Since MAC Edmonton's chairman Issam Saleh threatened to sue critics of the Muslim Brotherhood for having alluded to links with terrorism in 2010, not one, not two but three Islamist organizations linked with MAC and the Arabian Muslim Association have had their charity status revoked by the Canada Revenue Agency precisely because of their links with terrorism.
MAC's motto A Revolution in Islamic Work in Canada was added to the organization's logo on the poster announcing the visit of Islamist leader Tariq Ramadan in Montreal during the 2012 Labour Day weekend.
Part 1 – MAC receives $125,000 from the government of Alberta for its buildings
Part 2 – MAC's money transfers (2001-2011)
Part 3 – More grants from the government of Alberta to Islamists
Part 4 – Three charities linked with MAC and AMA had their status revoked in 2011-2012 for having funded terrorism
Part 5 – Subsidized organizations invite radicals in Edmonton to promote sharia and the Islamic colonization of the West
Part 6 – Charts describing money transfers done by the other Edmonton-based subsidized Islamist organizations
Part 7 – 75% of Edmonton-based Life for Relief & Development's money transfers went to IRFAN from 2003 to 2010
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In recent years, in spite of their links with organizations financing terrorism, the Muslim Association of Canada and the Arabian Muslim Association have received grants from the government of Alberta.
Part 1 – MAC gets $125,000 from the government of Alberta for its buildings
In December 2012, Edmonton-McClung MLA David Xiao sent a newsletter to his constituents listing many grants given by the government of Alberta. On page 3, the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) is listed as a recipient of $125,000. The grant came from the Community Facility Enhancement Program designed to help beneficiaries with the construction, renovation or redevelopment of their properties.
This grant was given to MAC in spite of the fact that, in recent years, the organization has transferred substantial amount of money to IRFAN-Canada, HAMAS' fund collector in Canada. IRFAN's financing of a terrorist organization led the Canada Revenue Agency to revoke its charity status in 2011 (GMBDR – Toronto Star).
MAC is also a contributor to Islamic Relief and Human Concern International (HCI).
On its British and Canadian websites, Islamic Relief openly admits funding Muslims involved in jihad. They are described as "those struggling in the path of Allah".
Sharia manuals such as the Umdat al-Salik (section h8.17) endorsed by the Muslim Brotherhood clearly state that "those struggling in the path of Allah" who may receive Muslim charity (zakat) are those who are "engaged in Islamic military operations for whom no salary has been allotted in the army roster."
In the fall of 2012, the Swiss bank UBS closed UK-based Islamic Relief's account and blocked its donations for fear of being involved in the financing of terrorism. Islamic Relief is the most important Muslim charity in the world. It is active in Gaza, a territory controlled by HAMAS. In the past, Israel has accused it of financing HAMAS (GMBDR – Money Jihad).
As for Human Concern International (HCI), another Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization, Maclean's reported in August 2012 that Osama bin Laden told an Egyptian interviewer in 1995 that it funded an al-Qaeda charitable front called Blessed Relief.
After graduating from the University of Ottawa, Ahmed Said Khadr went to run HCI's office in Pakistan. While he was working for HCI, Khadr fought alongside al-Qaeda and was killed by the Pakistani army in 2003. An al-Qaeda website profiling "120 Martyrs of Afghanistan" described him as a leader of Bin Laden's organization and praised him for "tossing his little child [Omar] in the furnace of the battle."
Michael Petrou (Maclean's – August 12, 2012): Canada gives $2 million to group collecting for the charitable alma mater of Omar Khadr's dad
Part 2 – MAC's money transfers (2001-2011)
All the individual transactions leading to these totals are in a PDF document.
Part 3 – More grants from the government of Alberta to Islamists
MAC and other Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations operating in Edmonton have also received money from the provincial government through the Community Spirit Donation Grant Program.
Grants from both programs add up to more than $250,000.
Four of the subsidized organizations belong to the Inter-Masajid Shura (IMS), an umbrella structure that includes all major Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated mosques (masajid) in Edmonton. The fifth subsidized organization, the Edmonton Islamic School Society (EISS), is a sub-structure of the Arabian Muslim Association (AMA) as indicated in a 2012 AMA's organizational chart. The Edmonton Islamic School Society is also known as the Edmonton Islamic Academy.
