At the end of last month, FrontPage Magazine published an article written by this author about how a leader from the Islamic Circle of North America, Abdul Rauf Khan, has been using social media to spread extremely controversial content. At issue was a post from Khan targeting homosexuals, produced by an organization that promotes the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir. The article must have created a problem for Khan, as shortly after its release, he removed the vast majority of his Facebook page. But while he could hide his radical activities, he cannot hide the fact that he and his group exist, in part, to further the spread of terror and violence throughout the world.
The Islamic Circle of North America or ICNA was founded in September 1968 as the American affiliate of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), South Asia’s largest Islamist group. JI’s then-paramilitary wing, al-Badr, was complicit in the slaughter of millions of innocents, during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, and JI’s current militant wing, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), owned the Pakistani compound where Osama bin Laden was living and was, later, killed in. ICNA, itself, has been linked to terrorist financing; has co-sponsored pro-terror rallies; and has promoted various terrorist groups online, including Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Abdul Rauf Khan has been involved with ICNA, since 1994. Today, he serves as the (national) Assistant Executive Director of ICNA’s main humanitarian effort, ICNA Relief, and Secretary of both ICNA Florida and ICNA Relief Florida.
On March 8th, Khan posted a video on his Facebook page titled, “Why is it haram [forbidden] to actively be gay?” The video was produced by the OnePath Network, a Muslim outreach (dawah) media outlet based in Sydney, Australia. OnePath, promotes Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HT), a group that has been banned in many nations around the globe for instigating Islamic uprisings. OnePath has showcased HT Australia events and has provided HT Australia leadership a forum to speak. HT Australia’s spiritual head, Ismail al-Wahwah, has called for a “jihad” [holy war] against Jews and has referred to Jews as “the most evil creatures of Allah.”
Regarding homosexuals, Hizb-ut-Tahrir has publicly stated that homosexuality should be criminally prosecuted. In HT’s “A RESPONSE TO THE HUFFINGTON POST ARTICLE, ‘WHY GAY MARRIAGE MAY NOT BE CONTRARY TO ISLAM,’” the group states, “Islam views any form of illegal sexual relationship as a grave sin – and a punishable crime, if proven under an Islamic political authority/judicial system.” Deducing this, ex-HT official Maajid Nawaz stated, “[O]f course we know in fundamentalist interpretations of sharia [Islamic religious law] what the punishment for criminalized homosexuality is.” Death.
On March 28th, FrontPage Magazine published this author’s article, titled, “ICNA’S ABDUL RAUF KHAN TARGETS GAYS WITH PROPAGANDA FROM GROUP PROMOTING HIZB-UT-TAHRIR.” Following the release of the article, Khan took the action of removing every post he had made on his Facebook page from 2013 till 2018.
Gone was his promotion of videos dedicated to Nation of Islam leader and anti-Jewish bigot Louis Farrakhan and videos dedicated to Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood. Gone was the photograph of Khan wearing Muslim Brotherhood garb, himself. Gone was the video glorifying a member of Hezbollah as a “hero.” Gone was the link to the anti-Semitic video labeling comedian talk show host Bill Maher, “Zionist Jew Bill Maher.” And gone was the video clip of former Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters ranting against Israel that Khan had taken from the Facebook page of the media arm of Hamas, the Palestinian Information Center.
In an attempt to whitewash history, it had all been removed.
However, what cannot be removed are the tentacles of terror and violence that ICNA has been linked to, both here at home, through its own group, and overseas, via its Jamaat parent organization. ICNA’s and Khan’s history can never be erased.
In October 2017, a video interview of Khan was broadcast, produced by Al-Hikmat TV, the media arm of the Darul Uloom Institute located in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Darul Uloom has been a haven for al-Qaeda terrorists, including “Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla and now-deceased al-Qaeda Global Operations Chief, Adnan el-Shukrijumah. Conducting the interview was the imam of Darul Uloom, Shafayat Mohamed, who, himself, has been kicked off a number of county boards for his fiery rhetoric against homosexuals.
During the interview, Khan told Mohamed that ICNA’s work makes Americans believe that the group is somehow in existence to protect them. He stated, “They [ICNA volunteers] literally make people realize, ‘We need them to be our neighbors, because if they are our neighbors, they will be our protector, when we need it.’”
This cynical concept gives an insight into ICNA’s true motive behind its “humanitarian” endeavors, namely to deceive non-Muslims into viewing ICNA in a positive light and to provide a façade for its Islamist agenda. In reality, the only people ICNA is in business to protect are those who espouse the same sinister mission as the group, such as ICNA’s former Secretary General Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who, before coming to ICNA, was a death squad leader for ICNA’s violent overseas now-defunct relation, al-Badr.
So while Abdul Rauf Khan attempts to hide evidence of his extremist behavior and beliefs, this author will always make sure it will be here exposed for the public record, in hopes that Khan and his group’s operation will be repudiated and not embraced and will ultimately be shut down in the very near future.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
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