This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/8148
Pro Jihad Jew Hating Islamonazis Are Calling For "Spreading The Faith Globally" aka Jihad Thru Dawah At PA Convention Center
August 3, 2025
https://munaconvention.com/speakers.php
MIM:The Muslim Ummah Of North America (MUNA) plans to hold their "Torchbearers Of Islam - Spreading The Faith Globally " Dawah Convention beginning on Friday August 8th until Sunday August 10th 2025 at the Pennslyvania Convention Center located in the heart of downtown Philadelphia.The convention organizers stated that they anticipate 25,000 participants will take over Philadelphia for the 3 day Jihad Fest.
Even if the half the anticipated amount of Muslims descend on Philadelphia i.e.12,500, Center City will effectively be transformed into the 'Center Caliphate'.Two weeks ago a group of 200 + Muslim men clad thobes and Muslim women wearing niqabs and abayas with their children stopped traffic on Market Street (not far from the scheduled conference venue) during the 8 am rush hour by kneeling in the road to pray and to send the message to non Muslims that no rules apply to them except for the 'commands of Allah' and that their Islamic precepts take precedence over infidels so they had better get used to their dhimmi status.(A dry run for the invasion of 25,000 Muslims on August 8th and mass public prayers perhaps?)
"Dhimmi was the name applied by the Arab-Muslim conquerors to indigenous ...non-Muslim peoples conquered and colonized by jihad." https://dhimmitude.org/
Video: https://x.com/mislammonitor/status/1948083705949417966?s=61
MIM: The list of speakers is a 'Who's Who' of Islamonazis whose openly stated ambitions are to turn America into a 'United States Of Allah' and replace the Constitiution with the Koran.One of the most prominent 'fuhrers' MUNA's self proclaimed "movement" aka Jihad, is Siraj Wahhaj, a black convert to Islam, who is an unindicted co conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the foiled "Day Of Terror' bombing spree, targeting New York landmarks like the Holland Tunnel with car bombs, Jewish businesses and politicians for assassination. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/world-trade-center-bombing-1993
MIM:The documented 1995 trial testimony of Imam Siraj Wahhaj on behalf of and in defense of the jihad plots mastermind Omar Abdel Rahman aka The Blind Sheik can be viewed here:
Siraj Wahhaj Testimony
United States District Court - Southern Division Of New York
United States Of America vs Omar Ali Abdel Rahman et al,
:https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1664.pdf
"When Omar Abdel-Rahman was on trial in 1995 for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government, Wahhaj testified as a character witness on the defendant's behalf. Describing Rahman as a "respected scholar … bold … [and] a strong preacher of Islam," Wahhaj said that he considered it an honor to have had an opportunity to host Rahman at his mosque."
MIM: Plot details posted on Wikipedia provides a quickly accessible background summary of the events with links to photographs etc..(Wikipedia sources should always be double checked for accuracy due to Wiki's documented leftist bias)
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The New York City landmark bomb plot
"The New York City landmark bomb plot was a plan to follow up the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was designed to inflict mass casualties on American soil by attacking well-known landmark targets throughout New York City, United States. If the attack had been successful, thousands likely would have died.[1]
Targets
The six targets to be attacked were the UN headquarters, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, the George Washington Bridge, the St. Regis and the UN Plaza Hotels, and the FBI's main New York office at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building.[5] There was also some talk of bombing Jewish targets in the city.[6] They also wanted to assassinate US Senator Al D'Amato and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_landmark_bomb_plot
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MIM: MUNA openly declares that their goal and 'fard' (religious obligation) Muslims is to bring about lslamic world domination: MUNA's name reveals their aim which is to bring about a 'Muslim Ummah In North America' and that their 'Torch Bearers Of Islam -Spreading The Faith Globally' is "not just an event, its a movement'.
Muslim Ummah of North America -MUNA
Lightbearer of Islam - I will spread religion all over the world
Today the world is waiting for the light of Islam, and you are the bearer of that light. So that light needs to be spread.
Join the Muna Convention 2025 — where thousands of Muslims unite, hearts unite, and faith renewed.
From knowledgeable discussions to lively communities — it's not just an event, it's a movement.
August 8-10, 2025
Pennsylvania Convention Center, Pennsylvania, USA
Let's be part of the movement.
Register now: https://muna.regfox.com/muna-convention-2025
MUNA promo video:
https://www.facebook.com/munanational/videos/-muna-convention-2025-is-coming-august-810-2025-pennsylvania-convention-center-p/1181370017339926/
Join 25,000+ attendees from across the U.S. for a powerful, faith-filled weekend featuring: 🎤 Dr. Yasir Qadhi | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Imam Siraj Wahhaj ✨ Separate Youth Conferences for Boys & Girls 📖 National Quran Competition 🤖 Hackathon & Robotics Showcase 🛍️ 300+ Bazaar Vendors 🎉 Learning, Fun, and Unity for the Whole Family! 🎟️ REGISTER NOW & GET 20% OFF! Visit 👉 www.munaconvention.com for full details. Don't miss the biggest Muslim convention of the year! 🌍💫
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhHlUoiWvyg
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About MUNA
The Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) is an advocacy group for Muslims that claims to promote the Islamic faith in North America, particularly in the United States, through interfaith dialogue and community outreach. 1 MUNA has been accused of being a proxy group for a Bangladeshi branch of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), a violent South Asian Islamist movement and political party founded in India by the Islamist theorist Abul Ala Maududi. MUNA has become an influential, Palestinian nationalist group within the United States and has ties to several radical Islamists from South Asia. 2 3 4
| Website: | |
| Location: |
Brooklyn, NY |
| Tax ID: |
13-3699933 |
| Tax-Exempt Status: |
501(c)(3) |
| Type: |
Religious Advocacy Group |
| Formation: |
1990 |
| National President: |
Delouer Hussain |
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/muslim-ummah-of-north-america-muna/
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The meaning of the Ummah
"The identity of the Muslim is solely to be a part of the global Islamic Ummah, without any connection to a nation-state or to another culture that is not the Islamic Ummah."
https://x.com/Ofer_binshtok/status/1876360297029517725
MUNA promo video:
https://www.facebook.com/munanational/videos/-muna-convention-2025-is-coming-august-810-2025-pennsylvania-convention-center-p/1181370017339926/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwb8Gzjq4bk
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Muna Convention 2025.
Torch Bearer of Islam. With this slogan, Muna Convention 2025 will be held on 8, 9 and 10th August 2025, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia.
Over 30 international Islamic scholars from around the world will address in convention. More than 25 thousand delegates will join the convention Inshallah.
More attractions are- Separate youth conferences Parallel sessions YOUNG SISTERS SESSIONS HEALTH CLINICS HALAL FOOD CORNERS CHILDREN'S LEARN & FUN PROGRAM BAZAAR & EXPO Early registration offers 25% discount So register fast. For more details, please visit www.munaconvention.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhHlUoiWvyg
Muslim Ummah of North America -MUNA·
https://www.facebook.com/munaconvention/
MIM:One of the most prominent speakers at the MUNA conference is Imam Siraj Wahhaj aka Jeffrey Kearse a Muslim convert who runs Masjid Al Taqwa in Brooklyn who described as "a voice that has inspired generations with his passion, wisdom, and unwavering dedication to spreading the faith."
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We are honored to welcome Imam Siraj Wahhaj to MUNA Convention 2025 — a voice that has inspired generations with his passion, wisdom, and unwavering dedication to spreading the faith.
Join us for a weekend of faith, unity, and global impact as we gather under the theme "Torchbearers of Islam: Spreading the Faith Globally."
Register now: https://muna.regfox.com/muna-convention-2025
August 8–10, 2025
Register now and be part of this unforgettable journey!
#muna2025 #ImamSirajWahhaj #TorchbearersOfIslam #MuslimConvention #IslamicEvents #FaithInAction #MUNAConvention #SpreadingTheFaith #UmmahUnited #YouthOfIslam
Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) is a faith based religious and social organization, established in 1990 as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Over the past three decades, MUNA has expanded its activities across the United States.
MUNA offers unique programs and services that seek to improve the individual, family, and the greater society by extending Dawah, imparting Islamic knowledge, promoting social service, engaging in community activism, and much more.
MUNA Endowment is created to provide perpetual financial support to Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) and its various projects. It operates as a registered charitable organization on its own while also supporting its sponsoring organization, MUNA.
MUNA Endowment aspires to foster a conducive environment and establish a cherished tradition for spreading the message of Islam and serving humanity in North America and beyond.
MUNA Endowment wants to promote knowledge and practice of Islam in North America by creating a sustainable financial strength to secure the necessary funding and ensure the continuity of MUNA programs and projects.
https://munaendowment.org/about-us/
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SIRAJ WAHHAJ aka JEFFREY KEARSE
Named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
* Invited Omar Abdel-Rahman, leader of a terrorist organization known as the Islamic Group, to address his congregation several times
* Advocates the replacement of the U.S. government with an Islamic Caliphate
* Supports violent Islamic jihad
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MIM:In a June 16, 2025 Instagram video posted by Imam Shamsi Ali, Wahhaj urges Muslims and non Muslims to vote for "two beautiful brothers" Zohran Mamdani and (Jew4Jiihad) Brad Lander ,saying 'New York City is one of the most important cities in the world". It's up to us. We can make a difference. Assalam Alaikumu'.
6w
InshaAllah Imam Siraj Wahhaj is our voice in America… listen to him!
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MIM: Transcript of Wahhaj's Instagram video posted by Imam Shamsi Ali 'recommending' that people vote for Zohran Mamdani:
"Assalemu Alaikum brothers and sisters.Imam Siraj Wahhaj your brother coming to make a recommendation.
You know we have one of the most important elections coming up soon and that is the mayor of NewYork City.You have to admit that New York City's one of the most important cities in the the whole world and alhamdullilah we want to make sure we make the right decision.
Allah has blessed us we have a very very very very good candidate,his name is Zohran Mamdani, you must have heard of him by now and he's not a novice he's not (unclear) he's a state legislator and he's running for mayor of New York City with alot of other folks.
Our recommendation,my recommendation and many many leaders that I know Muslims and non Muslims are recommending that we vote for this young man.
You know they have early primaries and you can start voting right now. You can vote to (unclear, up the fine people(?)
We are making a suggestion.Number one Zohran Mamdani and number two Brad Lander.These are two great brothers. Beautiful.
So please get out there and vote.Its up to us. We can make a difference."
Assalamu Alaikum"
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK-0qhiuP0a/
MIM: Indonesian born Imam Shamsi Ali is touted as a 'moderate' Muslim who 'is known for promoting interfaith dialogue' which is a euphemism for Dawah.He runs a madrassah for Muslim boys and youth at his mosque in Jamaica Queens. Shamsi Ali is the Chairman of the Al-Hikmah Mosque and is the director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, New York.
"Khalil Gibran School Arabic Public School With Clerical Advisory Board Must Be Shut Down As Religious School"
May 8, 2007
Excerpts:
"Imam Shamsi [Syamsi] Ali is member of the KGIA advisory board. He cynically stated that "People are very much excited-very much encouraged by the school...After Sept. 11, Arab communities felt misunderstood . Such a school I think will show our good intentions."
Ali's idea of good intentions involves promoting jihad by groups like the al-Qaeda linked Islamic Circle of North America [ICNA] at whose conferences and youth camps [referred to, pre-9/11 as "Jihad Camps"] he lectures.
In 2006 Ali was one of the speakers at a Muslim Youth camp near Philadelphia together with Mazen Mokhtar of the masjid Al-Huda of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Mokhtar, was accused of helping British al-Qaeda operative Babar Ahmad to create backup copies of the jihadist Azzam.com website. Court papers stated that the administrators of that website aimed to "solicit funds for blocked organizations, namely the Taliban and the Chechen Mujahideen, in an effort to support their goals."
The summer before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 ICNA held a Jihad Camp in Pennsylvania which one leader explained was "intended to "help them (the youth) understand what the concept of jihad really is."
At a 2000 ICNA event ICNA director Tayyab Yunus pleaded with the audience:
"The youth is very important...And we all want to see our youth succeed and become engineers, but how many of you can actually say you want to send your sons to Jihad-to Chechnya? [Takbir-Allua Akhbar] How many of you can actually say that you want to send your youth to fight in jihad…or to send them to these Islamic institutions to be educated? I'm sorry .Other than that, I honestly believe in my heart that this is the time, right now is the time." [source http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2090]
The presence of Imam Ali on the KGIA advisory board is further proof that the school's agenda will have more in common with the type of "Islamic institutions" which ICNA director Tayyab Yunus urged Muslim parents to send their children to in preparation for jihad.
