Zaid Shakir

What's Being Taught in California at Zaytuna College

by Ryan Mauro

On May 12, a lecture was posted on YouTube by Imam Zaid Shakir, a co-founder and faculty member at Zaytuna College, America’s first Islamic college, which is based in California. The lecture, titled "Iraq in Crisis," is from 2003 and teaches that the U.S. government is waging a war on Islam and is systematically persecuting innocent Muslims.

Shakir opens up by urging the audience to “take advantage of our positions as Muslims in [America]” and alleges that the U.S. invaded Iraq as part of a war on Islam because the religion is “the largest source of opposition” to those serving a “narrow agenda.” Later, he says that the war is led by a small group who want to stamp out Islam.

He refers to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s statement that the U.S. won’t allow Iraq to be run by clerics like in Iran as proof that the U.S. is opposed to a “religious state.” He characterizes the U.S. mission there in the worst possible terms, accusing the military of indiscriminately harming Iraqi civilians with depleted uranium and advanced explosives while allowing hospitals and museums to be looted.

His main point is that “we [Muslims] are all in this together” and that the oppression of Muslims in Iraq is no different than the oppression of Muslims in America. He accuses the government of arresting Muslims because “they just want a pretext to get another Muslim off the street.” In his conclusion, he tells the audience that “we’re under an onslaught” that will only get worse.

Shakir (shown right) cautions against “jihad fever” and says Muslim-Americans are to wage a different kind of jihad than in Iraq. The “best form of jihad,” he said, is “truth in the face of a tyrannical ruler.” Muslims in the U.S. must build institutions to defend Muslims and help Muslims overseas, he says, especially ones involved in education and media. The absence of this institution-building leads to wasted efforts.

He did not condemn violent jihad against the U.S. military overseas. He was just arguing that this institution-building (or, in the words of the Muslim Brotherhood, “civilizational jihad”) must supplement that type of jihad. In another lecture, he preached that violence against U.S. soldiers, such as hijacking a plane full of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, is justifiable.

Shakir takes a softer tone in the videotaped lectures posted on the Zaytuna College’s YouTube channel. In one titled,  "The Irony of Democracy," posted on January 30, 2012, he teaches that all political rule inevitably leads to control by a small elite that doesn’t represent the population. This includes the U.S. He tells his students that a “small oligarchy” runs the country, particularly the media and the electoral system. As proof of the latter, he recalls the “selection of 2000” that brought President George W. Bush into office.

In Part 2, posted on March 22, Shakir recommends that a Muslim political agenda include “the enforcement of anti-defamation statutes” to protect minorities from bigotry. The impact this would have is that if any citizen uses a phrase like “radical Islam” and a group like CAIR says he or she is spreading hate, charges could be brought against the person. The Organization of the Islamic Conference has made outlawing criticisms of Islam through anti-blasphemy laws a top priority. And remember, even Zuhdi Jasser, an anti-Islamist Muslim, has been accused by such groups of promoting anti-Muslim bigotry.

Zaytuna College offers only two majors: Arabic Language and Islamic Law and Theology. Is this the type of Islam we want our next generation of Muslim students to be taught?

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

For more on Imam Zaid Shakir, see our earlier expose, What an Islamic Icon is Teaching American Youth.

Imam Zaid Shakir - Non-Muslim Won't be Equal with Muslim

"If Islam is the basis, the kafir [non-believer] won’t be equal with the Muslim."

- Imam Zaid Shakir
Chairman of Islamist Zaytuna College in California

Thu, August 15, 2013 Zaid Shakir: If Islam Rules, Non-Muslims Won’t be Equal

At ICNA's Labor Day convention,one of the most influential imams in America,  Zaid Shakir, said to 32,000 Muslims participants that Sharia law is superior to the U.S. Constitution because it isn’t based on equal citizenship for Muslims and non-Muslims. Shakir said,“If Islam is the basis, the kafir [non-believer] won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a dhimmi [second-class citizen].They won’t be equal with the Muslim.”

At ICNA's Labor Day convention,one of the most influential imams in America, Zaid Shakir, said to 32,000 Muslims participants that Sharia law is superior to the U.S. Constitution because it isn’t based on equal citizenship for Muslims and non-Muslims. Shakir said,“If Islam is the basis, the kafir [non-believer] won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a dhimmi [second-class citizen].They won’t be equal with the Muslim.”

by: 
Ryan Mauro

An interfaith dinner was held on July 27 at the Islamic Society of Frederick in Maryland, featuring local officials and Christian clergy. One of the speakers, a former leader of the “moderate” Islamic Circle of North America, explained its purpose: “Discrimination is part of the American way,” he stated, and “The only way to control that is to make alliances.”

The Islamic Circle of North America’s parent group is a Pakistani Islamist party named Jamaat-e-Islami. A Bangladeshi court just barred Jamaat-e-Islami from elections because of its opposition to the country’s constitution.

One of the former Secretary-Generals of ICNA, Ashrafuzzaman Khan, is on trial in absentia in Bangladesh for alleged war crimes he committed as a member of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing. The Investigative Project on Terrorism discovered that Khan remains on the board of ICNA’s New York chapter.

