Mohammad Said says:

I have always felt that those Islamic groups which are labeled by the United States and some Muslim countries as terrorists or extremists, such as Boko Haram, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab etc., will be defeated if we use not only the military aspect, by also attack their ideology. Does the United States truly want to eliminate this extremism, the same as some Muslim countries, particularly Saudi Arabia? My answer is no. Let me explain. When I was campaigning for Candidate Obama in his first term in 2008 in Texas, and later on in the Battleground states, I discussed with some of his campaign personnel that Candidate Obama’s name and background would be very positive to get the Muslim countries on board for business and try to contain extreme ideology and violence against the United States. I suggested to President Obama in a letter to the White House (found on my website) to appoint a special envoy to the Muslim world, particularly to meet and have dialogs with the religious leaders that violence is contrary to the Islamic tenets, leading nowhere and will backfire. I thought I would be that person, being a physician, a Sunni Muslim, and founder, or one of the founders, of several Muslim organizations in Europe and the United States, such as Islamic Medical Association, Muslim Students Organization in Europe, Islamic Center in Granada, Spain (the first one established in 500 years). I also met with many well-known Muslim scholars from different countries, such as India, Pakistan, and the Arab world. I met with late King Faisal, who was an advocate for Muslim cooperation, and Mohammed Surur Al-Saban, the founder of the Muslim League. Apparently, the White House accepted my recommendation and appointed 32 year old Rashad Hussain, originally from India,an attorney from Houston, who had no experience in religious matters. He does not speak Arabic and is from the Shiite minority, who would not be successful with the Sunni majority of over 90 percent. This means that President Obama’s advisors recommended everything opposite of my advice, as if they did not want to have good relations between the United States and the Muslim world. I believe it was for political reasons, as they wanted to continue this tension and prove that the only true friend of the United States is Israel. If Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Gulf states wanted to contain those extremists, why did they finance a military coup in Egypt against the Muslim Brotherhood, who are very well known to be moderate and supported by Saudi Arabia during the time when late King Faisal was alive in the late 50’s through the 70’s of last century? In order to contain this extreme criminal group Boko Haram at the present time, my suggestion is to form an army, without any involvement by the United States or the Western world. The army has to be only from Muslim countries, and I suggest not including those countries who are dictatorships and oppressing their Islamic moderate groups, such as Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc. I suggest the army to be formed from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia, Bangladesh, as an example. Most important, it has to include very well-known international Muslim scholars (Ulema) from different countries to prove to those extremists Boko Haram that it is a Muslim army, stipulated by Qur’anic teaching. Those oil rich Gulf states have to finance this expedition completely.