Imam Ali comes by his affinity for madrassah's naturally, he runs one:
"At the Muslim Center of New York, in Queens, boys aged from seven to 14 rock back and forth as they memorise the Koran. It is a scene from thousands of mosques in the Pakistan many of their families left - except this is the US, with a very American attitude at the top. The imam, Syamsi Ali..." [source http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5277732.stm]
https://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2872
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MIM: Wahhaj gave $1,000 to the CAIR/Hamas run "Unity And Justice PAC' in May and made an Instagram endorsement/'recommendation' video for Zohran Mamdani in June.
Pro-Mamdani PAC Took Donation From Islamist Cleric (SIraj Wahhaj) Who Vouched For Terror Plot Mastermind
DAILY CALLER
By HUDSON CROZIER
July 10,2025
A super PAC supporting Zohran Mamdani's campaign for New York City mayor accepted $1,000 from a Muslim cleric linked to the architects of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist plots.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj donated to the super PAC Unity and Justice Fund in May, days before it funneled most of its money to a PAC exclusively supporting Mamdani for mayor, campaign finance records show.
Wahhaj has called for an Islamic state in America, and Mary Jo White, formerly the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, named him among involved people who are "unindicted persons" in the trial of a terror plot mastermind praised by Wahhaj as "a strong preacher of Islam." White's memo also said that the people on that list "may be alleged as co-conspirators," but Wahhaj was never charged. (RELATED: Socialist Org Says Zohran Mamdani Driving Membership Through The Roof)
Siraj Wahhaj Testimony by Hudson Crozier on Scribd
Unity and Justice Fund, Mamdani's campaign and Wahhaj, who leads the Brooklyn-based mosque Masjid At-Taqwa, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Wahhaj has denied any involvement in criminal conspiracies since the trial and called the FBI and CIA "the real terrorists..."
(Full article below) https://www.aol.com/pro-mamdani-pac-took-donation-212320574.html
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MIM: In a June 16, 2025 video Imam Siraj Wahhaj urges Muslims to vote for Zohran Mamdani.This Instagram video sounds like tha fulfillment of a goal for the Muslim takeover of New York Ciity which Wahhaj explained in a 1993 lecture he gave in Toronto. The full text of Wahhaj's talk is below:
"I gave a lecture in the University of Michigan. When the lecture was over, in the back, there was a woman, a Jewish woman, a professor in the university. She said: Imam Wahhaj, tell me, if the Muslims ever became a majority of the people of America would they then vote to implement the Sharia? Would they then vote to implement the Koran and the Sunnah [teachings of Mohammad] as the guiding principles in Islam? You know what? These people are always thinking ahead, thinking ahead. Brothers and sisters, study the demographics of the earth and the world. You'll see, Islam is rising everywhere. The numbers are phenomenal. But there is a problem. The problem is, we can't see them [Muslims] getting together, because somebody is working to keeps us apart. Somebody is active. How to stop him? We must be as active as they are, trying to work for unity. I come here, spit at my face if you like, I'll still work for unity [of the Muslims]. Everywhere you go, try to get the Muslims go together, to work together.
Why New York City? Because in New York City where are the greatest unifying axis happening right now, 41 different Muslim communities [are] working together consistently growing, the message of shura [decision-making process in consultation] is growing. 15 communities are waiting to join it now. Soon all 100 of Muslims communities in New York City, Allah Willing, will be working together. Why? Because will power, we desire, we must be willing into existence with Allah permission and let nothing stop us to help us work together. If we can do it in New York City we can do it in any city. Somebody, somebody has to say: man, despite what you're saying, despite what you do, we still not bringing it together, we don't work together in the path of Allah [في سبيل الله]. This is the attitude that we have to have and all the little differences, don't let the shaytan [Satan] come, don't let the enemies come to divide us..."
MUNA speakers bio for Imam Siraj Wahhaj :https://munaconvention.com/speakers.php
Pro-Mamdani PAC Took Donation From Islamist Cleric (Siraj Wahhaj) Who Vouched For Terror Plot Mastermind
DAILY CALLER
Bu HUDSON CROZIER
July 10,2025
A super PAC supporting Zohran Mamdani's campaign for New York City mayor accepted $1,000 from a Muslim cleric linked to the architects of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist plots.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj donated to the super PAC Unity and Justice Fund in May, days before it funneled most of its money to a PAC exclusively supporting Mamdani for mayor, campaign finance records show.
Wahhaj has called for an Islamic state in America, and Mary Jo White, formerly the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, named him among involved people who are "unindicted persons" in the trial of a terror plot mastermind praised by Wahhaj as "a strong preacher of Islam." White's memo also said that the people on that list "may be alleged as co-conspirators," but Wahhaj was never charged. (RELATED: Socialist Org Says Zohran Mamdani Driving Membership Through The Roof)
Siraj Wahhaj Testimony by Hudson Crozier on Scribd
Unity and Justice Fund, Mamdani's campaign and Wahhaj, who leads the Brooklyn-based mosque Masjid At-Taqwa, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Wahhaj has denied any involvement in criminal conspiracies since the trial and called the FBI and CIA "the real terrorists."
Three children of Wahhaj also received life sentences in 2024 on terrorism, kidnapping and conspiracy to murder charges for organizing a jihadist training compound in New Mexico used to plot attacks against the U.S. government, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Wahhaj told the press that he helped police find the training compound by reporting its location to the authorities.
In 1995, prosecutors named the imam among dozens "who may be alleged to be co-conspirators" in the trial of several men convicted of planning a terrorism campaign that included the first World Trade Center attack, court records show. The 1993 bombing killed six people and injured more than a thousand others, while the other violent plans were thwarted. Al Qaeda terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center's Twin Towers eight years later in the 9/11 attacks.
Defense lawyers used Wahhaj in the 1995 case as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric who later served a life sentence, according to media reportsand court documents. Prosecutors said Abdel-Rahman, commonly known as "the Blind Sheikh," helped orchestrate plans to murder hundreds of Americans, attack a U.S. military installation and assassinate Egypt's then-president. Several people connected to the World Trade Center bombing attended or visited Wahhaj's Brooklyn mosque around the time of the massacre. Abdel-Rahman died in 2017.
Wahhaj testified that he had met Abdel-Rahman on multiple occasions and called him a "respected scholar." By that time, Abdel-Rahman had already been a founder and spiritual leader of an Egyptian militant group that the State Department later designated a terrorist organization.
"He has memorized the many statements of Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him," Wahhaj said in court. "And he is bold, as a strong preacher of Islam."
Wahhaj has long drawn controversy by advocating for America's form of government to end.
"In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam," Wahhaj once said in a sermon, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The cleric told an audience at a 2011 conference that it's problematic for Muslims to discuss whether Sharia law should govern America, though he didn't rule out the idea. "The trap that we fall into is having a premature discussion about Sharia when we're not there yet," Wahhaj said.
Wahhaj said Mamdani, who calls himself Muslim, is a "very good candidate" for New York City mayor in a June 16 Instagram video, encouraging Muslims to vote for him.
Mamdani, the socialist state lawmaker, was officially declared the Democratic nominee on July 1 with 56% of the vote, beating more moderate establishment Democrats in the city's ranked-choice voting system.
Mamdani has seen widespread support from the left's pro-Palestinian factions over his stances on Middle East conflicts. Voices on the left and the right criticized him since June for refusing to disavow the phrase "globalize the intifada," which activists have made into a rallying cry despite it historically being tied to terrorism against Jews. Mamdani said the slogan symbolized "a desperate desire for equality."
After Wahhaj's May 22 donation to Unity and Justice Fund from a Georgia address, the super PAC gave $25,000 to the pro-Mamdani super PAC New Yorkers for Lower Costs, records show. The rest of Unity and Justice Fund's spending for May — $8,876.70 — went toward operational expenses and not to any other political campaigns, according to its Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. The super PAC's website carries a disclaimer saying that the PAC is "not expressly or otherwise authorized or requested by any candidate or the candidate's committee or agent."
The $25,000 from Unity and Justice Fund in May was a portion of more than $100,000 the group has given to different pro-Mamdani PACs, records show.
Unity and Justice Fund Treasurer Basim Elkarra also directs a political lobbying arm of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). In a partially-redacted documentfrom 2013, the DOJ referred to CAIR as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the 2007 trial of activists from the Holy Land Foundation who were later sentenced for funding Hamas. CAIR has denied any support for, or ties to, terrorism, despite the DOJ finding that it belonged to a "Palestine Committee" that a Hamas official led to advance the group's interests in the U.S.
CAIR Action, the lobbying group, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
https://www.aol.com/pro-mamdani-pac-took-donation-212320574.html
MIM: Siraj Wahhaj is scheduled to speak at the MUNA converntion to the 'Young Sisters Conference Session'.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj — Founder and Imam of Masjid At-Taqwa in Brooklyn, core organizer of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), and a nationally respected leader and advocate for justice and the empowerment of the Muslim American community — will be a speaker at the Young Sisters Conference Session at MUNA Convention 2025!
Let's join together to be inspired, uplifted, and connected with our sisters in Islam 
ROOM 121, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia
August 8–10
Register now at www.munaconvention.com
MIM: These are the topics which Siraj Wahhaj is scheduled to speak about.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj
Jumu'ah Khutbah
Wisdom in Action: Core Teachings That Shaped a Global Faith
Stewards of Peace: The Role of Islamic Teachings in Global Unity
Questions From the Audience
Palestine, Patience, and the Promise of Victory
Justice Under Fire: Echoes of Gaza in American Streets
https://munaconvention.com/#schedulesec
MIM:Imam Siraj Wahhaj was a founder of the Muslim Alliance In North America (MANA) with other "great minds" including "Imam Jamil" aka H.Rap Brownaka Hubert Gerold Brown aka Jamal Abdullah Al Amin a convert to Islam and jailed cop killer (life without parole narrowly avoiding the death penalty) who is portrayed as a 'martyred hero' by Wahhaj and his fellow 'clerics'. This timeline by the Islamist website Islamicity documents 'Imam Jamils' violent and sordid criminal history.
https://www.islamicity.org/1213/imam-jamil-al-amin/
Our Vision
"To see an America where justice, equality and righteousness reign and where the legacy of Islam lives on.
Who came up with the Idea of MANA?
MANA was the product of many great minds coming together from different organizations with a passion to serve and strengthen African-American Muslim communities. These groups included the community of Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, the community of (jailed cop killer) Imam Jamil, the community of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, and others."
https://manajustice.org/about-mana/
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MIM: Excerpt from Discover The Networks documentation about Siraj Wahhaj and his Masjid Al Taqwa's connections to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing attackers and the thwarted Day Of Terror Plot a mass casualty jihad assault which was planned throughout New York City.
"In 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named Wahhaj as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Soon thereafter, Wahhaj stated during one of his Al-Taqwa sermons, "I'm not frightened by no list, by no government! I thank Allah. I'm honored that they thought enough of me to put me on a list."3
Moreover, a number of congregants at Wahhaj's Al-Taqwa mosque were charged and convicted of having provided material support for Islamic terrorists during the period leading up to the World Trade Center bombing of '93. Wahhaj testified in court on behalf of each of them.
One of those congregants, Clement Rodney Hampton-El (a.k.a. "Dr. Rashid"), was a member of Jamaat al Fuqra, a Black Nationalist organization whose mission is to "purify" Islam through violence.4 Wahhaj, stating that he had known Hampton-El for ten years, called the defendant "one of the most respected brothers" in his entire mosque.
Another Al-Taqwa congregant, Ibrahim El Gabrowny, was a bomb-maker who assisted Islamic Group leader Omar Abdel-Rahman in his terrorism-related pursuits. When U.S. authorities searched El Gabrowny's home, they found taped messages from his cousin, the terrorist El Sayyid Nosair,5 urging violence and jihad: "Without fighting there will not be justice on earth.… We cannot establish God's rules on earth except by fighting." Testifying at El Gabrowny's trial, Wahhaj voiced flattering admiration for the defendant, who ultimately was sentenced to 57 years in prison.
