MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD front group importing anti-Hindu hatred into America

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), like it’s sister organization CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), bills itself as a promoter of harmonious interfaith and interracial relations in the United States. In fact, it is a prominent source of anti-Hindu propaganda in America.

The U.S. Justice Department lists ISNA as an “entity” of the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical and often violent arm of the Islamic global political project. The Brotherhood’s goal is a worldwide caliphate with all of humanity living under sharia law. ISNA shares that goal.

ISNA is Radical Muslim organization.  Jihadwatch reports:  “The Islamic Society of North America is a radical Muslim organization that owns and runs mosques throughout North America, functioning as an “umbrella organization” and “clearinghouse” to connect all Muslim activities in the United States. Firmly believing in, and supporting, extremist Muslim views, the group places radical leaders within mosques, sometimes replacing current religious leaders with those of a more extreme persuasion. The Islamic Society of North America is connected closely to the Saudi-Wahhabi form of Islam, an extreme version of Islam which teaches that all non-Muslims are enemies and heathens.” 

Focus on Western Islamism  Aggressive anti-Hindu and anti-Indian propaganda was on full display at its annual convention that took place outside of Chicago earlier this month. Speakers and organizations with long histories of promoting anti-Indian hostility were given free rein to promote their message of hate at the convention.

Statements made during panel discussions about the decades long conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir –– as well as a variety of pamphlets distributed by other organizations at the convention –– were so aggressively hostile that observers might ask if ISNA is intent on bringing the India-Pakistan conflict into the United States as Islamists have done in the UK with false claims of kidnap and mosque attacks.

The convention featured one panel titled: “Hindu Nationalism: A Threat to Human Rights & Religious Freedom Globally.” The panel included Ajit Sahi and other members of the Indian American Muslim Council, (an organization whose spokesperson lamented the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2002).

Sahi’s presentation warned of “Hindutva,” or far-right Hindu Nationalism, which he described as an “existential threat” to Muslims in India and America. In addition to shamelessly comparing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Adolph Hitler, Sahi’s presentation drew endless parallels between “Donald Trump bringing neo-Fascism to America” and Prime Minister “Narendra Modi Bringing neo-Fascism to India.”

In closing his remarks, Sahi invoked the Crusades, reminding the audience that just as those Christians were ready to show their faith by committing genocide against Muslims all those centuries ago, so are Hindu Nationalists and the supporters of Modi today.

ISNA can’t claim ignorance when it comes to Sahi’s anti-Hindu agenda. A quick look into Sahi’s past reveals numerous examples of extreme anti-Hindu ideology.

One early video shows Sahi –– who was present in Tahrir Square during the 2011 Arab Spring demonstrations –– speaking to members of the Students Islamic Organization of India (SIO) and telling them that he believes India should have a Tahrir Square moment of its own. SIO, like Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), has strong ties to Jamaat-e-Islami.

Another video shows a young Sahi (again, addressing SIO) claiming that acts of violence committed across India by SIMI were actually committed by Indian intelligence agencies.

Ajit Sahi’s extremist positions extend beyond his disdain for Hindus and supporters of Modi. He has expressed his support for terrorist groups like ISIS and Hamas. He once tweeted: “A US citizen has the right to kill trespassers on his land. But the Taliban and ISIS are terrorists when they shoot the invader?” On another occasion, he tweeted his belief that ISIS is supported by the United States and that Israel is guilty of genocide.

Anti-Hindu rhetoric was also evident in literature distributed at the convention by Justice For All (JFA), a non-profit organization that describes itself as “a human rights organization focused on Muslim minorities.”

The front page of a JFA pamphlet distributed at ISNA’s convention featured a swastika set alongside an image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a hand gesture resembling a Nazi salute. Inside the booklet, a two-column chart posits a direct equivalence between “Indian Nazis” and “German Nazis.”

The pamphlet reports that “Hitler was a cult figure admired as the ‘unknown soldier’” just as “Modi is a cult figure admired as a humble chai wala (tea seller).” It also suggests that the law banning Kosher slaughter in Nazi Germany is mirrored today by boycotts and campaigns against halal slaughter in India – later admitting in the footnotes that there is no such law against halal in India.

