Over the years, the Saudi World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) has funded terrorism and sponsored many non-violent activities promoting sharia worldwide. In 2003, WAMY sponsored the launch of the RIS conventions in Toronto. In 2012, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked WAMY’s charitable status because it was said to have funded Al-Qaida.

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Section 1 – RIS 2003 sponsor: World Assembly of Muslim Youth

Section 2 – RIS 2003 Canadian organizer: Ihya Foundation

Section 3 – Some of RIS 2003 speakers

3.1 – SAUDI GRAND MUFTI ABDUL-AZIZ IBN ABDULLAH AAL ASH-SHAIKH
  Calling for all churches to be demolished in the Arabian Peninsula

3.2 – JAAFAR IDRIS
  Islamizing from within the community to which we are opposed

3.3 – SIRAJ WAHHAJ
  Converting youth who feel excluded, and eventually arming them with Uzi submachine guns so that they can wage jihad in U.S. streets

3.4 – JAMAL BADAWI
  In the footsteps of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood

3.5 – MUNIR EL-KASSEM
  Leader of a terror-funding organization set up by Gaddafi’s regime

3.6 – ZAID SHAKIR
  Advocating the takeover of the United States by Muslims

Section 1 – RIS 2003 sponsor: World Assembly of Muslim Youth

This year, the 12^th edition of the Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) convention is scheduled to take place in Toronto from December 27 to December 29. Year after year, this convention features speakers close to the Muslim Brotherhood. This year, Abdallah Bin Bayyah, Jamal Badawi, Siraj Wahhaj, Tariq Ramadan and others have already confirmed their presence.

Last year, one highlight of the convention happened before its opening when its Diamond sponsor IRFAN-Canada withdrew its sponsorship after Point de Bascule pointed out that this organization was Hamas’ fund collector in Canada. Its charitable status had been revoked in 2011 by the Canada Revenue Agency precisely for its funding of terrorism.

Since the last RIS convention, CIBC notified IRFAN that it would no longer do business with it. The bank acknowledged that its decision “was related, at least in part, to the concerns raised by the Canada Revenue Agency.” Clearly, CIBC did not want to be the middleman enabling terrorist operations. IRFAN appealed the bank’s decision but lost on July 5, 2013. Ten days later, IRFAN announced that it was suspending its operations.

On July 16, 2013, Hamas leader Issam Adwan called for the recruitment of “manpower assistance” among Muslims in preparation for jihad attacks to be launched in countries where Israeli embassies are located. When police chiefs and politicians participate to RIS conventions, they enable a direct threat to Canadians and their institutions.

The sponsorship of a RIS convention by a terror-funding organization in 2012 was nothing new. The first edition of RIS in 2003 was also sponsored by an organization funding armed jihad: the Saudi World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). WAMY’s charitable status was revoked in 2012 by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) because it was said to have funded Al-Qaida.

Aside from supporting Al-Qaida financially and sponsoring RIS in 2003, WAMY has transferred money to many organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood network in Canada, including the Muslim Association of Canada, Dar Al-Iman Institute (Montreal), the London Muslim Mosque, the Islamic Circle of North America, etc.

In its audit (p. 12/22) that led to the revocation of WAMY’s charitable status, the CRA indicates that “in approximately 1993, in conversations with former senior al-Qaida lieutenant Jamal Ahmed AI-Fadl, Usama Bin Laden identified three Muslim charities as the primary sources of Al-Qaida financial and fund raising activity.” The World Assembly of Muslim Youth was one of them. In the US, WAMY was established by Bin Laden’s nephew, Abdullah.

WAMY is an extension of the Saudi government. On July 31, 2003, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations testified in front of a US Senate Committee that “the Saudi Minister of Islamic Affairs chairs the secretariat of WAMY.” The Investigative Project on Terrorism also reports that, in the past, books released by WAMY were even printed by the Saudi Government’s Armed Forces Printing Press.

Experts brought up more links between WAMY and terrorism long before the revocation of its charitable status in 2012.

1987 – A 1987 English language WAMY training manual obtained in London UK presents a WAMY camp song calling young Muslims to die for jihad. The song concludes by asking the youth of Islam: “On this Day of Jihad, are you miserly with your blood?” The full song was presented in 2003 by the Investigative Project on Terrorism in a testimony before a US House of Representatives Committee.

