The student paper here has an article about an upcoming appearance by Imam Siraj Wahhaj. The article is pretty bland, describing how Wahhaj is going to lecture about the role of women in Islam and dispel misconceptions that Islam advocates the mistreatment of women.
The article left out quite a bit. For example, it didn’t mention that Wahhaj was named as one of several dozen unindicted co-conspirators in the case of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. It also forgot to mention that Wahhaj testified as a character witness at the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman who was convicted of plotting a campaign to bomb prominent landmarks in New York.
A profile of Wahhaj in 2003 by the Wall Street Journal noted that Wahhaj preferred to remain neutral about whether or not Osama bin Laden was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Wall Street Journal quoted Wahhaj as saying, “I’m just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, ‘Yeah, he did it. He’s a horrible man.'”
Rahman also has repeatedly called for replacing the U.S. government with a Muslim-style caliphate saying things such as, “In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam.”
As I said, Wahhaj plans to dispel misconceptions about Islam’s treatment of women. Not sure what he’s going to say, but in the past he has argued in favor of the stoning of adulterers (“If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it’s the obedience of Allah and his messenger — nothing personal.”)
If this is what Muslim organization think is the moderate face of their religion . . .