On Saturday May 31 at 6 p.m. Dr. Esam Omeish will be the featured speaker on the subject of "The Muslim Brotherhood' s Past, Present and Future: Conservatism, Extremism, or Violence?" at our annual dinner at the Rockville Hilton Hotel.
  
• Abdullah Schlieffer, veteran newsman will give a brown bag lunch address at a date to be announced.
  

• Internships
• Program assistant
• Fellowships

Current Projects 

• Editing a special issue of the journal Economic Affairs on Islamic and market economics.
  
• Development of an Islamic resource bank and directory of social science experts on Islam and the Muslim world.
• Preparing and educational program on grand jury abuse.
  
• Planning a project to educate Muslims on civil liberties, civic participation, and basic American Law.
  
• Preparation of a book on disentangling culture from religion
• Preparation of a pamphlet on "Women in Islam: Hard Questions: Intelligent Answers" 
• Publication of a book on "Islamic Institutional Governance and Rules of Order" 
• Preparation of a paper of the politico-economy of the classical Islamic civilization.

Recently Completed Projects and Events

March 2008

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad spoke on “Prophet Abraham from an Islamic Perspective” in a panel discussion in the series "Children of Abraham, Jews and Muslims in Conversation" at the Islamic Society of Southern Prince George’s County.
• MFI Vice President Aly Abuzakouk and Dr. Ahmad participated in a discussion of "Faith-Based Diplomacy: Bridging the Religious Divide" with Dr. Douglas Johnston, Founder and President of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, at the International Institute of Islamic Thought, aimed at deepening our understanding of the positive role that religion and religious actors can play in peacemaking or in addressing conflicts with a real - or percieved - religious dimension.
• Dr. Ahmad gave a presentation on "The Unity of the Islamic Ummah" for the Islamic Information Center at the Jafary Mosque in Burtonsville, MD..
  
• Dr. Ahmad spoke on "Muslim Victims of Grand Jury Abuse" at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring.
  
• Dr. Ahmad gave a presentation on “Prophet Abraham from an Islamic Perspective” as partof the interfaith dialog curricullum: "The Children of Abraham; Jews and Muslims in Conversation."
• We participated in the Arab and Muslim Youth Summit in Dearborn, Michigan, with a special focus on interfaith activity.
  
• Dr. Ahmad was interviewed on "Shariah in the American Courts" for the "Living Islam in America" television program on Fairfax Public Access.
• Dr. Ahmad gave an "Introduction to Islam" at Edge Consulting.
• Alejandro Beutel wrote a blog on "Bonyads and Iranian Liberty."
  

February 2008

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad spoke on "Minority Rights in Islam" at the Rumi Forum.
  
•  MFI Vice President Aly Abuzakouk and Dr. Ahmad met with the former President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Prof. Sibghatullah Al-Mojadded, at the International Instiute of Islamic Thought to discuss the prospects for reconciliation.
• The Washingtom Post published a letter to the editor from MFI Advisory Board member Charles Butterworth  regarding the Archbishop of Canterbury's remarks on Islamic law in Britain.
• Dr. Ahmad spoke on "Islam and the Development of Modern Science" at a brown bag luncheon in the Higgins House Great Hall at the Worcester Poytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA.
• Sarah Swick wrote ablog on "Being Profiled."
  
• Dr. Ahmad wrote a blog on  "Gallup Poll Lets Muslims Speak for Themselves."