Another pamphlet distributed by JFA purports to quote a Washington Post article declaring India as “The Most Racist Country In The World.” The article is an apparent fabrication with no record of its publication in the paper’s archives.

ISNA’s decision to allow JFA to rent a table at the exhibit hall at its convention is particularly troubling as JFA has lengthy, well-documented ties to violent terrorist organizations in South Asia.

JFA was established by Sound Vision Inc., the media wing of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which has long been recognized as the American branch of Jamaat-E-Islami – the Pakistani violent Islamist group largely responsible for the 1971 genocide and mass rape in Bangladesh that saw the demise of over 3 million Bengalis.

In 1977, Sound Vision’s current executive director, Mohammed Ahmadullah Siddiqi, founded SIMI, a banned terrorist organization in India. While he maintains that the SIMI he founded in the ‘70s is different than the terrorist organization it has since become, the organization supported book burnings and has called for the establishment of an Islamic state during Siddiqi’s tenure as its president.

One prominent JFA activist was a Pakistani named Ghulam Nabi Fai who was arrested in 2011 by US authorities for working covertly as an agent of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which transferred over $3.5 million to Fai for the purpose of influencing America’s policy towards Pakistan. Fai served two years in prison, and in that time, JFA has scrubbed all of Fai’s writings from its website, but one example of his work can be seen here.

Fai was present at the ISNA convention with his new organization, World Kashmiri Awareness Forum (WKAF), where he serves as the Secretary General. Serving as a board member of WKAF is Dr. Khalid Qazi, who in the past has provided financial support to the Bin Laden and Al Qaeda-linked charity, Global Relief Foundation – a US designated terrorist organization.

ISNA declared that speakers at its conference don’t reflect the views of the organization, but its bi-monthly magazine, Islamic Horizonspromotes similar hostility towards India and its Hindu population.

The cover story of the May/June issue is titled “Modicaust – The Final Solution for Indian Muslims.” Immediately, the issue begins with an editorial saying, among other things, that Prime Minister Modi is the “reincarnation of Adolph Hitler,” and that “Germany 1932 is here and now in India.”

Another article in the issue is titled “Hindutva is the new Hinduism in the new India.” Apart from the abundant hyperboles and half-truths, the article also promotes the false and dangerous idea that Hinduism is one and the same as extreme Hindu Nationalism.

The article asserts, just as Ajit Sahi attested during his remarks at ISNA’s conference, Hindu Nationalism is no longer confined to India and has spread to the West and the rest of the world. It has since become the most dangerous form of “Islamophobia,” posing the biggest threat to Muslims globally –– apparently replacing the alleged threat from Zionism.

Similar sentiments are also echoed in the January/February issue of Islamic Horizons, which wore as its front cover story, “Hindutva Fascism Finds a Home in the US.” Characteristically, this article draws baseless and inflated comparisons between Donald Trump, the British Nationalist Party, and Narendra Modi, but it also names as an ally of Hindutva Fascists, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).

As FWI has previously reported, ISNA’s popularity has declined substantially in recent years prompting members to ask what direction the organization is going. One question that ought to be asked of the organization’s leaders is if they are using anti-Hindu propaganda in a shameful attempt to maintain relevance in American society.

A number of major Democrats have cultivated highly significant ties to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). For example: Congressman Keith Ellison(Minnesota), who narrowly lost in his bid to become DNC chairman a few days ago, has spoken at ISNA’s massive national conferences on a number of occasions. Congressman Andre Carson (Indiana) has received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from ISNA-affiliated donors, as have Keith Ellison, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. And ISNA president Mohamed Magid was a key figure in Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security, where he was authorized to train and advise personnel affiliated with the FBI and other federal agencies.

Yet most Americans are entirely unaware of just how subversive and anti-American the Islamic Society of North America is.

ISNA was established in July 1981 by U.S-based members of the Muslim Brotherhood who also had been leaders of the Muslim Students Association (MSA). Muslim Brothers would dominate ISNA’s leadership throughout the Society’s early years, when it was highly dependent upon Saudi funding. ISNA’s founding missionwas “to advance the cause of Islam and serve Muslims in North America so as to enable them to adopt Islam as a complete way of life.” Today ISNA is the largest Muslim organization on the continent. Its annual conferences routinely draw30,000 to 40,000 attendees.