ICNA is mentioned repeatedly in a 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memorandum. The author refers to meetings between Muslim Brotherhood and ICNA officials about a planned “merger” and the New York-based group is listed as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”

The memo’s stated objective of waging a “kind of grand jihad … in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within” is often mentioned in articles about the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, but less mentioned are the methods to achieve that.

The memo states the “sabotaging” of Western civilization will happen “by their [non-Muslim] hands and the hands of the believers [Muslims].” The U.S. Muslim Brotherhood apparatus that ICNA belongs to is told to “possess a mastery of the art of ‘coalitions,’  the art of ‘absorption’ and the principles of ‘cooperation.’” You can almost hear the sarcasm in the author’s voice as he puts quotation marks around those friendly terms.

The President of ICNA, Zahid Bukhari, spoke at the event. He’s a known fan of former Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who he praises as having been a “visionary and brilliant leader of Turkey’s Islamist movement.”

Bukhari told the audience, “Discrimination is a part of the American way.” It is implied that the U.S. is inherently racist and oppressive towards minorities, with Muslims being only the latest victims.

He explained, “The only way to control that is to make alliances.”

To put it another way (as per the text of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's own memo): The answer lies in “possess[ing] a mastery of the art of ‘coalitions,’ the art of ‘absorption’ and the principles of cooperation.’”

Even though that document was written over 20 years ago, the organization's Islamist ideology has not decreased with age. Case in point: ICNA’s official Member’s Hand Book of 2010 for its Sisters’ Wing lays out a five-tiered strategy to assemble “the united Muslim Ummah [community] in a united Islamic state, governed by an elected khalifah in accordance with the laws of shari’ah.”

The handbook also states that ICNA is part of an international “Islamic Movement” that is an “organized and collective effort waged to establish Al-Islam in its complete form in all aspects of life.” The term “Islamic Movement” is used by the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood to describe its campaign to destroy Western civilization in its 1991 memo. 

ICNA’s annual conferences are jointly held with the Muslim American Society (MAS), an organization described by federal prosecutors in 2008 as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” This designation of MAS has been confirmed by a convicted terrorist and former senior member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. These conferences are stocked with Islamist speakers who subtlety push the Islamist doctrine of “gradualism.”

In 2002, one speaker at ICNA’s convention said, “We may all feel emotionally attached to the goal of an Islamic state [in America],” but “We mustn’t cross hurdles we can’t jump yet.”

In 2011, radical Imam Siraj Wahhaj advised ICNA’s audience: “The trap we fall into is having a premature discussion about Sharia when we are not there yet,” as reported by the Clarion Project.

ICNA held its convention this year over Memorial Day Weekend. While many Americans honored fallen U.S. servicemen, Imam Zaid Shakir’s message to 32,000 Muslims at the ICNA convention was that Sharia Law is superior to the U.S. Constitution because it isn’t based on equal citizenship for Muslims and non-Muslims. He actually said, “If Islam is the basis, the kafir [non-believer] won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a dhimmi [second-class citizen]They won’t be equal with the Muslim.”

In its latest fundraising letter, ICNA’s President says funds are needed to “counter the seeds of hate and bigotry being sown around us.” It urges prayers for “all those facing Islamophobia around the world.”

The theme of Muslims under siege works well because it automatically sets up ICNA as the victim and its critics as the aggressors.

This rhetorical setup is used against ICNA’s foreign adversaries, as well as its domestic. Even though the Muslim Brotherhood was overthrown in Egypt at the request of millions of Egyptian Muslims, ICNA is outraged. It is trying to mobilize the Muslim-American community into pressuring the U.S. government to have the Brotherhood reinstated into power.

ICNA admits it is part of an international Islamist movement -- its interfaith partners need to recognize it as such.

 

Ryan Mauro is the ClarionProject.org’s National Security Analyst, a fellow with the Clarion Project and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Sun, July 14, 2013 Popular U.S. Imam: Constitution Inferior to Sharia

Popular Imam Zaid Shakir:

Popular Imam Zaid Shakir: "If Islam is the basis (of the government), the kafir won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a dhimmi. They won’t be equal with the Muslim."

by: 
Ryan Mauro

While you were spending Memorial Day Weekend barbequing and honoring the U.S. servicemen who gave their lives for the country, 18,000 people attended an annual Muslim-American conference in Connecticut. An additional 14,000 watched online. And the message they heard from one prominent speaker was particularly offensive in light of the holiday: The U.S. Constitution is inferior to Islamic Sharia Law. 

The imam is named Zaid Shakir; he’s no stranger to readers of the Clarion Project. We’ve documented his Islamist ideology and anti-American rhetoric repeatedly. Despite the shredding apart of his “moderate” costume, he continues to be a sought-after speaker at Islamic venues across the country. He’s also co-founder and chairman of Zaytuna College in California, the subject of a recent New York Times whitewashing.

He spoke at the annual Islamic Circle of North America-Muslim American Society conference on May 25 at the Hartford Convention Center in Connecticut.

