NY Muslim Group Linked to bin Laden Supporters
Sherrie Gossett
CNSNews.com
July 18, 2005
EXCERPT:
An American Muslim group under federal investigation is actually the U.S. division of a Pakistan-based faction with ties to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, according to notes from an official meeting that were posted on an obscure Middle Eastern website and obtained by Cybercast News Service.
Members of that U.S. division -- the New York City-based Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) -- have publicly denied any connections to Jama'at-i-Islami (JI), Pakistan's most influential Islamist organization. But notes from a forum ICNA sponsored in New York City in 2000 contradict those denials.
"Jama'at-i-Islami's supporters in America have an organization ... known as ICNA," according to the meeting notes, which were originally posted on a Lebanese Internet portal. Three experts in the politics of Islam have confirmed for Cybercast News Service that ICNA serves as the U.S. branch of JI.
The meeting notes also indicate that Qazi Hussein Ahmed, the president of JI, served as the sole representative of the Islamic Circle of North America at the meeting in Woodside, N.Y., five years ago.
'Bin Laden a hero'
ICNA's peaceful rhetoric, relayed by many in the media, stands in stark contrast to the statements issued by Jama'at-i-Islami.
Qazi Hussein Ahmed has called the United States a "world terrorist." He has also advocated "martyrdom operations" in Iraq, Israel, Chechnya and Kashmir. JI boasts of maintaining "close brotherly relations" with and "practical links" to the Middle Eastern terrorist group Hamas.
Terrorism experts say Ahmed met with al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden in Sudan and received a "fiery message of support" from bin Laden in 1998. They add that Ahmed had already invited bin Laden to speak at JI rallies.