Muslim Association of Canada (MAC)
Charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency
2012 – $125,000.00 – Community Facility Enhancement Program (page 3)
2011-2012 – $19,966.77 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
Markaz-Ul-Islam Society of Edmonton (Markaz)
Charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency
2009-2010 – $14,489.04 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
2010-2011 – $20,150.56 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
2011-2012 – $12,141.95 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
Muslim Community of Edmonton Mosque and Muslim House (MCE)
Charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency
2010-2011 – $25,000.00 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
2011-2012 – $16,690.16 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
Arabian Muslim Association (AMA)
Charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency
2009-2010 – $25,000.00 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
NOTE: In its CRA file, AMA is still identified with the old spelling of the word Moslem.
Edmonton Islamic School Society (EISS)
Charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency
2008-2009 – $25,000.00 – Community Spirit Donation Grant Program
Financial statements submitted by four of these beneficiaries to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) indicate that, in recent years, they have transferred funds either directly or indirectly to IRFAN, HAMAS' fund collector in Canada. In April 2011, the CRA revoked IRFAN's charity status after having concluded that, for the period 2005-2009 alone, it transferred $14.6 million to the terrorist organization HAMAS (GMBDR – Toronto Star). HAMAS was added to a list of terror groups by the Canadian government in 2002.
In its charter (article 2), Gaza-based HAMAS is described as a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the article 13, HAMAS is committed to wage jihad against Israel until it is destroyed. HAMAS' leaders also frequently advocate for an Islamic conquest of the West (2008 – 2011 – 2012).
As indicated in the first chart, indirect contributions to IRFAN were made by the subsidized organizations by transferring money to Edmonton-based Life for Relief & Development (LRD).
According to financial statements submitted by LRD to the CRA, 75% of its money transfers went to IRFAN from 2003 to 2010. Part 7 of this document delves with this issue.
Part 4 – Three charities linked with MAC and AMA had their status revoked in 2011-2012 for having funded terrorism
In 2010, when the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) acquired a shopping mall in the Lessard community of Edmonton in order to transform it into an Islamic centre, a group of residents expressed their concerns about the links between MAC and the Muslim Brotherhood.
On its own website, MAC states that its "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."
In his 50-point manifesto, Hassan al-Banna urges its supporters to abolish political parties and replace them by a single party system. He favours the modification of laws so that they conform to sharia and calls for the multiplication of associations dedicated to promoting the spirit of jihad amongst the youth.
In his essay On Jihad, al-Banna explains 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 refers to Adolf Hitler as a role model for Muslims looking for "success and fortune".
In 2010, MAC Edmonton's chairman Issam Saleh (aka Issam Faleh) reacted to those who were criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood's influence in Edmonton by playing the usual Islamophobia card and by threatening to sue them.
(Issam Saleh) said last month an opponent of MAC's plan told the media that the group might be funding terrorism ... "They're using scare tactics, (suggesting links to) terrorism and things like that," Saleh said.
"On the basis of goodwill and building the community, we haven't responded in a legal way to this, but they're pushing it to the point that we have no choice but to respond by taking legal action."
Andrew Hanon (Edmonton Sun – August 20, 2010): Islamophobia here?
Since Issam Saleh threatened to sue critics of the Muslim Brotherhood for having alluded to links with terrorism in 2010, not one, not two but three Islamist organizations linked with MAC and the Arabian Muslim Association have had their charity status revoked by the Canada Revenue Agency precisely because of their links with terrorism.
World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) – Charitable status revoked in 2012 for its links with al-Qaeda's associate / WAMY funded MAC
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked WAMY's charitable status because it "shared a common director, contact information, and a bank account with the Benevolence International Fund in Canada (BIF-Canada), and provided $50,246 to the Benevolence International Foundation in the United States (BIF-USA) in 2001." Both BIF branches were associated with al-Qaeda.
In 2002, after having funded al-Qaeda's associate BIF, WAMY-Canada transferred $9,815 directly to MAC.
In 2003, WAMY transferred $11,000 to Al Taqua Islamic School but rather credited MAC in its books by using its CRA number (880495163RR0001). The implication is that there likely is a relationship between MAC and the school.
