[Thread, Part 5 – Response to @ProjectAndalus]

1. How reassuring that no 'collaboration [with CIA-linked CPOST] ever materialised'.

Should one had been offered, would Yaqeen have refused it in principle?

Let us look at his disgraceful revision of Julio's work. https://twitter.com/ProjectAndalus/status/1295449410852261888

2. Asadullah wants us to believe that Julio's role in the US Department of Defence was to 'help the Syrian civilian population' that produced no value for military generals.

You would expect such a whitewash to come from the US State Department, not a fellow at Yaqeen.

3. Perhaps not unexpected from someone who prides his own 'counter-terrorism' work, who openly 'reports' Muslims to authorities, and has the 'FBI on speed dial'.

Read about Asadullah's ‘counter-terrorism’ work in Malaysia.

4. However flimsy and self-contradictory the justification, Asadullah is a supporter of the devastating Proxy War in Somalia, which is ultimately funded and coordinated by the US in its 'War on Terror'.

5. Asadullah has been shamelessly reporting brothers to authorities, because it is part of his self-righteous 'extremism' worldview.

'Snitching' is a universally derided trait because it is often malicious, false and rooted in pre-crime, with life-changing consequences.

6. Innocent brothers and sisters have had their lives ruined from official police investigations that often convicts Muslims under intentionally broad and Islamophobic definitions of 'terrorism' that negatively views normative Islamic behaviour and knowledge.

7. Read @UK_Cage's article and report on the science of pre-crime for some food for thought. https://www.cage.ngo/the-science-of-pre-crime

8. Asadullah's unsettling whitewashing account of Julio's work with the US DoD and CIA-linked CPOST is less surprising when one considers his confused allegiances and low gheerah for Muslims suffering under the US War on Terror.

Let us analyse Asadullah's whitewashing narrative.

9. To borrow his words, he commits the fallacy of Suppressed Evidence.

Asadullah gives a radiating impression of Julio's work, where Julio sought 'to better benefit the Muslim community'.

Let us see.

10. If you are a revert Muslim wanting to help your new community, do you:

a) Join a Muslim charity

b) Join the US Department of Defence and a counter-terrorism institute linked to the CIA

Here, Asadullah commits the fallacy of 'chatting utter tosh'.

11. This is Julio's public LinkedIn profile on his role as a Political Analyst for the US Department of Defence and CIA-linked CPOST.

12. Now read how Asadullah varnishes this beyond recognition.

13. Asadullah's wallpapering of history sees Julio 'resigning' from the military.

He writes:

“Having become disillusioned with the government’s lack of concern for the well-being of the Syrian people, he [Julio] eventually resigned and went back to school to pursue his PhD”.

14. However, 'disillusioned' Julio then joins a counter terror institute linked to the CIA, was pictured smiling at a photo-o with the ex-CIA Director – so no real regrets or moral objections.

Here, Asadullah commits the fallacy of 'pulling a fast one'.

15. His claim of Julio’s disillusionment with the military is worthless since Julio work with the military continued at CPOST.

He was a 'lead analyst' on a two-year military-funded project looking at 'current' US Air Power and Proxy War strategies across 6 Muslim countries.

16. Was the Obama and Trump asking for a 'moral assessment' for being at war with Muslims, or a robust evaluation on US military strategies to help Generals make better military decisions?

Here, Asadullah commits the fallacy of 'pulling wool over our eyes'.

17. Nowhere in Julio's work description has the words 'civilian' or 'population' or ‘help’ – but lots about military strategy, air power, counterterrorism, contingency operations, air power and advising generals and defence officials.

18. According to Asadullah's fantasy worldview, Muslims can trust that the US military and CIA-linked institutes are legitimate career pathways for Muslims wanting to help their brothers and sisters in the Muslim World.

19. Bearing in mind Asadullah’s propensity for snitching, accusing random Muslims of being ISIS supporters, and his own proud involvement in ‘counterterrorism’.

Here, Asadullah commits the fallacy of 'drinking his own kool-aid'.

20. In reality, Julio played a role in helping the US Department of Defence under two Presidents better understand the bombing and proxy war strategies to strengthen US military campaigns.

It literally says so on his work history.

21. Asadullah craftily reinforces the word 'civilian' to give Julio a heightened non-military presence.

But this betrays a long-standing Islamic concept.

That one is condemned for aiding the aggressor whether one holds a rifle or not.

22. Lines between civilian and combatants are increasingly blurred in the modern notion of 'total war'.

Computer scientists, medics, engineers, marketers, graphics designers, software developers and mathematicians play important roles in aiding the US military against Muslims.

23. Asadullah wants us to believe that a 'civilian political analyst' is somehow different.

Why?

Because Julio 'resigned' from those positions, is a 'revert', or found a 'spiritual awakening' at Yaqeen?

Here's Asadullah commits the fallacy of 'pulling our collective leg'.

24. Yaqeen supporters are keen to draw attention to Robert Pape's research that disassociate religious ideology from suicide bombings, suggesting that collaborating with him on this aspect can be justified since there is 'societal good'.