Yet another noteworthy Al-Taqwa congregant was a diplomat of the Sudanese Mission to the United Nations, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, whom federal authorities described as the "ring leader" of the 1993 World Trade Center attack. Ali told an FBI informant that "he ha[d] connections that [would] allow him to drive a car carrying a bomb into a parking lot in the United Nations building." He also conspired to carry out attacks in Israel and referred to Jews as "sons of monkeys and pigs." "The sword is to be absolutely used and implemented," he declared. "This is as a principle."6 At Ali's trial, Wahhaj testified about his own favorable impression of the defendant, adding: "We don't accept the idea of terrorism. Our mosque is open to all, but not to fanatics." In the end, Ali was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
When Omar Abdel-Rahman was on trial in 1995 for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government, Wahhaj testified as a character witness on the defendant's behalf. Describing Rahman as a "respected scholar … bold … [and] a strong preacher of Islam," Wahhaj said that he considered it an honor to have had an opportunity to host Rahman at his mosque.
In February 2001 Wahhaj, along with Ihsan Bagby, founded the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), an umbrella group for African-American mosques and Islamic centers. Wahhaj went on to serve as the organization's president, and to this day he sits on its executive committee.
In August and September of 2001, just prior to the 9/11 attacks, Wahhaj was a guest speaker at a "jihad Camp" in Pennsylvania, where adult participants took part in paintball practice and learned about the glorious afterlife that awaited Islamic martyrs who died for the cause of their faith. The camp was organized by Safet Abid Catovic, a leader of the Benevolence International Foundation, a "charity" that would be shut down in November 2002 on charges that it had provided funding for al Qaeda.
DISCOVER THE NETWORKS DOCUMENTATION - SIRAJ WAHHAJ aka JEFFREY KEARSE
Siraj Wahhaj was born as Jeffrey Kearse on March 11, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York, where he was raised in the Baptist faith. He
studied biology education at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada.
Wahhaj developed an interest in Islam shortly after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., which prompted him to go "looking for more militancy." He found that militancy in the black separatist movement and became involved with the Nation of Islam (NOI) and its leader, Louis Farrakhan, under whose mentorship Wahhaj converted to Islam in 1969. Wahhaj was also influenced by such major NOI figures as Elijah Muhammed, Warith Deen Muhammed, and Malcolm X. Under the sway of such individuals, Wahhaj in the early 1970s became a Nation of Islam minister and began promoting a separatist doctrine which held that "white people are devils." ("I preached it. I taught it," he now acknowledges.) But before long, Wahhaj became cognizant of NOI's differences from mainstream Islam, left the organization, and pursued a career as a traditional Sunni Muslim cleric.
Wahhaj claims to have completed his training as a cleric at Umm al Qura University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1978. But that university was not establisheduntil 1981. Prior to that time, it was known as The Colleges of Shari'ah and Education and was a branch of the Jeddah-based King Abdul Aziz University, which was renowned as a hub for young radical terrorists. Indeed, Osama bin Laden, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, and Wael Jalaidan—all co-founders of al Qaeda—were affiliated with King Abdul Aziz University in the 1970s and early '80s.
In 1981 Wahhaj founded his own mosque, known as Masjid Al-Taqwa, which initially had a membership of fewer than 25 people and was based inside a friend's Brooklyn apartment. Today, however, Wahhaj's large Al-Taqwa mosque is recognized by Muslims all around the world.
On numerous occasions during Masjid Al-Taqwa's early years, Wahhaj invitedOmar Abdel-Rahman, leader of the terrorist organization known as the Islamic Group, to address his (Wahhaj's) congregation as a guest preacher.
Notwithstanding his ties to King Abdul Aziz University and Omar Abdel-Rahman, Wahhaj, during his first decade as an Imam, managed to cultivate an image as a moderate in the eyes of the American public. As such, in 1991 he was given the honor of being the first Muslim ever to recite an opening prayer before a meeting of the U.S. House of Representatives.
That same year, however, Wahhaj, in a speech to the Islamic Association of North Texas, characterized Operation Desert Storm (the U.S.-led military campaign to drive Saddam Hussein's invading forces out of Kuwait) as "one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals of history." Moreover, he predicted that America would fall unless it "accepts the Islamic agenda."
In a September 1991 speech in Toronto, titled "The Afghanistan Jihad," Wahhaj told his fellow Muslims:
"Those who struggle for Allah, it doesn't matter what kind of weapons [you use], I'm telling you it doesn't matter! You don't need nuclear weapons or even guns! If you have faith in Allah and a knife! If Allah wants you to win, you will win! Because Allah is the only one who fights. And when his hand is over your hand, whoever is at war against my friends, I declare war on them…. The Americans are not your friends … The Canadians are not your friends … The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe. These people will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion …"
Two months later, Wahhaj urged U.S. Muslims to become politically active as a means of augmenting the influence of their faith: "As long as you remember that if you get involved in politics, you have to be very careful that your leader is for Allah. You don't get involved in politics because it's the American thing to do. You get involved in politics because politics are a weapon to use in the cause of Islam."1
In a 1992 sermon, Wahhaj emphasized the importance of jihad to his Al-Taqwa mosque congregation: "I will never ever tell people, 'don't be violent, that is not the Islamic way.' The violence has to be selected…. Islam is the only answer because it is only Islam that we do it for Allah…. [We are] commanded to do jihad…. [W]hen Allah commands us to fight we are not stopping, no one will stop us."
In an autumn 1992 address to an Islamic gathering in New Jersey, Wahhaj expressed his desire to have Muslims seize control of the United States and replace the country's constitutional government with an Islamic caliphate. "If we were united and strong," Wahhaj said, "we'd elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him…. [T]ake my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us."
Wahhaj has revisited this theme Islamic dominion over the United States many times over the years. For example, he has said:
Shortly after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the U.S. State Department designated Sudan, which had become a safe-haven for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, as a state sponsor of terrorism. In response to that designation, Wahhaj said defiantly:
"May Allah bless Sudan … these are people who want to establish the Shari'ah, establish Quran, and Sunnah, they want to establish the religion and therefore hated by the government of the USA…. I'm not going to make you comfortable because our book, the book we believe in, is not Dale Carnegie's, How to Win Friends and Influence People; But it's the Quran."
Wahhaj has long supported every facet of Sharia Law, including its call for brutal punishments like the removal of one's hands as the penalty for theft, and death by stoning as the penalty for adultery. By Wahhaj's reckoning, such harsh measures are wholly justified by Islamic scripture. As he proclaimed in a May 1992 sermon: "I would cut off the hands of my own daughter [if she stole] because Allah stands for Justice." On another occasion, Wahhaj said: "If Allah says 100 strikes, 100 strikes it is. If Allah says cut off their hand, you cut off their hand. If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it's the obedience of Allah and his messenger—nothing personal."
Wahhaj has been a longtime supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization that seeks to create a worldwide Islamic caliphate, or kingdom, governed by Sharia Law. In the summer of 1994, Wahhaj attended a Hizb ut-Tahrir conference in London, where Islamists openly called for jihad, denounced democracy, and declared that "the Islamic system is the only alternative for mankind." Less than a week later, back in the U.S., Wahhaj lauded Hizb ut-Tahrir's "scholarly brothers" for their "good insight" and "their pushing for the Khilafah [Caliphate]."
In 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named Wahhaj as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Soon thereafter, Wahhaj stated during one of his Al-Taqwa sermons, "I'm not frightened by no list, by no government! I thank Allah. I'm honored that they thought enough of me to put me on a list."3
Moreover, a number of congregants at Wahhaj's Al-Taqwa mosque were charged and convicted of having provided material support for Islamic terrorists during the period leading up to the World Trade Center bombing of '93. Wahhaj testified in court on behalf of each of them.
One of those congregants, Clement Rodney Hampton-El (a.k.a. "Dr. Rashid"), was a member of Jamaat al Fuqra, a Black Nationalist organization whose mission is to "purify" Islam through violence.4 Wahhaj, stating that he had known Hampton-El for ten years, called the defendant "one of the most respected brothers" in his entire mosque.
Another Al-Taqwa congregant, Ibrahim El Gabrowny, was a bomb-maker who assisted Islamic Group leader Omar Abdel-Rahman in his terrorism-related pursuits. When U.S. authorities searched El Gabrowny's home, they found taped messages from his cousin, the terrorist El Sayyid Nosair,5 urging violence and jihad: "Without fighting there will not be justice on earth.… We cannot establish God's rules on earth except by fighting." Testifying at El Gabrowny's trial, Wahhaj voiced flattering admiration for the defendant, who ultimately was sentenced to 57 years in prison.
Yet another noteworthy Al-Taqwa congregant was a diplomat of the Sudanese Mission to the United Nations, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, whom federal authorities described as the "ring leader" of the 1993 World Trade Center attack. Ali told an FBI informant that "he ha[d] connections that [would] allow him to drive a car carrying a bomb into a parking lot in the United Nations building." He also conspired to carry out attacks in Israel and referred to Jews as "sons of monkeys and pigs." "The sword is to be absolutely used and implemented," he declared. "This is as a principle."6 At Ali's trial, Wahhaj testified about his own favorable impression of the defendant, adding: "We don't accept the idea of terrorism. Our mosque is open to all, but not to fanatics." In the end, Ali was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
When Omar Abdel-Rahman was on trial in 1995 for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government, Wahhaj testified as a character witness on the defendant's behalf. Describing Rahman as a "respected scholar … bold … [and] a strong preacher of Islam," Wahhaj said that he considered it an honor to have had an opportunity to host Rahman at his mosque.
In February 2001 Wahhaj, along with Ihsan Bagby, founded the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), an umbrella group for African-American mosques and Islamic centers. Wahhaj went on to serve as the organization's president, and to this day he sits on its executive committee.
In August and September of 2001, just prior to the 9/11 attacks, Wahhaj was a guest speaker at a "jihad camp" in Pennsylvania, where adult participants took part in paintball practice and learned about the glorious afterlife that awaited Islamic martyrs who died for the cause of their faith. The camp was organized by Safet Abid Catovic, a leader of the Benevolence International Foundation, a "charity" that would be shut down in November 2002 on charges that it had provided funding for al Qaeda.
Soon after the horrors of 9/11, Wahhaj spoke at a convention in Baltimore sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America.
On October 20, 2001, Wahhaj, angered by U.S. government's post-9/11 efforts to identify and apprehend Islamic extremists, told a meeting of Muslim activists in Houston:
"[T]his [American] government has already sent in[to] every major [mosque], agent provocateurs. Most of you don't know what that is. All you know is about spies. The government has spies, they have infiltrators. But there's some difference from being a spy and an agent provocateur. What an agent provocateur does, he goes to a [mosque], he looks just like you. He's got a beard just like your beard… And their job is to entrap you no different than the prostitute, the police women dressed as a prostitute, whereas he's coming to the [mosque], dressed as a Muslim."
With similar derision, Wahhaj has referred to the FBI and CIA as the "real terrorists" whom Americans—particularly Muslim Americans—should fear.
In June 2004 Wahhaj spoke at an event titled "Next Generation Muslims—Education & Survival," which was organized by the Universal Heritage Foundation, a Florida-based outpost of Islamism and anti-Semitism.
At a 2005 Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) banquet in Georgia, Wahhaj expressed support and sympathy for Rafik Abdus Sabir and Tarik Shah, terror operatives who had recently been indicted for plotting to open an al Qaeda training camp in the United States. Both Sabir (a medical doctor who had pledged to fly to Saudi Arabia to provide medical aid and training for al Qaeda terrorists) and Shah (the son of a former Malcolm X aide who was himself associated with the Nation of Islam) had sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
In August 2006 Wahhaj was a guest speaker at an event organized by Young Muslims, where he shared the stage with Mazen Mokhtarm, youth director for the Muslim American Society's New Jersey chapter. Mokhtarm has referred to the terrorist group Hamas as a "heroic" organization.
Wahhaj was one of the six Islamic clerics who were involved in the infamous "Flying Imams" controversy of November 21, 2006. Having just attended a conference of the North American Imams Federation in Minneapolis, Wahhaj and five fellow Imams were among the passengers waiting to board US Airways Flight 300, which was scheduled to fly from Minneapolis to Phoenix. Shortly before boarding, a number of passengers in the airport terminal heard the Imams making anti-American comments vis à vis the Iraq War, and praying loudly (with repeated chants of "Allah, Allah, Allah"). Then, when the Imams boarded the flight, they sat in separate sections of the plane; some of them asked for seat-belt extensions (which the flight attendants thought the Imams did not need). When a number of passengers expressed alarm regarding the Imams' behavior (and concern that the seat-belt extensions might be used as weapons), authorities required the Imams to deboard the plane prior to takeoff. Wahhaj and his cohorts subsequently depicted themselves as victims of "Islamophobia."
