Dr. Tashbih Sayyed, publisher, broadcaster, and author, died of natural causes in Los Angeles. Muslim, Jewish and Christian mourners joined together to celebrate his life at a funeral service over the Memorial Day holiday.
Pictured here receiving a "Voice of Courage" award with co-recipient, Salman Rushdie, Dr. Sayyed was an outspoken voice for integrity and justice. As a head of Pakistani TV News, politics make it uncomfortable for his family to remain and they emigrated to the U.S. in the early 1980's. He founded The Council for Democracy and Tolerance, and was an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute.
Dr. Sayyed was respected for promoting honesty, freedom, and justice. Dr. Sayyed published the weekly newspaper "Pakistan Today" and "Muslim World Today" which bravely spoke-out against Zionophobia in Muslim culture and society.
He was awarded a "Voices of Courage" Award from the AJCongress in September, 2006. Videos of his remarks can be found on our site.
The film documentaries, "Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel" (2003) and "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" (2005) feature Dr. Sayyed.
As a regular columnist for newspapers in the US, Pakistan, Germany and India, Tashbih Sayyed wrote courageously on the Islamist threat to the world.
Dr. Sayyed's books include: History Of The World, Left Of The Center, Pakistan - An Unfinished Agenda, Mohammad - A secularist's View, Foreign Policy Of Pakistan, and Shadow Warriors - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Taliban. He inspired Muslim, Jewish, Christian and secularists to unite against Islamist tyranny. Dr. Sayyed leaves a wife and three children.
In his recent column, linked here, Dr. Sayyed points-out the common dynamic of Islamism vs Israel and Islamism vs Democracy:
"The rejection of Israel as a Jewish state by Israel's Arab minority has underlined the level of threat to Israel’s security which has never been so pronounced. It seems as if all the dark forces determined to undermine and overwhelm democracy and pluralism have joined hands;
* Hezbollah has convinced the world that Israel is not invincible;
* Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other Muslim states have arguably proved their effectiveness in convincing Washington that without validating Palestinian terrorism, it cannot win its war on Islamist fascism;
* Iran is on its way to gain the second Islamist nuclear bomb; and the
* international assaults on Israel’s character are gaining in momentum.
The Islamists’ demand to redefine the foundations of Israel is part of the same campaign that has been working not so discreetly in the US to replace the Jeffersonian civic religion by Islamist fascists.
It is in the US interest to watch how Israeli Arabs’ move to dismantle the Jewish state is shaping up. Just like the manner in which Islamist organizations in the US are taking advantage of our openness to destroy our Judeo-Christian foundations, Israeli Arabs are also taking advantage of a democratic constitution to subvert an open and pluralistic way of life.
It is an historical fact that fighting an internal enemy is much more difficult than defending against an external threat. Israel and the US both have fought off external enemies with success but now both are facing an enemy that has entrenched itself deep within their democracies. This onslaught on our freedoms from within has to be dealt with forthwith before it gets out of hand."
Tashbih Sayyed is featured here, addressing the Secular Islam Summit held in Florida in February (in the 22nd min of video).