In a long letter explaining WAMY's non compliance with the Income Tax Act, the CRA stressed (page 6/22) that WAMY-Canada was under the control of WAMY (Saudi Arabia):
Our review of the documentation obtained during the audit indicates that WAMY (Saudi Arabia) maintains substantial control over WAMY's finances, and uses this control to carry out its own objectives in Canada. Outlined below are a few examples of this control: WAMY (Saudi Arabia) provides substantially all of WAMY's operational funds.
In his 2010 Edmonton Sun interview, MAC Edmonton's chairman Issam Saleh claimed that "We (MAC) get no funds from overseas, and we don't send any funds out of the country." CRA's findings about the origins of WAMY-Canada's funds disprove Saleh's statement. In the above-mentioned instances, WAMY-Canada acted simply as an intermediary between Saudi Arabia and MAC.
In his book Auspices of the Ultimate Victory of Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual guide Youssef Qaradawi explains the penetration of his ideology as the result of groundwork done by organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and the influx of petrodollars supporting the Islamists worldwide:
(S)ince the 1930s, grassroots Muslim revival movements put Islam onto the political agenda of almost every country within the dâr al Islâm region. Their common prototype remains the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Hassan Al-Bannâ ... But revival did not only come from below. Both the Wahhâbî and Sanûsî movements, and to some extent also the Salafiyah à la Muhammad 'Abduh, brought about a Muslim revival from the top, greatly expanded by the possibilities of petro-dollar financing. As it so happens, the richest persons in the world today – the Sultan of Brunei, King Fahd, and Amir Zayed of the United Arab Emirates – are all Muslims, giving important impulses to Islamic da'wah worldwide.
Dawah is the Islamic term for proselytism.
Canada Revenue Agency (August 23, 2011): Audit of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth
Canada Revenue Agency (Undated): Summary of reasons for revocation – WAMY
Sarah Boesveld (National Post – March 7, 2012): Canadian Muslim youth group tied to al-Qaeda stripped of charitable status
International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN-Canada) – Charitable status revoked in 2011 for having funded HAMAS / MAC and AMA funded IRFAN
Another close partner of MAC whose charitable status was revoked for having funded terrorism is IRFAN. As mentioned earlier, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked IRFAN's status in April 2011 after having concluded that, for the period 2005-2009 alone, it transferred $14.6 million to the terrorist organization HAMAS (GMBDR – Toronto Star). HAMAS was added to a list of terror groups by the Canadian government in 2002.
From 2001 to 2010, MAC transferred $296,514 to IRFAN and the Arabian Muslim Association transferred $55,879 in 2009-2010.
In spite of the fact that IRFAN's status has been revoked by the government of Canada, MAC still lists the organization among its partners.
This contradicts former MAC president Wael Haddara who claimed in an April 2012 press release that "If, for any reason, an organization ceases to be considered in compliance with Canadian laws, the Muslim Association of Canada also withdraws its support to it."
MAC also expressed its support for HAMAS after the Canadian government condemned it as a terrorist organization on November 27, 2002. MAC publicly endorsed HAMAS on March 3, 2004. It was more than a year after it was added to the Canadian terror list. MAC's press release seems to have been removed from MAC's website but is archived on Point de Bascule.
As for Issam Saleh (aka Issam Faleh), he posted his support for IRFAN, on his painting company's website in 2010, but removed it later.
Canada Revenue Agency (Undated): IRFAN-Canada: Links to HAMAS
Canada Revenue Agency (Undated): Backgrounder on HAMAS
globalphilanthropy.ca (April 11, 2011): List of CRA's documents involving IRFAN-Canada
Chloé Fedio (Toronto Star – April 15, 2011): IRFAN-Canada funded terror group: Federal audit
World Islamic Call Society (WICS-Canada) – Charitable status revoked in 2011 for having funded terrorist organizations / WICS also funded AMA
The World Islamic Call Society (WICS) was established by Muammar Gaddafi in 1972 as a tool to further the Islamization of non-Muslim countries. Gaddafi dedicated a large portion of his country's resources toward this goal. After Mark Steyn wrote an article quoting a 2006 speech by Gaddafi advocating the Islamization of Europe, an Islamist organization lodged a complaint against Maclean's magazine to the BC Human Rights for Islamophobia.