January 2008

• PressTv aired a panel featuring MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad and vice-president Aly Abuzakouk discussing U.S Media and Islam-Related Issues on "The American Dream."
• We hosted a group of Ugandan civil society leaders at MFI and discussed the possibility of having them host a workshop in Uganda that we could cosponsor.
• An abridged version of Alejandro Beutel’s “Breach of Law, Breach of Security: A Muslim American Analysis of US Counterterrorism Policies” was published in Jan/Feb 2008 issue of Islamic Horizons.
• Sharmin Ahmad was interviewed by al-Jazeerah for background on their program on the Hajj.
• Dr. Ahmad made a presentation at the National Defense University on Political Islam, discussing the differnces between conservatism, extremism, militancy, and terrorism.
• Linguist and National Writers Union member Sohair Soukkary spoke at our brown bag luncheon series on Demonization of Islam and the reasons behind the colonialist antagonism towards the madrassahs.
• We were interviewed by Farspress on the Iranian Revolution.
• Dr. Ahmad wrote blogs on Ignored by Israel, American Policies Alienate Egypt and Strengthen Hamas exposing the flaws in capital punishment for adultery (Is This the Shariah?).
• Alejandro Beutel wrote blogs on A Security Analysis of Bush’s State of Union Address and  Pentagon Removes Incompetent Ideologue on Muslim Affairs.

December 2007

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad spoke on  "Perspectives on Palestine: 'The Land is Our Mother'" on a panel George Washington University.
• We were interviewed by PressTV on the crisis in Pakistan.
  
• Dr. Ahmad and Ali Abuzakouk appeared on pressTV’s The American Dream” to discuss the news coverage of the Canadian girl killed by her father.
• We were interveiwed by Radio Free Europe on habeus corpus rights and on the CIA destructionof evidentiary tapes.
  
• We were interviewed by CKUT  radio in Ontario on the maning of the Muslim pilgrimage.
• Prof. Peter Bechtold wrote a guest blog giving the "Background for Sudan’s Baffling Teddy Bear Storm."
• Dr. Ahmad wrote a blog “Come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem!” (Offer may not apply to Palestinian Christians)
• Alejandro Beutel wrote a blog on "Torture Revisited – The Case of Abu Zubaydah, Waterboarding and Kiriakou.”

November

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad participated in a conference for progressive Muslims in Germany sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Dr. Ahmad challenged the conference panelists to define a "progressive Muslim." At the conclusion of the conference it was suggested that a progressive Muslim is one who "uses the past in service of  the Future."
  
• MFI Program Assistant Alejandro Beutel presented paper “Sunni Structural Puritanism” at AMSS UK conference in London, UK
• Dr. Ahmad was interviewed on "The Scholar's Chair" television program on Ibn Khaldun's theory of how bad policies, including interventionist economic policies, bring about the fall of civilizations.
• We spoke with editors, reporters and journalists from the Ukraine hosted by the State Dept. to discuss "Objectivity in Reporting on Diversity Issues."
• Dr. Ahmad wrote a review of Graham Fuller's new book The New Turkish Republic: Turkey as a Pivotal State in the Muslim World for The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.
  
• Alejandro Beutel delivered four presentations on basic Islam, US counterterrorism policies, contemporary Islamic religious authority, and Islam and contemporary global politics at Hartford University.
• Dr. Ahmad met with the head of the Rumi  Forum to discuss common goals and interests.
• We were interviewed by Farspress on Elbaradi's report on Iranian compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
  
• We were interviewed by El Mercurio for our perspective on the Annapolis conference on Palestinian-Israeli peace.
  
• Dr. Ahmad wrote an article on  Islam for the Cato Institute's Encyclopedia of Libertarianism.
• We provided commentary to a doctoral candidate for a dissertation on the movement for "gold trade payment arrangements."
• Sarah Swick wrote a blog on her trip to Saudi Arabia.
  
• Alejandro Beutel reported on his talk on "Breach of Law, Breach of Security: A Muslim American Analysis of US Counterterrorism Policies" at the AMSS conference.
• Dr. Ahmad wrote blogs on  "The Naked Ugliness of Grand Jury Abuse: Ashqar Gets Eleven Years for Refusing to Spy for Israel," "The Betrayal of Islamic Law by Its Self-Appointed Guardians."
  

