From AIFD:

To our subscribers:

FIRST, a note---Below are two recent news items regarding Dr. Jasser's recent appointment to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

For those unaware, the usual American Islamist suspects (i.e. CAIR, MPAC, and their echo chambers) have begun a malignant campaign this week of character assassination through their corrupt dissemination on the web of outright lies, deceptions, and fabrications about Dr. Jasser and the work of AIFD. Their information is intentionally deceptive, factless, and is simply being distributed (to primarily Muslim audiences) in a scorched-earth policy of making an observant Muslim and organization who dares to take them on pay a heavy price within the Muslim community for providing a space for alternative voices.

Make no mistake, the apoplexy of these Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups to Dr. Jasser's appointment and their resultant dissemination of false and deceptive information is simply a desperate corrupt act of theocrats for too long now used to dominating American Muslim discourse in the United States with little to no palpable opposition.

AIFD has long welcomed mature debate with groups like MPAC and CAIR. Their latest barrage of vile fictitious attacks this week demonstrate groups not interested in professionalism or real debate but rather in doing whatever necessary (the ends justifying the means) to maintain their stranglehold over Muslim voices in the US. The depths of the levels of their attacks demonstrate the true character of groups like CAIR andMPAC.

[One example is MPAC's stated summary of our position on Sharia- here are the facts on record from AIFD. Instead they link to an unrelated hit piece]

For our supporters we ask you to hold these Islamist groups accountable to facts and expose to Americans of all faiths their deceptions and methods they are demonstrating this week. Let members of Congress, media, and others know if you support our work and make them hold these Islamists publicly accountable for their behavior and methods in the public square.

-- AIFD STAFF

IRD Hails New Appointments to Global Religious Freedom Watchdog

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Two religious liberty advocates appointed this week to serve as Commissioners on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) are being met with sharply differing responses. Both Dr. Robert P. George of Princeton University and Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy were met with enthusiastic approval from the Institute on Religion and Democracy's religious liberty director, while the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the liberal think tank Center for American Progress sharply criticized the appointments.

George has a high profile arguing for traditional marriage while Jasser is a critic of radical Islam. Both appointees are experienced in combating threats to religious liberty. George was appointed by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner. Jasser was appointed by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

George, who is Roman Catholic, is a board member emeritus of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Jasser is Muslim. His organization advocates 'for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state.'

An independent U.S. government commission, the USCIRF was created by the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. The commission was threatened in 2011 when re-authorization was held up in the Senate.

IRD Religious Liberty Program Director Faith J.H. McDonnell commented:

"The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is critical to U.S. advocacy for those who are persecuted for their faith around the world. George and Jasser are both men of great integrity and courage. They will be tremendous assets to the Commission.

"George has been a leader in battling threats to religious freedom on the domestic front, but this has not led him to the myopia that sometimes appears to afflict those involved in that set of issues. George's appreciation for and the value he places in the religious freedom guaranteed under our Constitution and universality of human rights as given by God makes him a passionate defender of international religious liberty.

"As a Muslim who seeks to confront 'the ideologies of political Islam' and openly counter 'the common belief that the Muslim faith is inextricably rooted to the concept of the Islamic State (Islamism),' Jasser will provide great insight as the Commission investigates human rights violations that stem from adherence to this very concept."

New Faces at U.S. Int'l Religious Freedom Watchdog Include 'Anti-Islamist' Muslim, Leading Catholic conservative

By Patrick Goodenough

March 27, 2012

(CNSNews.com) - An independent statutory body advising the U.S. government on international religious freedom issues is undergoing a process of change across the board, with the bulk of its commissioners - including some who have served for a decade - being replaced.

The first two newcomers on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) appointed by Republican congressional leaders and named Monday, are Princeton University professor Robert P. George, a conservative Roman Catholic thinker; and M. Zuhdi Jasser, an observant Muslim and "anti-Islamist" activist.

Six of the USCIRF's nine unpaid commissioners are due to depart by May, as a result of a requirement inserted into reauthorization legislation in December, limiting commissioners to two, two-year terms.

The struggle for reauthorization went right down to the wire,being finalizedjust three days before the commission would have had to close. Commission chairman Leonard Leo had appealed to lawmakers not to shut down the body, warning that doing so "would signal to the world that the United States is retreating from the cause of religious freedom."

