166-26 89th Avenue
Jamaica, NY
11432

• New York-based Islamic organization which has been probed by the FBI for ties to terrorism
• Works closely with radical Islamic organizations and invites radical speakers to its conferences

The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) was founded in 1971 as a "non-ethnic, non-sectarian, open-to-all, independent" grassroots organization. Its goal is "to seek the pleasure of Allah … through the … establishment of the Islamic system of life as spelled out in the Qur'an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad." Toward this end, ICNA endeavors to: "invite mankind to submit to the Creator by using all means of communications"; "motivate Muslims to perform their duty of being witnesses unto mankind by their words and deeds"; "organize those who agree to work for this cause in the discipline of ICNA"; offer educational and training opportunities to increase Islamic knowledge, to enhance character, and to develop skills for all those who are associated with ICNA"; "oppose immorality and oppression in all forms, and support efforts for civil liberties and socio-economic justice in the society"; "strengthen the bond of humanity by serving all those in need anywhere in the world, with special focus on our neighborhood across North America"; and "cooperate with other organizations for the implementation of this program and unity in the ummah [Muslim community]."

Based in Queens, New York, ICNA's activities include training camps, study circles, speakers' forums, night vigils, seminars, and retreats.

ICNA has established a reputation for bringing anti-American radicals to speak at its annual conferences. Moreover, experts have long documented the organization's ties to Islamic terrorist groups. Yehudit Barsky, a terrorism expert at the American Jewish Committee, has said that ICNA "is composed of members of Jamaat e-Islami, a Pakistani Islamic radical organization similar to the Muslim Brotherhood that helped to establish the Taliban." (Pakistani newspapers have reported that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a leading architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was offered refuge in the home of Jamaat e-Islami's leader, Ahmed Quddoos.) On September 27, 1997, another Pakistani Islamist leader, Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, played host to an ICNA conference at his Florida-based fundamentalist madrassa (religious school), which served as a recruitment center for Taliban fighters.

In 2000, CNSNews.com made public a press release, originally posted on a Middle Eastern website, from a July 2000 ICNA meeting, which read: "Jamaat e-Islami's supporters have an organization in America known as ICNA …" The press release also recounted some of the views expressed at the aforementioned ICNA meeting. These included an exhortation that "Islam must be translated into political dominance"; pleas for support for "jihad" in "Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq [against U.S. forces], southern Sudan, and … in Bosnia/Kosova [sic]"; an appeal for unity among Pakistani Muslims against "Hindu Brahmins and Zionist Jews"; and an endorsement of Muslim women's inclusion in carrying out jihad. One Islamic leader present at the ICNA event complained about "human rights violations" being carried out by the U.S. government against the terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel Rahman, spiritual leader of Egypt's Islamic Group.

In part because of such revelations, ICNA is now under investigation by U.S. authorities for possible connections to terrorist groups. In December 2003, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee requested that the Internal Revenue Service provide detailed information on 25 U.S. Muslim organizations, including ICNA.

In March 1996, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell stated, "One of the groups with Hamas ties is the Dallas-based Islamic Association for Palestine in North America, which, in turn, apparently is allied with the Islamic Circle of North America in New York." The New York Daily News reports that ICNA has been "probed by FBI counter-terrorism agents" for "terror ties."

Terrorism analyst Steven Emerson claims that ICNA has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological forebear of all radical Islamic movements -- including Hamas and al-Qaeda. Documents show that Hamas officials have participated in previous ICNA events. "The ICNA's hatred of the Jews is so fierce," writes Emerson, "that it taunted them with a repetition of what Hitler did to them." In his book American Jihad, Emerson expounds: "The ICNA openly supports militant Islamic fundamentalist organizations, praises terror attacks, issues incendiary attacks on western values and policies, and supports the imposition of Sharia [Islamic law]."

Joe Kaufman, co-founder of Americans Against Hate, reports that ICNA "has been linked to terrorist financing and has used the web to promote different terrorist groups, including Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and the Taliban."

ICNA was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document -- titled "An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America" -- as one of the Brotherhood's 29 likeminded "organizations of our friends" that shared the common goal of destroying America and turning it into a Muslim nation. These "friends" were identified by the Brotherhood as groups that could help teach Muslims "that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands ... so that ... God's religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions."