October

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad participated in "The Scholar's Chair" television program's panel discussion of the philosophy of Ayn Rand as a take-off point for the relationship of reason and revelation.
• We distributed a background briefing called "Islamo-fascism or Neocon-fascism?" for the benefit of students confronting the neoconservatives' campus smear campaign, which they called "Islamofascism awareness week."
• We presented three papers at the 36th annual conference of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists: Alejandro Beutel presented a paper on “Breach of Law, Breach of Security: A Muslim American Analysis of US Counterterrorism Policies,” Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad presented a paper "Grand Jury Abuse in the Service of Islamophobia," and Sarah Swick presented a paper on "Dubbing a Western Muslim Culture."
  
• Dr. Ahmad spoke at a "Confronting  Intolerance" event, hosted by Sarah Swick, in the Kay Spiritual Center at American University on the subject of Islamophobia.
• MFI Program Assistant Alejandro Beutel was interviewed by CNN Espanol on “What is Islam and Ramadan?”
  
• We were interviewed by Javier Mendez of Chile’s El Mercurio on "Benazir Bhutto’s Return to Pakistan"
• MFI staff members Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad and Sarah Swick were among the speakers at the "Abraham's Tent" interfaith celebration, film and discussion at the Friends (Quaker) Meeting of Washington, DC.
• We participated in an International Institute of Islamic Thought roundtable discussion of "the Intellectual Response to Islamophobia."
• We participated in the Heritage Foundation's program on religion in civil society.

September

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad was interviewed by FarsTV Arabic service on the Petreus report on Iraq.
• We participated in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's iftar for Muslim-American leaders during his trip to the United Nations. He was warned that holocaust denial undermines the credibility of his attempt to be a spokesman for Palestinian rights. He disagreed.
• Alejandro Beutel attended DHS Muslim Youth Panel Discussion with government intra-agency law enforcement officials.
  
• Dr. Ahmad spoke to administrators and representatives of the Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools on compatibility of Islam with the 21st century.
• We attended a reception for His Excellency Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
• We attended a presentation by Mearsheimer and Walt on their new book on the Israeli lobby, where we shared our concern that that lobby's cavalier dismissal of analyses of its power as "anti-Semitism," manifesting a deliberate attempt to conflate the Israeli lobby with Jews in general, may be stoking actual anti-Semitism.
• Alejandro Beutel reported on "Examining the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood at NORTHCOM" on our blog.

August

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad gave a presentation on the plight of the Palestinians in a panel discussion at Masjid Muhammad in Washington, DC.
• Alejandro Beutel produced a background paper for the Muslim Public Affairs Council on "Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in Western Muslim Communities: Lessons Learned for America."
  
• We met with Christian and Muslim representatives from the West Bank  at the offices of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington and heard their concerns over how political fighting there is being misrepresented in the West as an interfaith issue.
• Dr. Ahmad appeared on a panel discussion of the separation of church and state in America on Mark Levine's "American Dream" television show on presstv.
  
• We met with Muslim preachers from Yemen at the offices of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington who briefed us on the Yemeni shaikh Hamud Almitar who initiated a dialog with young radicals to persuade them of the errors in their understanding of Islam.
  
• Caravan radio interviews Dr. Ahmad on the "Muslim Code  of Honor" for respect between Sunnis and Shia.
• We participated in an American University student video production on  intercultural issues of Muslims in America.
  
• Dr. Ahmad responded to Fars Press's questions how the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan affect the "War on Terror (sic)" and about NATO's involvement in the Muslim world.
• We attended a Catholic-Muslim dialog at the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Washington, DC, where we questioned both Fr. Frances Tiso and Shaikh Muzammil Siddiqi on the need for accurate presentations of other religions in both Christian and Muslim religious education in America.
• On the Sociology_of_Islam Discussion List we argued that "reason democracy has survived is ... simply because it minimizes the intra-community violence."
  
• Alejandro Beutel took "A Glance at the Word 'Intifada.'”.
• Dr. Ahmad analyzed "Fatah’s 'Spiritual' Opposition to Hamas" on our blog.
• Dr. Ahmad made "A Plea for a Consistent Definition of Terrorism."
• Alejandro Beutel gave a critical analysis of the recently passed intelligence legislation in "Defiling our Liberty and Security: Overview and Analysis of the 2007 Protect America Act."
• Sarah Swick reports on her experiences during a recent trip to the Gulf countries in "Finding Respect in the Arab Peninsula" on the MFI blog.

