Urgent, Personal and Confidential

Date: August 14, 2000

His Excellency
The Amba#sador of Malaysia
Washington DC

Your Excellency:

a#salamu alaikum

Your Excellency, we are confident that you are fully aware of the role of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) as a representative of Muslim Americans and Canadians from all walks of life. ISNA serves as a national umbrella organization, embracing within its folds community as well as professional organizations.

ISNA has a mission of not only serving Muslims in North America, but also it helps Muslim to share their intellectual resources, and do the networking among Muslims worldwide. Alhamdulillah, ISNA was among the first to recognize the tremendous potential of Malaysia, and of the leadership of the Prime Minister Honorable Dr. Mahathir Muhammad. It was in this spirit that ISNA publications not only continuously reported his speeches and statements, but also focused on progress in Malaysia. Indeed, our coverage of Malaysia has created admiration for its leadership among Muslims in North America.

This was reflected in our invitation to the Honorable Prime Minister to address the ISNA Trade and Business Forum. We are thankful to the Prime Minister for accepting our invitation.

However, Your Excellency, we are now flooded with messages from our membership expressing their sadness and anger over the recent verdict against our brother Anwar Ibrahim. This unfortunate, and also in our opinion and the opinion of many the unfair and un-Islamic verdict has created great pain and disappointment. It appears to be nothing but a case of inability among strong leaders to resolve their differences amicably.

Your Excellency, this verdict has placed us in a very difficult situation. Because of the strong protests that we are receiving from our members, we are unable to a#sure a favorable reception for the Prime Minister. This unfortunate situation has rendered us unable to stand by our invitation.

We pray that Allah SWT will open the Honorable Prime Minister's heart, and guide him to have this judgment reviewed by competent religious authorities that can decide this matter under the just and fair Islamic principles.

When the hypocrites of Madina accused the Prophet's wife, 'Aisha, (AS) of adultery, Allah revealed to the Prophet in the Qur'an:

"Why did not the Believers - men and women - when they heard of the affair, put the best construction on it in their own minds and say, "This (charge) is an obvious lie?" Why did they not bring four witnesses to prove it? When they have not brought the witnesses, such people, in the sight of Allah (stand forth) themselves as liars! (al-Nur 24:21-13)

Your Excellency, allow me to say that unless the Prime Minister's office intervenes and announces an immediate change in this case, we regret that it will be very difficult for us to welcome him under the circumstances.

We wanted him to come here and address Muslims as a leader who stands for justice and truth and who brings the people together. We wanted him to see the thrill and happiness of the Muslim community. We wanted him to inspire hope in the Muslim ma#ses in their leadership. Without any drastic change in his decision, his presence will be a source of anger, protests and disturbance for the whole Convention. We certainly do not want to see this large convention of Muslims turned into an arena of protest and counter protest and take our audience away from our main theme: "Islam: Faith and Civilization." We shall wait for an immediate response from the Prime Minister before making any further decision to receive him at the ISNA Convention.

Wa#salam.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi
President ISNA