In September 2012, the Inter-Masajid Shura (IMS) sponsored Tariq Ramadan’s visit in Edmonton: a sure sign of ideological links between IMS and the Muslim Brotherhood network. This report focuses on financial links between IMS and the Brotherhood. Five charts describe the money transfers between IMS entities and well-established MB organizations.
SUMMARY
In September 2012, the Inter-Masajid Shura (IMS) sponsored Tariq Ramadan’s visit to Edmonton: a sure sign of ideological links between IMS and the Muslim Brotherhood network. This report focuses on financial links between IMS and the Brotherhood. Five charts describe the money transfers between IMS entities and well-established MB organizations.
SECTION 1 – Tariq Ramadan and Zakir Naik invited by Edmonton-based Inter-Masajid Shura
In July 2011, Ramadan advocated a Muslim colonization of the United States in front of supporters in Dallas. In 2004, in an Egyptian periodical, Ramadan advised the Muslim Brotherhood operatives in Canada to push for an implementation of sharia by taking full advantage of the Canadian legal framework (“one of the most open in the world”, in his own words). In 2010, IMS invited Zakir Naik to address its supporters. Naik justifies terrorism and pleads for the killing of those who leave Islam.
SECTION 2 – Nine organizations belonging to the Inter-Masajid Shura identified in a WISE newsletter
SECTION 3 – Overview of Hamas and Human Concern International, the two main beneficiaries of IMS’ money transfers
SECTION 4 – Five charts describing the money transfers from Inter-Masajid Shura entities to well-established Muslim Brotherhood organizations
SECTION 5 – The Arabian Moslem Association and the Muslim Association of Canada
Section 1 – Tariq Ramadan and Zakir Naik invited by Edmonton-based Inter-Masajid Shura
During the 2012 Labour Day weekend, the Edmonton-based Inter-Masajid Shura and Islamic Relief Canada (IRC) sponsored the Proud Muslims Convention in Edmonton. Both organizations belong to the Muslim Brotherhood’s infrastructure. Tariq Ramadan was the main speaker at the event. Ramadan’s role in the Islamization of the West has been abundantly demonstrated. Last year, in front of supporters in Dallas, he advocated for the Muslim colonization of the United States “with our understanding of Islam, our principles.”
In an interview with an Egyptian magazine in 2004, Tariq Ramadan enjoined Islamist leaders operating in Canada to use the flexibility of the Canadian legal framework to their advantage and push for the introduction of sharia. Ramadan specifically told the Egyptian magazine that “for the time being”, it would be preferable not to openly mention the term sharia in Canada while doing so. “The term shariah in itself is laden with negative connotations in the Western mind. There is no need to stress that”, concluded Ramadan.
As for Islamic Relief Canada, it is the Canadian branch of Islamic Relief Worldwide, a UK-based organization (UK Charity 328158). In its most recent financial statement, available on the Canada Revenue Agency website (2010), UK-based IRW founder Hany El-Banna (Hani al-Banna) is listed as the president of the Canadian branch.
Both 2012 Edmonton Proud Muslims Convention sponsors invited Zakir Naik to Canada in 2010. Islamic Relief Canada invited him to Toronto (Journey of Faith conference / July 2-4, 2010) and the Inter-Masajid Shura invited him to Edmonton on July 10, 2010.
In 2010, radical Islamist Zakir Naik was eventually banned from entering Canada by Canadian authorities.
GMBDR (June 24, 2010): Zakir Naik banned from the UK and Canada
On June 22, 2010, the Toronto Star reported that preacher Zakir Naik had been quoted as saying: “If (Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden) is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him” and “If he (bin Laden) is terrorizing the terrorists, if he is terrorizing America the terrorist, the biggest terrorist, every Muslim should be a terrorist.”
In his videos, Naik also advocates for the killing of homosexuals and Muslims who leave Islam. He also lays out rules on how a Muslim man can beat his wife.
Although Zakir Naik was banned from entering Canada in June 2010, an ad was published in the Edmonton Journal on July 9, 2010 for a meeting scheduled the next day. The Edmonton Journal ad claimed that Zakir Naik, the proponent of killing those who abandon Islam, intended to present the religion “in the right perspective.”
The Edmonton Journal listed Imran Qureshi and Tariq Chaudary as representatives of the Inter-Masajid Shura who were taking reservations for the event.
Tariq Chaudary is likely an administrator of the Southwest Muslim Community Centre (SMCC) in Edmonton.
