Backgrounder: Islamic Circle of North America
Ideology and Dissemination of Extremist Materials
Posted: July 17, 2009
ICNA's ideology is closely linked to Jamaat e-Islami, the largest Islamist party of Pakistan. According to an article in ICNA's publication The Message, "Using the organizational development methodology of Maulana Mawdudi and the Jamaat Al-Islami of Pakistan, which lays special emphasis on spiritual development, ICNA has developed a strong foundation." Maulana Mawdudi, a.k.a. Syed Abul 'Ala Maududi, is a jihadi ideologue who's writing are widely distributed by ICNA. He has written that "the nation of Jews will be exterminated" in the end of days.
ICNA's youth division, Young Muslims (YM), promotes educational materials infused with overt anti-Semitism and support for terror. YM's Web site features an online resource library with several books by radical ideologues who advocate violent jihad, including five books by Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi and another five by Mawdudi.
Among these books is Qaradawi's The Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, in which he calls for violent jihad and praises Hamas, hailing it as "the steadfast, brave, aware Islamic resistance movement." Qaradawi also evokes offensive Jewish stereotypes. The text reads:
Financiers in the Christian West provide missionary foundations all over the world with the funding necessary for their work, donating billions of dollars for that purpose. The same applies to Jewish capitalists who, despite the known Jewish miserliness and money worship, have given generously to the Jewish cause before and after the establishment of Israel.
Young Muslims' resource library also features a document called "Brotherhood: The Essential Relationship" prepared by the Muslim American Society's Tarbiyah (Education) Department. The document discourages "worldly relationships" outside of the "brotherhood of Islam" and states:
The heart of the believer harbors no love for the polytheists and rejecters of faith even if they are of his kin. The hearts of the believers are however filled with love for other true believers, the people of jihad and the people of the mosques. These are his true brothers.
The document also interjects accounts from Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the radical Egyptian group the Muslim Brotherhood.
ICNA’s ideological world view has also been outlined in the March 2010 edition of ICNA’s Sisters Wing Member’s Handbook. The handbook states that “Wherever the Islamic movement succeeds to establish true Islamic society, they will form coalition and alliances. This will lead to the unity of the Ummah and towards the establishment of the Khilafah,” Arabic for Caliphate, the religious, political and economic system of Islamic governance.
The handbook also contains a recommended reading list for new members. The list contains ICNA- sanctioned authors, including several of the above mentioned anti-Semitic Islamist leaders and imams. ICNA members are urged to read titles written by Syed Abul ‘Ala Maududi, Hassan al-Banna and Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, among others.
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