 A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo, which defines its “work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within,” lists ICNA as one of its fronts. Predictably, ICNA demands that the U.S. cut off military aid to Egypt in retaliation for the military’s overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The subject of his speech was “The Legitimacy of Secularism” and a video of his speech has been posted online.  It was an attack on secularism, modernity and how the U.S. Constitution based “membership” on equal citizenship instead of religion.

“One of the great dilemmas of modernity is that it pits rootless freedom … you can do anything you want in a liberal free society, as long as it does not violate the rights of others … that freedom creates a state of rootlessness.” (7:15-9:00)

“So one of the aspects of modernity is that it’s hegemonic. It doesn’t allow for any competition. It crushes any competition if it can. Now it’s trying to crush Islam.” (10:10)

“Rootless freedom, freedom that is devoid of any ability to give meaning—this is modern society. This is secular society versus ‘oppressive’ tradition. Now, Islam says there’s a solution. Islam says tradition is the real path to freedom and the freedom that secular and modern society advertise is a myth.” (12:10)

“Secularism says we keep religion out. Why? Because if we have religion and religion is the basis of membership in the community, we can’t have perfect equality. We can’t have perfect equality. If Islam is the basis, the kafir won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a dhimmi. They won’t be equal with the Muslim. (12:52)

“[Modernity/Secularism says] we can’t have religion as the foundation of membership in the political community. Citizenship has to be the basis of membership in the political community because as citizens, we’re all equal. As citizens, we’re all equal. And we have the foundation, a constitutional foundation, that guarantees certain rights for citizens.” (13:25)

“Now the problem with that [constitutional/equal citizenship] arrangement is, it’s a lofty ideal but after 200, 300 years of experimentation, we find that inequality is greater than it has ever been in the history of humanity.” (14:05)

Shair goes on to blasts the legitimacy of modern secular society’s constitutional “arrangement” by saying that political power is monopolized and President Obama’s failure to achieve the “redistribution of political power” proves that “elections don’t always translate into political power.” He claims that “[American] militarism is greater than it ever has been” and that the U.S. commits “indiscriminate killings.”

“[With Islam] rootless freedom can be freedom within rational, moral parameters, that gives us meaning.” (19:00)

“We [Muslims] understand that apparent oppression is the way to real liberation because one cannot journey to one’s Lord unless one restrains one’s self.” (19:40)

Shakir condemns terrorism like Al-Qaeda, but says their “idiotic ways” show that they are “slaves of modernity.” It sends the wrong message of “you’re crazy and we need to nuke you,” he explains. In other words, Al-Qaeda’s faults can be attributed to Western influence.

Shakir is reinforcing the theme of the 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo that says Islam presents a “civilization alternative” to the West and Muslims must engage in a “Civilization-Jihadist Process.”

If you go to his website, his biography states:

“While many have cited Imam Shakir as example of Islamic moderation, his critics have questioned his moderate credentials by citing his expressed hope for the conversion of America to Islam and adoption of Islamic law in America. Dr. Ingrid Mattson stated that Imam Zaid is solidly grounded in the Islamic legal, ethical and intellectual tradition, which all Muslims share, as well as his personal understanding of the current political context.”

Read that carefully.

hakir does not deny wanting the “adoption of Islamic law in America.” In fact, the New York Times reported in 2006 that   “he said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law.”

Instead, Shakir cites Dr. Ingrid Mattson, the former female president of the Islamic Society of North America (another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity), to prove that he’s right.

Another speaker at the convention was Imam Siraj Wahhaj. He spoke at the event in 2011, where he told Muslims to wait to talk about Sharia because “we are not there yet.”

As the Clarion Project showed, Wahhaj has long advocated Sharia for America through gradual means. And, significantly, Wahhaj was invited back to speak again at this year’s ICNA-MAS convention after saying that.

ICNA has launched an "Understanding Shariah" campaign in response to those who warn (read: Islamophobes) that “the steady adoption of Shariah’s tenets is a strategy [Islamic] extremists are using to transform the United States into an Islamic state.”

You can understand what ICNA is advocating by listening to the sermons given at its events. Apparently, listening to ICNA’s speakers constitutes “Islamophobia.”

 

Ryan Mauro is the ClarionProject.org’s National Security Analyst, a fellow with the Clarion Project and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

 

Mon, April 29, 2013 New York Times Whitewashes Islamist Zaytuna College

Zaid Shakir leading prayers.

Zaid Shakir leading prayers.

by: 
Ryan Mauro

Zaytuna College was founded by three Islamists with a history of anti-American rhetoric, but you wouldn’t know that if you read the New York Times puff piece about the California school. Readers are left to believe this is a moderate Muslim institution that will “foster an American Islam” to lead the Muslim world into the twenty-first century.

Zaytuna College is based in Berkeley and is an unaccredited school that operates on a $4-5 million budget. According to the Times, it has only 30 students and less than 10 professors. The author states that he hears it likened to “a Muslim version of the great Catholic colleges, like Georgetown or Notre Dame.”

Keep that comparison in mind as we go through the records of its three founders: Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian.