Over the course of his career as a religious leader, Wahhaj has held numerous prestigious and influential posts. He has served as a board of advisors memberof the American Muslim Council; a national board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); vice president of the Islamic Society of North America; a member of the Majlis al Shura, a consultative council of Islamic scholars; executive committee chairman of the Muslim Alliance of North America; a board of trustees member of the North American Imams Federation; and a board of advisors member of the North American Islamic Trust (1989-1993).
Since the early 2000s, Wahhaj has been the designated fundraiser at many CAIR banquets. In that role, he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the organization.7 In October 2009, Wahhaj was a featured speaker at CAIR's 15th anniversary celebration in Washington, DC. A noteworthy fellow speaker at that event was Jesse Jackson.
In August 2018, Wahhaj's son, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was arrested after law-enforcement authorities, in a raid of a New Mexico property that he owned, found 11 kidnapped children as well as evidence that one boy had been murdered there; the authorities said that the land was being used as a "training ground" for school shootings and terrorist attacks. In May 2019, the FBI uncovered yet another terrorist training camp on land owned by the younger Wahhaj, this time a "makeshift military-style obstacle course" in Macon County, Alabama.
Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz has said the following about Wahhaj:
In June 2023, Wahhaj endorsed the political campaign of Yusef Salaam — one of the infamous black assailants who in 1989 had brutally raped and beaten Trisha Meili, a young white woman whom the press collectively dubbed "the Central Park jogger." Salaam was now running for a City Council seat in Harlem, New York.
NOTES:
1 Audio, Siraj Wahhaj, "The Muslim Agenda in the New World Order," Islamic Association of Northern Texas, Dallas, TX, November, 15, 1991.
2 Paul M. Barrett, American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion (New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2007), p. 115.
3 Siraj Wahhaj, "Who are the Real Terrorists?" Jumu'ah Khuttbah, Masjid At Taqwah, February 17, 1995.
4 Jerry Seper and Steve Miller, "Militant Muslims seek Virginia base; Group Abandons Communes in West," The Washington Times (July 1, 2002), p. A1.
5 Nosair was convicted of involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was also tried for, but not convicted of, the 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League.
6 Steven Emerson, Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America, DVD, Ventura Distribution, 2001.
7 For Example: CAIR Fundraiser, Vienna, Virginia, October 7, 2001; CAIR Fundraiser, Orange County, California, October 19, 2002; CAIR Fundraiser, Anaheim, California, October 4, 2003; CAIR- Fundraiser Southern California, October 9, 2004; CAIR-San Jose Fundraiser 11.7.10; CAIR Fundraiser – Orange County, California, 10.30.10; CAIR–Anaheim, 11.1.08; CAIR Fundraiser – Anaheim, 11.10.07; CAIR Fundraiser, 11.18.06; CAIR-San Francisco 9.17.06; CAIR New York Fundraiser, July 7, 2008; CAIR San Diego, 1st Annual Fundraising Banquet, September 17, 2006.
[8] Unindicted Conspirator Linked to WTC Bombing Siraj Wahaj Being Brought to FAU Campus by Muslim Student Organisation & MAS (Militant Islam Monitor, January 17, 2005)
[9] Joshua Rhett Miller, "Controversial Imam to Join Jesse Jackson at Muslim Group's Banquet," Investigative Project On Terrorism, October 20, 2009
[10] Joshua Rhett Miller, "Controversial Imam to Join Jesse Jackson at Muslim Group's Banquet," Investigative Project On Terrorism, October 20, 2009
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/siraj-wahhaj/
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MIM: In this 1993 speech in Toronto after the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing carried out by the Al Qaeda linked terror cell The Armed Islamic Group headed by Egyptian Imam Omar Abdel Rahman aka the 'Blind Sheik' and their thwarted 'Day Of Terror Plot',Wahhaj played the victim card and whined that the U.S.government and Americans were treating Muslims with suspicion. Wahhaj himself was an unindicted co conpirator in the the 1993 bomb plot and testified as a character witness for 'The Blind Sheik'. He stated that the WTC attack '"had all the fingerprints of agencies like the Mossad."
Siraj Wahhaj's Lecture On Terrorism, Islamophobia, Jews And Islamic Global Dominance
September 23, 2018 by ACD
Siraj Wahhaj is the Imam of Masjid Al-Taqwa in Brooklyn, New York. He accepted Islam in 1969 and received Imam training at Ummul Qura University of Makkah in 1978 and has gone on to become a national and international speaker on Islam.
Here is the transcript of Siraj Wahhaj's lecture in Toronto in 1993:
Siraj Wahhaj: I pray to Allah the Almighty the message that we will share with you both Muslims and non-Muslims, it'll be one that you take from this auditorium tonight and go to work, because tonight I'm going to commission everyone of you, especially the leaders to do something.
While we sit in this auditorium tonight the government of the United States of America is planning to build colonies in space. While we watch a baseball game, or basketball game, or football game, there is a very serious thinkers in this country who late at night, when many of us sleep, they plan. 35 million miles from here, the planet Mars, the government of the United States of America has spent untold billions of dollars, space exploration, and you know what, we have no doubt that we can build colonies in space. That is not what I'm concerned about. I think we can go there and build colonies on Mars and other planets. That is not my concern. My concern is that the problems that we have here on this earth, if we don't settle here whatever colonies we build in space the same problems will be there.
So tonight I want to talk about a very crucial topic. This topic, terrorism and Islam, is not just for non-Muslims. You better know, every Muslim in this auditorium tonight, every Muslim in Toronto and in London and in all over Canada must know about this topic.
So tonight I want to talk about who are the real terrorists, who are the real terrorists. Brothers and sisters, right now, somebody, real people are creating an image or atmosphere so that the masses of the people believe that Muslims are terrorists, fanatics, bad people, evil people.
I want to share experience with you that happened to me about four weeks ago. I was on my way from Los Angels back here to New York City, and when I got on the plane I sat down in the aisle seat waiting to the plane to take off, and as I sat down an European American woman came with her luggage and she excused herself and she sat down next to me on the window seat. Now from my peripheral vision I can see on the side as I was looking forward [that] this woman was looking around the plane, and I knew that she would gonna get up in the seat, and she got up and got the baggage and said: Excuse me for a moment. And I watched her as she went to the front of the plane, she crossed over and sat on the seat. And I said fine, no problem, get more space. It's no problem, right. Some [are] sitting there. they're waiting, reading and waiting for the plane to take off. All of a Sudden another woman [is] coming, another young girl, European American woman, she has a luggage and sits down next to me. And she started looking around. Now at that moment I got looked paranoid and I started checking myself up [smelling his armpits] to make sure I'm ok. I know that I'm ok, but she got up and said: Excuse me sir, but I want to get off the plane and take another plane. And by the way I sat by myself on that plane.
A week later, I was in the City of Winnipeg, Canada and you know whenever you go from one country to the other you have pass through security, customs and immigration, and I've just received an award from the Muslims of Winnipeg, and I went through the security and came to the customs, and the security officer he said, he looked at my award and he stepped all the way back and said: What's that? a bomb? Now, Brothers and sisters, I thought the man was joking but he was serious. Could you imagine what happened I once [ would arrive] at the airport of Toronto and I go to the customs office and said: Ha, ha this is a bomb, hahaha, this is a bomb hahaha. You know what would happened to me? They would arrest me, because you can't joke like that. Now, Brothers and sisters, why would these women move away from me? What was on their mind? I'll tell you why, and I'll tell you why the customs officer said about me whom he don't know, 'a bomb'. Why would I have anything to do with a bomb? You don't know me. Because I look like a fundamentalist. I look like a terrorist. I have the image of beard, a kofia [a brimless cylindrical cap with a flat crown], a thawb [an ankle-length garment] or something like that. Because somebody is working to put into the mind of the average Canadian citizen and American citizen that Muslims are synonymous with terrorists.
They know exactly what they are doing and tonight, brothers and sisters, I'd like to uncover and ask the question: Who are the real terrorists? Somebody is working. Now brothers and sisters, right now as I'm speaking to you, in New York City there is a trial taking place. Four Muslims are accused of blowing up the World Trade Center in February 26 of this year. A real tragedy. Six people lost their lives and we ought not make mockery of that, it could have been anyone of us, it could have been in fact a Muslim. Over thousand people [were] wounded. We don't make mockery of that. In fact, an act of terrorism for sure. But my question to you tonight to this audience: Who blew up the World Trade Center? I don't think that the people who did [it] is in custody.
Brothers and sisters, I predicted about two years ago that the government of United States of America is going to try to discredit Muslims, especially in New York City. Why New York City? You may not notice that the Muslims in New York City have grown to such a degree that the Mayor of New York City, African American, first African American, has a good rapport with the Muslim community to such a degree that whenever there is a problem in the city he calls Imam Siraj [Wahhaj], Imam Abdul Amin Latif and the Muslims to give their input, to give the advice and this Mayor signed into law that the two days of the Eid [Islamic holiday] is an official holiday in New York City. According the government's figures there are between 800,000 and a million Muslims in New York City. 800,000 Muslims in New York City. If you understand who the real terrorists are, this is unacceptable. Who are they?
Tonight I want to talk about three entities. Number one – The government of the United States of America. Number two – big business, multi corporations. Number three – The media. [The] Government of United States of America, Big Business and multi corporations.
Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessing be upon him, said the pen is lifted in three cases, meaning that a person doesn't have responsibility for what they do under these circumstances, a person who is majnoun, crazy, insane. And if a person was insane that's something that he is not held accountable by Allah, because he is insane. Even in the courts of America and Canada if a person commits a crime when he is insane he doesn't go to jail. He goes to the hospital, because he doesn't have a real motive, because he is insane. So, a person who is asleep until he wakes up. If a person was asleep and he gets a gun and he shoots someone then there is no crime on that person because he is asleep. The pen is lifted. And the third case, a young child until reached the age of maturity. Two year old baby doesn't understand what he is doing. So the pen is lifted. This teaches us a very crucial fact.
Everything in life that is done, everything, every word, every action that people do there has to be a motive for it. There is a reason why something that spurs people on, make people do things, make people react the way they do. So, a detective whenever a crime is committed they ask the question: What is the motive? إنما الأعمال بالنيات [hadith – The deeds are considered by the intentions], deeds are by motives. What is it that makes the man move, the woman move? What is it? What is the motive? Yes, What is the motive? A crucial question when somebody commits a crime. Why did they rob the man? He wanted money. Why did you hurt the person? I don't like his… Why? And unless you are insane there is a reason why, that spurs you that drives you to do the things that you do.
And brothers and sisters I got a confession to make. I used to watch a program, used to. See I have an advantage over you. I used to be a non-Muslim. Most of you were born Muslims. I used to watch a movie, s detective program called Colombo… I liked Colombo, you know why? Because he was a so smart detective. You know, he… people, he started talking to a person you know a regular conversation, you know and then he looked like he gonna leave, you know, so he was about to walk off the door and he comes back and says: you know what, something is puzzling me. You know, because he sees some glaring contradiction, and that is this trade mark, he walks away and comes back.
Brothers and sisters this is this. February 26, [1993] World Trade Center was bombed. I was then in United Kingdom so don't blame me. I came back. They have gotten suspects who blew up there. Muslims of course, right? Now come on sisters, guys, remember this. In the United States and in Canada the presumption of innocence is always there, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court of law. This is the presumption. Everybody has the presumption of innocence. You have to prove that the person did it. The person don't have to prove that he didn't do it. You must prove beyond reasonable shadow of doubt that he person committed a crime. That's the way it is. That's the law.
Now, there is a man, they grabbed him. How did they grab him? Brothers and sisters listen to me. Allah knows that I'm not suppose to teach you anything criminal, but today I'm going to take an exception. I want to teach you something about crime. Imam I'm sorry please forgive me, Allah please forgive me. I have to teach them something about crime. Now, this is a very fundamental crime. Whenever you want to rob a bank, don't rob banks, right? Don't. Whenever you want to rob a bank never ever ever drive your own car to rob the bank. You steal a car. This is fundamental. Everybody know that, right?
Now, this person who was picked up for blowing up the World Trade Center, he rented a van. No problem. He didn't steal a van, he rented a van. No problem, right? But he used his right name. Why would a person blow up a building, rent a van with his own name and his right address and go back to ask for a refund? Brothers and sisters, either this is the dumbest criminal ever in annals of history or the man was set up.