Mark Steyn (National Review Online – March 1, 2011): Gaddafi: The Steyn connection
WICS' interfaith activities frequently served as a cover for the financing of terrorist activities and the bribing of politicians. In 2004, US-based Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdurahman Alamoudi was found guilty of a plot to assassinate the Saudi crown prince. It had been financed by WICS.
Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, Matthew Levitt, Dennis Ross, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2006, p. 187 – Google Books
WICS had its Canadian branch transfer 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 Kennedy Airport in 2007. In 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency stripped WICS-Canada of its charity status after finding out about it.
Gary Dimmock (Ottawa Citizen – May 7, 2011): WICS' Canadian branch transferred money from Gadhafi's "Jihad fund" to bank accounts of known terrorists
JFK Airport plot and the murder attempt by Alamoudi occurred after Libya had formally renounced to sponsor terrorist acts such as the bombing of a German disco full of U.S. soldiers (1986) and the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie (1988).
In its audit of WICS-Canada (p. 3), the Canada Revenue Agency quotes a cable sent by the participants at a 2001 WICS meeting to their leader Muammar Gaddafi. In it, they "declared to the whole world their insistence on continuing the jihad and the struggle against the forces of tyranny and imperialism."
The CRA concluded that "it is clear from this document that the purposes with which WICS-Libya is concerned ... extend to political causes and goals that cannot be reconciled with the concept of charity under Canadian law."
Sometimes, WICS-Libya dealt with its Canadian branch to influence the course of events in Canada, but some other times, it dealt directly with organizations such as the Edmonton-based Arabian Muslim Association (AMA). In 1981, WICS transferred from Tripoli $1.5 million to the Canadian Islamic Centre (CIC), a third entity jointly managed by AMA and Libya in Edmonton. At the time, Mahmoud Tarabain signed the deal on behalf of AMA after having visited Tripoli (Libya). A new agreement was signed in Edmonton in 2002 by Khalid Tarabain on AMA's part and a WICS official.
These money transfers were all part of Gaddafi's program to Islamize non-Muslim countries. The details about the deal between Libya and AMA are available in an Albertan court case involving AMA and one of its former imams.
Issam Saleh, MAC Edmonton's chairman who threatened to sue Edmontonians who had concerns about possible links between MAC and terrorism has also been involved with the Arabian Muslim Association.
According to information available on the Canada Revenue Agency's website, Saleh was on AMA's board in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. He has also been on the board of the Edmonton Islamic School Society (EISS) in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The EISS is an AMA substructure that was also subsidized by Alberta as mentioned earlier.
Although Muammar Gaddafi was killed after Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual guide Youssef Qaradawi issued a fatwa calling for his death, it must be stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood and Gaddafi's regime collaborated for many years.
Some North American Islamists leaders, such as Abdurahman Alamoudi, Munir El-Kassem and Mahmoud Ayoub even had leadership positions simultaneously with the Libyan WICS and Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations.
A report written for the US Department of the Army recalls that after Gaddafi fought the Muslim Brothers on Libyan soil in the eighties, he offered them financial support if they were to openly spread their ideology in the West:
Although the brotherhood's activities in Libya were banned in the mid-1980s, it was present in the country but maintained a low profile. In 1983 a member of the brotherhood was executed in Tripoli, and in 1986 a group of brotherhood adherents was arrested after the murder of a high-ranking political official in Benghazi. Qadhafi has challenged the brotherhood to establish itself openly in non-Muslim countries and has promised its leaders that, if it does, he will support its activities.
Gaddafi kept his word. Barely one week before Qaradawi called for his death, Gaddafi made an important donation to Mustafa Ceric, one of Qaradawi's closest associate in Europe. Ceric was then the mufti of Bosnia (GMBDR).
Point de Bascule (February 28, 2011): The Muslim Brotherhood and Gaddafi were partners not too long ago
Canada Revenue Agency (October 4, 2010): Audit of the World Islamic Call Society
Tom Heneghan (Reuters – March 29, 2012): Report about Muammar Gaddafi's World Islamic Call Society
Part 5 – Subsidized organizations invite radicals in Edmonton to promote sharia and the Islamic colonization of the West
Aside from their financial transfers to pro-jihad organizations, MAC, the Arabian Muslim Association and the other above-mentioned subsidized organizations are also involved in the radicalization of the Edmonton Muslim community. With the other members of the Inter-Masajid Shura, they invite, on a regular basis in Edmonton, Islamist leaders from abroad to explain and promote the various aspects of their program.
