Interview: Ahmed Bedier, America's Voice for Moderate Muslims

I first heard of Ahmed Bedier, the Tampa, Florida Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations on a YouTube video, where he was debating a man named Kevin Murray back in 2005 on a local FOX station about the Crusades, the film Kingdom of Heaven, and other pertinent issues brought up by Ridley Scott's box office dud. Anyone who has seen any of my previous articles know that I am not CAIR's biggest fan - but I was remarkably impressed with the articulation and intelligence with which Ahmed Bedier spoke, and even though I disagreed with him on a number of points he appeared as though he was someone that felt compelled to find the answers for himself and not simply parrot whatever seemed appropriate in whatever environment he was currently in.

The discourse as it took place between the Catholic Murray and the Islamic Bedier was very civil, and showed none of the aggravations that are present in Middle Eastern television as can be seen across MEMRI TV, where discussions on topics such as the Crusades or sectarian views will often literally degenerate into a brawl between the two guest speakers. In this case, they both spoke eloquently, even if Murray lacked the authority and understanding of the subject matter, that in many cases allowed Mr. Bedier to take the upper hand in the discussion.

It was for this reason that I felt compelled to call and speak to Mr. Bedier himself - having spoken with CAIR before about Carver Elementary School, a school in San Diego where several Sudanese Muslim students were integrated into a racially diverse public school when their charter school closed down. Upon calling CAIR, I was directed to Mr. Bedier's line - and I was thankful that he himself answered and not a further secretary or voice mail as happens when I try to reach other public figures.

By this time I had already been familiar with Mr. Bedier's work. Upon complaints from Tampa residents against a website calling for the deaths of Muslim children, he spearheaded a charge to get the website closed down, and has remained active on, in his own words "trying to build a bridge" between other religions, specifically Christianity or the Secular West, and Islam.

Before I ever spoke to him, Ahmed Bedier has been praised on FOX-13 in Tampa for his work to repair churches damaged by Mideast storms and he has remained largely consistent in his rather moderate views, condemning violence universally as a means to an end, and standing up for a true bridge between moderate Muslims and the West. I have long stated that this was the type of Muslim I yearned to speak to and I was impressed that, rather than being one who speaks in favor of moderation only when America threatens Islamic regimes he openly protests violence in all of its forms, both Islamic violence and Christian violence in equal measures.

Bedier has appeared on FOX News itself, where he called on schools to re-instate Jewish and Christian holidays completely independent upon whether or not they instate Islamic holidays. All holidays were officially suspended by the Hillsborough School Board in 2005 when it was pointed out there were no Islamic holidays - and to this Mr. Bedier was evidently not pleased.

"We told the school board from the beginning that we made a request to be included to have similar accommodations like Jews or Christians, but it was a simple yes or no answer," he told FOX News. "Don't penalize Jews and Christians for our request."

Therefore I was highly eager to speak with Mr. Bedier personally - although I was naturally nervous when he I reached him. In addition to being somewhat leery about my background - having never heard of Associated Content or my name - he began browsing through my articles. Naturally I stand by everything I say, but there is something dubious feeling about having someone stare down your work while talking to you, and their tone clearly changing as they bypass some articles to others of a more controversial nature, knowing this potential interview or question and answering session could be entirely dependent upon what he finds there.

I was pleasantly surprised when he asked if he could record the conversation, and agreed to speak with me.

Firstly I was to express that I was deeply impressed after speaking with him as he and I agreed on issues that are fundamentally important to me and seem almost unique in a world turned politically correct. For example, I had watched once on a London Television show a Muslim man and a Christian British man debating the topic of the Pope's speech that involved a reading from a 14th century text where one of the characters decried Muhammad. The Muslim stood fast to the belief that freedom of speech should be limited when it offends someone - that someone's right not to be offended supersedes another's right to speak freely.

When I asked Mr. Bedier about this, he scoffed at the idea. He told me that he does not believe that people have a right to not be offended. Instead, he suggested that if one does find offense in a free market society that they appeal to those who support the offensive speaker and try to get the hurtful speech removed legally and thoroughly - even going so far as to suggesting that people need only use common sense. He brought up the Don Imus situation, and how one can simply go to the station that hosts Imus rather than try to get the government to crack down on his ability to talk in general.

Although I disagree with him on the Don Imus issue I was shocked by the clarity of his answer and how profoundly I agreed with it. The concept that no one, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or otherwise has any right to not be offended was a core value of mine that I'd found in precious few others, Muslims especially, with great regard after the outrage caused by the Danish Muhammad Cartoons. This of course was a topic that Ahmed Bedier was outspoken against.

He openly rejected the violence and riots that occurred as a result of these drawings - decrying those who turned to brutality to try to deny free speech. He made it clear that he was opposed to the cartoons, calling them hate speech, but he made clear that he recognized their right to draw them, and once more appealed to the same sense of attempting to get Muslims to voice their displeasure with such satire, rather than react violently.

One topic specifically that had bothered me was his comments on the Northern Alliance. When he debated with Kevin Murray on the topic of religion over the film Kingdom of Heaven the topic of General Massoud and the Northern Alliance was brought up - and Ahmed Bedier referred to him as a warlord, rather disdainfully, that was not a model to be looked up to. I asked him about this specifically - and the Northern Alliance - as I had a great deal of respect for the Lion of Panzjer.

His response was that he was "not opposed to the Northern Alliance.

"They're not that great," he told me, "they're a bunch of warlords." He went on to explain that they haven't brought about a great deal of changes, and that they are responsible for a majority of the opium trade from Afghanistan. This did little to sway my opinion however, as I feel that it is Afghanistan's right to export opium/poppies until they are able to generate another form of revenue.

Naturally I admired the speed with which Mr. Bedier had the website closed that called for the deaths of Muslim children, however I was very curious about his position on Islamic hate websites as well. I asked him which he felt were a greater threat to Islamic-American relations, American hate websites against Muslims, or Muslim hate websites against Americans.

I had expected an aggrieved status response, where he would attempt to explain how American provocations have led Muslims to respond hatefully in kind. Instead he told me that, "They're both equally threatening to society. Any group that incites violence is dangerous." He went on to specify that he would seek any kind of website, Christian or Muslim, that called for violence to be closed down, however they are a reactive organization, not a proactive one in this regard, and they only actively pursue websites that are reported to them.

Once more this highly impressed me.

On the topic of the Holy Land Foundation, the Palestinian charity organization that has been indicted for filtering money to Hamas, he had little to say, offering no comment and reminding me that it is illegal to support Hamas in any way, since they are a terrorist faction. I was unable to get further details from him on this matter.

In turn, we also discussed, in very brief, the Crusades, which he did well to not try to hammer over my head as a Christian massacre of innocent Muslims. He called them something that "Happened in time," and he would neither condemn nor praise them, as they just happened. He reminded me once more however that he absolutely decried violence in the name of religion.

All in all, I was very impressed, and believe Ahmed Bedier is an excellent example of a moderate Muslim, and look forward to speaking with and working with him in the future.