July

• We participated with a wide variety of other Muslim-American groups in the development of an initiative to help end the sectarian violence in Iraq. One immediate concrete result was the proposal of a code of honor for Muslims in dealing with other Muslims.
  
• We were interviewed by Pam Constable of the Washington Post on the crisis in Pakistan.
  
• We were interviewed by Monaza Siddiqui of Radio Germany on female genital mutilation.
• We were interviewed by Canada's Caravan radio program on the  vulnerability of women in Iraq.
• We provided material for an American University student film project on Immigrant Voices about cross-cultural marriages in the Muslim community.
• We reviewed two books on Islamic law for DOMES (Rudolph Peters's Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century and Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr's Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence: According to Shi`i Law.)
• Alejandro Beutel argued the importance of diplomatic engagement with Hamas and reported on his recent participation in the International Humanities Conference in Paris as guest blogs for the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. (The post is also reproduced here and here, respectively, on the MFI blog.)
• Alejandro Beutel reported on the "DHS Roundtable on Security and Liberty: Perspectives of Young Leaders Post 9-11."

June

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad gave a presentation on "The Influence of the Physical Science Paradigm on the Social Sciences: the Transition from Social Engineering to Rules-based Simulation" at the 2007 Metanexus conference on "Transdisciplinarity and the Unity of Knowledge: Beyond the Science and Religion Dialogue."
  
• We were interviewed by the Uzbeki service of Voice of America on reform of the Muslim world.
• We were interviewed by El Mercurio (Chile) on what's next in Palestine/Israel?
• We were interviewed by Fars Press on  President Bush's poll ratings and the connection to administration policies.
  
• We met with Dr. Hassan Bousetta from the Universite de Liege in Brussels to consult on his research on Muslim integration in Europe.
• We were interviewed by Alex Serotin of Radio Free Europe on the poetry by Guantanamo detainees.
  
• Dr. Ahmad is among the one hundred scholars refuting the interpretation of Islamic law that that apostasy is a capital crime.
  
• We posted the edited transcript of our annual dinner on "Challenges to Objective Media Coverage of Islam and Muslims" with Caryle Murphy, Nadia Charters-Bilbassy and Alison Weir is available, as well as audio files of the event.
• Dr. Ahmad's article on "Islamic environmentalism" that will be included in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Islamic Economics.
• We met with Syed Kamall (British Muslim member ofthe EU Parliament) on the formation of an international network of Muslim libertarians.
  
• The Children of Abraham and Aristotle seminar held its concluding discussion of Dr. Ahmad's book Signs in the Heavens.

May

• Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Omar Altalib, and Sarah Swick participated in a Liberty Fund symposium on Islam and economics.
  
• MFI has edited a forthcoming book on Islamic Parenting by Hisham Al-Talib and Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman.
  
• We gave an interview to Farspress on the Iran-US talks and their prospects.
• Dr. Ahmad moderated a panel on Sunni-Shia relations at the ISNA-East convention.
  
• We participated in a workshop on the future of religious freedom cohosted by the Sidley-Austin law firm, The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, and The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
• We met with David Luft to discuss his work on reconstructionof Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
• We were interviewed by Ph.D. student Elsa Suckle for research project in Muslims in America.
• The Children of Abraham and Aristotle seminar held its second discussion of Dr. Ahmad's book Signs in the Heavens.
• Dr. Ahmad met with the popular Egyptian reformer Amr Khaled who agreed to promote the Muslims Students Liberty Network, an ambitious program of information outreach to Muslim youth across the world through the online networking tool, Facebook. All young Muslims are invited to enter into an online exploration and discussion of the relationship between Islam and liberty and how that affects their daily lives. Just search for "Muslim students liberty network" on at  www.facebook.com and then join our group!