In its 2010 and 2011 financial reports submitted to the Canada Revenue Agency, SMCC identified a Tariq Choudary (instead of Tariq Chaudary) as its vice-president. SMCC belongs to the Inter-Masajid Shura. It is frequently referred to as the Masjid Al-Noor.
In the expression ‘Inter-Masajid Shura’, the word masajid (often spelled masjid) means mosque in Arabic while shura (shoora) means consultation. The Inter-Masajid Shura is an umbrella structure that includes all major Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated mosques in Edmonton.
Mustafa Khattab, an imam at one of these mosques (Al Rashid), describes the Inter-Masajid Shura as “a periodical meeting of representatives of mosques” in his curriculum vitae.
Benaouda Bensaid, who has been on Edmonton IMS board of directors in the past, describes IMS’s role as “coordinating programs and unifying fatwas and religious decisions among (Edmonton) Mosques” in his own résumé. Bensaid has been involved with numerous organizations linked with the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada and Malaysia.
Section 2 – Nine organizations belonging to the Inter-Masajid Shura identified in a WISE newsletter
In its Spring/Summer 2010 newsletter (p. 2), the West-End Islamic Society of Edmonton (WISE) identified nine Edmonton-based mosques with representatives on the IMS Council:
- Al Rashid Mosque
- Muslim Association of Canada (MAC)
- Al-Ameen Islamic Centre
- Markaz-ul-Islam
- Masjid Sahaba
- Masjid Quba
- Masjid Al-Noor
- Muslim Community of Edmonton (MCE)
- West-End Islamic Society of Edmonton (WISE)
Section 3 – Overview of Hamas and Human Concern International, the two main beneficiaries of IMS’ money transfers
In order to better understand where IMS entities’ money is going, we have listed all the individual money transfers made by these organizations since 2000 in a PDF document. Five charts summarizing these transfers are available in the next section of the text.
Hamas and Human Concern International are the Muslim Brotherhood organizations that have received the most money from IMS entities since 2000.
HAMAS
The main beneficiary of the money transfers made by IMS entities since 2000 has been IRFAN-Canada. In April 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked IRFAN-Canada’s charity status after it came to the conclusion that it was financing the terrorist organization Hamas. CRA’s analysts determined that IRFAN transferred $14.6 million to Hamas only for the 2005-2009 period (CRA Summary – GMBDR – Toronto Star).
The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) is one of the main IMS entities. On April 10, 2012, after some Quebec media highlighted the fact that MAC’s money had ended up in Hamas fund collector’s coffers for many years, MAC president Wael Haddara reacted in a press release and claimed that “(Translation PdeB) If, for any reason, an organization is considered non-compliant with Canadian laws, the Muslim Association of Canada stops supporting it.”
This is simply not true.
Since 2002, Hamas figures on a list of terrorist organizations identified by the Canadian government. In 2004, more than a year after Hamas was added to the list, MAC defended it in a press release as an organization involved in social and relief work. From 2001 to 2010, MAC transferred $296,514 to IRFAN-Canada, Hamas’ fund collector.
In sections 80-84 of R. v. Ahmad 2009 CanLII 84774 (ON SC) (which concerns another organization than MAC), Mr. Justice Dawson explained that, when a Canadian organization funds humanitarian activities in Gaza, it allows Hamas to free up money that would have been spent for civil purposes and to direct the money toward other purposes. Therefore, it is impossible to dissociate contributions made for Hamas’ humanitarian activities in Gaza from those that are made to support its terrorist and military activities.
In 2009, IRFAN organized a fundraising event in a MAC facility in Montreal. Ekrima Sabri, the former mufti of Jerusalem, was the main speaker. Sabri promotes suicide operations by children. In 2000, he stated: “The younger the martyr – the greater and the more I respect him…” (MEMRI)
In 2009, Sabri was identified as a Union of Good trustee. This organization is led by Youssef Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide. It provides financial support to Hamas’ social and terrorist activities.
In March 2012, Sabri and Youssef Qaradawi were banned from France for their “call for hate and violence” after a massacre by Islamist Mohamed Merah in Toulouse.
Like Ekrima Sabri, Youssef Qaradawi condones suicide bombings. As early as 1949, the New York Times reported that the Muslim Brotherhood had a squadron of men ready to wage suicide missions in Egypt to further the Islamist cause.
As for the Arabian Moslem Association, the other big player within the Inter-Masajid Shura, it also contributed substantial amounts to Hamas’ fund collector either directly ($55,879) or indirectly (through Life for Relief & Development Canada – $154,572).