2003 – In 2003, the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board refused to grant refugee status to a young Muslim man from India because he was involved with the terrorist organization Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). In its decision, the Board members noted that SIMI is “reportedly securing generous financial assistance” from WAMY in spite of the fact that SIMI’s supremacist objective is clearly stated on its own website: “Jehad against India, the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam) by either forcefully converting everyone to Islam or by violence.”

In his book Auspices of the Ultimate Victory of Islam, Youssef Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide, explains the progress of his ideology in the 20^th century by a combination of groundwork done by organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and the top-down approach favored by the Wahhabi movement – and its organizations like WAMY – “greatly expanded by the possibilities of petro-dollar financing.” Qaradawi is banned by several Western countries and yet is the mentor and collaborator of many keynote speakers at RIS 2003 and RIS 2013.

Profiles of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth: Discover the Networks – History Commons

GMBDW and its predecessor GMBDR have published many news items about WAMY.

CRA’s revocation summary – CRA’s full audit of WAMY

Section 2 – RIS 2003 Canadian organizer: Ihya Foundation

The 1^st RIS convention in 2003 was, in fact, the 2^nd conference organized by another Saudi-backed organization called International Committee for Support of the Final Prophet (ICSFP). The 1^st ICSFP conference was organized in London UK in 2002 and the 4^th one in Manama (Bahrain) in 2006. We have not found any information about the 3^rd ICSFP conference. Two sets of pictures (ICSFP website – RIS History section) and a video of RIS 2003 are available.

A Canadian Islamist organization, Ihya Foundation, was also involved in the organization of RIS 2003. Ihya Foundation was incorporated in 2002 and still has an active status with Industry Canada. On two Government of Canada websites (2005 – 2013), Hussein Hamdani is identified as a founding member of the organization. Hamdani is a member of the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security that “provides advice and perspectives to the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Justice, concerning matters of national security.”

In Industry Canada database, Nazim Baksh (CBC producer) and Abdul-Rehman Malik (UK Radical Middle Way programs manager) are also listed as Ihya’s directors.

In a Ihya Foundation document archived in 2003, Hussein Hamdani announced that, after a reorganization, another organization called Ihya Productions had become “an arm of the Foundation.” Ihya Productions was established in 1996, incorporated in 2000 and dissolved in 2005. Its mission was the “dissemination of the sacred Islamic sciences.” Ihya Productions was selling books promoting sharia, described as “vital texts taken from our sacred tradition.”

According to Ihya Foundation’s own website, the name of the organization was inspired by a work written by Muslim ideologue Hamid Al-Ghazali (1058-1111). Its title is Ihya Ulum-ud-Din in Arabic. It translates by Revival of the Islamic Sciences in English. Given that Ihya Foundation launched the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conventions in 2003, it seems obvious that the title of Al-Ghazali’s work also inspired the RIS conventions’ name.

Ihya Foundation describes Al-Ghazali as a “great Imam,” author of a “monumental work.”

Here are excerpts taken from Al-Ghazali’s writings about armed jihad, the status of dhimmis [non-Muslims in Islamic societies] and the status of women:

ARMED JIHAD

[O]ne must go on jihad (i.e., warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year…one may use a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them…One may cut down their trees…One must destroy their useless books. Jihadists may take as booty whatever they decide…they may steal as much food as they need…

STATUS OF DHIMMIS (NON-MUSLIMS IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES)

[T]he dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle…Jews, Christians, and Majians must pay the jizya [poll tax on non-Muslims]…on offering up the jizya, the dhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his beard and hits [the dhimmi] on the protruberant bone beneath his ear [i.e., the mandible]… They are not permitted to ostentatiously display their wine or church bells…their houses may not be higher than the Muslim’s, no matter how low that is. The dhimmi may not ride an elegant horse or mule; he may ride a donkey only if the saddle [-work] is of wood. He may not walk on the good part of the road. They [the dhimmis] have to wear [an identifying] patch [on their clothing], even women, and even in the [public] baths… [dhimmis] must hold their tongue….

