Cleveland Imam Blames His Youth

Apologizes for Anti-Semitic Acts

by Joe Polhemus

The media had not been kind to Fawaz Damra, the imam at the Islamic Center of Cleveland. The Wall Street Journal questioned why he and other Muslim clerics did not denounce terrorism. The NBC Dateline program on October 28 raised the same question, as did a feature article by the Associated Press, showing Damra in front of the Islamic Center.

Then on November 4, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) revealed that the Al Farooq mosque in Brooklyn, New York, had sponsored the Alki Fah Refugee Center. The Center collected money to send to Peshawar, Pakistan, in support of Afghan chieftains, including Osama bin Laden, who were fighting the invading Russians. After the Russian defeat in 1989, the Refugee Center helped fund terrorism against Israel.

Fawaz Damra told his followers November 11 that he would have no further dealings with the media because they had lied about his past. Three days later he authored a column in The Plain Dealer, blaming his youth for anti-Semitic comments made ten years ago.

Fawaz Damra was the imam at the Al Farooq mosque. He said, “Terrorism is the way to liberation.” Abdullah Azzam, described as bin Laden’s partner and spiritual leader, spoke at the mosque, calling for a Holy War against Israel. Fox TV Channel 8, Cleveland, showed videotapes of the anti-Semitic speech and comments by Damra, made ten years ago.

Damra refused to respond. Channel 8 showed him walking briskly away from their reporter, commenting, “Take care of yourself, Mr. (Bill) Sheil. Have a good day, Mr. Sheil.”

The Plain Dealer columnist Sam Fulwood III defended the imam: “Nothing in these reports proved Damra is a threat to society. I don’t believe he is a terrorist. True, he said some vile things about Jews a decade ago. True as well, he served as spiritual advisor to some real terrorists.

“But since coming to Cleveland a decade ago, he has been an exemplary citizen, working closely with leaders of the Jewish and other faiths. He says he is a changed man. Can’t we take him at his word? Doesn’t the evidence suggest a real transformation?”

Now we come to November 14 and an Open House at the Islamic Center of Cleveland in Parma, a western suburb of Cleveland. We look for signs of transformation.

Mosque treasurer Ahmad Ansari strongly supports Fawaz Damra and accuses The Plain Dealer of “playing politics.” Ansari spoke at the Heritage Congregational Church of Berea in an interfaith service the Sunday after Sept. 11.

The Open House is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. When we arrive, ahead of the scheduled open house, the imam is conducting a worship service for an audience of about 40—men in front, women in back against the wall (the main service is on Friday, with as many as 2000 attending). The imam instructs a young man who apparently is converting to Islam. “No God but God. Muhammad is His messenger.” The young man repeats the tenets of Islam.

“You are living in a fortunate time,” the imam says, “as we will soon celebrate Ramadan. We fast to strengthen our faith, to strengthen our families, and to remember the power of Allah.”

Then he abruptly starts castigating the media. “The Plain Dealer twists the truth. I am no longer dealing with the media in any way,” Damra says. (His stance changed three days later, see epilogue.)

After the service, a middle-aged woman in western dress approached, introduced herself as Afka O’Donnell, and immediately began defending the imam.

“His remarks (anti-Semitic comments, see The Congregationalist, “Tainted Reconciliation,” Oct./Nov. 2001, page 9) were made more than ten years ago when the Palestinians were suffering terribly in refugee camps. If Fawaz had done anything illegal, don’t you think the FBI would have arrested him?

“It’s too bad all this comes up when we should all be working together. We all (Jews, Christians, Muslims) worship the same God. What will our children say 50 years from now if we miss this opportunity to overcome our differences?” she continued.

Dr. James Royster, professor of Islamic Studies, Cleveland State University, told an audience of 400 that Islam is a “local” religion.

The featured speaker at the Open House that followed was Dr. James Royster, professor of Islamic Studies at Cleveland State University. He quickly made the point that the 19 terrorists responsible for the September 11 tragedies were fanatics, not true Muslims. “The God of Islam is a loving God, not a militant God,” he said.

“A jihad is not a holy war, as bin Ladin maintains, but a perpetual struggle within ourselves to overcome our own base instincts. A so-called religious war does not happen because of religion; it happens despite religion,” Royster said.

“In the Islam world, only God lives. A true believer knows God is here and now. A Muslim takes his faith into every day, every hour of his life.”

He made the point that Islam, like Christianity, is “local”—different in India, different in North Africa, different in Afghanistan. Likewise the Christianity of David Koresh and James Jones is not the Christianity of Billy Graham or Tom Richard. Likewise, Judaism differs among Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed.