25. However, should one not be cautious of CIA-linked authors whose broader geo-political views are detestable, just because his research is convenient for Muslims domestically?

Citing Pape's research is not morally the same as collaborating with him.

26. This demonstrates low gheerah for Muslims suffering from US client states, armed proxies, and drone strikes – all strategies supported by Pape.

As mentioned, it is like collaborating with Douglas Murray on Social Cohesion or Maajid Nawaz on Uighur persecution.

27. As difficult it may be to accept, Julio aided the US military as it killed Muslims by the tens of thousands, through his research in Air Power and Proxy War strategies.

28. His role was never to intellectually dissuade or moralise, but to steer and guide through defence funded research on US aggression against Muslims.

29. Consider a native Palestinian of Tel Aviv employed by the Israeli Defence Forces as a 'civilian political analyst'.

As Gaza is bombed now, this Palestinian analyses Gazan responses to F16 and drone airstrikes, then reports to IDF Generals.

30. Would you accept Asadullah's justification that this Palestinian was only trying to help his people?

Here, Asadullah's commits the fallacy of ‘treating Muslims with contempt’.

31. And what of the man who later hires this Palestinian as part of an Islamic institute because of his 'unique talents' as an analyst, without public disavowal and remorse?

32. And what of the Islamic institute that consciously waters down their new recruit's military and counter-terrorism work on its website?

Read again how Yaqeen’s diminishes Julio’s work in the DoD and CPOST by overly generalising the roles.

33. Noticeably absent in Asadullah's 100K-word self-promoting marathon rebuttal is Julio's book collaboration with Pape and ex-CPOST colleague, Alexandra Greiwe.

Here is a reminder from Julio's LinkedIn profile.

34. If this co-authorship took place, it would indicate Julio's lack of disavowal from his supposed 'disillusioned past', as Asadullah's concoction would have people believe.

Here's Asadullah commits the falacy of 'being shady with the truth'.

35. @OmarSuleiman504 assures Asadullah that no CVE collaboration took place and no further CPOST work transpired from the 2017 meeting with Pape.

36. Perhaps one finds confidence in @AsimQuesrhi's (Director at @UK_Cage) comment where AQ accepts OS's assurances - but not without offering valuable criticism.

AQ highlights the problematic language Yaqeen and other organisations use, and suggests they make improvements.

37. Many would argue that it is their laxed attitude that normalises toxic CVE discourse coupled with their use of such problematic language that serves the CVE/CT industry.

38. Yaqeen possesses multiple personalities that tries to appease its liberal stakeholders.

Where it preaches Allah's Sovereignty in legislating haram, then tacitly endorses it by hosting the views of @JonathanACBrown in support of federal laws for LGBT rights.

39. Despite Yaqeen's disclaimers for not endorsing their writers’ views, by hosting Brown's problematic views in an orthodox Islamic website, Yaqeen elevates the opinion of an academic who is unqualified in matters of critical ijtihad – then presenting this to lay people.

40. Across social media, Muslims are actively defending this 'non-Islamic' view as a valid opinion, even though it was discredited in the same article by @DrShadeeElmasry, and where Brown himself admits it was a purely political exercise ungrounded by Shariah.

41. Muslims are being needlessly confused because Yaqeen legitimises Brown's non-Islamic political daydreaming without offering an official verdict on the matter, thereby tacitly validating such ideas.

42. Another one of Yaqeen's 'legitimising view' is how it loves our Prophet (saaw), then 'politically' accepts his insults (in the US) again following Brown’s discredited RACCIO position.

43. Despite public disgust, and subsequent apology and clarification, Brown continues to hold this view. This time, Brown uses desperate ‘what-if’ political circumstances that makes the egregious act of insulting the Prophet (pbuh) a ‘legitimate’ concession.

44. Whilst Brown's insists that his positions on RACCIO is not for Muslims countries, there is a risk that forging out a 'Western-friendly' version of Islam may serve as a blueprint for an increasingly secularised and liberal Muslim World.

45. Then there is Yaqeen preaching the scriptural narrative of Adam (as), then eroding it by promoting 'an acceptable version' of evolution, including entertaining reprehensible views like Adam's (as) children 'mated' with ape-like creatures.

46. This is a view Asadullah, a current Yaqeen fellow, held until recently, and which Yaqeen still publicises on its website.

47. In a recent @Islam21c podcast @omarsuleiman504 makes emphatic - and laudable - statements that demonstrates his inconsistent and mixed messaging.

Full podcast: https://bit.ly/2E7FJqz 

48. Aspiring towards this goal, Yaqeen should be pushed to combing out the falsehoods it currently promotes – however implicit or tacit, grapple with its mixed messaging, and stop appeasing liberals with over-engagement that ultimately harms Muslims.

49. Yaqeen may view itself as a 'think tank', but one argues that pitching flawed views against orthodoxy, then disseminating them to lay people – with or without an official Yaqeen position afterwards – is not how Islam is meant to be propagated.

50. Finally, read @GleamingRazor's article on his thoughts about Julio's problematic employment.

Read it here: https://justpaste.it/8xu9g