STATUS OF WOMEN

She [The woman] should stay home and get on with her spinning, she should not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be communicative with her neighbours and only visit them when absolutely necessary; she should take care of her husband and respect him in his presence and his absence and seek to satisfy him in everything … she must not leave the house without his permission and if given his permission she must leave surreptitiously. She should put on old clothes and take deserted streets and alleys, avoid markets, and make sure that a stranger does not hear her voice or recognize her; she must not speak to a friend of her husband even in need… Her sole worry should be her virtue, her home as well as her prayers and her fast. If a friend of her husband calls when the latter is absent she must not open the door nor reply to him in order to safeguard her and her husband’s honour. She should accept what her husband gives her as sufficient sexual needs at any moment… She should be clean and ready to satisfy her husband’s sexual needs at any moment.

In his Book of Counsel for Kings, Al-Ghazali also lists 18 punishments that women have to endure as a collective retribution for Eve’s behaviour in the Garden of Eden (menstruations, childbirth, lesser share in inheritance, disqualification for rulership and judgeship, etc.)

The first two excerpts were reproduced by Andrew Bostom in Legacy of Jihad and the third one by Ibn Warraq in Why I am not a Muslim.

One key book sold by Ihya Productions was a manual of sharia entitled Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller in its English translation). It was authored by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (1302-1367). What makes this book indispensable to understand how Muslim Brotherhood activists operate and where they are heading is the fact that their leaders have endorsed it, not as some historical document, but as a legal reference to determine crucial points of sharia today. The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), the main Muslim Brotherhood think tank in North America, endorsed it as “a valuable and important work, whether as a textbook for teaching Islamic jurisprudence to English speakers, or as a legal reference for use by scholars.”

Also, al-Azhar University issued a certificate attesting that the English translation of Umdat al-Salik “corresponds to the Arabic original and conforms to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni Community.”

Academics active in Muslim Brotherhood circles, such as Tariq Ramadan and Mohammad Fadel have also endorsed the book in the past.

Here is a list of a few sharia principles endorsed by the Umdat al-Salik:

Section 3 – Some of RIS 2003 speakers

3.1 – SAUDI GRAND MUFTI ABDUL-AZIZ IBN ABDULLAH AAL ASH-SHAIKH
Calling for all churches to be demolished in the Arabian Peninsula

According to a report published shortly after RIS 2003, the opening speech at the event was given by the Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Aal ash-Shaikh, the main religious leader of Saudi Arabia and the personification of Saudi Wahhabism. In 2012, CBN reported that the same Saudi Grand Mufti called for all churches to be demolished in the Arabian Peninsula. This area comprises Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

3.2 – JAAFAR IDRIS
Islamizing from within the community to which we are opposed

Before the revocation of his visa in December 2003, and his expulsion from the U.S. for his involvement with terror funding organizations, this Sudanese cleric was a regular on the North American Muslim Brotherhood speaking circuit. Shortly before his expulsion, Jaafar Idris (Jaafar Sheikh Idris) was also a member of Islamic Horizons magazine Editorial Advisory Board. The Islamic Society of North America refers to its magazine as “ISNA’s flagship bi-monthly magazine.”

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) was established in 1982 by the Muslim Brotherhood leadership to mobilize and radicalize Muslims beyond college and university campuses, after the Muslim Students Association was established to deal with the academic front in 1963. In 2013, ISNA Development Foundation had its charitable status revoked after the Canada Revenue Agency determined that the Foundation was providing receipts for income tax purposes to an organization without charitable status that was collecting money for jihad in India.

According to a 2004 Washington Times’ article, during his stay in the US capital, Jaafar Idris “held Saudi diplomatic credentials and had an office at the Saudi embassy. He lectured at the [Saudi] institute [near Washington] and espoused Wahhabism.”

In 1975, Jaafar Idris gave a speech entitled “The process of Islamization” at a Muslim Students Association convention in Toledo (Ohio) in which he enjoined his young listeners to take the necessary steps to Islamize the society they are living in. Here is an excerpt of his speech:

3.3 – SIRAJ WAHHAJ
Converting youth who feel excluded, and eventually arming them with Uzi submachine guns so that they can wage jihad in U.S. streets

Siraj Wahhaj is a popular American imam in Muslim Brotherhood circles. His presence at RIS 2013 has recently been confirmed. In a 1992 sermon given shortly after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Siraj Wahhaj advocated harnessing street violence in the United States for the benefit of Islam. He invited his supporters to convert youth who feel excluded, and eventually arm them with Uzi submachine guns so that they can wage jihad in U.S. streets. Here are some excerpts of his sermon:

The conclusion of the sermon from which these quotations are taken is archived on Point de Bascule. The full sermon was still available on the islamweb.net website in December 2013. More quotations from this sermon were published in the book Muslim Mafia (pp. 136-137).