I was reminded of a writing by Islam authority Seth Stevenson, who says you can’t characterize Islam as violent or nonviolent, just as you can’t characterize the Western world as violent or nonviolent.

In the question-and-answer period, both Royster and Damra stressed the need for understanding. “Intolerance is caused by ignorance and ignorance by isolation,” they agreed.

Parma Mayor Gerald Boldt issued a proclamation denouncing the vandalism directed at the mosque after September 11. A Ford Mustang, driven by a 29-year-old drunk driver, crashed through the entrance, damaging the foyer (The Congregationalist, Oct./Nov. 2001, p. 6).

Damra seemed to be lifted emotionally by the size and humor of his audience, estimated at more than 400, which included neighbors of the mosque, financial supporters, community leaders including Parma Mayor Gerald Boldt, and a few clergymen. The mayor read a proclamation of support (for the mosque, not the imam) that included no reference to Damra’s anti-Semitic comments of ten years ago.

Damra said that Islam values were very similar to American values, quoting from the Qu’ran 5:32 that “killing one person is like killing all humanity and saving one life is like saving all humanity.”

“We must not let the past,” Damra said, “influence present life. Peace and justice go hand in hand.”

It was a happy time, but a time of paradox. We heard that all three religions—Christianity, Islam, Hebrew—proclaim that peace and justice go hand in hand.

But where is the peace?

Imam Fawaz Damra greets members of the Islamic Center Mosque at an Open House November 11.

The next day three letters suspected of containing anthrax spores arrive at the U. S. Senate. Israel stops withdrawing from the West Bank because of terrorist threats. A Palestinian youth blows himself up making a bomb. Osama bin Laden threatens to use nuclear and biological weapons.

Epilogue

Despite his vow never to deal with the media, Fawaz Damra authored an op-ed piece in the November 14 issue of The Plain Dealer.

In an article headlined, “I abandoned my anger,” Damra characterized himself as a victim of his associates at the Al Farooq Mosque.

“It is true that in 1990 I was expelled from a mosque in New York by followers of a deeply misguided man who subsequently was convicted of planning the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Those individuals never approved of, nor agreed with the new direction my life was taking (referring to his new commitment to tolerance and peace), and knowing that I would not support them, they then set out to destroy and discredit me. They not only succeeded in ousting me from the mosque I served, but they also are said to have replaced all my programs. That hardly qualifies as making me their ally, friend or accomplice, as alleged recently,” Damra wrote.

“Also, like millions of other Americans,” he said, “I support the peaceful efforts in every quarter to create a just and lasting peace in the Middle East that will allow both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.”

Fawaz Damra has become a national figure characterizing the ambivalence of Islam. Belatedly, he acknowledges mistakes of his youth. Forgiveness will not be easy. We wait to see whether his deeds match his words of apology. We pray for his redemption as we pray for our own.

WAR or PEACE?

To be fair, the question should be “Are Muslims militant or peace-loving?” and the answer, of course, is: “It depends on the Muslim.” In the Qur’an there are 192 references to God’s compassion and mercy and only 17 references to God’s wrath and vengeance, so if Muslims mean to surrender to God (which is literally what “Islam” means) then there should be no question which one wins. The Qur’an does not counsel turning the other cheek, however, and it allows punishment of wrongdoers to the full extent of the injury they impart. Still, the idea is one of justice and not aggression. “Defend yourself against your enemies but do not attack them first; God hates the aggressor” (2:190). Furthermore, “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (2:257).

As for Muhammad himself, he governed Medina with a charter that included the principle of religious toleration. Jews and Christians who lived in the city were protected from “insults and vexations” and were allowed to practice their religion as freely as Muslims. Once, when a party of Christians visited him, Muhammad invited them to conduct their worship service in his own mosque.

But like any other world religion, Islam is interpreted differently by the different cultures who adopt it. There is also the unavoidable reality of human corruption. As you have probably noticed in the news lately, there is no Muslim Pope or High Imam who adjudicates all applications of Muslim law. Each sovereign country has its own religious authorities, who do not always agree on their readings of the Qur’an or the Hadith. Women in Turkey fight to wear the veil, for instance, while women in Morocco dare not take it off.

For further information, I recommend Huston Smith’s classic: The World’s Religions.* His survey of Islam is one of the fairest and most accessible ever written by a Westerner.

— Comment by Barbara Brown Taylor, Piedmont College, Demorest, Georgia

* Huston Smith. The World’s Religions. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.

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