Hamza Yusuf is the President of Zaytuna College. He was number 42 on last year’s list of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims. He has mourned “what happened in the nineteenth century with the abdication of Islamic Law and the usurpation of its place by Western legal systems.” In the same interview, he accused the U.S. of trying to “unite the world” and criticized the “dominant world order, which is a capitalistic, Western world order.” In 1996, he proudly displayed his anti-Americanism:[America] is a country that has little to be proud of in its past and less to be proud of in the present. I am a citizen of this country not by choice but by birth. I reside in this country not by choice but by conviction in attempting to spread the message of Islam in this country. I became Muslim in part because I did not believe the false gods of this society, whether we call them Jesus or democracy or the Bill of Rights.

Yusuf’s rhetoric did become more moderate since 9/11. One month after the attacks, he said Muslims are treated better in the U.S. than most Muslim countries and that he “regret[s] in the past being silent about what I have heard in Islamic discourse and being part of that with my own anger.” He later lamented having been “infected” by anti-Semitism. He had called Judaism a “most racist religion” in 1995.

Zaid Shakir is the chairman of the board and the Student Affairs Committee of Zaytuna, whose extremism has been repeatedly documented by ClarionProject.org.  The New York Times, the very same outlet that carried this pro-Zaytuna article, reported in 2006 that “he said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law.”

ClarionProject.org found a recording of Shakir from 1992 of him preaching that the Muslim world needs a new Caliphate to wage jihad and “use …weaponry against the enemies of Islam.” He has suggested that the hijacking of aircrafts transporting U.S. soldiers is justified, and he preaches to students that Hezbollah’s bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon was not an act of terrorism.

Shakir regularly depicts the U.S. military as barbaric. His immediate reaction to the Newtown school shooting was to compare it to U.S. and Israeli military operations. He published an anti-American poem in April 2012 that depicted American soldiers as murderers and rapists. In 2003, he preached that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was part of a “war on Islam” and he accused the U.S. government of systematically persecuting innocent Muslim-Americans.

Hatem Bazian is the Academic Affairs Chair of Zaytuna and chairman of American Muslims for Palestine, an Islamist group that holds conferences that are like a party for Islamic radicals. The last one had a special session on teaching children about its cause.

He is seen in THe Clarion Project's film The Third Jihad calling for an “intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here,” comparing the needed intifada to the “uprising in Iraq” and the “intifada in Palestine.” He has similarly accused the U.S. government of warmongering, racism and of trying to “target” the Muslim leadership at home.

Although the New York Times showcases Zaytuna as a model of moderation, videotaped lectures at the school tell a different story. Shakir taught that the U.S. is run by a “small oligarchy” in January 2012.

In September, the three held a joint lecture where Bazian taught that the “military-industrial complex” created an “Islamophobic production industry” to justify destructive wars. In the same lecture, Yusuf spoke in favor of restricting speech that “mocks” religion, a change that would bring the U.S. into greater compliance with Sharia law. Shakir has expressed a similar view.

[ad]The New York Times isn’t alone in overlooking Zaytuna’s background. The article quotes Scott Korb, the author of a flattering book about Zaytuna named “Light Without Fire” as saying that “The message from the founders is clear: America is home.” The Presbyterian Church likewise published a book warning about the “rise of Islamophobia” that puts Zaytuna in a positive light.

As John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence…”

Facts can’t be altered—but they can be hid.

 

Ryan Mauro is the ClarionProject.org’s National Security Analyst, a fellow with the Clarion Project and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Tue, April 2, 2013 New Brunswick Islamic Center

by: 
Ryan Mauro

Year Founded: 1987

Website: www.NBIC.org

2003 Revenue: $114,460. Its exempt status was automatically revoked by the IRS for failure to file for three consecutive years.

Address: 1300 Livingston Avenue, North Brunswick, NJ 08902

The New Brunswick Islamic Center (NBIC) was founded by Islamist cleric Zaid Shakir.[1] It received funding from Saudi King Fahd.[2]

Shakir preached in 1992 that the Muslim world needs a new Caliphate that will wage jihad and “use…weaponry against the enemies of Islam.”[3] He legitimizes attacks on U.S. soldiers, saying, “Islam doesn’t permit us to hijack airplanes filled with civilian people...[but] if you hijack an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne, that’s something else.”[4] He teaches that Hezbollah’s bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 was not a terrorist attack.[5]

Shakir says that attacks inside the U.S. are not permissible because Muslims have a “covenant of protection.”[6]  He promotes 9/11 conspiracy theories, saying the attacks “occurred under dubious circumstances that have yet to be thoroughly investigated.”[7] He accuses the U.S. of “demonizing” Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi and Hugo Chavez[8] and depicts Al-Qaeda, Hamas and terrorists in Iraq and Chechnya as fighters against imperialism.[9]

In 2003, he preached that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was part of a war against Islam and accused the U.S. government of persecuting Muslim-Americans. He said that Muslim-Americans should participate in jihad through institution-building, particularly in education and media.[10] He teaches that the U.S. is controlled by a “small oligarchy.”[11]

In 2006, it was reported that ”he said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law.”[12] He recommends that Muslims advocate for “the enforcement of anti-defamation statues” against what he considers anti-Muslim bigotry.[13]

