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Disclaimer: This blog does not represent the official views of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

This reflects my personal appeal to my brothers and sisters of Islam Ahmadiyya.

Assalamu alaykum,

This an appeal to our Ahmadi brothers and sisters. Some of us declare are declaring dissociation our from Dr. Craig Considine of Rice University. Recently some comments about the current situation in Gaza, made by Dr. Considine, have come to light and it is no longer feasible for us to stand quiet.  I humbly ask the members of our jamat to carefully consider the consequences of continuing a relationship with Dr. Considine.

Dr. Craig Considine has been a long time “friend” of us Ahmadis. Some people may not be too familiar with Dr. Considine, except for those who watch MTA. Perhaps they saw the professor’s discussions with Huzor (aba) last year. Dr. Considine is famous for asserting his belief in the prophet Muhammad (pbuh), while remaining a devoted Catholic.   Many   faithful  persons became fans of the professor due to his positive assertions  of the Islamic faith. To many folks Dr. Considine is  a “token”   celebrity of sorts. His strong relationship with Ahmadis is noted, and I have personally attended Dr. Considine’s platforms at his suggestion. Dr. Considine sees Ahmadis as useful to fill seats for his events, which otherwise have a low turn out. In turn, Ahmadis believe Considine is useful because he is a “prestigious” professor at a wealthy university.  Unfortunately, he also sees Ahmadis as loyal puppets of the  exploitative system which he serves.    Unfortunately for us, we are feeding this misconception of our identity as Ahmadis with continued support of Dr. Considine’s activities.

My own skepticism about Dr. Considine came about in 2023, during a presentation his class did for the United Arab Emirates.   During this open session, a video was shown of the UAE which had a clear agenda; that of promoting the UAE.  This is no surprise as Dr. Considine’s department is more than likely funded by the UAE (as many other university departments are by funded by UAE, Saudi Arabia, ect) The UAE is part of the Saudi Arabia coalition that led a war against the people of Yemen since 2015. For those who are unaware (or may have forgotten in light of the Gaza tragedy) the war in Yemen has taken about 400,000 lives of innocent civilians. This was one of the worst man made famines in history.    Many Muslims failed to bring attention to Yemen because the country is being led by a shi’ite community (as opposed to the  mainstream Sunni one) but our obligations as believers behoove us to  fight against human rights abuse regardless of one’s sect affiliation.

Dr. Considine’s exhibition with mediocre basketball player and “human rights activist” Enis Canter “Freedom” in 2024  has also raised alarm.  Many of us attended Considine’s class because Canter was seen as promoting interfaith harmony through his basketball charities. However, Canter’s comments promoting Zionist extremism had left many uncomfortable prior to the event (but we attended anyways for a purpose we thought was correct at the time.) What we thought we assumed was going to be a discussion of Jewish-Muslim relations, turned out to be a political diatribe against Turkey and China. During this “discussion”, Canter stated China controlled Hollywood and the tic-toc application. Canter mentioned briefly the human rights abuses in Chinese factories and the Uyghur situation in Xianxian province. As Muslims we abhor human rights abuse, whether among Uyghur, Chinese or any people on God’s earth. However, the discourse was that of Neo-conservative, anti-Chinese talking points from warmongers in the mainstream media (not to mention Canter’s racism towards Asian people.) Oddly enough, Canter appeared to be more interested in the plight of Taiwan than his Turkish cousins in Xianxiang!    Canter is not an independent human rights activities but a member of the Hizmet movement run by exiled Turkish cleric Fethullen Gulen.  While ostensibly a pacifist Muslim organization promoting interfaith harmony, Hizmet is well known to be a CIA asset used to promote US foreign policy in Asia among the former soviet Republics (against Russia) and Turkey specifically. Far from being pacifists, Hizmet has engaged in clear political manipulation that has put itself in odds with Turks from all sides of the contentious political factions of that nation (that of both Islamists , Pro-Erdogan and anti-Erdogan, Ataturkists).  Hizmet’s role in the 2016 attempted Coup de Tat has encouraged most Turks to see it as a terrorist organization.  HIzmet is known by Turks as “Feta.”  Dr. Considine knew  the discourse Mr. Canter planned to present. Dr. Considine’s promotion of Canter is thus a case of dishonesty since the presentation had nothing to do with Jewish-Islam harmony but everything to do with Neo-conservative politics.