3.4 – JAMAL BADAWI
In the footsteps of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood

Jamal Badawi’s presence at RIS 2013 has recently been confirmed. Badawi is based in Halifax (Nova Scotia). In 1991, he was one of the few Muslim Brotherhood leaders in North America to be identified in an internal strategic memorandum (point 20) of the network. In this document, the goal pursued by the Brotherhood is clearly presented:

POINT 4 The Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands 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.”

This document was made public after it was seized by police and produced for evidentiary purposes in a 2008 trial that led to the conviction of all accused in a terror financing case.

According to information available on the Canada Revenue Agency website, from 2002 to 2006, Badawi was on the board of the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), the main Muslim Brotherhood organization in Canada. Badawi has maintained a close relationship with MAC after he left its Board. In 2010, he enjoined MAC supporters to fund the renovation of a MAC building in Montreal.

In 2004, Jamal Badawi, praised the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, by stating that “more than any other individual, he has epitomised twentieth century Islamic thought and ideology.”

In his 50-point manifesto, Hassan al-Banna urged his supporters to abolish political parties and replace them by a single party system. He favored the modifying of laws so that they would conform to sharia and called for the multiplying of associations dedicated to promoting the spirit of jihad amongst youth.

In his essay Jihad, al-Banna explained that “it’s an obligation for us [Muslims] to fight against them [the infidels] after inviting them [to join Islam], even if they do not fight against us”. (Five Tracts, Translated by Charles Wendell, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1978, p. 147)

In his essay To what Do We Invite Humanity?, Hassan al-Banna referred to Adolf Hitler as a role model for Muslims looking for “success and fortune”.

3.5 – MUNIR EL-KASSEM
Leader of a terror-funding organization set up by Gaddafi’s regime

Reports from 2000, 2006, 2008 and 2009 indicate that Munir el-Kassem took part in activities organized by the Libyan World Islamic Call Society (WICS) and was even a leader of one of its substructure. WICS was established by Muammar Gaddafi in 1972 to further the Islamization of non-Muslim countries.

In 2006, Gaddafi told a large crowd of supporters in Mali that “the fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades” and that Europe and America “should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims” (Video – Transcript).

WICS’ interreligious activities were often used to cover the financing of terrorism. In 2004, Abdurahman Alamoudi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US and of a WICS’ substructure, pleaded guilty to various charges related to criminal activities executed for the benefit of Libya. In his plea bargain, Alamoudi admitted that he had been paid by Libya to plan an assassination and “served as a conduit for Libyan funds intended for Hamas.” Alamoudi also confessed to receiving funds from WICS to pursue his Islamist work in the United States.

In 2011, WICS’ Canadian branch had its charitable status revoked after the Canada Revenue Agency determined that it transferred money to radical groups involved in a coup in Trinidad and Tobago in 1990 and in a plot to bomb New York Kennedy Airport in 2007.

In spite of all these facts attesting of Munir el-Kassem’s radical agenda, he was appointed Muslim Chaplain of the London Ontario Police Service in 2011. Clearly another case of penetration of our Canadian security infrastructure by Islamists.

In 2012, on the occasion of Munir el-Kassem’s visit to Calgary, Herald columnist Licia Corbella reminded her readers about a column that el-Kassem wrote in 2001 to “condemn… the West as hypocritical and defend… the Taliban regime for destroying the sixth-century Buddha statues in Bamiyan.”

3.6 – Zaid Shakir
Advocating the takeover of the United States by Muslims

Zaid Shakir’s presence at RIS 2013 has recently been confirmed. Shakir is a regular speaker on the North American Muslim Brotherhood speaking circuit. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has published an extensive report about him. In speeches quoted in the report, Shakir declares that the Koran “gives no indication” that compromise is possible between Allah and “the false beliefs and systems innovated by man” and that if better organized, Muslims could “take over this country [the U. S] …in a very short period of time. So, we’ve got a lot of foundational work to do and we must do if we’re serious about the task that is before us.”

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/06/canadian-muslim-youth-organization-loses-charitable-status/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

http://web.archive.org/web/20130323161044/http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/06/canadian-muslim-youth-organization-loses-charitable-status/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Further Reading

Point de Bascule: Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) Convention