In April 2012, he wrote a poem that depicted the U.S. as a warmongering country whose soldiers ravage Muslim countries and murder and rape innocent civilians.[14] In September 2012, Shakir expressed his condolences for the family of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed in a terrorist attack, but coupled it with condolences for the families of eight Afghan women who were “brutally murdered by NATO bombs in Afghanistan.”[15]

In December 2012, Shakir said the school shooting in Newton, Connecticut should “serve as a reminder” of what’s happening to children in Gaza, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, comparing the massacre to U.S. and Israeli military operations.[16]

On July 7, 2012, the Islamic Society of North America held a seminar at NBIC that featured several Islamist speakers:[17] Muzammil Siddiqi taught about community engagement. In 2001, he expressed his hope that Sharia law, including its criminal law, would be implemented in the U.S. He has also preached in support of the elimination of Israel and supports the death penalty for homosexuals in Muslim countries.[18] On the topic of wife-beating, Siddiqi has preached, “in some cases, a husband may use some light disciplinary action in order to correct the moral infraction of his wife.”[19]

Another speaker was Saffet Catovic, who used to be the New York representative of Benevolence International, a "charity" shut down for its ties to Al-Qaeda. In 1992, Catovic spoke at an Islamic Association for Palestine conference (a Brotherhood entity) where he said the “long-range” goal is building a Caliphate. He also spoke at a military-themed “Jihad Camp” in 2001.[20]

Imam Qatanani of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, whose deportation is sought by the Department of Homeland Security for his Hamas links, also spoke. Qatanani taught about Sharia, as did Jamal Badawi, who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorism-financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a charity that he fundraised for. In 2010, Badawi endorsed “combative jihad.” He has also justified suicide bombings and refers to Hamas terrorists as “martyrs.”[21]

Khalid Lamada was identified as the NBIC’s outreach director in 2004.[22] He is from Egypt and endorsed Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential candidate in Egypt, in 2012.[23] He has served as a board member of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge and co-chairman of the joint national convention of Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).[24] The MAS-ICNA conferences feature radical speakers, often including defenders of Hamas and activists linked to the Brotherhood. For example, the 2012 conference had at least a dozen Islamist speakers.[25]

He was also the outreach director for MAS in 2006.[26] He is now the Vice Chair of the board of directors of Islamic Relief USA.


[1] “About Us,” NBIC website, http://www.nbic.org/about-us/.

[2] “Support for Mosques and Islamic Centers in United States,” KingFahdbinAbdulAziz.com, http://www.kingfahdbinabdulaziz.com/main/m460.htm.

[3] Audio of the sermon was posted online.  “Imam Zaid Shakir: Failure of the Muslim Political Order Part 2,” Umar Lee YouTube channel, December 18, 2012. http://youtu.be/yJgw30fejwo

[4] “CAIR Speaker to Muslims: OK to Attack Fort Bragg,” WorldNetDaily, November 11, 2009. http://www.wnd.com/2009/11/115687/

[5] “Jihad: A Just Struggle or Unjust Violence? – Zaid Shakir,” IslamOnDemand YouTube channel, March 13, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IjxFVLoPKY&feature=share&list=PL16A2C88F...

[6] “Jihad: A Just Struggle or Unjust Violence?—Zaid Shakir.”

[7] Zaid, Imam. “Who Are the Fascists?”New Islamic Directions, October 24, 2007. http://www.newislamicdirections.com/nid/articles/who_are_the_fascists/

[8] “Somali Pirates: More of the Same or New Way Ahead,” New Islamic Directions, May 6, 2009. http://www.newislamicdirections.com/nid/print/somali_pirates_more_of_the...

[9] Zaid, Imam. “Who Are the Fascists?”

[10] “Imam Zaid Shakir—Iraq Crisis,” ilmisfree YouTube channel, May 12, 2012. http://youtu.be/-UGj-FlkOiI

[11] “The Irony of Democracy, a Zaytuna Faculty Lecture by Imam Zaid Shakir,” Zaytuna YouTube channel, January 30, 2012. http://youtu.be/INXT5_j_0OM

[12] Goodstein, Laurie. “U.S. Muslim Clerics Seek a Modern Middle Ground,” New York Times, June 18, 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/us/18imams.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&

[13] “The Irony of Democracy—Part 2 by Imam Zaid Shakir,” Zaytuna YouTube channel, March 22, 2012. http://youtu.be/Wztq1KWHVUc

[14] Zaid, Imam. “War Chronicle / Peace Plea,” New Islamic Directions, April 30, 2012. http://www.newislamicdirections.com/nid/notes/war_chronicle_peace_plea

[15] “Between Militarism & Extremism: The Excluded Middle with Hatem Bazian…,” Zaytuna YouTube channel, September 28, 2012. http://youtu.be/Jo1z_eSHdHE

[16] Campbell, Susan. “From Imam Zaid Shakir,” Hot-Dogma.com, December 19, 2012. http://hot-dogma.com/2012/12/19/from-imam-zaid-shakir/

[17] “ISNA Seminar 2012,” Islamic Society of North America website, http://www.isna.net/Conferences/pages/ISNA-Seminar.aspx.

