Orange County Human Relations Commission to Award Muslim Brotherhood’s Siddiqi Leadership Award

We in Orange County, CA came under fire beginning on Feb 13 when a small group of people organized a protest to challenge Imam Siraj Wahhaj and Amir Abdel Malik-ali as keynote speakers in a fund raising event in Yorba Linda. CAIR used our protest to launch a media campaign that this was an attack on ALL Muslims. City council members were bullied and vilified. Media coverage gave scant attention to the focus of our protest: two men with a long list of statements and actions that would clearly classify them as radical.
We learned much from this event and hope to carry this knowledge forward on May 5.
As someone who has known Dr. Siddiqi for over eight years, I can only hope that our protest on May 5 will, at minimum, prompt citizens to investigate the background, history, and statements that paint a picture of very powerful Islamist, a true Muslim brother.

ORANGE COUNTY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION TO AWARD MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD’S SIDDIQI LEADERSHIP AWARD
There is so much PC crap re Islam that I’m not surprised that “liberals” buy this tolerance rap.
I have a friend (for years) who is a hard-line “liberal.”
Yesterday he gave me the nonsense that Islam considers Jesus a prophet.
I told him (in essence): Yes, Muslims consider Jesus a prophet: a prophet of Islam, he’s not the Jesus you know from the gospels (Christians have been fooled re the true Jesus who was a prophet of Islam), and Abraham, Moses etc. were all really Muslims, too. The Jews distorted the truth re the Muslim Abraham (who was in Mecca?-LOL) and Hindus etc. are not even worthy of life because they are not even “people of the book.”
Copts can be targeted for pogroms, Jews killed, Hindus massacred etc. And no one is supposed to challenge Islam’s absurd narratives re other religions? We have to tolerate this Islamic absurdity re other religion’s history? Why?

i bet if you look waaaay back to the new history books – you’ll find that muzzies were the first to discover that “there’s GOLD in them thar hills” yonder up in NoCal….. prolly built cannery row, too!

Yes Larry. This Thursday, May 5th at 5:00 PM
See you There.