Hamas is engaged in a program that aims not only at the elimination of Israel but also at the destruction of Western civilization. In a speech given on October 28, 2011, its leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar stated that “This (Western) civilization will not be able to withstand the great and glorious Islam.” (Subtitled video by MEMRI in English and archived by Jihadwatch)
In a more recent speech, another leader associated with Hamas called for the Islamic conquest of Spain and the Vatican.
HUMAN CONCERN INTERNATIONAL
Human Concern International (HCI) has also received substantial transfers from IMS entities. MAC gave $280,054 from 2000 to 2011 while AMA transferred $151,354 from 2001 to 2011.
Maclean’s magazine recently published this short profile of HCI:
Human Concern International was established in 1980 to help Afghans who had fled to Pakistan to escape the war in their home country.
In 1995, Osama bin Laden told an Egyptian interviewer that Human Concern International funded an al-Qaeda charitable front called “Blessed Relief.” (Ahmed Said) Khadr (Omar’s father) was in charge of Human Concern International’s Pakistan office at this time. Khadr was arrested on charges of helping an Islamist bombing attack against the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan but was later released following an appeal by then-prime minister Jean Chrétien.
Khadr died in 2003 in the company of Taliban and al-Qaeda members, when Pakistani troops attacked their South Waziristan safe house. An al-Qaeda website profiling “120 Martyrs of Afghanistan” described him as an al-Qaeda leader and praised him for “tossing his little child [Omar] in the furnace of the battle.”
No charges have ever been laid against Human Concern International. It has official charitable status with the Canada Revenue Agency.
In 2008, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, a leader of the Islamist Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami party was invited to speak at a conference sponsored by HCI in Mississauga. He was eventually denied a visa by Canadian authorities. Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) is a close ally of the Muslim Brotherhood. On January 31, 1996, the Globe and Mail reported that JEI provided a lawyer to Ahmed Said Khadr after he had been arrested in Pakistan.
Here is how JEI’s founder, Syed Maududi (1903-1979) described the mission in which his followers are engaged:
The aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution….Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam….The purpose of Islam is to set up a state on the basis of its own ideology and programme. (Jihad in Islam – pp. 6 and 22)
When HCI sponsors a meeting featuring a leader of a Pakistani party advocating an Islamic takeover, it clearly infringes the rules associated with its charity status.
In his book Western Muslims and the Future of Islam, Tariq Ramadan, who was invited by IMS to speak in Edmonton a few weeks ago, identifies Maududi as a representative of his brand of Islam.
In the 2011 HCI financial statement available on the Canada Revenue Agency, Khalid Tarabain, the AMA’s president, is listed as a director.
Section 4 – Five charts describing the money transfers from Inter-Masajid Shura entities to well-established Muslim Brotherhood organizations
Although they have an openly political agenda and have transferred money to organizations involved in the financing of armed jihad, many organizations belonging to the Inter-Masajid Shura (IMS) still have a charitable status. The donations made to these organizations are tax-deductible.
The following abbreviations are used to identify three government agencies in what follows:
CRA – Canadian Revenue Agency
IC – Industry Canada
QRE – Quebec Registry of Enterprises
NOTE: In four of the five charts below, a $29,700 transfer from HCI to IRFAN-Canada is indicated. Contrary to the other numbers, it does not come from Canada Revenue Agency’s data but from a 2004 Muslim Link article.