[18] “Apologists or Extremists: Muzammil Siddiqi,” Investigative Project on Terrorism, April 20, 2011. http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/171#_ftn20

[19] “Does Islam Allow Wife Beating?” Islamic Finder, http://www.islamicfinder.org/articles/article.php?id=307&lang=english.

[20] “Catovic: The Caliphate is Our Goal,” Investigative Project on Terrorism, http://www.investigativeproject.org/275/catovic-the-caliphate-is-our-goal.

[21] “Jamal Badawi: Enduring Link to ISNA’s Past,” IPT News, May 8, 2012. http://www.investigativeproject.org/3569/jamal-badawi-enduring-link-to-i...

[22] Parry, Wayne. “Friends Say N.J. Webmaster No Terrorist,” Associated Press, August 11, 2004. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-08-11-nj-terror-case_x.htm

[23] “dr khaled lamada supports dr morsi from new york,” bayadneurosurgeon YouTube channel, June 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/PIVMLgjY7Vs

[24] “Board of Directors,” IRUSA website, http://www.irusa.org/board/.

[25] Mauro, Ryan. “American Islamist Conferences Comes to Chicago,” RadicalIslam.org, November 20, 2012. http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/another-american-islamist-conferenc...

[26] Barbaro, Michael and Steven Greenhouse. “Wal-Mart Image-Builder Resigns,” New York Times, August 18, 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/business/18walmart.html?pagewanted=pri...

 

Mon, October 29, 2012 Extremist Imam Holds Fundraiser at Florida Hilton

by: 
Ryan Mauro

Imam Zaid Shakir" width="168" height="270" />A fundraiser will be held for Zaytuna College, America’s first Muslim college, at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday, November 3. The featured speaker is one of Zaytuna’s founders, Imam Zaid Shakir, an Islamist cleric whose extremism has been repeatedly documented by RadicalIslam.org. The lecture is free of charge, but tickets for the dinner reception afterwards are $50.

The New York Times reported in 2006 that Shakir “said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law,” and that he supports accomplishing this non-violently. He says that Islam justifies the hijacking of “an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne” and that the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon by Hezbollah was not an act of terrorism.

On September 28, Zaytuna College posted a lecture on YouTube that begins with Shakir condemning the murder of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Libya, immediately followed by a condemnation of how eight Afghan women were “brutally murdered by NATO bombs.” In April, he published a poem depicting the U.S. as a racist, imperialist country whose soldiers rape young girls and kill Muslim civilians without remorse.

In May 2009, Shakir wrote that the U.S. has a “pattern of demonization, destabilization and the invasion of hapless Third World nations.” Among those “demonized” by the U.S. are Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Hugo Chavez and Muammar Qaddafi, he says. He also teaches that the U.S. is run by a “small oligarchy.”

In an article published in October, 2007, Shakir objects to President Bush’s use of the term “Islamic fascists” by arguing that the Bush Administration and “neoconservatives” are the true fascists. He says it is a “big lie” that “so-called Islamic Fascism threatens Western Civilization.” He gives support to 9/11 conspiracy theories, writing that the attacks “occurred under dubious circumstances that have yet to be thoroughly examined.” He criticizes the “process of vilification” against Iranian President Ahmadinejad and characterizes Al-Qaeda, Hamas and jihadists in Iraq, Kashmir and Chechnya as fighters against unjust policies. He has condemned some of their violent tactics but supports their cause.

In 2003, he preached that the U.S. was waging a war on Islam and that the government was systematically persecuting innocent Muslims, saying “they just want a pretext to get another Muslim off the street” and Muslim-Americans should wage non-violent jihad through institution-building in the U.S.

The Hilton conference center is located on the campus of the University of Florida, exposing students to Shakir’s beliefs. The center’s phone number is 1-352-371-3600 and its website is here.

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

This article may not be republished without expressed written permission from RadicalIslam.org

Sat, September 29, 2012 Imam Zaid Shakir: Marine Barracks Bombing Not Terrorism

Zaid Shakir (front)

Zaid Shakir (front)

by: 
Ryan Mauro

The comment was made in an undated lecture posted on YouTube titled, "Jihad: A Just Struggle or Unjust Violence?" It is not known when the lecture was given but clips from it first appeared in 2009.

Shakir defined terrorism as “random violence directed against a civilian population to affect a political outcome.” He cited the Israeli bombing of Beirut in 1982 as acts of terrorism and Hezbollah’s bombing of the Marine barracks as a military operation.

“Hezbollah’s bombing of the Marine barracks in 1984 is viewed as one of the greatest acts of terrorism directed against Americans until the Oklahoma City [bombing] in history, but if we step back, who was targeted? Civilians? No, military personnel in a military installation in a war zone,” Shakir is seen saying at about 17 minutes into the video.

“It’s interesting go ask a question, if Hezbollah owned a bomber, which they don’t, and flew overhead and bombed the barracks, would it be described as an act of terrorism?” he asks.

Shakir said that jihad can mean a general struggle to do something good for Islam or a just war to protect Muslims.

“As Muslims, we are not pacifists, we are not people who believe there are not people who believe there are no circumstances which justify fighting…to achieve an honorable and noble objective. We believe in the idea of a just war,” he says.

