Muslim American Society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Muslim American Society is a nonprofit organization. It describes itself as an Islamic revival and reform movement. It was started by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1992^[1]

MAS supported a lawsuit against Israel after the Israeli government killed Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin.^[2]

Esam Omeish, President of MAS, told reporters at a news conference on July 25, 2005 that MAS will "deny terrorists any religious, ideological or political legitimacy."^[3]

[edit] Controversy

The society has recently become involved in a dispute over Muslim taxi drivers rights to refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol in Minnesota. The "fatwa department" of the sociey's Minnesota chapter issued a fatwa dated June 6, 2006, proclaiming that, "Islamic jurisprudence" [prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol], "because it involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam," and is lobbying the airport commission for a two-tiered taxi system in which Muslim drivers will have a light at the top of their cabs indicating their refusal to carry alcohol. Currently, those that want to do this are required to go to the back of the taxi line if they refuse a fare. It has been suggested that the Society itself has orchestrated the controversy in the first place. ^[4] The director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center said

"MAS is an Arab group; we Somalis are African, not Arabs. MAS wants to polarize the world, create two camps. I think they are trying to hijack the Somali community for their Middle East agenda. They look for issues they can capitalize on, like religion, to rally the community around. The majority of Somalis oppose this, but they are vulnerable because of their social and economic situation." ^[5]