Also named in the Muslim Brotherhood document were:

• Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers
• Association of Muslim Social Scientists (of North America)
• Audio-Visual Center
• Baitul Mal Inc.
• Foundation for International Development
• International Institute of Islamic Thought
• Islamic Association for Palestine
• Islamic Book Service
• Islamic Centers Division
• Islamic Circle of North America
• Islamic Education Department
• Islamic Housing Cooperative
• Islamic Information Center (of America)
• Islamic Medical Association (of North America)
• Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
• Islamic Teaching Center
• ISNA Fiqh Committee (now known as the Fiqh Council of North America)
• ISNA Political Awareness Committee
• Malaysian Islamic Study Group
• Mercy International Association
• Muslim Arab Youth Association
• Muslim Businessmen Association
• Muslim Communities Association
• Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada
• Muslim Youth of North America
• North American Islamic Trust
• Occupied Land Fund (later known as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development)
• United Association for Studies and Research
  

ICNA works closely with the Muslim American Society (MAS), an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. ICNA has long held its annual conferences in conjunction with MAS. Speaking at a December 2002 conference sponsored by ICNA and MAS, Muslim cleric Shaker Elsayed complained in Arabic "about the subject unfairly named suicide bomber, homicide bomber, murderers, or killers. Our answer to this issue is simple … The Islamic scholars said whenever there is an attack on an Islamic state or occupation, or the honor of the Muslims has been violated, the Jihad is a must for everyone, a child, a lady and a man. They have to make Jihad with every tool that they can get in their hand … and if they don't have anything in their hand then they can fight with their hand without weapons."

A cognate view was expressed at an Islamic conference in Orlando, Florida, co-sponsored by ICNA. The keynote speaker at this event expressed support for suicide bombers, dismissed the notion that Muslims had any involvement with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, asserted that the U.S.-led war on terror was a Zionist plot intended to wipe out Muslims and Islam, and argued that attacks on affirmative action programs were attributable to "the rise of the Jewish cracker."

In 2000, ICNA held its 25th national convention in Baltimore. One of the featured speakers was Tayyib Yunus, head of ICNA's youth section, who used the occasion to appeal to American Muslims to send their children to Chechnya in order to wage jihad. Said Yunus: "We all want to see our youth to succeed to become doctors, to become engineers; but how many of you can actually say that you want to send your sons to jihad, to Chechnya? How many of you can actually say that you want to send your youth to fight in jihad?"

In the post-9/11 era, ICNA has taken a strong stand against the U.S. war on terror, the American military incursions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Patriot Act (characterizing it as an assault on the civil liberties of Americans, particularly Muslims). A member organization of the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition, ICNA in 2001 received a $100,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

ICNA chose not to endorse or participate in the May 14, 2005 "Free Muslims March Against Terror," an event whose stated purpose was to "send a message to the terrorists and extremists that their days are numbered . . . [and to send] a message to the people of the Middle East, the Muslim world and all people who seek freedom, democracy and peaceful coexistence that we support them."

ICNA reports that its "representatives visit public schools sharing knowledge of Islam as an attempt to correct the misrepresentations often found in secular reading materials." In pursuit of this objective, ICNA has formed an affiliation with the website DawaNet, which advocates turning public schools into forums for Islamic proselytizing. Among the suggestions offered to Islamic activists on that website is the following: "It is highly recommended that all Muslim students carry Dawa flyers in their schoolbags and purses to pass them on to their friends at school. To obtain free Islam brochures for distribution, contact the Islamic Circle of North America."

On numerous occasions, ICNA has explicitly excluded non-Muslims from its public gatherings. In September 2004, for example, ICNA sparked widespread controversy when, in cooperation with the management of the Great Adventure Theme Park in New Jersey, it organized a "Great Muslim Adventure Day" that barred non-Muslims from the park on that day. This annual tradition is still observed.

ICNA is listed as an endorser of C. Clark Kissinger's revolutionary communist movement World Can't Wait, and as a signatory of the latter's mission statement, entitled "Call to Drive out the Bush Regime." This statement alleges that the U.S. government "is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights"; "is openly torturing people, and justifying it"; "puts people in jail on the merest suspicion"; and "is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule."

ICNA has many subdivisions throughout the United States. One of these is ICNA South East Region, currently based in Atlanta but originally founded as a Florida enterprise. Its current website is devoted to announcements of the organization's various events and projects. But the old website, which was abandoned as a result of public criticism, featured links to the official websites of Hezbollah and Hamas. Also appearing on the old website (from March 1, 2000 through September 27, 2001) was the following message: "Remember Your Fellow Chechnyan Muslims. ICNA requests all Muslims around the world to include Chechnyan Muslims in their daily and Qunut prayers. We must show our spiritual and material support for our brothers and sisters being oppressed by the brutal Russian forces." Directly under the message was a link to the website, www.Qoqaz.net (a.k.a. "Jihad in Chechnya"), which was a project of Azzam Publications, an organization named for Osama bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam. Qoqaz.net was created specifically to raise finances and recruit fighters for al Qaeda-related groups and the Taliban.

In 1993, ICNA strongly condemned the Oslo accord which sought to establish peace between the Palestinians and Israel. In a joint statement with the Islamic Association for Palestine, the Islamic Committee for Palestine, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Arab Youth Association, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Muslim Students' Association, ICNA charged that Israel's creation in 1948 "had involved the unjust and illegal usurpation of Muslim and Christian lands and rights," and declared that "to recognize the legitimacy of that crime is a crime in itself and any agreement which involves such recognition is unjust and untenable."

ICNA's 2010 handbook laid out a five-level strategy towards achieving a "united Islamic state, governed by an elected khalifah in accordance with the laws of shari'ah (Islamic law)," right in line with the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine of gradualism.