Jihad does not justify a “perpetual revolution” of a violent nature, he explains. Jihad can be carried out when Muslims are oppressed or people, Muslim or non-Muslim, are too weak to defend themselves from oppressors.

Shakir says that “Muslims are the most terrorized people on earth,” giving Palestine, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Kashmir and the Philippines as examples, implying that jihad is approved in these areas.

Islam does not condone the killing of non-combatants and attacks inside the U.S. are not permissible because Muslims have been given a “covenant of protection,” according to Shakir.

In his view, Muslims are sometimes treated unfairly, like the “Blind Sheikh” who is in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but these cases are the exception, notthe rule. Until this treatment becomes the rule, Muslims are to advance Islam through preaching the faith.

He criticizes the belief that all non-Muslims are enemies, blaming it on the influence on non-Islamic ideologies like Marxism.

Shakir teaches that terrorism is a method used by those who are too weak to fight their adversaries through other means, making them sound like misguided freedom fighters who feel like they have no other options.

On September 28, 2012, Zaytuna College posted video of a lecture by Shakir and his two Zaytuna co-founders, Hamza Yusuf and Hatem Bazian, the latter of which is the chairman of American Muslims for Palestine. Shakir opened up his remarks by expressing his condolences for the family of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed by Al-Qaeda in Libya. He immediately followed that by expressing his sorrow for the families of eight women who, in his words, were “brutally murdered by NATO bombs in Afghanistan.”

Bazian spoke before Shakir and claimed that the “military-industrial complex” is behind the “Islamophobic production industry.”

“Those who are working on Islamophobia, they believe that the more hatred we have of Muslims in here, the more that we have reflexive hatred of Muslims abroad, thus authorizing or making the need for military action and the death and destruction more palatable to us without having to think we are actually killing humans,” Shakir’s colleague said.

Hamza Yusuf, who spoke third and is another Zaytuna co-founder, argued in favor of laws prohibiting speech that “mocks” religion.

"I want to argue that when the First Amendment, which is such a beautiful testimony to the ideals of this country, was enacted, there were dueling laws in the United States of America and the dueling laws were actually a caveat to make sure you didn’t use freedom of speech to abuse other people," Yusuf said.

He reiterated this belief during the question-and-answer session afterwards, citing incidents where artwork mocking Christianity were banned in the United Kingdom and Sweden and said anti-Muslim speech is a “present and imminent danger.”

Shakir’s website says he is “amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West.” There is a quote on Zaytuna College’s website from Dr. Omid Safi of the University of North Carolina where he calls it “far and away the single most influential institution that’s shaping American Muslim thought.”

For more information about Imam Zaid Shakir, read RadicalIslam.org’s previous reports about him:

What an Islamic Icon is Teaching American Youth

What's Being Taught in California at Zaytuna College

U.S. Muslim College Founder Against "Vilifying" Radical Islamic Group

 

Shakir's lecture at Northwestern University

 

Sun, June 17, 2012 U.S. Muslim College Founder Against Vilifying Radical Islamic Group

by: 
Ryan Mauro

RadicalIslam.org has twice reported on Imam Zaid Shakir, a founder of America’s first Muslim college (click here and here). In a video posted on YouTube on May 29, Shakir is asked about groups that work towards creating Islamic states like the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, a group that openly despises democracy and seeks to resurrect the Islamic Caliphate ruled by Sharia.

“They have the rights of Islam and of Muslims over you, so you should treat them with respect. If you disagree, you should do so in the best of ways. You should try not to make a public focus so that others can point to and say, ‘Look how these people are,’” Shakir answers.

He says that there are “sincere Muslims in that group” that “should have the rights of Islam,” including the “right not to be vilified.” He says Muslims should have a friendly relationship with HUT, saying with a smile, “If they cook well, go to their house for dinner.”

His light criticism of HUT was limited to its preaching that the United Kingdom is the “root of all evil in the modern world” and a belief that a resurrected Caliphate would solve the problems of the Muslim world, noting that the Ottoman Empire decayed. He also defended the Muslim Brotherhood from HUT’s accusations that it has failed as a movement.

That’s it. He didn’t criticize the drive to create Sharia-based Islamic states, HUT’s hostility to democracy, its support of jihad against the West or its general extremism. HUT doesn’t hide its colors. Its radical views are out in the open, as documented here. Yet, the most Shakir could bring himself to say is that it is too hopeful about the success of a Caliphate and its criticism of the Brotherhood is misplaced, while telling Muslims not to publicly criticize HUT and to be friendly towards its members.

Shakir’s answer is an example of a larger problem: The Islamist treatment of the worldwide Muslim community as a single collective. This ideology holds that Muslims can disagree with each other but they are on the same team and must unite against the non-Muslims. At the end of the day, they belong to Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam).

The Muslim informant for the FBI who helped foil a terrorist attack on Fort Dix is a victim of this attitude. He describes losing a tight circle of family and friends after his involvement became public knowledge.  He explains the sentiment that “For Muslims, we are all brothers, and I betrayed a brother.” The hostility led him to stop going to his mosque.