[Letters from his supporters]
I have known Imam Muzammil Siddiqi for many years as a “double colleague,” both in interfaith activities and Islamic Studies. I cannot imagine a more deserving recipient of the annual Orange County Human Relations Award. I know enough about Islam to know that he is a great scholar, and I have had enough experience in interfaith relations to know that Dr. Siddiqi is one of the rare representatives of religion who can balance the confidence of intimate spiritual knowledge of one’s own religious truth with generous respect for the religious “other.” Unlike those who attack him, Muzammil Siddiqi seeks no ill against anyone. He is, to use traditional Jewish parlance, a “lover of peace and a seeker of peace” (ohev shalom verodef shalom).
Rabbi Reuven Firestone, Ph.D.
Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam
Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
Co-director, Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement
University of Southern California
From: Steve and Judy Gilliland [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 8:53 PM
I have sent the link and the following to our LDS Public Affairs leaders “Dr. Siddiqui is very supportive of the Church and all that we do. He has played an important role in interfaith work throughout Southern California. He is a moderate, conservative, peaceloving, patriotic person. He recently spoke with Judy and me at UVU and spoke very favorably about the Church. He hosted Daniel Peterson at meeting at his Mosque about a year ago. He hosted the Garden Grove Stake in a Ramadan dinner this last fall. I have been in many, many meetings with him and heard him speak many, many times. I have never heard anything from him that was extremist or unpatriotic. Certainly he wants our laws to based on Sharia Principles as he interprets them. We want our laws to be based upon Gospel Principles. If you compared what we call Gospel Principles and what he calls Sharia Principles, you would find no conflict between them. He came out strongly in favor of Prop. 8.
The ISNA donations mentioned in the article were not supportive of Hamas. They were charity to the Palestinian poor, the same as our Church charity that goes to the Palestinian poor. (In fact, I have read articles accusing the LDS of supporting terrorism because we try to help the Palestinian poor.) ISNA has continually spoken out against violence and extremism. Check out the website: http://www.isna.net/ and decide for your self. ”
I will certainly write in favor of Dr. Siddiqi. To whom should i write?
Steve
Rev. Dr. Peggy Price
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
April 15, 2011
To the Editorial Department
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Dear Sirs:
Dr. Muzamil Siddiqi first captured my attention when he offered the Muslim prayer at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC at the Interfaith service held by President George W. Bush following the tragic events of 9/11.
I had met Dr. Siddiqi prior to that, but it was on that day that I realized that he was a man of peace, and one who stood against any form of terrorism on the part of Muslims. In fact, in several of the talks I have heard him give, he repeats over and over that terrorism has no place in the teachings of Islam.
Since that time, I have had the honor to know Dr. Siddiqi, and to have heard him speak against violence in his own mosque at Friday prayers. He is dedicated to educating the public about Islam as it is practiced peacefully by the large majority of Muslim people throughout the world. I have known him to be one who stands in his own truth while respecting the beliefs of others.
When I saw that he had been chosen as one of the recipients of this years award by the OC Human Relations, I was delighted. He joins Rabbi Allen Krause who was also instrumental in building the Interfaith movement in Orange County, and Ralph Bauer, who was a founder of the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, of which I am also a founding member.
All of these people have dedicated themselves to building bridges of peace and understanding between people of different faith traditions. Each one of them has been deeply rooted in their own faith tradition while respecting the faith of others.
Each of them has given tirelessly of themselves to further the cause of religious harmony and understanding. Each one is deserving of the high honor they will receive at the OC Human Relations Award Dinner.
In peace,
Rev. Dr. Peggy Price
To the Editor:
Frank Mickadeit ‘s outstsanding column “Anti-terror group plans new protest” described the plans of a group led by Steve Amundsen to picket the Orange County Human Relations dinner May 5 if, as planned, Imam Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi receives an award. Amundsen tries to link Siddiqi to terrorist organizations on bogus evidence and in so doing reveals a new form of McCarthyism with old tactics: innuendo and guilt by association.
Dr. Siddiqi has made significant contributions to interfaith understanding and cooperaton in Orange County and to the flourshing of a moderate and tolerant form of Islam in America. He has been a long-time personal friend and a colleague of mine at Cal State Fullerton where he was an outstanding lecturer for many years. We have spoken jointly on Jewish-Christian-Muslim cooperation; and we collaborated, along with two other scholars, in writing a book in 1994 The Abaraham Connection–A Jew, Christian and Muslim in Dialogue . Never has he hinted at any justification for terrorism or for trying to impose Sharia on non-Mslims in this country.
I plan to attend the Human Relations dinner to congratulate him for his many achievements.
Benjamin J. Hubbard
Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion
Cal State Fullerton

I am amazed at the ability of academics to engage in wishful thinking and ignore truth. Until the evidence of Muzzamil Siddiqi’s involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood network is addressed, the personal good will that Siddiqi has established with fellow academics carries no weight with me. Dr. Hubbard dismisses this evidence as bogus, innuendo, and guilt by association. These unsupported refutations also carry no weight with me.
I attended a lecture by Dr. Hubbard and in the Q&A asked about Sura 9:29 in the Qur’an. Hubbard assured me that as “innocents” we were exempt from the condemnation of 9:29. Returning home, I went to the Qur’an to read 9:29 and beyond, and I urge Dr. Hubbard and others to do the same.
I, too, congratulate Dr. Siddiqi for his skillful manipulation of Christians and Jews. And, I urge all Americans to investigate the evidence that establishes Dr. Sidiqqi as one of the most powerful Islamists and Muslim Brothers in America. Begin with the book MUSLIM MAFIA (Amazon.com). The claims the authors make have yet to be challenged.