On October 19, 2011, ICNA was one of 57 organizations to co-sign a letter that Farhana Khera, executive director of an Islamic organization called Muslim Advocates, wrote to Barack Obama's then-Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (and later CIA director) John Brennan. The letter demanded that Obama officials "purge all federal government training materials of biased materials"—that is, materials that they claimed were biased against Islam—and "implement a mandatory re-training program for FBI agents, U.S. Army officers, and all federal, state and local law enforcement who have been subjected to biased training." Joing ICNA as signatories were such groups as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Relief USA, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American Society, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

The Obama Administration immediately complied with the letter's demands. Dwight C. Holton, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, emphasized that same day that training materials for the FBI would be purged of everything that Islamic supremacists deemed offensive: "I want to be perfectly clear about this: training materials that portray Islam as a religion of violence or with a tendency towards violence are wrong, they are offensive, and they are contrary to everything that this president, this attorney general and Department of Justice stands for. They will not be tolerated."

ICNA's 2012 national conference featured at least a dozen Islamist speakers, including some who have supported Hamas and have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

On March 5, 2012, ICNA launched an initiative known as Defending Religious Freedom, Understanding Shariah, for the purpose of combating "Islamophobia" and dispelling Americans' negative attitudes regarding Islamic law.

In the fall of 2012, former ICNA president and secretary-general Ashrafuzzaman Khan was indicted for war crimes by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal, for his involvement in the torture and execution of 18 political opponents in 1971 during Bangladesh's fight for independence from Pakistan. The investigation into Khan's crimes was coordinated by Sanaul Huq, Inspector-General of Bangladesh's national police force. Said Huq: "They abducted an eye doctor, and then gouged his eyes out before killing him and dumping his body. They abducted a cardiologist and cut out his heart before killing him and dumping his body. They kidnapped a woman journalist, and cut her breasts off before killing her. Her decomposing body was later found with her breasts cut off. These victims were chosen because they were leading figures in the independence movement." In addition, the driver of an assassination squad identified Khan as the "chief executioner" who, on one occasion, had personally shot and killed seven teachers.

A July 27, 2013 interfaith dinner held by an ICNA chapter in Frederick, Maryland featured local officials and Christian clergy. One of the speakers, ICNA president Zahid Bukhari, told the audience: "Discrimination is a part of the American way. The only way to control that is to make alliances." This recommendation was consistent with the strategy outlined in the aforementioned 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document listing ICNA as one of 29 Islamist organizations that shared the common goal of destroying America and turning it into a Muslim nation.

In early 2014, ICNA's Chicago chapter published an educational guide that repeatedly referenced the teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood figures Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb. Among other things, this guide:

• teaches that jihad is the fight against forces that "oppose the Islamic Call," and that its aim is to ensure -- sometimes via war -- that the "evil sovereignty of beings other than Allah is wiped out";
• quotes Al-Banna's assertions that Western secularism "delayed [the Muslim world's] advancement for centuries"; that Muslims must "pursue this evil force to its own lands, invade its Western heartland"; and that the "struggle" must be continued "until … the teachings of Islam spread throughout the world. Only then will Muslims achieve their fundamental goal, and there will be no more ‘persecution' and all religion will be exclusively for Allah."
• says that Muslims must work towards "reinstating the Islamic caliphate system to the leadership anew as required by Shari'ah…"
• instructs Muslims to "contribute to the revival of the neglected faridas [enjoined duties] of enforcing the Shari'ah [Islamic Law] sent down by Allah"
• states that Muslims who are in a "position" to implement sharia law "must do so, while those unable to do so must speak out against the rule of Kufr [infidel] and call for the implementation of Shari'ah. If even this becomes impossible, un-Islamic government must be sincerely hated and despised for the pleasure of God and the upholding of Tawheed."
• asserts that the doctrine of "Gradualism" is important "in both thoughts and action, because the road to success is hard and long and the goals are ambitious and grandiose. The gradualist strategy pursues these goals through a tactic of incremental steps; each planned to build on the previous step in a carefully optimized time frame."
• urges "the Islamic Movement" not to "reveal all its strategies, plans, and organization, because this would be foolhardy and put the movement and its members in danger. The slogan should be, ‘Work in public but organize in secret' which accords with the Prophet saying, ‘Seek secrecy in what you do,' and ‘War is dissimulation.'"

ICNA's main charitable apparatus is an entity known as ICNA Relief. In August 2006, ICNA Relief was the top donor and partner to the Pakistani charity Al Khidmat Foundation (AKF), at the same time that AKF took a delegation to Damascus, Syria to hand-deliver nearly $100,000 to Hamas global leader Khaled Mashal at his residence. Mashal thanked the group and said that Hamas would continue to wage "jihad" against the "Zionist yoke" (Israel). ICNA Relief thereafter continued to work directly with AKF, which in 2015 named, as its president, former ICNA Secretary General Muhammad Abdus Shakoor.

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