Who set him up and why? Now, Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman on every list of United States Government [it is written] don't let this man into the country, because he is known as a Muslim fundamentalist. Don't let him into the country, but all of a sudden Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman is in America. Why? Who let him in? What's the reason? What's the motive? And why New York City? Then after that some people picked up planning to blow up the United Nations, the bridges and tunnels and among those included are five Sudanese. Why Sudanese? Why New York City? What's the connection, Shiek Abdul Rahman and the so called the plot to blow up the tunnels and the bridges and the plot to blow up the World Trade Center? All of them are connected in New York City for a reason.
Tonight I want to ask the question, answer the question: Who are the real terrorists?Now,brothers please stay with me. Some of you are sitting here right now. You don't accept conspiracies. No brother Siraj, there is no conspiracy, no coincidence. I say: no coincidence, conspiracy. Daily Time magazine on the trail of terror, a person accused as the ringleader in the plot to blow up all of these buildings and Mahmoud and New York city. Many many articles in newspapers and magazines you read about that. Islamic fundamentalist, terrorist and things like that. Now, I was saying conspiracy, in a conspiracy against the Muslims, but the question is what is the motive? What is the motive? Who and why? Why? Why? Why now?
I was watching a television program about for weeks ago early in the morning, this program by the way come early morning, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the morning, is called The America Defense Monitor. The America Defense Monitor. What this program does – it talks, analyzes about what's happening in America. This particular morning they talked about the number one enemy of the United States of America. This comes from the government to officials of the United States. What did they say? Who did they say? Ah? [member of the audience: Islam]. No. They didn't say Muslims. They said Muslim fundamentalists. Muslim fundamentalists is a euphemism for Muslims. They can't say Muslims are the enemy. They'll never do that. They say Muslim fundamentalists. What? They don't describe what defines Muslim fundamentalists to the masses of the people. Therefore Muslim fundamentalists are synonymous with Muslims.
That's why the ladies in the plane got up, because your brother Siraj [Wahhaj] looked like a Muslim fundamentalist, because in the media you don't get a definition of that. All you know it is radical Muslims, these are Muslims. Brothers and sisters I really want you to follow me tonight, ok, because I intend to give you, share with you some information, to wake some of you up, because brothers and sisters I'm telling the truth. Neither of us are absolutely dead. No he's dead. Now you can sit here like you're alive, but I no dead when I see things. I mean really a lot of us are blind to what's going on. I'll show you why you're blind. I'll show you why we are blind, ok, and I only mean tonight is to be a servant of Allah Glorified and Exalted be He. I have no other agenda tonight, but to be a servant of Allah Glorified and Exalted be He, and I don't care. This information that I have for you tonight brothers and sisters, people don't like me giving it to you, because I'm not, we didn't call you up tonight to give you a nice little sermon or have a fast or how to make Wudu [Islamic procedure for washing parts of the body]. What we are going to talk tonight is very critical, very very very critical, very serious. And I intend Allah Willing, may Allah bless me and help me through this lecture to shake us, to wake us, open our eyes and then put us on a path about we gonna have to do.
Now brothers and sisters I'm saying to you absolutely without a doubt that this is a conspiracy against Muslims and Islam. This somebody, government, big business and media who do not want the masses of the people to recognize that the Muslims are the very best friends of Canada and America. You heard what I've just said. I'm saying to you the American people and the Canadian people have no best friend on the earth than Muslims. And there are people in the government, in big business and the media who know it very well. Therefore they are very skillful. They make the masses of the people hate or being afraid of Muslims.
Those in the audience who happened to be Jewish or Christian, I want to refer you to your own scripture, the Torah and the Gospel and the Koran for Muslims. The story of Moses and Pharaoh. Brothers and sisters, notice the Koran is not a history book. It contains history, but it is deeper than that. This book, brothers and sisters, is so deep, so profound. I bear witness to the Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessing be upon him, خير من تعلم القران وعلمه the best of you are those who learn Koran and teach it. O brothers and sisters, we need to read the Koran everyday. It is so deep. It is so penetrating. There is so much light upon light upon light and guidance in the Koran and if you are wise enough you read the Koran what happened thousands of years ago is a light for us to guide us in this life.
Now Glorified be Allah. You have remember reading Pharaoh had some people with him to help deceive the people. Who are they? The magicians. The magicians. Do you know who the modern magicians are? This is the media. The media will make your friends look like your enemies and make your enemies look like your friends. Media. Magical media, image,yes, image. The media's image, man, they have used today, the media, like Pharaoh or فرعون used the magicians to deceive people. But Allah Glorified and Exalted be He, sent Moses to… the lies of the magicians… think, think, think. Pharaoh according to the scripture was one of the most powerful men of his time, perhaps the most powerful. Well, army, power and he subjected the children of Israel to slavery, harsh treatment. Think. Did not Pharaoh plot to murder babies, murder babies, all the male babies, children. Is that a fact? Is it in the Koran? Is it in the Bible? Yes it is. Why would this strong healthy man why do you murder babies? Why male babies? Because male babies will grow up to be men, men who fight for justice and men who will give his life and men who will kill, mujahideen [Muslims who practice jihad] in the path of Allah مجاهدين في سبيل الله
So kill them now when they are young, because if you allow them to grow you gonna have to deal with them in the future, so deal with them now as babies and so Pharaoh killed all of the babies all of the male babies, every one of them he murdered, babies every one of them except one, a boy named Moses. Moses, why? And so Allah revealed to the mother of Moses: put the baby in a basket . And so Allah sent the basket, where? Right to the home of Pharaoh, to the home of Pharaoh. One baby, and the one baby that made it, one that will become Moses, the very one that to bring down Pharaoh. Think, think, think.
President Pharaoh, I mean President Clinton. [audience laughs] Sorry, I'm sorry. He's doing something. You got to analyze it you got to ask yourselves the question why, brothers and sisters, because somebody thinks [something] happened we don't ask ourselves why, we allow it to happen. Why? American troops in Somalia, why? What's the mission? They come on TV and say: we have to stay there until the mission is over. What is the mission in Somalia? Why? Glorified be Allah. Why the United States of America put Sudan on the list of terrorist nations? Why? Wouldn't they know that terrorism doesn't comes out of Sudan. Why Sudan? How come the hostility towards Libya? How come the American government can go and destroy Iraq but don't have the guts to go to Bosnia where Muslim were being slaughtered. Why? Why?
Because you know why. They got a plan and they got a plot. And you know what, there is a partnership. The American government, big business and brothers and sisters, if you really want to go to school I'll tell you a fact. America is big business. Business, man. This is about business, about money, it's about profit. They don't care how many people die as long as those in charge, powerful people, can make money, they don't even care when people die. And the media, the co-partner in the conspiracy, the magicians. I'll prove it to you. I'll prove it to you right now. All you got to do is to think. I'll give enough of actual facts.
Brothers and sisters, why the preoccupation with the World Trade Center bombing? I've listened to the open arguments yesterday, I'm sorry Monday. Monday the trial began with the four people accused of bombing the World Trade Center. Now, the prosecutors, these are the people that are pushing the case, charging them. Then coming the jurors. They say: look, in this court proceedings, in this case you are not going to hear a saying from somebody saw them driving the van. You won't hear that. That's what they are saying. This is the prosecutors are saying that. And you will not hear anyone saying they saw these men blowing up a building. You won't hear that. But you will hear things like this, that somebody wrote a letter after the bombing claiming responsibility and we checked the saliva on the envelope, and the saliva matched one of these guys. [audience laughs]. I don't making this up. These are facts. There was nitroglycerine the clothing of one of them. Everything is circumstantial. Now, brothers and sisters, if you make the presumption of innocence everything that these brothers did make sense.
Certainly if you are not guilty of anything, you call the place, the rental said, somebody stole your van, somebody stole the man's van. He [inaudible] that somebody stole my van. Now I want my money back. It makes sense. I gave him the right address. I gave him the right name. I'm innocent. I didn't do anything. But if you presume that these men are guilty, that everything that they did make no sense at all. You are with me so far? Now brothers and sisters, listen to me. You got to get it. You got to get it. You got to get it. You got to get it. You got to get it.
I've mentioned in this audience before and I want to say it again because is that important to me What is terrorism and why the preoccupation with the American government over the bombing of the World Trade Center? Because 6 people were murdered, right? That's too many people… My brothers and sisters, let me sow you how the media is magic. But if I've told you [that] in one year over 400,000 people were murdered and no front page cover. You know why? Because the government, big business and the media combined together to keep it quiet. A conspiracy. 400,000 people in America alone died as a result of terrorism, which you don't read about it, but everyday World Trade Center, Muslim fundamentalists . Why? Because they hid [from] us the conspiracy.
Who are the real terrorists? What if I also told you, around the world, last year 2.5 millions and every fact I'm giving you can be documented, is documented. You can check it out. I'm not talking from my mind. I'm not throwing out figures. I can back everyone of them up. 2.5 million people around the world were murdered in one year by terrorists, but you're don't read about it nowhere. Why? Because of the conspiracy of silence by the American government… Brothers and sisters, I admit that what I'm going to say right now is going to blow your mind. I admit it. Really. I'm going to give something right now is so startling; it is so mind boggling, is going to blow your mind.
So, give it a hold on. Are you ready?… Brothers and sisters, listen to this and I admit that it is scary. What I'm talking about right now is something that is so dangerous that many people are affected by it, so dangerous that some people in this audience might be the victims of the great terrorism that I'm speaking about tonight. And you know what it is? Cigarettes. Cigarettes. Tobacco. Cigarettes is the most profitable business on this earth. It costs less than one half penny to produce one pack of cigarettes. Cigarettes. Every year in America over four hundred thousands people lose their lives directly as a result of cigarettes This is not debating. It is an actual fact. Cigarettes. That little thing, so powerful. Inside a white stick over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke. One of them is a drug called nicotine. And even though you know that there is no good for your health, it makes your breath horrible, your teeth yellow and brown. It takes from your life, yet still people have to line up. You tell people it's forbidden [haram], it's disliked [makrooh] and still they have to line up. Why? Why?
Because those in power, big business and the media make it look good. Advertisement. One company Philip Morris spent over 2 billion dollars in one year to advertise their pack. Bringing in over 48 billion dollars of revenue. More income than Saudi Arabia. 48 billion dollars more that Gross National Product of many countries. But wait,… Listen, listen. Right now in China 250 million people smoke 1.5 trillion cigarettes a year. Right now in China. 50 million Chinese youths, Chinese youths are alive today, but eventually be dead directly as a result of tobacco. Cigarette smokers. And check this out. By the year 2040, are you ready? around the world 12.5 million people will lose their lives every year as a result of cigarettes. What is the significance of this? Don't you think that the government is saying; wait a minute, people are dying' let's stop this. This is cruel. People die, let's stop it. Why don't they stop it? You know why? Because the government is there of the top, billions, billions and billions of dollars they make and the state gets 33 cents, 40 cents a pack of cigarettes. The state local governments get their cut from cigarettes… And you why nothing is done? Money. Greed.
Look, listen, do you brothers and sisters, every time there is a war, there are people at benefit. Businesses benefit from war. Think, if a military is going to gain billions of dollars of profits if there is a war so they sale their weapons and sale their ammunition. Is there a possibility that wars are started in order to get money? Some have interest, interest of the United States, Canadian interest. What is the interest? Brothers and sisters, you know what? This is too heavy, too heavy. You know why? I realize most of us, I mean most of the people down the earth they can't get it. You know why? They don't see the real connection. Now, why would they try to make appear as if the Muslims are the terrorists?. Motive. What is the motive? I'll tell you what the motive is. I've almost finished. I know these things are very very heavy. I want you to do something by the way. I'm saying all this because I want you to listen… Sheik Abdullah Hakim [Quick], our imam here and others… I signal out our imams, our leaders, because they have a tremendous weight on their shoulders. What is all about? And why Muslims? Brothers and sisters absolutely the only ones who can stop this madness around the world, this desire for wealth and all expenses, you may even not noticed about my country America. America is one of the greatest terrorist nation on this earth, but you know what? They hide it. It's magic. They appear to be so nice. Let's go to Somalia and feed the people, the stolen people in Somalia, let us go and we will bring the food and look what these savages are doing to us. But they don't show you what the American people is doing to them and why? Why? Why are you in Somalia? Even the American people is saying: Bring our troops home. American troops are being dying in Somalia, but the American people is saying: Bring our troops home and the President is saying: No, we must stay there until we finish our objectives?
