ASPAIRE demands that the magazine should remove the article and apologize to all Muslim organizations
New York siyasat.net
ASPAIRE, a pro democracy alliance has welcomed the decision of the Indian American Muslim Council to meet their demand and incorporate the recommended changes in their letter to Newsweek.
Newsweek, an online magazine published a defamatory article headlined “COVID Relief Funds Went to Violent Extremists” on December 7, 2020 at 6:30 AM EST (https://www.newsweek.com/covid-relief-funds-went-violent-extremists-opinion-1552485). This piece made defamatory and patently false claims against several reputed and respectable Muslim American organizations
The Indian American Muslim Council then published a letter which other Muslim organizations found objectionable. After the private efforts failed, ASPAIRE issued a public demand from IAMC to join it in asking the Newsweek to apologize to all the Muslim organizations it had defamed
IAMC finally agreed to join ASPAIRE’s demand from the Newsweek and issued a new letter
The new letter now states:
“It is shocking that Newsweek has published a defamatory and libelous piece without giving any opportunity to the organizations who it calls “violent extremists” to respond to the allegations. I urge you to immediately withdraw Sam Westrop’s piece from your website and apologize to all the organizations that the article has defamed.”
The earlier letter was not only “weak” but was also throwing the other Muslim organizations such as ICNA and MAS under the bus by asking:
“urge you to immediately withdraw Sam Westrop’s piece from your website, or *at the very least delete the false allegations against IAMC* in it.
“Hindutva and Neocons had joined hands and have been attacking various Muslim organizations such as ASPAIRE and our allies such as Pieter Friedrich, a well known journalist. We must fight this evil alliance with unity and resolve. If we break our unity and run from one another then the enemies of humanity will try to hunt us one after another. We are still trying to get a letter from the national Muslim umbrella, the United States Council of Muslim Irganizations, USCMO,” said Dr Shaik Ubaid, the co – chair and founder of ASPAIRE
Newsweek agreed to one of the demands and dropped “ Anti Hindu from its description of IAMC but ASPAIRE has deemed it insufficient. It has continued with its demand that the magazine remove the article and apologize to all Muslim organizations it has defamed including the Islamic Circle of North America, Muslim American Society, ASPAIRE and IAMC
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India based Website)