When ISNA was incorporated on July 14, 1981, its headquarters were located at the same address as those of the MSA. Eventually, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF)—the U.S.-based financing wing of Hamas—would share the address as well.

One of ISNA’s key founders in 1981 was Sami Al-Arian, who subsequently became the North American leader of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He was indicted by the Justice Department in 2003, was held under house arrest for several years, and finally was deported in 2015.

Another ISNA co-founder was Muzammil Siddiqi, who went on to serve two terms (1997-2001) as ISNA president and continues to sit on the organization’s governing board. Siddiqi has praised Islamic suicide bombers as “those who die on the part of justice” and consequently reside “with the Lord” in a place of “the highest honor.” Moreover, he has defined jihad as “the path” and “the way [for Muslims] to receive the honor.”

Yet another prominent founding member of ISNA was Mahboob Khan, who in 1983 helped establish the California-based Muslim Community Association, which at least twice hosted and raised money for Ayman al-Zawahiri, who would later go on to become al Qaeda’s second-in-command.

In November 1987, ISNA established its own Political Awareness Committee headed by Abdurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim Brotherhood operative who in 2004 would be convicted on terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Declassified FBI memos indicate that ISNA was identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front as early as 1987, and a 1988 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood document bluntly identified ISNA as part of the “apparatus of the Brotherhood.” Further, ISNA was explicitly named in a May 1991 memorandum as an ally that shared the Brotherhood’s goal of destroying America and turning it into a Muslim nation by means of a “grand Jihad.”

ISNA leadership rejects all practices and social mores that fail to comport with the Wahhabist vision of Islam propagated by Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood. For instance, Muzzamil Siddiqi calls homosexuality “a moral disorder,” “a moral disease,” “a sin,” and a “corruption” that merits the death penalty.

ISNA plays a major role in providing Wahhabi theological indoctrination materials to a large percentage of the mosques in North America. As such, it is able to influence the nature of the sermons given in those mosques, the selection of reading materials that are available in mosque libraries and bookstores, and the policies governing the exclusion of dissenters from any given congregation. Kaukab Siddique, a Lincoln University professor who has called for the destruction of Israel, avers that “ISNA controls most mosques in America and thus also controls who will speak at every Friday prayer, and which literature will be distributed there.”

ISNA’s central tenet is Jew hatred. On May 24, 1998, ISNA was one of 11 organizations that sponsored a Brooklyn College event where the Egyptian cleric Wagdy Ghoniem spoke about the “infidelity,” “stealth,” and “deceit” of the Jews, and referred to Jews as “descendants of the apes.” Three years later, when the U.S. government designated the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) as a terrorist organization, ISNA, which had raised money for the group, complained that HLF was being unfairly “targeted” by “pro-Israel organizations and individuals.” In December 2003, U.S. Senators Charles Grassley and Max Baucus of the Senate Committee on Finance listed ISNA as one of 25 American Muslim organizations that “finance terrorism and perpetuate violence.”

During its 2006 national convention, guest speaker Kamran Memon rationalized al Qaeda’s terrorist activities as understandable reactions to provocative American policies overseas: “Some Muslims in the Muslim world decided that they were just not going to take it anymore. They were angry at our ongoing support from their enemies, so they began to attack American targets to pressure our government to change its foreign policy.”

At ISNA’s convention a year later in Illinois, Parvez Ahmed of the Council on American-Islamic Relations defended the jihadist activities and agendas of Hamas and Hezbollah as “legitimate.” And at ISNA’s 2008 convention, a guest speaker lauded the “amazing work” that Hamas was doing to promote education and health care in the West Bank.

Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, assesses ISNA as follows: “ISNA … officials refuse to condemn both [Hamas and Hezbollah], will not label either as terrorist organizations, but instead refer to Hamas favorably as the ‘democratically-elected Palestinian government.’ ISNA studiously ignores the Hamas Charter—a virulently anti-Semitic tract which states that ‘Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it’—and the fact that violent jihad is a core principal of Hamas and Hezbollah.”

The truly incredible fact that ISNA’s president occupied a seat on Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security speaks volumes of the utter contempt in which Obama holds the United States and Israel alike.