What are your objectives Mr. President? And I'll tell you what it is. All over the world [the objective is] to stop the rise of Muslims. Why? Because the only hope for this world, peace on this earth, are Muslims. Why? You what brothers and sisters, I don't think we know who we are. Imam, I've realized something. Two weeks ago I had to go to Calgary to give a lecture, a lecture titled: The role of the Muslim women in society, the role of the Muslim women in society. I've been giving this speech before. Imam, something happened that day. Early in the morning, 4 o'clock, I won't forget it. The very same day that I was supposed to get on a plane to go to Calgary it hit me. Ahh. I heard speakers, the role of the Muslim woman in the society, I read books, the role of the Muslim woman in the society. No man, no. When you give a lecture the role of the Muslim woman in the society, when non-Muslim women in the audience, you know what they do? They sit back as spectators, judging how a Muslim woman is supposed to act in the Islamic society? No, no good. You know I learned imam, what I understood? I didn't teach that topic that day.
The topic that I taught was the role of the woman in society. You know why? I looked at the audience and I saw all the non-Muslim men there and I said: Sir, I pointed a gun. I said: Look around. I said: [Do] you see these Muslim women? With their long beautiful scarves, have their beautiful dresses. That's the way your wife is supposed to dress. These women are the vanguards. They are the first step. When Allah revealed the Koran, whom did he revealed to? Where were the Muslims? There were no Muslims. So who is the Koran for? Not only for the Muslims, it is for society… I tell you man, we have to stop it. Our job is to go to the people ما ارسلناك الا رحمة للعالمينAllah revealed to Prophet Mohammad. peace and blessing be upon him: We have sent you only as a mercy to mankind. And Prophet Mohammad was a mercy for mankind. We have to be a mercy for mankind. If the Prophet Mohammad was a mercy for all of the world the Muslims must be in Canada, in Toronto, we must be a mercy for the people in the city. We will never be a mercy until we go to them and give them [non-Muslims] the guidance, share with them what Allah has for them, not just for the Muslims. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's gonna to come home now. Look. Who are you? Brothers and sisters, who are you? Don't you know that the people here are dependent upon you? You don't even know that they're dependent upon you. We're busy trying to be like them and they [non-Muslims] need guidance. You can't be like them [non-Muslims], man, you got to be different from them [non-Muslims]. You got to say: Here, come, come Madam, come follow me, come, let me show you how to live a life. Come sir, come Madam, come Prime Minister, come representative, come politician, come, come here. I'll be an example for you here…
That reminded me Roger Clemens [American baseball starting pitcher who was bit by a dog while coming to its help], reminded me hoe we work here. Because you know why? Because while we're trying to help non-Muslims to see the light, to share with them the guidance that Allah has given to us, they are going to continue to attack us. I say this to you. Let them continue to write bad things about us, bad editorials. Let them curse us. Let them laugh at us. Let them slander us. Still let us go there and give them the guidance. Let them say all kind of mean and vicious things about us. Even though they say mean vicious evil things about us still you come to guide them. Because that's the way our Prophet Mohammad was peace and blessing be upon him. Why the Muslims? Because really there is no more power on this earth that can bring justice on this earth than Muslims. There is no power on earth. And there is no good people that are going to check evil people if mischief was spread to this earth.
Brothers and sisters, I'll close with this. You may not know this but in governments especially the oppressive they always have alive spies to check the people, to make sure the people will never rebel against them. This is why Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, talks about in the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, talked about in the Quran about الظن that's اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ stay away from most cases of suspicion, for suspicion in some cases is a sin… If a man is committing adultery he begins to suspect his wife is committing adultery, because when the persons themselves… that's psychology. They themselves will do it and therefore they put it on other people, other people must be doing it. What you go? Where are you going? What time you'll be back? Where were you? They put it on somebody else. When people are unjust, leadership is unjust, always there will be a paranoia of an unjust leadership. So therefore you have to spy, check what the man is doing, check the phones, check the cars…
What governments do, because they see Muslims are spread, they send to your masajid your mosques agents from the government… Two kinds of agents they send, and they send them here in Toronto also. The first agent comes to the masjid [Mosque], all he does is observe. He's not saying anything. Just watch. Watch who is against the imam? Who are the imams? Watch who are nationalistic? Watch the brothers or sisters who have weakness for drugs? Watch the man who is weak for women. Just watch. Because if you look and observe you'll see things. They look and they observe and they take notes and they go back and [say]: Oh Intelligence, and they'd sit down and they'd compare all of the notes because next man they gonna send is not a man to watch and observe, but they are going to send what they call, an agent provocateur. What is agent provocateur? We're going to try to provoke these people to do something for our agenda.
Now, we talked about unity. Let's keep the community together. Get all communities in Toronto getting together in the sake of Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He. Somebody comes. We don't want to get together because of the agent provocateur must not allow the Muslims to come together and in the same way they do it locally they do it internationally, so-called peace accords in the Middle East, in Palestine wasn't brilliant moves by the Jews? They're smart. Good move from their part, why? Their appearance looks like peace loving people and at the same time create a buffer between us and the Muslims so that if the Muslims attack us we don't have to fight them, we got our goy [non-Jew] to do our fighting for us. Why do you think the United States government pledged the PLO 2 billion dollars. This is the beginning. Give them the money, because if I give you money you have to do my plan, and my plan is to stop the rise of the Muslims.
I have a document, the FBI in the United States of America instituted a plan years ago called COINTELPRO – Counter Intelligence Program. I quote: to stop the rise of a Messiah, to stop the rise of a Messiah, like Moses, like Muhammad, peace be upon him, like somebody that can unite. So, now they send agent provocateurs, they go next to the brother who is very ramble. Brother, look what these enemies are doing to us. We want to blow buildings and bridges. Yea, you are right brother. They got you for a conspiracy. That easy. They'd spur you talk, involve you, push you, move you, because they know, they studied, they know your profile, they know your weakness, they know how to get to you, and they use everything.
Don't you see? The Shaytan [Satan] watches us… from a place we cannot see them. But, they see, they watch, they manipulate, they move. Why you? Because you are the ones that can change. Brothers and sisters, don't you know that by the end of the year 2050 in America white people, European Americans will be a minority, and do you know Islam is growing so fast, 6 millions, 8 million Muslims in America. Two years ago I've read the Omak [Omak Chronicle?] they said the population of Muslims in America 6 millions. In this year I looked, they say that the population of Muslims in America 2 millions. Wait a minute, where are the 4 millions go? You know what's happening? Islam is growing up in a rapid pace. Everywhere you look, new schools, new masjids [mosques], and they don't want to tell the people what's happening. Muslims are growing. Don't you see? They know it and if they ever unite, man, what a powerful group it would be.
I gave a lecture in the University of Michigan. When the lecture was over, in the back, there was a woman, a Jewish woman, a professor in the university. She said: Imam Wahhaj, tell me, if the Muslims ever became a majority of the people of America would they then vote to implement the Sharia? Would they then vote to implement the Koran and the Sunnah [teachings of Mohammad] as the guiding principles in Islam? You know what? These people are always thinking ahead, thinking ahead. Brothers and sisters, study the demographics of the earth and the world. You'll see, Islam is rising everywhere. The numbers are phenomenal. But there is a problem. The problem is, we can't see them [Muslims] getting together, because somebody is working to keeps us apart. Somebody is active. How to stop him? We must be as active as they are, trying to work for unity. I come here, spit at my face if you like, I'll still work for unity [of the Muslims]. Everywhere you go, try to get the Muslims go together, to work together.
Why New York City? Because in New York City where are the greatest unifying axis happening right now, 41 different Muslim communities [are] working together consistently growing, the message of shura [decision-making process in consultation] is growing. 15 communities are waiting to join it now. Soon all 100 of Muslims communities in New York City, Allah Willing, will be working together. Why? Because will power, we desire, we must be willing into existence with Allah permission and let nothing stop us to help us work together. If we can do it in New York City we can do it in any city. Somebody, somebody has to say: man, despite what you're saying, despite what you do, we still not bringing it together, we don't work together in the path of Allah [في سبيل الله]. This is the attitude that we have to have and all the little differences, don't let the shaytan [Satan] come, don't let the enemies come to divide us.
Now, brothers ans sisters, you know what this thing is all about? This thing is all about markets. Markets. In a few years by the year 2015, Pakistan, it will be India, the most populated nation on earth, China, Nigeria and Pakistan. If the trend continues, dominated by Muslims, it can end up with power, political power. How do you feed all these people? Economic political power. And that is the bottom line brothers and sisters. People in power don't want to see the Muslims develop economic power. It not just praying. They don't mind. Go pray. Stay in the masjid [mosque] and pray, please. And you know what? These women there, these Muslim women who are the vanguards, who dare to be the first to step out to please Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, can have an impact on the Canadian people and the American people, and you'll see, these sisters [who wear hijab] will bring a transformation in the rest of the world. If they stand up and be what they supposed to be there will be a transformation.
Now, look, I'll close with this. Brothers and sisters, you, all of you… school. Stay there for now until you get your full time school. Wait to get you full time school, but while you' have been impacted. Yeah. You have been impacted. You can't sisters. Sisters, you can't be like everybody else. Sisters, you got listen to me. I'm talking to you, I'm talking to you because if you miss it now you will miss them. You are special and you to feel like that. So, you're special. You go to school every day with a purpose. I'm special. I'm a Muslim. I want to do the the will of Allah. Yes, I'm special. I have a mission. I want to do the the will of Allah. That's the way you have to be. Because you know brothers and sisters, let's face it, consider: We're terrorists? No, don't you know that we as Muslims don't even hurt animals that are less than human beings.
Listen to the Prophet [Mohammad] واللَّهِ لا يُؤْمِنُ، واللَّهِ لا يُؤْمِنُ، واللَّهِ لا يُؤْمِنُ، قِيلَ: مَنْ I swear by Allah, he doesn't believe, I swear by Allah, he doesn't believe, I swear by Allah, he doesn't believe. They say: Who? He said: That person whose neighbour is not They are not secure from the harm. They are not supposed to run from us. They are not supposed to change seats on the plane. They are supposed to learn to sit next to us. They should want that we buy a house in their neighbourhood. They [non-Muslims] should want to be next to Muslims, because if he a true Muslim his neighbour is safe and secure. His neighbour is protected because he's a true Muslim. If he is a true Muslim I don't care who your neighbour is a Jew, a Christian, a male, a female, black or white, Canadian, American, a pagan, whoever the neighbour is, give him a gift and treat him in kindness. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said that angel Jibreel get taught, started saying: be kind to your neighbour so much he thought that Allah will going to make us, make them inherit from us instead of us inherit from them. That's how kind we are supposed to be to our neighbours. So, our classmates, you will be an example in your school. You don't backbite. You don't slander nobody. You go to school, you do your work. And you let the non-Muslims look at you as an example. Let them look at the Muslim sister and say: Oh, that's sister Fatimah. She is so nice. I wish I could be like her. I wish I could be like Ahmed. On your job brothers, on your job give me the best, give me the hardest worker, you are not trying on the job trying to… sit down, rob your employer for hours of work, and you sit down and don't to go to work. No. You are Muslim. You go to work and you work harder than anybody else cause you are Muslim and you are an example to the people of Canada. You are mercy for them. They need to see something. You know what? Above is not enough. Because Allah said in the book, Allah said a man Muhammad, peace be upon him, has an example of the book and now people can see, they can relate, this is the model I want to follow in the same way Mohammad, peace be upon him, is not here, but you are here and you must be a mercy now. Everywhere.
Everywhere you go. Let the people Canadians, let them see us. Don't hide. Don't hide. Get up. Get out and be proud of your deen [religion of Islam]. If you do this brothers and sisters, watch, you'll see hundreds of thousands and millions of Canadians A. are accepting Islam or B. at least becoming friends of Muslims. How to do it? How behaviour, let's get to the media and show the real culture of Islam. I say this to you ويمكرون ويمكر الله والله خير الماكرين. They plan and plot, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners. May Allah help us, help this Ummah [Muslim nation], help this group [jamaa] here, help the groups get together, Allah Willing, to show the world that we are not terrorists, not by saying we are not terrorists, but by… showing our good work everywhere. I pray to continue the success of Toronto. I pray to Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, that Toronto can get be together and Vancouver and Saskatoon and Regina, in Winnipeg, in Montreal, in London in all of the cities in Canada, Allah Willing, we get together, Allah Willing, when that happens we'll show the people that we are not the terrorists, we'll expose the terrorists and bring the people to guidance, Allah Willing. May Allah bless you. Ameen.
Question: Is it true that two or three years ago that the Jews were put in charge of the security of the World Trade Center and when they have all the layouts and plans of the World Trade Center they signed out.
