The Abandonment of Tarek Mehanna

When Tarek Mehanna was arrested, many muslims online rightly felt that this was a sham arrest, full of inconsistencies and a blatant attempt to “stitch up” a practising muslim brother whose only crime was to speak the word of tawheed and adhere to the sunnah. I say “many muslims” rather than “all” because there was a small minority who did not. It saddens me to say that one of those minorities was “muslim matters”, a blog of American muslims closely aligned to the Maghrib Institute and Yasir Al-Qadhi. In their vile diatribe, there were many falsehoods and accusations present, as well as subtle associations being made between Tarek and terrorism. In particular, the following paragraph :- “While Tarek might have argued for the differentiation between legitimate resistance and terrorism against innocents, it is quite clear that he chose to ignore defining what differentiates the two groups.” This statement could have been written by the district attorney in their affidavit, rather than a professedly muslim organisation. What is far worse is that some on muslimmatters actually know Tareq personally, and to commit such a cowardly attack is surely the lowest of acts. They then state :- “We at MuslimMatters have always refused to let our emotions cloud our objectivity. Many people the world over are skeptical of the foreign policies of the superpowers, but we believe that the best and most effective way to change those policies is through education and dialogue, not violence and terror.” This again implies that Tarek on the contrary believes that terror changes the world! Could anyone possibly make a more damaging statement when the brother is falsely accused of terrorism charges? Is it so hard to remain silent if one does not have anything good to say? What is worse is that Muslimatters will know completely of all his good deeds. They know his work for muslim prisoners, including Aafia Siddiqui, who would undoubtedly still be rotting in a secret detention centre were it not for the hard work that both Tareq and others did in publicising the case so that it was brought into the public domain. They will know of his work translating the great works of the past into English language, for those who do not know Arabic and thus face a dearth of knowledge were it not for brothers like Tareq. They will also know more of his work helping those with fantastic naseehah of Hajj, Ramadan, and general heart-softeners. I could go on, but they know the brothers good deeds far more than I do, as they had befriended him, then they abandoned him in his hour of need. It was all the more disgusting that the author of the article chose to hide behind the name of the organisation, which to me and others indicate that this is nothing more than untrustworthy slander, and reminds one of the Pravda news agency in the USSR, who would release false statements against their dissenting voices in order to discredit their fellow citizens. I would also point to their own praise for journalists in the west from a previous article on muslimmatters:- “In fact, principled journalists are some of the best sources of real information about these issues. They write under their own names, with a sincere commitment to objectivity, with their professional reputation at stake for any missteps.” How sad it is that Muslimmatters whilst praising the journalism of the west in theory, resort to the gutter press in reality, hiding behind a label as if it is a cloak to save one from accusations of slander. In the Quran, it states :- “O you who believe! be maintainers of justice, bearers of witness of Allah’s sake, though it may be against your own selves or (your) parents or near relatives; if he be rich or poor, Allah is nearer to them both in compassion; therefore do not follow (your) low desires, lest you deviate; and if you swerve or turn aside, then surely Allah is aware of what you do” ( Chapter 4, Verse 135 ) “And do not incline to those who are unjust, lest the fire touch you, and you have no guardians besides Allah, then you shall not be helped.” (Chapter 11, Verse 113) I now close with words and naseehah with regards abandonment of muslim brothers and sisters from those who truly strived for the deen, the prophet(saw) and the companions (ra), and finally quotes by those who truly deserve to be labelled scholars, rather than those pretenders and charlatans at Muslimmatters :- ‘The Muslim is the brother of Muslim he neither oppresses him, nor does he fail him..” (Muslim) “Whoever protects the honour of his brother, Allah will protect his face from hell on the Day of Judgment. (Ahmad) “If you see my Ummah afraid of addressing the oppressor as an oppressor, then bid farewell to it.” (Ahmad) “He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue, and if he has not strength enough to do it, (even) then he should (abhor it) from his heart, and that is the least of faith.” (Muslim) “Allah commands His believing servants to stand up for justice and fairness and not to deviate from it, right or left. They should not fear the blame of anyone or allow anyone to prevent them from doing something for the sake of Allah.” Ibn Kathir “Ibn Jarir said that Ibn `Abbas said, “Do not side with those who do wrong.” This is a good statement. This means, “Do not seek assistance from wrongdoers, because it will be as if you are condoning their actions (of evil).” Ibn Kathir I pray that Muslimmatters recant their false statements, support their muslim brother Tarek Mehanna, and press for his release as any other muslim will be. Umar Abdullah Source: helptheprisoners.org // <![CDATA[// // <![CDATA[//