I'm currently on a Twitter break and didn't really want to post this on my blog but for what it's worth the below is by @GleamingRazor of maskedavenger1.wordpress.com fame. When I return to Twitter in October I'll happily confirm this is my handiwork.

 

First off let me start by saying I recognise the good that Yaqeen have done over the years and I especially pay tribute to brother Abu Amina Elias - his hadith website is one of the best Islamic resources on the internet. However, much as I dislike castigating other Muslims, when certain red lines are breached I feel it is my duty to speak up. I appreciate I am an anonymous account and Yaqeen are under no moral obligation to entertain my complaints but perhaps it might prod others to seek accountability from them. That really is my intention in posting this.

 

Regarding there Director of Research Operations, Dr Julio Rivera I wish to make a few points:

 

- He has openly listed his work with the US Department of Defence. Directly as a political analyst and then as a senior research analyst with CPOST (an org with close links to the DoD and CIA). 

 

- His LinkedIn profile lists these two roles:

 

 

 

- By his own admission the nature of his work was evaluating the strategies employed by the US in their wars against Muslims. Obviously for the purpose of helping them devise the most effective strategy to achieve victory.

 

- Simple question: does this constitute treachery against the Muslim Ummah? Simple answer: yes.

 

- What have Yaqeen said about it? From what I've seen it's the classic "he was advising them to do good" line as it happens [note: if this isn't the case then feel free to correct me as to what precisely he was doing in these roles]. This is the same line as wheeled out by Hamza Yusuf acolytes to justify his ongoing collusion with the UAE. Apparently, he [Rivera] told them drone strikes weren't effective. Well that's just great...so it wasn't that the US military and the CIA are inherently evil organisations who are the enemies of the Muslim ummah...he didn't advise them that they should get the hell out of Muslim lands...merely that they weren't employing the best strategy to subjugate them by using drone strikes. Great one [hint: sarcasm].

 

- Please take a look once again at his LinkedIn profile above to remind yourself what he was doing, as per his own claims.

 

- If he'd worked for the IDF would people feel the same way? If not, why not? What exactly is the difference between the two? Answer: nothing as far as Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw) are concerned. Both are open enemies to the believers and both oppressors of them.

 

- Apparently he got disillusioned and walked away (after a combined total of about 6 years across the two roles). Then, as if nothing had happened he waltzed into a senior position at an Islamic organisation. No need for public taubah. No need to recognise the evil had done and repent for it. Felt a bit of disillusionment that drone strikes weren't the best way to help the US military win their wars against the Ummah and so walked away. Well I guess that's ok then?

 

- If Omar Suleiman thinks that's ok, good for him. Personally I think it's a disgrace. I would want nothing to do with such a person nor with any organisation that employed him in any capacity. The very least he needs to do is openly disavow the organisations he worked for, admit the evil he has perpetrated against the Ummah and then go to the lands that he was advising the US military on and spend a few years doing genuine aid work. What he should NOT do: co-author a book with his former employers.

 

- I have a question for Omar Suleiman and Yaqeen (yes I realise the chances of me getting an answer are zero): are the US military and the CIA friends or foes of the Islamic Ummah? Can you bring yourself to admit that the American state, via its armed forces and intelligence agencies - has been engaged in a relentless war - military and cultural - against the Islamic ummah for many years now? It's not a case of a bad President or two, rather it's the case of a rotten (batil) ideology desperately attempting to suppress the haqq (Islam). This is a simple question and one many of us would like an unequivocal answer to.

 

Loyalty in Islam is to Allah (swt), His Messenger (saw) and the believers, not to "your country". It's a teaching I feel some, especially our American brothers and sisters it seems, need reminding of.