Siraj Wahhaj: I don't know that as a fact, but I tell you this and in fact most people don't know that the World Trade Center is a very highly, has always been a highly security area and anybody can get in there you have to clear security and again I think that it's very strange that a very sophisticated bomb was made to blow that building and to get the ones accused of detonated was such, displayed themselves to be such fools if in fact they were the ones that are responsible. So I have a lot of questions in my mind about who was responsible for that.
Question: I understand that those who accuse Muslims are the ones who bombed the World Trade Center, but what, I guess he wanted to say that perhaps it was done by the Mossad, the Jewish, Israeli security agency. Please clarify it to me.
Question: You still didn't mention who bombed the World Trade Center and why?
Question: It should come to no surprise that Israel may be linked to the World Trade bombing. In 1954 in Egypt, Israel's agents bombed American and Arab targets in Egypt to create hatred and tension between Arabs and Americans.
Siraj Wahhaj: All of these speculations are possibility and brothers and sisters to be I'd like to be honest if I don't have evidence I'm not going to say. It's a strong possibility… that they could have done it. It is to the interests of some, especially at that time Israeli government that Muslims will be looked upon in a very negative way, and these things are nothing new. It was done in history… I don't know who bombed the World Trade Center. The major question is what is the objective? What we were trying to do? What was trying to be accomplished? I think that I do know that was accomplished that Muslims were accused of doing it. And it gave Muslims a bad eye in the eyes of the major media. Whose interest is it? To have Muslims looked down upon. Again it's the government, big business and the media… Again can I say the Mossad did it? No. But I'll say one thing. It has the fingerprints of agencies like the Mossad. The intrigue.
https://munaconvention.com/speakers.php
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Muslim Ummah Of North America (MUNA)
"Torch Bearers Of Islam: Spreading The Faith Globally"
Friday August 8th until Sunday August 10th 2025 @ The Philadelphia Convention Center
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https://munaconvention.com/speakers.php
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Muslim Ummah Of North America
Website
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The Muslim Ummah Of North America (MANA) used to be called and is still part of the Muslim Alliance Of North America (MANA)
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Who came up with the Idea of MANA?
MANA was the product of many great minds coming together from different organizations with a passion to serve and strengthen African-American Muslim communities. These groups included the community of Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, the community of ***Imam Jamil, ***the community of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, and others.
2006/2007
https://manajustice.org/about-mana/
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MIM:'Imam Jamil' aka Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin aka H.Rap Brown killed a cop in 2002 and is serving a life sentence in an Arizona prison and plays a prominent role in MANA and MUNA
Re: Imam Abdullah Al - Amin aka H. Rap Brown
Sixties radical, led "Black Power" movement
* Succeeded Stokely Carmichael as leader of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1967
* Former Executive Board President of the American Muslim Council
* Currently serving a life sentence for killing a police officer in 2000
"In 1995 Al-Amin was arrested for shooting a drug dealer four times in the legs, and also was charged with carrying a concealed and unlicensed handgun. The following year, he was investigated for more than a dozen homicides but was never formally charged. Then, in 1999, he was charged with possessing a stolen car, driving without insurance, and impersonating a police officer. But Al-Amin refused to appear for his court date, prompting police to issue a warrant for his arrest. When two sheriff deputies (both African American) tried to serve the warrant on March 16, 2000, which was the Muslim holiday Eid ul-Adha, they were shot. Deputy Ricky Kinchen was killed, and his partner Aldranon English was wounded. English later identified Al-Amin as the shooter, and after a five-day police manhunt the suspect was caught and arrested in a wooded area near a small town in Alabama. The gun that had been used in the police shootings was found in Al-Amin's car. In 2002 Al-Amin was tried and found guilty of Kinchen's murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
As of 2009-10, Al-Amin was serving — from the confines of his prison cell — as the spiritual leader of Ummah (meaning "the brotherhood"), a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim group consisting mostly of African-Americans, many of whom were former inmates who had converted to Islam while in prison. According to the FBI, Ummah's objective was to create "a separate, sovereign Islamic state ('the Ummah') within the borders of the United States, governed by Sharia law [and] ruled over by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
Along with fellow convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal, Al-Amin now ranks among the most celebrated "political prisoners" championed by the Left. A supportive Mumia himself has praised Al-Amin for having "lived a good and rich life in service to his spiritual and ethnic community."
Al-Amin has long condemned the United States as a racist nation, referring to it as "AmeriKKKa." He is viewed as a heroic figure by the Black Lives Matter movement.
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/jamil-abdullah-al-amin-aka-h-rap-brown/
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Re: Siraj Wahhaj aka Jeffrey Kearse
Named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
* Invited Omar Abdel-Rahman, leader of a terrorist organization known as the Islamic Group, to address his congregation several times
* Advocates the replacement of the U.S. government with an Islamic Caliphate
* Supports violent Islamic jihad
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/siraj-wahhaj/
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Muslim Alliance of North America-MANA
* Black Muslim organization
* Headed by Siraj Wahhaj, believed to be a co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/organizations/muslim-alliance-in-north-america-mana/
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Re MUNA Speaker and CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad:
Overview
* Founding member and current president of CAIR
* Supporter of Hamas
* Rejects Israel's right to exist
* Suggested that Israel and Egypt played a part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
* Maintains that "many Presidents" of the United States "are servants to Israel" and to "the political authority of Jewish interests"
* Claims that America bore some of the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/nihad-awad/
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MIM:Note the participation of Kenny Gamble aka Luqman Abdul Haqq at the MANA conference.
December 31, 2007
MIM: The Muslim Association Of North America's First Conference (MANA) was held in Philadelphia in 2007.
"Report on the first conference of The Muslim Alliance of North America - Philadelphia Nov.2 - 4 2007"
December 24, 2007
First MANA Conference A Long Time Coming
By Zainab Cheema
Muslim Link Staff Writer
From November 2 to 4, the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA) held their debut conference in Philadelphia: the State of the Black American Muslim Community.
MANA is a national coalition of organizations and community centers devoted to the social, economic, and cultural strengthening of the African American community. The conference served not only to launch MANA as a high profile coalition organization, but to bring core African American issues to the table that have long been neglected.
Many high profile imams, community leaders, and activists were spotlighted in the program. As Amir of MANA and the driving force behind the conference, Siraj Wahaj was a key figure. Other speakers included Zaid Shakir, Warith Deen Mohammad, Laila Muhammad, Jamillah Karim, Altaf Husain, Ihsan Bagby, Karimah Al-Alamin, Mauri Saalakhan, Johari Abdul-Malik, Imam Abdul Malik, ***Luqman Abdul Haqq***, Talib Abdur Rasheed, and Joshua Salaam.
"…For instance, the Masjids and Economic Development section spotlighted the achievements of community leaders such as Earl Al-Amin of the Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore, and ***Luqman Abdul-Haqq, the CEO of Universal Companies.***
Their presentations highlighted the work done to revitalize the economic health of inner city communities and to provide needed core services. Al-Amin underlined the importance of safeguarding the economic and social health of the Muslim neighborhood.
"The masjid is a filter for influencing the neighborhood's environment," he noted. The achievements of the MCCC include the purchase of numerous grave sites, key support services, and real estate development where Muslims can own properties around masjid. In turn, Universal Companies is a community revitalization engine that is targeting Southern Philadelphia, taking a holistic approach to institutional development, such as building schools, providing medical services, and creating small businesses…"
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/pf.php?id=3300
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"Muhammad and Mrs.Jones - Kenny Gamble's Philadelphia Muslim Enclave"
December 31, 2007 MUNA Beila Rabinowitz
January 1, 2008 - San Francisco,
CA - PipeLineNews.org - Kenny Gamble is best known for being "the architect of the Philly Soul Sound." His catalog of hits includes "Me and Mrs. Jones" and he and longtime collaborator Leon Huff are slated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year. But Gamble is also the architect of a planned stealth Islamist enclave in Philadelphia where he is better known in Muslim circles as Brother Luqman Abdul Haqq.
Gamble has admitted that he intends to bring about the Muslim community in South Philadelphia through his "Universal Companies" and proclaims that his state and federally subsidized funded building endeavors are part of an Islamist blueprint, "We are not down here just for Universal-we are down here for Islam."
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3283
In 1975 after a personal crisis Gamble converted to Islam and took the name of Luqman Abdul Haqq. Founding an organization called "The United Muslim Movement," he opened a masjid of the same name. In 1993 he formed the "Universal Companies" specializing in urban revitalization projects. Both UMM and UC's mission statements are virtually identical. http://www.mana-net.org/pages.php?ID=activism&ID2=&NUM=18
Recently the United Muslim Masjid which Gamble founded and built "hosted" a conference call from Jamil Al Amin, the former H. Rap Brown, now serving a life sentence for murdering a police officer:
"...A highlight of one meeting, for example, was when we had Imam Jamil Al-Amin on speaker phone talking to us from his Georgia prison. MANA and its members have raised and donated several thousands of dollars to his family and legal defense team. Imam Jamil has recently been transferred to a "supermax" prison in Colorado, and we ask that you make du'a for him." [source, http://www.mana-net.org/pages.php?ID=&NUM=164]
Gamble is also a member of the Majlis Ash Shura Council of MANA, the Muslim Alliance in North America, which is led by Siraj Wahhaj. MANA was created to support cop killer Al Amin. Siraj Wahhaj is perhaps most infamous as having been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 by Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White.
"The catalyst for the founding of MANA was the arrest of Imam Jamil in March, 2000. Imam Jamil's arrest placed Al-Ummah (Imam Jamil?s organization) under intense pressure. In April, 2000 the leadership of Al-Ummah met in Philadelphia and decided that they needed to expand the base of the organization and to get more people involved to help in the efforts to free Imam Jamil and in the efforts of dawah and other Islamic work...On April 21 an executive committee was elected, which included: Imam Siraj and Imam Talib, in addition to Luqman Abdul Haqq, Asim Abdur Rashid, Amir al-Islam, Ihsan Bagby, Zaid Shakir and Hamza Yusuf…We ask Allah (SWT) to increase the good efforts of Universal Companies, United Muslim Movement, MANA, and others committed to helping our people, our communities and society-at-large." [source, http://www.wrmea.com/archives/july01/0107082.html]
It's hard to imagine how such a problematic proposal has gone this far without intense public scrutiny. Aside from considering the wisdom of creating what might amount to a little Somalia in a major urban center, there are the obvious questions regarding government funding - under the transparent guise of urban renewal - of what is clearly a hard-core Muslim da'wa [faith spreading] program.
Everything about Gamble's stealth plan for a government subsidized Muslim ghetto - "one of the best kept secrets of Muslim America" - suggests a need for concern; indeed one wonders if Pennsylvania taxpayers are even aware that their tax dollars are going to help Gamble's plans to build "jihad central" while calling it "a Neighborhood Transformation Initiative," a so-far effective strategy, having garnered $1.6 billion in government and private grants and funding. http://www.phila.gov/nti/govorganizations.htm -
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/pf.php?id=3306
Kenny Gamble the United Muslim Movement and Universal -Islamist payola in the City of Brotherly Love
December 31, 2007
| Islamist Payola in the City of Brotherly Love |
By Joe Kaufman
FrontPageMagazine.com
"The history of the United States runs through Philadelphia. It is there that the American Revolution was born. However, a new revolution threatens to take hold of Philly, a Muslim one. It is led by one of Philadelphia's favorite sons, singer/songwriter/producer Kenny Gamble (a.k.a. Luqman Abdul Haqq), who has a master plan to renovate a once great part of the city using taxpayers' money. While on face value his intentions appear to be worthy, Gamble's revitalization plan for Philadelphia has sinister implications, leading to the question: Will Philadelphia remain "the City of Brotherly Love" or will it become a city of Muslim Brotherly hate?
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) or Ikhwan in America exists, in large part, within two immigrant populations. One is the Arab Muslim community, falling under the aegis of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and to a smaller extent the Muslim American Society (MAS). The other is the South Asian Muslim community, positioned under the umbrella of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a subsidiary of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in Pakistan. These groups form the core of MB America."…
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/pf.php?id=3305
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"Kenny Gamble aka Luqman Abdul Haqq's radical Islamist & black surpremacist ties
"WE ARE NOT JUST HERE FOR UNIVERSAL -WE ARE DOWN HERE FOR ISLAM"
December 13, 2007
Kenny Gamble aka Luqman Abdul Haqq's radical Islamist ties runs the gamut from CAIR to MANA, a black supremacist Islamist organisation founded by cop killer Jamil Al Amin and Muslim Brotherhood adherent Imam Talib Abdur Rashid. Siraj Wahhaj (an unindicted co conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombings) was the keynote speaker at a recent event held by the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) where Gamble the president of Univeral Companies, was honored with a community service award. Gamble is a member of MANA's Majlis As Shura (religious council) and the founder and Amir of the United Muslim Movement the Islamist da'wa wing of his Universal Companies enterprise. (see below).
