The Wall St. Journal carries a ‘symposium’ on moderate Islam. A group of six writers on Islam, from an American neocon and an American academic, to a former member of Jamma Islamiya and a Malaysian politician offer their thoughts on the subject. The six are:
•Anwar Ibrahim: The Ball Is in Our Court
•Bernard Lewis: A History of Tolerance
•Ed Husain: Don’t Call Me Moderate, Call Me Normal
•Reuel Marc Gerecht: Putting Up With Infidels Like Me
•Tawfik Hamid: Don’t Gloss Over The Violent Texts
•Akbar Ahmed: Mystics, Modernists and Literalists
Read what they have to say:
This is a story I find unfathomable. In 2006, Humaidan Al-Turki was found guilty of numerous crimes ranging from sexual assault to false imprisonment of a domestic worker in his employ while he was a student in Colorado. He was found guilty by a jury, not a Star Chamber. He appealed his case to the state Appeals Court and Supreme Court where the verdict was upheld.
Al-Turki, however, has something of a fan club. They asked Pres. George W. Bush to pardon him; Bush did not do so. The group now appeals to Pres. Barak Obama to pardon him. So far, there’s no word from the White House, but I doubt that a pardon will be forthcoming.
The question to ask is, ‘Why would Barak Obama want to pardon Al-Turki?’ There’s no indication, beyond his lawyers’ assertion, that there was anything untoward about his trial. Presidents don’t exercise their pardon power simply because of assertions. [That there are politics involved in pardons is true, but another matter.] The crimes for which Al-Turki was convicted are not petty crimes. They are crimes that particularly offend American sensibilities. Unfortunately, they are also crimes for which Saudis (and Saudi Arabia) has a reputation for both committing and ignoring, however fair that reputation might be.
The plea for a pardon is not coming from the Saudi government, but from several thousand individual Saudis. Those people may or may not understand American jurisprudence; they certainly don’t have their fingers on the pulse of Americans. At this time, sad to say, Islam and Muslims do not enjoy favorable views by a majority of Americans. There is simply no up-side to the President’s issuing a pardon.
Video plea to Obama to pardon Saudi launched
MUHAMMAD AL-SULAMI | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: A number of Saudi youths launched a film on Tuesday appealing to US President Barack Obama to use his constitutional power of presidential pardon to set free a Saudi man jailed for sexual assault.
Humaidan Al-Turki is currently serving 28 years in a US prison.
The five-minute film is supported by top Saudi religious, media and sports figures and is the culmination of a campaign supporting Al-Turki on Twitter and Facebook, which has attracted more than 11,000 followers.
They also set up a special website calling on Obama to release Al-Turki.
Renowned Saudi Islamic scholar Sulaiman Al-Oudah introduces the film by appealing to the US president.
He is followed by Saudi Shiite scholar Hassan Al-Saffar, who says releasing Al-Turki would have a positive impact on Saudi people. Shoura Council member Najeeb Al-Zamil said the history of America is based on tolerance, love, justice and forgiveness and called for the release of the prisoner based on these noble values.
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