Among commissioners already gone as a result of the congressional requirement are the two Republican appointees being replaced by George and Jasser - Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; and Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center on Religious Freedom.

Land served on the commission since 2001, with a one-year absence; Shea has been a commissioner since the body was established in 1999 under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

Three Democratic appointees have also left in recent days - Elizabeth Prodromou, international relations professor at Boston University; Don Argue, chancellor of Northwest University; and Felice Gaer, director of the American Jewish Committee's human rights institute. Prodromou has served on the USCIRF since 2005, Argue since 2007 and Gaer since 2001. Their replacements have yet to be named.

Finally Leo, the current chairman, is due to leave on May 14, when his second full-term ends, a commission spokesperson confirmed Monday. Leo, executive vice-president of the Federalist Society, has been on the USCIRF since 2007.

The enforced departure of the six leaves just three commissioners with experience on the watchdog. They are Democratic appointees Azizah al Hibri, a Muslim law professor, and William Shaw, a Baptist pastor and former National Baptist Convention president; and Republican appointee Ted van der Meid, former counsel to GOP congressional leaders.

New commissioner George is professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton. He has served on the President's Council on Bioethics and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

In 2009, George co-authored theManhattan Declaration, a document initially signed by more than 150 Christian leaders - and many more since - who said that civil disobedience may be needed to defend life, marriage and religious freedom in the United States.

George, who was appointed to the USCIRF by House Speaker John Boehner, told CNSNews.com Monday he was grateful for the opportunity to serve on the commission "at a time when religious liberty and the rights of conscience are under assault both at home and abroad."

"The commission has done valuable work in the past to defend religious liberty, and its legacy is something to maintain and building upon," he said. "One area I wish to prioritize is promoting interfaith understanding and cooperation as a way of both protecting religious freedom and reducing suspicion and animosity among people of different religious traditions."

The second new commissioner, Jasser, is president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, an "anti-Islamist" non-profit group that describes its mission as advocating "for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state.

The U.S.-born son of Syrian immigrants and a physician practicing in Phoenix, Ariz., Jasser was appointed to the USCIRF by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"I am looking forward to serving and providing my perspective on the issues that come before the commission in order to protect and bring awareness to the abuse of religious freedom," he told CNSNews.com.

"I believe USCIRF's mission is vital to bringing true national security to the United States and freedom to people all around the world. I am looking forward to working with my fellow commissioners to develop an agenda that brings open and transparent discourse on religious issues."

CPC wrangling

A key function of the USCIRF is to make recommendations to the government about designating "countries of particular concern" (CPCs) for egregious violations of religious freedom. Under the IRFA, such countries may face sanctions or other measures designed to prod governments to making improvements.

The commission's CPC recommendations have not always gone smoothly. The State Department can - and frequently does - ignore the advice. For example:

--Pakistan has never been named a CPC, despite USCIRF recommendations to that effect every year since 2002 and deep concerns about its notorious blasphemy laws.

--After overruling the recommendation for three consecutive years, the Bush State Department in 2004 designated Saudi Arabia as a CPC, but both it and its successorwaived sanctions, despite the urging of the USCIRF.

--Vietnam's CPC designation was lifted in 2006 - prematurely, in the view of the commission, which amidcontinuing abuses continues to call for it to be restored.

--Of 16 countries which the USCIRF in its 2012 report says deserve CPC status, only eight are designated as such by the State Department. They are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan. The eight that are not are Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

In recent days, a USCIRF recommendation that Turkey be named a CPC for the first time caused deep divisions in the bipartisan commission.

Typically all nine commissioners agree on a recommendation, or one or two may dissent. In the case of Turkey, however, four of the nine opposed the recommendation. A fifth tried at the last minute to change his position from support to dissent - following intervention by the State Department - but his request was ruled as being too late.

Turkey's foreign ministry slammed the recommendation, saying it showed the commission "lags behind comprehending the steps taken in Turkey recently in the field of protecting religious freedom and the rights of non-Muslim minorities."

The Turkey recommendation currently stands, but - coincidentally - the three surviving commissioners, al Hibri, Shaw and van der Meid, were all in the dissenting group.