Author: Kenneth R. Timmerman
Publication: Insight
Date: March 19, 2004
URL: http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/03/30/National/Pipes.Objects.To.Fox.In.The.Henhouse-636946.shtml
The congressionally funded United
States Institute of Peace will host an event today in Washington on reforming
Islam, with a guest panelist who has threatened the United States and openly
supported terrorist groups, Insight has learned.
Among the guests in this afternoon's
panel discussion is Muzammil Siddiqi, who until November 2001 was president
of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a leading Wahhabi front
organization in the United States. Wahhabism is a radical form of Islam
practiced in Saudi Arabia and advocated by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
and his terrorist leaders.
Siddiqi has accompanied visiting
Saudi officials from the Muslim World League on fund-raising tours across
America, and is listed on its Website as the organization's official representative
in the United States. Offices of the Muslim World League in Herndon, Va.,
were raided by a federal antiterrorism task force in March 2002 because
of suspected ties to al- Qaeda.
During an anti-Israel rally outside
the White House on Oct. 28, 2000, Siddiqi openly threatened the United
States with violence if it continued its support of Israel. "America has
to learn ... if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will
come. Please, all Americans. Do you remember that? ... If you continue
doing injustice, and tolerate injustice, the wrath of God will come." By
"injustice," he meant U.S. support for Israel.
Siddiqi also has called for a wider
application of sharia law in the United States, and in a 1995 speech praised
suicide bombers. "Those who die on the part of justice are alive, and their
place is with the Lord, and they receive the highest position, because
this is the highest honor," he was quoted as saying by the Kansas City
Star on Jan. 28, 1995.
A Bush appointee to the U.S. Institute
of Peace (USIP) says he must distance himself from today's event because
it associates the USIP with groups "on the wrong side in the war on terrorism."
USIP board member Daniel Pipes tells Insight that, in addition to his objection
to Siddiqi, he has warned the USIP about the presence of the U.S. spokesman
of al- Muhajiroun, a London-based group that claims to be recruiting jihadis
for a worldwide "Mohammed's army" faithful to bin Laden.
Pipes tells Insight: "I believe
that President [George W.] Bush appointed me to the USIP board in part
to serve as a watchdog against militant Islamic groups. Unfortunately the
management of USIP is not listening to my advice. I cannot be associated
with the event today which associates USIP with some of the very worst
militant Islamic groups."
Kay King, a spokesperson for USIP
Chairman Richard Solomon, said USIP was "not aware of the allegations about
Siddiqi, and we will look into them." However, she pointed out that Siddiqi
"has attended Bush administration events with the president, and was invited
to lead a prayer" at the national prayer breakfast following the September
11 attacks.
The March 19 event is cohosted by
USIP and the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), a U.S.-based
group that was created by board members and former staff of the American
Muslim Council (AMC), a radical pro-Saudi group that largely ceased operations
after its former chairman, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, was jailed last October
on terrorist- related charges.
Pipes raised his concerns with USIP
Chairman Chester Crocker and President Richard Solomon over the "extremist
nature of CSID itself" starting last November. In addition to board members
and an executive director who shifted over to the new group from AMC, Pipes
pointed out that CSID fellow Kamran Bokhari has ties to al-Muhajiroun,
an al-Qaeda support group. Until last year, Bokhari was the self-acknowledged
North American spokesman for al-Muhajiroun.
Insight reported on the group's
first anniversary "celebration" of the 9/11 attacks, held at the radical
Finsbury mosque in London, where al- Muhajiroun showed off a poster that
portrayed a burning World Trade Center under attack and called September
11 "a towering day in history."
At the group's second anniversary
9/11 "celebration," its members distributed a poster with photographs of
all 19 hijackers, calling them "the magnificent 19."
CSID "fellows" are not research
assistants, but integral members of the leadership of the organization.
According to a copy of the CSID bylaws Insight has obtained, CSID fellows
are responsible for electing the group's board of directors. All board
members must first be fellows.
Bokhari has issued a statement denouncing
political violence and al- Qaeda, and referred to himself as a "former
Islamist activist." But given his leadership role with al-Muhajiroun, Pipes
says, such statements were "deeply insufficient to rehabilitate him ...
or make him someone suitable to be associated with USIP."
Pipes first raised concerns over
the planned event in November, when the USIP initially had invited Taha
Jaber Al-Alwani to speak on a panel to discuss reforming Islam. Al-Alwani
was publicly identified in an affidavit by U.S. Customs special agent David
Kane, unsealed just weeks earlier, as a director of "Safa Group companies
including International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), FIQH council
of North America, Graduate School of Islamic & Social Sciences ...
and Heritage Education Trust."
The IIIT offices were raided in
March 2002 as part of Operation Greenquest, a joint federal antiterrorism
task force. IIIT has received money and sponsorship from the government
of Saudi Arabia, and according to the affidavit had sponsored Basheer Nafi,
"an active directing member of [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] front organizations"
in the United States.
Following Pipes' objection, the
USIP postponed the initial event and canceled its invitation to Al-Alwani
to join the panel discussion, but continued to work with CSID despite Pipes'
claims that the group included among its leadership individuals who were
on the "wrong side" in the war on terror.
USIP spokesperson Kay King says
the institute has "done due diligence" on CSID and found the group to be
"moderate" and "responsible."
"We know that CSID has gotten grants
form the State Department and from the National Endowment for Democracy,"
she said. "They are an organization that has been found appropriate by
U.S. government agencies."
CSID showcases moderate Muslim thinkers
such as professor Abdulaziz Sachedina of the University of Virginia. However,
many board members have either led or worked for groups that were targets
of a federal antiterrorist task force raid in March 2002.
CSID founding board member Jamal
Barzinji headed the "500 Grove Street" charities in Herndon, Va., that
were the target of the Greenquest task force. He left the CSID board in
April 2003.
Another CSID founding board member,
Louay M. Safi , is director of research at IIIT, according to the biography
posted on the CSID Website. He is reported previously to have worked at
an IIIT offshoot in Malaysia.
The CSID board also includes Muslim
leaders who are former or current board members of the American Muslim
Council, starting with CSID chairman Ali A. Mazrui. "CSID is part of the
militant Islamist lobby," Pipes tells Insight. "It is well-disguised, and
has brought in all the Islamist trends, giving them a patent of respectability."
The group's executive director in
2002 was Abdulwahab Alkebsi, a former AMC staff member. Alkebsi also is
reported to have worked for the Islamic Institute in Washington, and now
runs democracy programs in Iraq for the National Endowment for Democracy
that have promoted, among others, the Iraqi Communist Party.
Kenneth R. Timmerman is a senior
writer for Insight.
