: Shakeup At US Muslim Org Causes Ouster Of Executive Director

Among the four major American Muslim political advocacy organizations, which include the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the American Muslim Council (AMC), it is the AMC that has had the most trouble finding its way through the American political landscape during its 12-year existence. Unlike the other groups, who have each carved out a specialty – grassroots organizing (AMA), public policy (MPAC), and civil rights (CAIR) – AMC has never been able to properly define its raison d’etre, doing a little bit of everything and excelling at nothing. They have also had an awful track record of choosing their leadership. In the late 1990’s, AMC’s then-Executive Director Abdulrahman Alamoudi managed to singlehandely roll-back the hard work of American Muslim political activists through stupid public statements like “We are all supporters of Hamas” that ended up on TV ads and caused a flood of returned campaign contributions to Muslim donors. In a move that they would later regret, the AMC board replaced Alamoudi with Missouri lawyer and former US Congress candidate Eric Erfan Vickers, who presided over the organization during the politically sensitive post-9/11 period. Once again, it was a public statement that caused a furor – in this case, an badly thought-out email commentary on the Columbia disaster that suggested divine retribution on astronaut Ilan Ramon for his role in the 1981 bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility. The email quickly got the attention of Congressman Jerrold Nadler, which caused the AMC board to force his resignation last week. There was “a wide gap between the thinking of him and the overall collective thinking and mind-set of the board,” said AMC spokesman Faiz Rehman. “The marriage just didn’t survive because of the diversity of the views.” Vickers’ departure was also part of a larger shakeup that may result in an end for the troubled organization, as what is left of the AMC is rumored to be merging with the larger AMA to form a new (and hopefully improved) Muslim political group.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.