Al Rashid Mosque
13070 113 St Edmonton AB T5E 5A8
Official name with IC – Al Rashid Mosque / Files 4512090 and 803829423RC0001
Official name with CRA – Arabian Moslem Association / File 106861800RR0001
Other designations:
Canadian Islamic Centre / Not to be confused with Canadian Islamic Congress (mentioned as such on the Al Rashid website)
Muslim Association of Edmonton (mentioned as such in the Alberta Hansard – May 6, 1999)
Muslim Association of Canada (MAC)
332-1568 Merivale Rd. Ottawa ON K2G 5Y7
Official name with CRA – Muslim Association of Canada / File 880495163RR0001
Official name with IC – Muslim Association of Canada / Files 3399915 and 880495163RC0001
Official name with QRE – Association musulmane du Canada / File 1160478880
Other designations:
Centre communautaire Laurentien (mentioned as such in the Quebec Registry of Enterprises – File QRE 1160478880)
Mosquée AlRawdah (mentioned as such in the Quebec Registry of Enterprises – File QRE 1160478880)
École Dar Al-Iman / from December 6, 2001 to December 5, 2003 (mentioned as such in the Quebec Registry of Enterprises – File QRE 1160478880)
École Le Savoir / from February 27, 2007 to July 7, 2009 (mentioned as such in the Quebec Registry of Enterprises – File QRE 1160478880)
Markaz-ul-Islam
7907 36th Ave Edmonton AB T6K 3S6
Official name with CRA – Markaz-ul-Islam Society of Edmonton / File 119033397RR0001
Other designations:
Millwoods Mosque (mentioned as such on www.masjidannoor.ca)
Masjid Al-Noor
3032 106 Street NW Edmonton AB T6J 5M5
Official name with CRA – Southwest Muslim Community Centre / File 840499016RR0001
Other designations:
Masjid Annoor (mentioned as such on www.masjidannoor.ca)
Masjid Noor (mentioned as such on www.salatomatic.com)
Muslim Community of Edmonton (MCE)
10721 86 Ave NW Edmonton AB T6E 2M8
Official name with CRA – Muslim Community of Edmonton Mosque and Muslim House / File 891050387RR0001
Other designations:
University Mosque (mentioned as such on www.masjidannoor.ca)
Two IMS entities have no record with the Canada Revenue Agency, at least under the names given in the WISE newsletter (Masjid Quba and Masjid Sahaba). The last two IMS entities (Al-Ameen and WISE) are listed with CRA but their files contain only a few transactions.
Al-Ameen Islamic Centre
5410 122 Ave Edmonton AB T5W 1S2
Official name with CRA – Al-Ameen Islamic Mosque / File 861553683RR0001
Masjid Quba
11517 105 Ave Edmonton AB T5H 3Y5
Records with government agencies have not been found yet.
Other designations:
Kuba Mosque (mentioned as such on www.masjidannoor.ca)
Masjid Sahaba
9216 105 Ave Edmonton AB T5H 0J5
Records with government agencies have not been found yet.
Other designations:
Sahaba Mosque (mentioned as such on www.masjidannoor.ca)
Islamic Downtown Association (mentioned as such on www.islamicfinder.org)
West-End Islamic Society of Edmonton (WISE)
1206 Tredger Court Edmonton AB T6R 3P2
Official name with CRA – West-End Islamic Society of Edmonton – File 822821427RR0001
Section 5 – The Arabian Moslem Association and the Muslim Association of Canada
The Arabian Moslem Association (AMA) and the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) are the most important organizations on the IMS Council. AMA manages the Al Rashid mosque while MAC controls the Rahma mosque in West Edmonton.
Al Rashid is the oldest mosque in Canada. It was founded in 1938. Yussuf Ali, the Pakistani author of a very popular English translation of the Qur’an in Islamist circles, was present at the inauguration. The Edmonton mosque could have been named after Yussuf Ali’s own son Rashid.
In the eighties, while Gaddafi was working at extending Libya’s influence in the world, a Libyan organization gave $1.5 million to the Edmonton-based Arabian Moslem Association. The agreement was made public in a 2004 Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench decision. The deal with Gaddafi’s Libya was not at the centre of the decision but was referred to in order to settle a dispute between AMA and one of its former imams regarding the ownership of the names Canadian Islamic Centre and Al Rashid Mosque.
The $1.5 million agreement was signed in 1981 in Tripoli by Mahmoud Ali Tarrabain on behalf of the Arabian Moslem Association and representatives of the World Islamic Call Society (WICS).
In 2002, an updated version of the agreement was signed in Edmonton by Khalid Tarabain, AMA’s actual president, and a WICS representative.
In 2009, the World Islamic Call Society mentioned its donation to the Arabian Moslem Association on its own website.
WICS had been set up by Gaddafi to influence politicians in foreign countries and finance terrorist activities. WICS used interfaith dialogue as a pretext to hide its activism in non-Muslim countries.
As reported in a March 2012 Reuters report about the Libyan WICS, on numerous occasions the organization’s interfaith mask slipped to reveal its real mission.
In 2004, Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi, a Yemeni-born U.S. Muslim leader, who sometimes advised the State Department on interfaith relations, pleaded guilty for having plotted to assassinate the then Saudi Crown prince.
At his grand jury trial, Alamoudi admitted having received $340,000 in cash in London from WICS’ officials for the operation. According to Reuters report, “that sum was part of at least $910,000 he had received over eight years from Libya, depositing it in foreign banks and withdrawing small sums to avoid alerting U.S. authorities.”
Alamoudi was involved with numerous Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the United States.