In 2010 for example, these subsidized IMS organizations invited preacher Zakir Naik. That year, the Toronto Star reported that Naik was quoted as supporting Al Qaeda: "If (Al Qaeda's 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 advocates for the killing of homosexuals and Muslims who leave Islam. He also lays out rules on how a Muslim man may beat his wife.
In 2010, the federal government blocked IMS's guest Zakir Naik from entering Canada.
Kathryn Blaze Carlson (National Post – June 22, 2010): Muslim televangelist Zakir Naik banned from Toronto conference
GMBDR (June 24, 2010): Zakir Naik banned from the UK and Canada
In the 2012 Labour Day weekend, these subsidized IMS organizations invited Tariq Ramadan to address their supporters in Edmonton. In the past, Ramadan has given a full endorsement to the Muslim Brotherhood's founder, his grandfather Hassan al-Banna.
In his book Radical Reform, Ramadan presents the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual guide Youssef Qaradawi as a "prominent scholar" who has outlined the attitudes and the kind of behaviour that Muslims living in the West should adopt. Qaradawi promotes the conquest of the West by Muslims, he endorses the killing of Muslims who leave Islam (apostates), he condones female genital mutilations, he claims that Hitler was sent by Allah to punish the Jews (video), he endorses the use of suicide bombers, etc.
In 2011 in Dallas, Tariq Ramadan enjoined his supporters to "coloniz(e) the United States of America ... with our understanding of Islam, our principles." Brian Lilley recently presented this excerpt during a short presentation of the Muslim Brotherhood on SUN TV.
In a 2004 interview with an Egyptian magazine, Tariq Ramadan enjoined Islamist leaders operating in Canada to use the flexibility of the Canadian legal framework to their advantage and introduce sharia in the country. Ramadan warned 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.
Point de Bascule (August 12, 2011): Tariq Ramadan's "Understanding of Islam"
Stewart Bell (National Post – January 3, 2013): Islamist extremists radicalizing Canadians at 'a large number of venues,' secret report reveals
Tariq Ramadan's calls for an Islamic colonization of the US and for an implementation of sharia in Canada are only two examples among many demonstrating the Muslim Brotherhood's political ambitions in North America and in the West in general. These examples contradict Issam Saleh who stated exactly the opposite in his 2010 Edmonton Sun interview ("In some parts of the Islamic world, the brotherhood became politicized, but that's not the case here in Canada").
Saleh must say that because the charitable status of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations operating in Canada may be revoked if it's proven that they are involved in politics.
An internal Muslim Brotherhood's memorandum that was seized by police and produced for evidentiary purposes in the 2007-2008 Holy Land Foundation trials in the U.S. clearly summarizes the Brotherhood's goal in North America. These trials led to the convictions of Muslim Brotherhood leaders accused of having funded terrorism (GMBDR).
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."
By subsidizing Islamists who transfer money to the fund collectors of jihadist organizations abroad and who invite promoters of sharia in Edmonton, the government of Alberta is threatening the security of its own citizens and of all Canadians.
Part 6 – Charts describing the money transfers done by the other Edmonton-based subsidized Islamist organizations
Arabian Muslim Association (aka Canadian Islamic Centre and Al Rashid Mosque)
All the individual transactions leading to these totals are in a PDF document.
Markaz-ul-Islam (aka Millwoods Mosque)
All the individual transactions leading to these totals are in a PDF document.
Muslim Community of Edmonton (aka University Mosque)
All the individual transactions leading to these totals are in a PDF document.
Part 7 – 75% of Edmonton-based Life for Relief & Development's money transfers went to IRFAN from 2003 to 2010
Life for Relief & Development (LRD) is an Edmonton-based charity. MAC, the Arabian Muslim Association and other Islamist organizations affiliated with the Edmonton-based Inter-Masajid Shura are among its main contributors. From 2003 to 2010, 75% of LRD's money transfers went to IRFAN. Other important beneficiaries were Human Concern International (HCI) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), two other Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations. In 2011, after IRFAN's charitable status was revoked, 98% of LRD's transfers went to HCI.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR THE SPREADSHEET PROVIDING THE LINKS TO THE CRA'S WEBSITE