Hamza Yusuf in Challenging Islam - Essay Example

? Hamza Yusuf Biography of Hamza Yusuf Hamza Yusuf is an Islamic scholar of American origin and a co-founder of Zaytuna College in California. He is the most influential Islamic scholar in the West. He resides in Mark Hanson, Washington. He is the eldest boy in a family of seven children. He grew up in the suburban West Coast. His Father was a university professor while his mother was an environmentalist. He traces his roots to different sources in Europe, and his family has a rich American history. He schooled in California and the East Coast. Hamza spent the summer of his 12th year in Greece where he learnt the catechism within the advanced Christian studies. After returning from Greece, Hamza went to an experimental school in Marin County. He attended high school in the East Coast. In high school, Hamza started concentrating on God and religion. He came to the realisation that his Christianity was because his parents were Christians.1 In 1977, he was converted to a Christian. He believed that most people in the West failed in their realisation of oppression in Muslim states because of culture. He opted to live as a Muslim in the West than living in other Muslim countries. He believed that Muslims live well in the West. Thereafter, in 1996, he and his colleagues founded Zaytuna Institute. This prepared for the revival of traditional study methods and Islamic sciences. Yusuf took a stance against religious justifications for the terrorist attacks. Hamza has been an outspoken and passionate critic of the foreign policy in America and an extremist for the responses towards the policies. He has managed to draw criticism for Muslim extremists in the East and West. His writings played a crucial part in his abandoning of extremism. Pre-9/11 Radical Before the bombing in September 11, Hamza had expressed some radical Islamist sentiments on various occasions. He praised the idea of Muslims being the threat to society. He argued that the threat was geared towards fighting against the inhumanity and injustice in the society. He argued that they were not to fight against the jihad. He depicted the American culture as spreading the diseases such as AIDS and cancer. In 1995, Hamza rallied against Judaism. They believed that God became biased in calling Jews in Mt. Sinai and that the rest of the people in the world are rubbish. He condemned the Jewish religion and regarded it as a racist one. He criticised Christians for associating themselves with Jews, yet they rejected God and crucified Him.2 In 1996, Hamza described US as a country with so little to be proud of, both in the present and past. He compared his reverence for Islam with the democracy in America. In his comparison, he said that he was an American citizen by birth and not by choice, and he resides in the country, not by choice but by the conviction of spreading Islamic messages in America. He argued that he became a Muslim since he never believed in false gods of the society. He believed that convention resolutions were meaningless Masonic exercises used by men to ensure that nothing changes. From Jamil al-Amin to George Bush In 2001, Hamza talked of fundraising for the legal defence of Jamil al-Amin in Irvine. He combined the praise for al-Amin with the harsh attacks on the United States. He portrayed US as a country plagued with anti-Muslim conspiracies. He praised the courage of al-Amin and condemned the acts of the government that aimed at silencing him. He also claimed of unjust trial and life sentencing of Omar Abdel-Rahman, after he conspired to kill the former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, as well as plotting to bomb the Holland and Lincoln tunnels. He criticised US for institutionalised racism. He hinted on a catastrophe hitting US, and true to his words, the 9/11 terrorist attack happened. His tone dramatically shifted where he denounced jihadists by warning Muslims not to emulate them. He condemned the act saying that it was pure murder and not holy war. Closet Radical or Newborn Moderate: Hamza’s Post-9/11 With the 9/11 attacks becoming a more distant memory, Hamza gave mixed signals of his interest in challenging the radical Islam. He was among the nine imams who appeared in an anti-terrorism video in 2010, released by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). This video attempted to explain the contempt in religiously motivated violence. The imams argued that Islamic religion was nobody’s property, with no one having the right of detracting or polluting the good name of their prophet. They believed in the obligation of honouring their prophet and respect to God. However, New York Times indicated that the video encouraged the increase in engagement of the American Muslim leaders in wars of ideas within Islam.3 On some occasions, Hamza sounded angry and spoke dismissively on the contempt of Muslims. He stridently attacked the actions of Washington towards terrorism where he claimed that they trampled the civil liberties. He suggested that America and some democratic allies such as Israel were always guilty of war crimes and terrorism. Blaming America First, Whitewashing the Radical Islam In 2011, Hamza gave a speech during the fundraising, praising Furkan Dogan who died aboard an IHH vessel while fighting with the Israeli commandos. According to Hamza, his death was an amazing thing, and he vowed never to forget it in his lifetime. He accused the unspecified Americans of teaching Israelis the coverage of their war crimes in Gaza. He referred to America under president Obama’s leadership as being adept in hiding the war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. He depicted Norman Finkelstein as a martyr whose academic career ended because of telling the truth. Norman had likened Israeli to Nazis and referred to them as marauders and murderers. The excessive defence levels by Hamza are justified by ‘war on terror’. He suggested that most homegrown terrorism problems in America resulted from individuals acting out and lone nut cases. He claimed that the political right attempted to treat such cases as plots by Islamic community instead of criminality. In some occasions, he denounced radical Islamism but failed in condemning the terrorist organisations such as jihad. Conclusion In conclusion, Hamza Yusuf is an Islamic scholar; he is a co-founder of Zaytuna College in California. In the West, he is regarded as the most influential Islamic scholar. He became a Christian in 1977. He worked hard to ensure that Jamil al-Amin gained legal defence in 2001. Over the years, Hamza has taken part in challenging radical Islam, which propagates terrorism. Hamza has opposed terrorism and the use of religion as a defence for terrorist attacks. On several occasions, he has also criticised the United States for the war crimes that it commits in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bibliography Shakir, Zaid, and Hamza Yusuf. Submission, Faith and Beauty: The Religion of Islam. Berkeley, CA: Zaytuna Institute, 2008. Read More