IPT News (March 14, 2012): Under Oath, Alamoudi Ties the Muslim American Society to the Muslim Brotherhood
Point de Bascule (February 28, 2011): The Muslim Brotherhood and Gaddafi were partners not too long ago
In 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency stripped WICS’ Canadian branch of its charity status after it discovered that its director had transferred money to a radical group involved in a coup in Trinidad and Tobago in 1990. WICS-Canada was also linked to a plot to bomb New York’s Kennedy Airport in 2007.
Gary Dimmock (Ottawa Citizen – May 7, 2011): WICS’ Canadian branch transferred money from Gadhafi’s “Jihad fund” to bank accounts of known terrorists
In 2002, two AMA administrators designed an Islamic Studies course for the Edmonton Public Schools. Issam Saleh was on AMA’s board of administrators from 2001 to 2008 and Waleed Najmeddine in 2000 and 2003.
The 2009 version of the Islamic Studies curriculum recommends many books to teachers as supplementary resources. The authors of these books (listed on page 11 of the document) are either directly related to the Muslim Brotherhood or endorsed by it. The endorsement of these Islamists by the Edmonton Public School Board shows complete negligence on the Board’s part.
Youssef Qaradawi is one of the authors recommended by Issam Saleh and Waleed Najmeddine. He is considered the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. To this day, Waleed Najmeddine shows his approval of Qaradawi on his own Facebook page.
In recent texts and speeches, Qaradawi promoted the conquest of the West by Muslims and claimed that Hitler was sent by Allah to punish the Jews (video).
The Edmonton Public School curriculum for the Islamic Studies program recommends Yusuf Ali’s English translation of the Qur’an. Yusuf Ali is the same person who attended the opening of Al-Rashid mosque in Edmonton in 1938. Ali’s Qur’an contains thousands of complementary notes written by the translator. Many of them characterize non-Muslims in derogatory terms. Jews are described as “apes and swine” (p. 1742). More examples of anti-Jewish stances found in the book are listed in a FrontPage article that was published after the Los Angeles school board decided to remove all Yusuf Ali’s Qur’ans from its libraries.
Many other Islamists are recommended in the curriculum. Bilal Philips and Jamal Badawi are among them.
Bilal Philips promotes the killing of homosexuals. Before being kicked out of a Calgary mosque “opened to the public”, Calgary Herald’s Licia Corbella met with him in June 2012. He confirmed that homosexuals must be killed under sharia and that he hopes to see it being enforced in Canada.
Jamal Badawi was identified as a leader of the North American Muslim Brotherhood in a 1991 network’s memorandum (point 20). In the memorandum, the Brotherhood’s mission is described in no uncertain terms:
The Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) must understand that their work in America is kind of a grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. (…) It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes. (point 4)
In 2010, Issam Saleh, the co-author of the Islamic studies curriculum and former AMA administrator was also identified as the chairman of MAC-Edmonton by the Edmonton Sun. At the time, Saleh threatened to sue West Edmonton residents who were opposing the development of an Islamic school by MAC in their neighborhood. The initial debate, which centered on parking space, eventually broadened to the political goals pursued by MAC and the Muslim Brotherhood in Edmonton and elsewhere.
MAC manages the Rahma mosque in West Edmonton. According to the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (p. 618), MAC was founded in 1997. It has branches in numerous Canadian cities.
On its own website, MAC describes its ideological background and its association with the Muslim Brotherhood in these terms:
MAC’s (…) modern roots can be traced to the Islamic revival of the early twentieth century, culminating in the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood. (…) MAC adopts and strives to implement Islam (…) as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan Albanna (1906-1949), the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. MAC regards this ideology as the best representation of Islam as delivered by Prophet Muhammad.
In his 50-point manifesto, Hassan al-Banna promotes the abolition of political parties and the instauration of a one-party State, the reform of the law, so that it will conform to Sharia, an increase in the number of youth groups promoting jihad, the prohibition of dancing, the censorship of movies and plays and a dress code for all citizens enforced by a religious police.
According to Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, which monitors the Brotherhood’s activities around the world, MAC and Hamas (charter – article 2) are among the rare Brotherhood’s local sections publicly acknowledging their ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In January 2012, Point de Bascule reported that the Arabian Moslem Association itself, a school managed by AMA (Edmonton Islamic School) and another one managed by the Muslim Association of Canada (Dar al-Iman) all received public money from the federal government to subsidize their security system. All this while MAC and AMA are threatening our own security by promoting Islamists like Qaradawi, Tariq Ramadan, Maududi and others who advocate for an Islamic takeover.
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Further reading
Point de Bascule (August 24, 2010): Who Is Behind The Islamic School Being Planned For West Edmonton?