Wahhaj (who is the Amir of MANA) has expressed his intention of turning the United States into a Muslim country. His remarks at the award ceremony were titled "Our Marching Orders". Wahhaj advocates the overthrow of the United States government and the establishment of a Caliphate. At an an event in New Jersey he stated that:
"If only Muslims were more clever politically, ..., they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. "If we were united and strong, we'd elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. . . . [T]ake my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us." http://www.danielpipes.org/article/77 (The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America)
. Another featured speaker was the extremist Imam Zaid Shakir ,whose views on black surpremacism and Islamism echo those of Kenny Gamble and his Universal enterprises.
"He said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law, "not by violent means, but by persuasion."
"Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country," he said. "I think it would help people, and if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be a Muslim. Because Islam helped me as a person, and it's helped a lot of people in my community." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/us/18imams.html?pagewanted=print
MIM: Gamble is the founder of the black/Islamic supremacist United Muslim Movement:
"[The]UNITED MUSLIM MOVEMENT, founded by the former record czar Kenny Gamble, has developed affordable housing for Muslims and non-Muslims within the Philadelphia area and assisted Islamic schools and businesses. UMM's vision is to build, from the ground up, a Central Masjid for the entire City of Philadelphia. UMM has acquired a site to build the Central Masjid along the prominent Avenue of the Arts. Meanwhile, it operates a radio program, runs special events like Islamic fashion shows and has a scholarship fund. http://www.ivc.org/religion
https://www.militantislammonitor.org/pf.php?id=3283
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Update:
"July 16, 2024 update: Abdur Rahim Islam, mentioned in passing a couple of times above, is in the news. The U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a press release today, "Former Universal Companies Executive Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Defraud the U.S., Fraud, and Tax Crimes." Excerpts:
Abdur Rahim Islam, 67, the former chief executive officer of Universal Community Homes ("UCH") and Universal Education Companies ("UEC") was sentenced today to 84 months' imprisonment, followed by three years' supervised release, for his convictions on 18 fraud, corruption, and tax charges relating to his tenure at Universal."
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Is Kenny Gamble Building a Muslim-only Enclave in Philadelphia?
by Daniel Pipes
Nov 1, 2007
updated Jun 20, 201
An article in Philadelphia magazine, "King Kenny," looks at music producer efforts by Kenny Gamble, via a corporation called Universal Companies, to revitalize his community in South Philadelphia and mentions that "some people fear Gamble wants to build a black Muslim enclave." A look at how Universal Companies presents itself suggests this is not a far-fetched goal. Here are some extracts from a page titled "The Universal Plan: Universal Companies, Philadelphia, PA" on the website of the Muslim Alliance in North America. About the company's organization:
Although in just ten years, Universal Companies has become one of the largest, most successful community revitalization efforts in the city of Philadelphia, it is also one of the best-kept secrets in Muslim America. Universal Companies—led and founded by a highly committed, dedicated and skilled core group of Muslims—is the vision of its founder and chairman Luqman Abdul-Haqq. Abdul-Haqq, also known as Kenneth Gamble, is a world-renowned lyricist, composer, producer and architect of what is commonly referred to as "the Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP)". His wife, Faatimah Abdul-Haqq, a savvy and successful businessperson in her own right, is the co-founder of Universal Companies. President and CEO, Abdur-Rahim Islam, a tireless, focused leader of more than 150 professionals—a harmonious blend of both Muslims and non-Muslims—working under the banner of Universal Companies in various areas, such as: real estate development, education, and workforce and economic development. Shahied Dawan serves as Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and is responsible for the fiscal management of all Universal's initiatives. [Bolding added, DP]
Kenny Gamble, or Luqman Abdul-Haqq, founder and chairman of Universal Companies. |
Further down, Gamble is described as
Luqman Abdul-Haqq, affectionately known in the wider community as "Kenny" who, although Amir of the Philadelphia-based United Muslim Movement, is referred to in the Muslim community simply as "Brother Luqman".
Gamble's presence in the neighborhood serves as a form of da'wa, or proselytization:
To see Brother Luqman take the time to stop and engage everyone, from the common person seemingly undergoing some misfortune, to the array of public officials that he consistently meets with is truly an example of Islamic da'wah at an unprecedented level. To witness the drive, focus and professionalism of Brother Abdur-Rahim is to witness what the work ethic of the Muslim should be.
Indeed, the whole of Universal Companies is a testament to faith:
By the Blessing and Mercy of Allah (SWT), the efforts of Universal Companies serve as a national model for what can be done with commitment, compassion, focus and careful planning and execution. Just another proof positive of the words of the Qur'an where Allah (SWT) states: Let there arise from among you a small group of people, inviting to all that is good. They enjoin the good, and forbid the evil, and it is they who attain success". (3:104)
To sum up, Gamble likes to tell listeners, "We are not just here for Universal, we are down here for Islam."
Comment: This fits into a larger phenomenon that I document at "Permit Muslim-only Enclaves?" (November 1, 2007)
Feb. 4, 2008 update: Kenny Gamble's plans for South Philadelphia allegedly have some very high-level, and perhaps even corrupt patronage – from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, a business friend of Gamble's. In an amended federal lawsuit filed against HUD by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, PHA Director Carl Greene claims that Jackson has threatened the agency's funding after PHA refused to award a vacant lot worth $2 million to Gamble.
The dispute between Jackson and the Philadelphia Housing Authority revolves around a city-led revitalization of the once-blighted Martin Luther King Jr. housing project in South Philadelphia. In 1999, Universal Community Homes, a nonprofit urban-development company founded by Gamble, and a for-profit developer, Pennrose Properties, won the first of a series of contracts from the city to develop 236 affordable, below-market units and provide key marketing and counseling services to incoming residents.
As an incentive, the builders were to get a key parcel of land where they would develop 19 homes to be sold at full market rates. But the partnership finished only 80 of the 236 units they contracted to build, because Pennrose pulled out of the project early on. ... The authority stepped in to help finish building affordable homes and rental units with Universal. But Universal failed to deliver any of the services it had promised, Greene said. The authority concluded that, as a result, it was not obligated to give Universal the vacant land where it planned to build market-rate homes.
Greene said Gamble told him in a 2006 meeting that Gamble didn't have to worry about defaulting on the King project, because he had important friends and Jackson was one of them. HUD officials said Gamble socialized often with Jackson. In September 2006, Gamble invited Jackson to visit him in Philadelphia. After the two men swapped stories about mutual friends and local politics, according to a person familiar with the meeting, Gamble gave the secretary a tour of the townhomes that Universal had built at the King project.
Gamble complained, while pointing out the adjoining vacant property, that the Philadelphia Housing Authority had never turned over the land to Universal, the source said. As he was leaving for Washington, Jackson asked the regional HUD director for Philadelphia to check into Gamble's complaint with Greene.
Greene concludes: "The secretary was determined that we turn over this land to this specific developer. I refused. . . . He didn't have the ability to remove me. So he resorted to these extraordinary measures to extract what he wanted." Loss of federal funding, the PHA maintains, would raise rents for most of its 84,000 tenants and force the layoffs of 250 staffers.
Comment: That the Bush administration might be party to developing a Muslim-only enclave staggers the imagination.
Feb. 5, 2008 update: Jackson denies all. His spokesman sums up the response by noting that "The secretary is closer to Carl Greene than he is to Kenny Gamble."
Mar. 3, 2008 update: According to an Associated Press report by Maryclaire Dale, "Jackson, forgoing protocol, toured the site with Gamble in September 2006 without inviting local officials to join them, and later personally called Philadelphia's mayor at the time [John F. Street] for help." PHA's Greene called this step "extraordinary." Jackson is "the president's representative, and he's personally coming out, on his own, to take a firsthand look into a contract dispute?" The result has been serious for PHA:
Over the past 18 months, HUD has cited the Philadelphia agency for a series of alleged shortcomings and is threatening to pull the agency from a pilot program that gives it far greater autonomy over its $350 million budget and various programs. The rebuke would cost the authority millions of dollars a year and would lead to staff layoffs and rent increases for some of its 84,000 low-income clients, Greene said. "It's this kind of planned, deliberate harassment that adds up to retaliation."
Also, ominously, we learn that Universal Companies "has government contracts to operate four charter and public schools and provides support services for welfare and public-housing recipients."
Mar. 21, 2008 update: The Gamble caper is one instance of the cronyism that prompted two Democratic senators, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Patty Murray of Washington, to call for the resignation of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, calling him unfit to run the department.
Mar. 31, 2008 update: Alphonso Jackson resigned his position today. His statement did not acknowledge the Gamble problem but news accounts were full of it.
Apr. 18, 2008 update: The Council on American-Islamic Relations, Philadelphia office, is convening its "Participation Workshop" at Gamble's "United Muslim Masjid." That certainly helps understand Gamble's political-religious orientation.Nov. 29, 2008 update: David J. Rusin gives Gamble a close look today at "Legendary Songwriter Now Marches to an Islamist Tune." His conclusion:
Gamble says that his work involves "the saving of America." But if his goals are as disturbing as some have suggested — and as his own words, deeds, and associations give reason to suspect — it is the American values of pluralism and inclusion that would need to be saved from Kenny Gamble.
May 26, 2011 update: Unrelated to the Muslim-only enclave but indicative of who Gamble is, his Universal Companies partnered with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program to produce a mural, the "Faces That Shape Us" at Uncle David's Universal Playground, 1504 Catherine Street, Philadelphia.
Kenny Gamble's larger-than-life homage to himself. |
Not only does the mural feature Gamble himself looming over everyone else, but it also includes his wife Faatimah. Not surprisingly, Universal Companies staff and students at his Universal Institute Charter School had to appear for the unveiling. Gamble told the Philadelphia Tribune in reference to the mural, "This is a good thing. This really is a good thing to remind us of the struggles that have taken place to even get to the point where we are today."
Always connected, Gamble managed to have Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter praise Abdur Rahim Islam (president and CEO of Universal Companies), himself, his wife, and Universal Companies: "The work that Rahim, Kenny and Faatimah and the entire Universal family is doing is transforming neighborhoods, changing lives, creating opportunity and showing that it can actually be done — neighborhood after neighborhood, block after block, house after house."
July 16, 2024 update: Abdur Rahim Islam, mentioned in passing a couple of times above, is in the news. The U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a press release today, "Former Universal Companies Executive Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Defraud the U.S., Fraud, and Tax Crimes." Excerpts:
Abdur Rahim Islam, 67, the former chief executive officer of Universal Community Homes ("UCH") and Universal Education Companies ("UEC") was sentenced today to 84 months' imprisonment, followed by three years' supervised release, for his convictions on 18 fraud, corruption, and tax charges relating to his tenure at Universal.
United States District Court Judge Gerald A. McHugh also ordered Islam to forfeit $609,651.31, and to pay restitution to Universal in the amount of $609,651.31 plus attorneys' fees, and to pay restitution of $309,581.66 to the IRS. Judge McHugh also ordered Islam to pay an $1,800 special assessment.
On March 20, 2024, a federal jury convicted Islam on charges that he stole more than a half-million dollars from UCH and UEC, charities established by Philadelphia music legend Kenny Gamble and his wife Faatimah Gamble to develop affordable housing and manage charter schools in Philadelphia. The jury also convicted Islam on charges that he bribed the president of the Milwaukee public schools board of directors and cheated on six years of personal income taxes. The jury also convicted Islam and his co-defendant, former Universal Chief Financial Officer Shahied Dawan, on a charge that they conspired to defraud the federal government by impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service.
The evidence at trial established that Islam and Dawan used their positions at Universal to pay themselves unauthorized bonuses and to pay Islam fraudulent "expense reimbursement" checks, which included payments for purely personal expenses, such as trips to Caribbean resorts with various women, family vacations, first-class travel upgrades, Broadway shows, personal gym memberships and cellphone bills, and countless meals at restaurants with friends and family members. ...
"Islam stole from charities founded to make disadvantaged Philadelphians' lives better, in order to enrich his own," said U.S. Attorney [Jacqueline C.] Romero. ... "In his crimes, Islam not only sought to defraud the government, but U.S. taxpayers," said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Philadelphia.
https://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2007/11/is-kenny-gamble-building-a-muslim-only
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/8148