Over 30,000 women and children have died in the war Israel waged against the Palestinian people of Gaza.   Brave students across the United States of America have risked their well-being and time to advocate for justice in Palestine. Many of these students are not Muslim and do not have family ties to Palestine.   They should be commended by Muslims.  The young kids deserve our respect, to say the least.  As we know, the mainstream media has engaged in a vicious campaign against these  children, accusing them of anti-Semitism. The, latter of which is wrongly equated with anti-Zionism. The media campaign has demonstrated it’s willingness to lie in order to destroy the lives of these brave students.

Since the tragic days of October 7^th, Huzur (aba) has brought attention to the plight of the Palestinian people on multiple occasions. While our detractors claim we are Zionist stooges, the various discourses of Huzur (aba)  prove that the Zionists have engaged in a terrible oppression of the Palestinian people. All Ahmadis have a duty to engage in steadfast prayer for the Palestinian people and to help in anyway we can while maintain correct Islamic ethics.

Our solidarity with the Palestinian people is based on the universal values of Islam as taught in the Qur’an and by our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh.) These values encourage us to seek justice everywhere. Contrary to Islamphobes, our solidarity with Palestine is not because the Palestinian majority share the name of our religion. If the Palestinians were any other religion, or were Jews themselves, we would offer them the same degree of support. That is because our solidarity is based on principles of universal values and ethics.

The Zionist entity which is waging genocide against the Palestinian people is not based on principles of universal values. At best the Zionists have a parochial morality; one which promotes their tribe (ethnic Jews) over other people. Universal values are antithetical to Zionism as well as the globalist powers which align with it. Dr. Craig’s understanding of the world as an “axis” of evil vs the ‘democratic’ nations proves Dr. Craig’s ethics are parochial and antithetical to the universal values of Islam and the students fighting for justice in Palestine.

Dr. Craig Considine has characterized the student protestors as “anti-Israel”, “anti-American” and “pro-Hamas”, not to mention influenced by Marxism.    Our  prestigious “friend” in academia has labeled the conflict as one of “democracy” , “classical liberalism” against “despotism” and “Islamism.”  He also has the audacity to lament the role of China, Russia and Iran in the conflict.    Dr. Considine wants us  to believe that the protestors prefer to live in “Tehran” as opposed to their native cities, probably because they “support Hamas”(in his view.) He equates support of the Palestinian struggle as  support of “terrorism.”  All of these assertions are from a liar and a hypocrite.

Let us play devil’s advocate and assume that Dr. Considine is correct in his characterization of student protestors as “Hamas supporters” and etc. Being the case, what does Dr. Considine have to say about the suffering of the Gazan civilians? Absolutely nothing!   There are many things to criticize about Hamas’s ideology, the Palestinian leadership but Dr. Considine’s only sticks to Zionist talking points.  This shows Dr. Considine should be ignored when it comes to human rights abuses.

What do the brave students have to do with Hamas, authoritarianism and Jew hatred?  Many of the boys and girls are secular and atheist. Some come from the LGBT community.  Many of the leaders of these groups are Jewish themselves.   If Craig is concerned with Jew hatred why does not reach out to these Jewish leaders?  If the student leaders (Jewish or otherwise) are promoting anti-Semitism, then they would certainly be opening to listen to an academic like Craig. They know better than to listen the media, which has already libeled them.  But Craig will never speak to them because he is a tool for the same establishment which promotes the destruction of Gazans abroad and students at home.

Dr. Considine makes a hue and cry about “authoritarianism” and he wants to mention Russia and China together with Israel and Gaza.  Does Dr. Considine really have a problem with “authoritarianism” ? He claims to support “classical liberalism” after all.  Would Dr. Considine characterize Saudi Arabia and the UAE as nations with “classical liberalism”?  Are these the “tolerant” societies Craig has in mind? Of course these are  authoritarian regimes,  but he will never critique them since they probably fund his salary.

Dr. Craig rails against what he sees as “anti-Americanism.”  He classifies “freedom of speech” as an American value. But why should he be upset about that when he is obviously against freedom of speech when it comes to protesting against Zionist injustice?  Is Professor Craig  upset at all the regimes imposed by the USA imperialists on countries throughout the world for the last 100 years?