Public debate between Islamists and non-Islamists has to happen in order to defeat Political Islam, the ideology driving non-violent and violent jihadists. For the sake of the world’s security and the Muslim community, this debate has to happen. Islamists like Shakir don’t want that happen.

 

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

Mon, May 7, 2012 What an Islamic Icon is Teaching American Youth

by: 
Ryan Mauro

Imam Zaid Shakir’s website, NewIslamicDirections.com, says he is “amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West.” Shakir, shown left, is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, America’s first Islamic college. He is a sought-after speaker, often appearing at events put together by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Students Association. He even was invited to President Obama’s National Prayer Service in 2009.

Yet, what he is using his influence to preach is disturbing. He has a long history of extremism. On April 30, he published an anti-American poem at his website titled,War Chronicle/Peace Plea.He depicts the U.S. as a warmongering country, ravaging Muslim countries and brutalizing innocent civilians.

“A way of life that’s steeped in blood, from sea to shining sea/murder behind the veil of lies, proclaimed as liberty,” the second stanza reads, obviously referring to the U.S. Later in the poem, it refers to soldiers that “urinate upon the dead and do it with a smile,” referencing an incident where four U.S. Marines urinated on the bodies of killed Taliban terrorists.

Shakir writes that the U.S. is racist and its military has no qualms about killing Muslims:

“They’ve earned the ire of our empire, towel heads and camel jocks. So kill them all and watch them fall before the awe and shock,” it is stated in the sixth stanza. 

The tenth stanza accuses the U.S. military of raping Muslim girls:

“The fresh young girls are there to rape then burn the evidence/perhaps this dose of Christian love will force them to repent.”

With incendiary rhetoric against the U.S. military like this, we shouldn’t be surprised that Zakir feels attacks on American soldiers are legitimate. In one speech, he said that “Islam doesn’t permit us to hijack airplanes filled with civilian people…[but] if you hijack an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne, that’s something else.”

Shakir is held up as an icon to the Muslim-American community. We should be seriously concerned about what he’s teaching at Zaytuna College.

He is a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and accuses the U.S. of “demonizing” Manuel Noriega, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban. On the other hand, he depicts Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Iraqi insurgents and jihadists in Chechnya and Pakistan as fighters against imperialism. In June 2006, the New York Times reported that “he said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law.”

Why are groups like CAIR, ISNA, MSA and others promoting Zaid Shakir?

Here is Shakir’s poem in full:

War Chronicle

How many babies will you kill?
Before you realize,
each time you kill an innocent
that it’s your heart that dies.

A way of life that’s steeped in blood
from sea to shining sea.
murder behind the veil of lies,
proclaimed as liberty.

The armies they go marching off
across the hills and plains.
destroying all before their path,
ignoring screams and pain.

Present the cause in noble words,
thus assuaged we can ignore,
atrocities, injustices,
the carnage and the gore.

Let’s drink to war, the glass raised high,
so fittingly we toast,
to celebrate the ravaged lands,
the scorched earths that we roast.

They’ve earned the ire of our empire,
towel heads and camel jocks.
So kill them all and watch them fall
before the awe and shock.

They are to blame so have no shame
each time you pull the trigger.
No sanctity afford their lives,
it’s just a dead sand nigger.

Strike up the band in foreign lands
the saints are marching in.
Send forth the tanks and Apaches
to purge them of their sins.

No honor are we to afford
to enemies so vile.
So urinate upon the dead
and do it with a smile.

The fresh young girls are there to rape
then burn the evidence,
perhaps this dose of Christian love
will force them to repent.

Let them reject their hateful creed.
Let them reform their ways.
As for ourselves we will repeat,
it’s war not crime that pays.

How many babies will you kill?
Before you realize, 
each time you kill an innocent
that it’s your heart that dies.

Peace Plea

How many babies will you kill?
Before you realize,
each time you kill an innocent
that it’s your heart that dies.

Yet even hearts impervious
to suffering and pain,
can be revived just like the earth
God’s grace is like the rain.

When it flows forth over the land,
it nourishes the seeds,
embedded in the earth’s bosom
young seedlings smash the greed.

And then they grow to mighty trees,
whose leaves provide the shade
a place of rest for ravaged souls,
Beyond anger and rage.

Those trees they bear a bitter fruit,
that reaches war-torn hearts,
and slowly hatred dissipates,
more slowly healing starts.

The fruit transcends its bitterness,
sweet fragrance permeates
clearing eyes to realize,
there is no one to hate.

The foe we strove so hard to beat,
is seen to be none other,
An image of my tortured soul,
my sister or my brother.

The enemy that I now see,
that causes me such pain,
is just the fool inside of me,
used for another’s gain.

It is that foe I must defeat,
upon him alone I’ll trod,
denying Satan his service,
always remembering God.

This is the only path to peace,
a peace lasting and real;
a peace based on a simple word:
Mankind, thou shall not kill.

And with this word deeply engrained,
into our troubled souls,
that peace not war and life not death,
should be our cherished goal.

So now I see with vision clear,
the other has no blame,
the onus falls upon my heart,
to end this vicious game.

 

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