Obama Faith Advisor Defends Role of Religion In Mideast Protests

Obama administration faith advisor Dahlia Mogahed has asserted that the ole of religion in the current MIdeast protests is no different than the role it played during the US civil rights struggle. In a posting on the Huffington Post website titled “The Fruits of Faith in the Arab Spring”, Ms. Mogahed writes:

Americans seem unsure about how to view the Arab Spring. Whereas a clear majority sympathized with the protests in Egypt, the public is deeply divided on the dynamics in Libya. As the Obama administration works to explain the goals and strategy of the coalition intervention in the North African country, there may be something else making some Americans uneasy: the perceived role of religion in the Middle East’s uprising.So how should we interpret rows of Libyan rebels praying or loud unison chants of “God is Greater” in Syria? The simple answer is that faith has animated the fight for freedom around the world, including in our own civil rights struggle, and Arabs are no different.

Ms. Mogahed goes on to claim that Islam has “rich resources for liberation theology” and that “speaking a word of truth to a tyrant” is a form of jihad:

Moreover, Islam contains rich resources for liberation philosophy. Its most central theological principle is that of God’s absolute oneness, meaning that only He is worthy of unquestioning obedience and submission, and only He should be truly feared. This focus on God’s glory minimizes the supposed supremacy of tyrants, making them seem miniscule and powerless. When protesters declare “God is greater,” they are saying that the Devine dominates the dictator. In what seems like an exact description of peaceful protest, the Prophet taught, “the greatest jihad is speaking a word of truth to a tyrant.”

As noted in an earlier post, deceiving the public about the nature of Jihad is one of deception strategies of the Global Muslim Brotherhood. The Investigative Project has published a report analyzing the support for US Muslim Brotherhood organizations and their positions provided by Ms. Mogahed.

According to GMBDW research, Ms. Mogahed was born in Egypt and lived in the U.S. since the age of 5. She is the daughter of Elsayed Mogahed, an Egyptian immigrant who is a former engineering scientist at the University of Wisconsin and director of the Islamic Center of Madison (ICM). The website of the ICM links mainly to U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations and Souheil Ghannouchi, the President of the MAS was ICM Imam and President for several years. In 2003, Ms. Mogahed was  identified in 2003 as the Outreach Coordinator for the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh (ICP) whose co-founder recently lost a DOE security clearance and whose Imam will probably be deported on immigration violations. Ms. Mogahed is currently the executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies that also includes Georgetown University academic Dr. John Esposito and she also co-authored a book with Dr. Esposito suggesting that majority of the world’s Muslims support some form of democracy. Dr. Esposito, in turn, is a long-time supporter of the global Muslim Brotherhood , has espoused views consistent with Brotherhood doctrine, and has at least a dozen past or present affiliations with global Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas organizations.

Ms. Mogahed was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in April 2009. A previous post discussed Ms. Mogahed’s recent appointment as head of a new center for social research and analysis in Abu Dhabi to be called the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center.