For now, let’s take a closer look at her response to our article. It is worth paying attention to her response because she is a director at one of the biggest Muslim research institutes in the US, so her views can be influential. Also she is considered by some to be a leader and a role model for the Muslim community.
Her Facebook post begins:
O you who believe! if an evil-doer [fasiq] comes to you with a report, look carefully into it, lest you harm a people in ignorance, then be sorry for what you have done. (Quran 49:6)
Bold move to start her response with this ayah. Did she not look into MuslimGirl’s vast array of disgusting anti-Islamic material before associating herself with them, congratulating them, collaborating with them? Instead of calling me a fasiq (quite the charge, by the way), maybe she should look more closely at her associates…
It saddens me that Muslim public figures (especially women lets be honest) trying hard to serve have to contend with not only a plethora of Islamophobic lies, but now too the half truths and intellectual dishonesty of a fellow Muslim, a man so desperate for legitimacy and attention that it seems he’ll do anything for clicks.
If you follow my work you know I spend very little time addressing trolls. But unfortunately some people I actually respect have asked me about Daniel Jou’s hit piece, forcing a response.
Here you can see a big mistake already. She attacks my intentions and characterizes me as a hypocrite who is only doing what I’m doing for attention. That is a slanderous claim.
If you notice in all our articles at MuslimSkeptic, including this one about Mogahed and MuslimGirl supporters, we never do this. We never claim that Mogahed or
Wajahat Ali or
Rabia Chaudry or
Aman Ali or
Omer Mozaffar or
Linda Sarsour or
HEART or any specific Muslim has some evil in his heart or that he is a hypocrite, etc. I only point to
public information and criticize
public actions. I don’t criticize intentions or what’s in a person’s heart because, guess what? I don’t know what’s in a person’s heart and I don’t pretend to.
When accusing someone of “promoting fahisha”, normal Islamic etiquette is to begin with private counsel (none occurred). If unsuccessful, and one feels compelled after much prayer and introspection into one’s real intentions and nafsani state, to make a public statement, one better have some strong evidence, not innuendo or deliberately mischaracterized quotes.
What is the evidence for this “Islamic etiquette” she is asserting? She is confusing two very separate things. If two Muslims are friends and one friend makes a public mistake, then in most cases it would be advisable for the other friend to talk to him about it before blasting him.
But that is nothing like this situation for two reasons:
1) I have never met Dalia Mogahed. I don’t have any relation to her. She is a public figure who is regularly featured on mainstream media broadcasts and has over one hundred thousand social media followers. To say that it is against “Islamic etiquette” to criticize a public figure without first having a private chat with him is ludicrous.
2) It is not like she made one isolated mistake. She has a long public record of supporting and collaborating with MuslimGirl. I can understand an isolated mistake. I can understand that a person is invited to speak at a venue one time and maybe not be aware of everything that that venue is involved with. But that is not the case here.
Now here is a critical point: What this request from Mogahed for private consultation before public criticism also implies is that she either has been getting
no correct private consultation from any of her prominent imam and activist friends and associates about her involvement with MuslimGirl OR she has been ignoring them. I honestly can’t tell which one is worse.
And a final point here: If it’s wrong to publicly rebuke without private consultation, she is doing it herself! She is blasting me publicly, questioning my intentions, calling me a fasiq, etc., but she didn’t contact me privately before doing so. So, is she contradicting Islamic etiquette as well? Does she think two wrongs make a right?
The reality is, we can and should hold Muslim public figures accountable through public critique. This is the only way we can bi idhnillah change this toxic culture of mainstreaming deviance and fahisha by popular religious figures, whether they do it intentionally or unintentionally.
For these public figures to play the “adab card” whenever the Muslim community does not approve of their behavior is ridiculous and extremely entitled. Imagine the audacity of saying something like, “I can do, say, and associate with whomever I please and no one has the right to criticize me without privately talking to me first.” If a person is publicly representing the Muslim community and is accepting all kinds of media exposure, that role comes with heavy burdens. One has a responsibility to the community and ultimately to Allah. To assert these made-up rules of etiquette comes off as making excuses to avoid accountability.
And yet that’s what our brother sadly relies on to craft his click bait smear. Let me offer just two examples of what I mean: this quote from an article in VICE is used to claim I promote fahisha:
“As for the Gallup analysis, Dalia Mogahed – Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding – tells VICE it has been misinterpreted: “Saying homosexual acts are morally wrong is not evidence that Muslims will hurt the LGBTQ community.” “Muslims have been part of the UK for literally hundreds of years, and unlike the Christian right do not advocate against the LGBTQ community,” added Mogahed. “In a democratic society, freedom of thought and belief are central principles, including beliefs that we may not agree with. We erode our own values when we start policing thought.” Mogahed also pointed out the paradox of Yiannopoulos complaining about Muslim bigotry against LGBT people while advocating for the Muslim ban.
I invite you to actually read the article. I was literally *defending* Muslims intellectual and religious freedom to hold any moral view they want in a free society, and not be required to cow to a liberal litmus test for citizenship. Yet *this* was used as “proof” of the libelous claim that I promote fahisha.
Sister Dalia has completely missed the point of the critique. What is at issue is her public endorsement of and association with a highly noxious organization: MuslimGirl. One of the things that MuslimGirl pushes is Muslim acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle and trans rights and alliance with LGBT groups. What I show in the article is that Mogahed and her organization, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), have quite consistently and strongly expressed support for these causes as well.
Here, Mogahed claims that I have mischaracterized her quote, but the quote is perfectly apt. In the quote, she says that Muslims haven’t opposed the LGBTQ community like the Christian Right. Essentially, she is portraying Muslims as political allies of the LGBT community,
which is exactly the problem.
This is precisely what ISPU loudly promotes. Muslims ought to be pro-LGBT rights, pro same-sex marriage, pro tranny bathrooms, etc.
This is what they are pushing. And Mogahed, as their Director of Research, plays a BIG part in that.
Another example is a screen shot of an op-Ed on the ISPU page, written by someone else (but you only see that if you scroll down), but conveniently omitted the prominent disclaimer on our website that says our scholars’ opinions are their own and not necessarily those of ISPU. The actual op-Ed is not quoted or probably even read by the author of the smear, just the headline is shown.
This is a pathetically lame excuse. First of all, the ISPU article cited is from 2015 about how Muslims should support same-sex marriage. Keep in mind, Mogahed is the Director of Research at ISPU. She honestly expects us not to hold her accountable for the material her institute puts out? A one sentence disclaimer is not some magical immunity card.
Second of all, if ISPU publishes material promoting LGBT and trans rights and Mogahed herself expresses her own reservations or (dare I say) disapproval, then that would definitely be noteworthy. But unfortunately the exact opposite is the case! She is on social media promoting ISPU’s pro-LGBT, pro-trans research (as you can see from the
numerous screenshots in the original article).
In one post, she calls a pro-LGBT report “one of the most important pieces of research ISPU has released.”