Dr. Considine pretends to care about “freedom of religion”(another ‘American value’) What does or friend have to say about the “Islamism” promoted by Saudis and Abu Dhabis and their brutal handling of human rights? Are they to be ignored because these regimes work in the interests of the USA and Zionism?    Dr. Considine promotes a clear agenda against China and Russia. Is. Dr. Considine, as a supposed Christian, willingly to condemn the human rights abuses by the Zelensky Neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine against the Orthodox Christians (not to mention the Palestinian Christians by Zionism) Or are they off limits too?

Dr. Considine is evidently upset at the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas but why does he care about these folks to begin with?  Why does he care about China and Russia to mention them in the same breath as American student protestors? What do these entities (Hezbollah, ect) have to do with America, the nation he pretends to promote? The only thing these organizations have in common is that they are waging a just war against Zionism.

What is Dr. Considine’s beef with the Houthis about? Before the Zaydi Shii’ite leaders came to power, Yemen was running around with Takfiris (those who label other Muslims as infidels so they could kill them.)  The Houthis are not perfect  but they have managed to do one thing that many Islamic countries fail to do; that is establish inter-religious harmony. Under Houthi sovereignty, Sunnis and Shias could prayer in the same mosque and cooperate together.  The Saudi-led alliance (backed by USA and Israel) promoted Takfiris, Jihadists as exemplified by the “Islamists” which Dr. Considine supposedly has a grudge against.  Would Dr. Considine rather destroy Yemen with the same takfirs that the Saudis used in their attempt to destroy Syria?

What problem does Dr. Considine have with Hezbollah? Is Dr. Considine upset that the Lebanese people rose up against Israel occupation? Are native citizens not allowed to defend themselves against foreign invaders? With the ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians, would Dr. Considine expect Hezbollah and Ansarullah to stand idly by?  Dr.Considine evidently prefers other authoritarian regimes; that of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, ect which although lack human rights agendas, still like to appease Israel.

Our prestigious professor tries to use Iran backing as a reason to not support the Palestinian cause? What problem does Dr. Considine have with Iran?  Iranian dissidents in America complain with justification about a lack of democracy and theocratic rule. But Dr. Considine certainly does not care about that since he promotes Saudi aligned entities, since they align with US strategic interests.  Those same interests do not want a power capable of challenging Israel, which is the main concern for Dr. Considine.

Dr. Considine has no business complaining about “authoritarian” rule or anything else about Hamas because it as a struggle of David verse Goliath. Millions of Gazans are starving and without homes. This is due to their ruthless oppressor. What sense does it make to complain to a person about their opinions or beliefs, when that person’s family is on the brink of death?  But Dr. Considine is more concerned with a dying Palestinian mother’s beliefs about representative government instead of her concerns for that mother’s children.  Only a cruel cold calculated individual would make such complaints, but that is how establishment professors are trained to think.

Dr. Considine rails against “Orwellian” discourse when he himself is doing just that! It was indeed strange for Dr. Considine to assert his love for an “open society” when we know George Soros and his globalists thugs promote that very same term in their attempts to undermine nation states of their sovereignty.  Dr. Considine has no business talking about “tolerance” when he refuses to practice that for the students on his campus.

Dr. Considine’s complain about “Marxism” among students is rather funny. What does Dr. Considine mean by Marxism? Judging by personal conversations I had with Dr. Considine, talking to his scholarly peers as well, I would not be surprised if he even knows what Marxism is. Perhaps his knowledge of Marx is no better than Jordan Peterson’s ( which is bad.) Socialist oriented groups are attracted to every social justice cause, but so what?

Ahmadis have an ethical obligation to continue to support the Palestinian cause. Dr. Considine’s willful lies are a cause for us to disassociate friendship from him.  Attendance of events organized by  Dr. Considine is something to reconsider.  Huzur (aba) must be made aware of Dr. Considine and of the need to stay away from him.  Continued support for Dr. Considine will feed into the lies propounded by our enemies about Ahmadiya being a product of imperialist ambitions.  We have no need to rely on “academic” friendship when we have Allah swt as our benefactor. and God knows best.