The Minaret of Freedom Institute is an Islamic libertarian organization established in 1993 and based in Bethesda, Maryland. It was co-founded by Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, its president, and Shahid N. Shah. Its board of directors and board of advisors include religious, academic, business and government leaders.[1]
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Its Mission Statement aims are to:
It implements these goals through independent scholarly research into policy issues of concern to Muslims; publication of scholarly and popular expositions of such research; translation of appropriate works on the free market into the languages of the Muslim world; and the operation of a scholars exchange program.[2]
The institute appreciates the importance of Sharia law to Muslims, and does not advocate that Muslims should adopt secular government on the Western model.[3] Rather it promotes "Islamic pluralism" which can meld a form of democracy with Islam. It also states in any Islamic democracy that the traditional dhimmi system of protection of non-Muslims must be extended beyond the traditional People of the Book (Jews and Christians) to cover all non-Muslims, and that such dhimmi rights must be explicitly protected constitutionally.[4]
In 2006 the Saudi Arabian Embassy's Islamic Affairs Department distributed "The Noble Koran", with commentary that reflected the ultra-conservative and supremacist Wahhabi outlook and included commentary that disparaged Jews and Christians, even though the Qur'an (Koran) mentions neither group. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad told The Washington Post "The outcry was so great...People were disgusted. And it wasn't just liberals. I couldn't find an American Muslim who had anything good to say about that edition. I would call it a Wahhabi Koran."[5]
One important point in which the institute deviates from orthodox Islamic thinking is its belief that the Qur'anic prohibition of riba (usury) does not prohibit all lending at interest, only that which is excessively high.[6] Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad has stated that the Islamic world pioneered the scientific method, but may have been unable to progress to an industrial revolution because the prohibition of interest prevented would-be inventors from obtaining the necessary financing to develop their inventions.[7]
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad writes that although it is not prescribed in the Qur'an "male circumcision is clearly a Muslim tradition." He attempts to stake a position between anti- and pro-female circumcision advocates, writing that Islam tolerated a "pre-Islamic" practice, as long as it did no harm. "Although female circumcision is not mandated, one tradition of disputed authenticity permits (but does not encourage) the removal of a minuscule segment of skin from the female prepuce, provided no harm is done." Therefore, cliterodectomy and infibulation should be viewed as haram (prohibited) practices.[8]
In 1999 the Institute sponsored a panel on "secular fundamentalism," which speakers considered as great a threat to liberty as religious fundamentalism. The two speakers, who shared their personal stories, were Merve Kavakçı, an elected Turkish parliamentarian removed from office (and later stripped of her citizenship) because she insisted on wearing the hijab (Islamic headcovering) and Sami Al-Arian, a tenured University of South Florida professor threatened with dismissal because of his statements in favor of jihad. Al-Arian described attacks against his World and Islam Studies Enterprise which was intended to bring Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals together for dialogue, especially after a former leader of the group, another professor at the University of South Florida, left the United States and later was identified as the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He describe how the 1996 immigration legislation had led to 29 individuals being held in prison for years under secret evidence; 28 were Muslims. Imad ad-Dean Ahmad described them as "people who have suffered from secular extremism." Ms. Kavakçı stated "Isn't the secularization of Islam an oxymoron? For the religion cannot be separated from itself" and that "enemies of Islam" were behind efforts to secularize or modernize Muslim countries.[9] In 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help people associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and later was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered deported following his prison term.[10]
In his interview with Reason magazine, Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad said that the fact that Western liberals had abandoned their anti-imperialist views, including by invading Iraq, had alienated Islamists from pro-liberty viewpoints. Moreover, handing out money to various factions in Muslim and Arab countries usually is counterproductive because it tends to prop up the most oppressive elements.[7]
In his address to the First Conference on Jerusalem in Beirut, Lebanon in 2001 Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad stated that American’s support of Zionism was due in part to their ignorance of Zionism’s “history, its racist foundation, its colonialist nature, and the systematic brutality of its daily dealings with the indigenous people of Palestine,” as well as their hearing “only what the Zionist-controlled media and politicians have let them know.” However, he put even more blame on the defenders of the Palestinians working with corrupt Muslim governments and power-hungry revolutionary movements. He urged them to abandon the “duplicitous and hierarchical modes of operation” that plagued the Muslim world and “operate as the open and transparent agency” in order to "liberate Palestine."[11]
In 2006 an Alexandria, Virginia grand jury subpoena was issued to the Minaret of Freedom Institute and immigration and customs agents visited the home of Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad seeking notes about the symposium featuring Ambassador Robert Pelletreau, Chairman of the American-Iranian Council and a former United States Assistant Secretary of State on “The United States and Iran: It’s Time to Talk” that he moderated in 1999. Ahmad told the New York Sun "They were looking for a seven-year-old event that was publicly broadcast on C-SPAN," Mr. Ahmad told the Sun. The session, titled "The United States and Iran: It's Time to Talk," probably because Sami Al-Arian was there. Ahmad eventually was excused from testifying to the grand jury. He expressed suspicion the subpoena was issued in retaliation for his July 2006 blog posting criticizing federal prosecutors for charging 11 Muslims who allegedly practiced with paintball guns for potential combat with India in Kashmir. Charging religious bias, he wrote on his web site he asked "How many American citizens who violated the same law by going to Israel to fight against Arab countries against whom the United States has not declared war have been prosecuted?"[12]
  | Official website - Minaret of Freedom Institute: A free market Muslim perspective on economics, democracy, terrorism and Middle East conflict |
| | Weblog - Minaret of Freedom Weblog |
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