April

• MFI Program Assistant Alejandro Beutel presented a paper on "The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood--a Preliminary Assessment of Its Positions on Religious Freedom, Women, and Religious Minorities" at the eighth annual conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy at George Washington University.
• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad attended a CATO discussion on "Egyptian Economic Reform" where he emphasized the need for the devlopment of a large, prosperous, and empowered middle class in order to insure social justice and economic liberty in Egypt.
• The transcript of Anwar Ibrahim's presentation on "The Importance of Free Markets to Islam and Muslims" is now available.
  
• We participated in a discussion of Dr. Ahmad’s Signs in the Heavens at a meeting of the Children of Abraham and Aristotle.

March

• Over sixty people attended the Minaret of Freedom Institute annual fundraising dinner at the Clarion Hotel Bethesda Park in Bethesda. The program featured a discussion of "the Challenges to Objective Media Coverage of Islam" featuring journalists Caryle Murphy (author of Passion for Islam, recently retired from the Washington Post), Nadia Bilbassy Charters (senior Washington Correspondent at Al Arabiya covering the White House and the State Dept.) and Alison Weir (of IfAmericansknew.org).
• Our program on Sunni -Shia relations was noted and MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad quoted in Pamela Constable's Washington Post artticle on Sunni-Shia relations
  
• Syed Kamall, British Muslim Conservative Party member of the European Parliament visited the Minaret of Freedom Institute as part of our brown bag luncheon series. Among other issues, Minister Kamall discussed the obstacle to Muslim integration and renaissance posed by the Welfare state.
• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad attended a CATO discussion on "Escaping the Iraq Trap" where he responded to an observation that the noted that the intrenecine violence spawned by the invasion would probably get worse on withdrawal of the American forces with the obsrevation that delay of that withdrawal could conceivably aggravate the violence even further, a point to which speaker Ted Galen Carpenter readily assented.
• We were interviewed by the Muslim Link newspaper.
  
• We were interviewed by Alex Sarotin of Radion Free Europe on the status of the Guantanamo detainees and on the possibility that the Guantanamo detention center could be shut down.
• We met with representatives of the U.S. government and other representatives of the Muslim community in a workshop at the Institute for Defense Analysis on the engagement of  the Muslim Community with the American government.
• The first of a two-part discusion of Imad ad-Dean Ahmad's book, SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS: A MUSLIM ASTRONOMER'S PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION AND SCIENCE (second edition) was held at the Children of Abraham and Aristotle monthly salon.
  
• We were interviewed for a Ph.D. dissertation on religious accommodation.
  

February

• MFI presented a dialogue on Sunni and Shi`a Differences (Distinguishing the Real from the Imagined) at American University featuring Sulayman Nyang (Howard University) and Imam Abo Fazel Nahidian (Mannassas Mosque). MFI President Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad gave the introduction and moderated the discussion.
  
• We participated in a round-table discussion of Prof. Louis Cantori's presentation "The Islamic Paradigm as a Conservative Research
  Paradigm." We presented the argument that Islamic thought is more compatible with the Jeffersonian than the Hamiltonian position.
• We were interviewed by Radio Free Europe's Alex Sarotin on the significance of  the British redeployment of forces from Iraq to Afghanistan.
  

January

• MFI president Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad presented the Muslim view on the topic "Religion, Fundamentalism and the perceived Crisis of Modernity" in a panel discussion for The Bowie Clergy Association at the Christian Community Presbyterian Church in Bowie Maryland.
  
• We paid tribute to the work of economist Milton Friedman at a brown bag luncheon by exploring the role Islamic civilization played in establishing non-state schools and colleges through the civil society sector and the controversy over such institutions today called "Free to Choose Madrassas."
• We gave an interview to Alex Sarotin of Radio Free Europe on the application of the death penalty in Iraq.
• We posted four original blogs on "Was the Timing of Saddam’s Execution a Sectarian Declaration of War?" "Strategic Redeployment vs. “Surge” and (Not) Engaging Iran and Syria",  "Frank Talk from Shirin Ebadi on U.S. - Iranian Relations", and "Breach of Law, Breach of Security – NSA Wiretapping."