Author: Ryan Mauro

Fuqra/MOA condemns Shiites as non-Muslims and believes that Shiite Islam was created by Jewish adversaries as part of a Zionist conspiracy. However, the group has occasionally spoken positively about former Iranian President Ahmadinejad and the Syrian dictatorship backed by Iran. Sheikh Gilani has had ties to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his Hezb-i-Islami party. He is known to be backed by the Iranian regime.[1] After Iranian President Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. government of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, MOA praised his comments and said his agenda is similar to that of the Mahdi, the messianic figure that is supposed to appear at the…

MOA is sending some members to Al-Azhar University in Cairo for education in Islamic Sharia Law and Arabic. A 1993 State Department report said that Sheikh Gilani was involved in a “mujahideen hub” that included Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, better known as the “Blind Sheikh” behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He led the Egyptian terrorist group, Al-Gam’a Al-Islamiyya, also known as the “Islamic Group.”[i] Gilani and MOA were highly supportive of the Egyptian cleric. Gilani expressed an interest in making a greater impact in Egypt in 1993, according to notes taken by law enforcement based on the account…

Sheikh Gilani was at one point linked to a “mujahiding hub” that included an international network of Islamist terrorists, including Sheikh Abdul Majeed Al-Zindani in Yemen, according to a 1993 State Department intelligence document. It reads: “A close working relationship reportedly exists among [Gulbuddin] Hekmatyar, Egyptian Islamic Gama’at spiritual leader Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, Yemeni Islamic Jihad leader Sheikh Zindani and Sudanese National Islamic Front (NIF) leader Hassan al-Turabi. Sheikh Jilani, the leader of the Jama’at al-Fuqra based in Lahore, is also believed to have some ties to the mujahidin network. This circle of mutual admiration nurtures the network…

Saudi Arabia features prominently in Shiekh Gilani’s personal history. Fuqra/MOA texts have reported the existence of a “jamaat,” or community of supporters, in the country. Gilani is hostile to the Saudi government but does not advocate its removal. MOA Views of Saudi Arabia Gilani preaches that the Wahhabists who rule Saudi Arabia are secret agents of the British, who are secret agents of the Zionist-Satanic conspiracy against Islam. The Fuqra/MOA newspaper condemned the Saudi Royal Family in the 1980s for preventing the formation of a pan-Islamic army in Medina. The newspaper claimed that Zionist agents with U.S. passports were infiltrating…

Documents seized by law enforcement during raids in 1992 on MOA sites in Colorado and Pennsylvania include letters authored by a “M. Mujahideen” in Colorado Springs to the Young Men’s Association of Johannesburg in South Africa. He was asking for books that teach the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam that MOA favors. Law enforcement also found that MOA suspects had an anti-Israel book authored by an Indian preacher named Ahmed Deedat in South Africa.

The MOA newspaper, Islamic Post, said in 2015 that it has a correspondent named Muaz Qadri in West Africa, including Gambia and Senegal.[i] Convicted MOA terrorist Chris Childs, a member of the cell in Colorado, repeatedly called a phone number in Senegal according to phone records. MOA documents seized around 1992 show that a member of the group was in communication with Sheikh Hassan Cisse, a Sufi imam who led a Muslim community in Kaolack, Senegal. He was the founder and chairman of the African-American Learning Institute at the time. He died in 2008. A senior MOA official in Senegal…

MOA tried to establish a presence in Somalia in the 1980s. A security group formed by MOA applied for a contract with the U.S. embassy in Mogadishu in 1987. A seized document shows the name of Dahir Aweys appeared on a MOA contact list with an address in Mogadishu. He led the Islamist terrorist group Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya that had ties to Usama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in the early 1990s. He later became a senior figure in the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Courts Union in Somalia in 2006. He and his fighters then joined the Hizbul Islam terrorist group, followed by Al-Shabaab,…

Gambia The MOA newspaper, Islamic Post, said in 2015 that it has a correspondent named Muaz Qadri in West Africa, including Gambia and Senegal.[i] Ghana A 1983 issue of the MOA newspaper says the group has a “correspondent” stationed in Ghana. Nigeria A 1983 issue of the MOA newspaper says the group has a “correspondent” stationed in Nigeria. Zaire Republic A 1983 issue of the MOA newspaper says the group has a “correspondent” stationed in the Zaire Republic. [i] Islamic Post, July 2015. https://issuu.com/theislamicpost/docs/the_islamic_post_july_2015_volume_1

A senior MOA official in Mali going by the name of Maulana Mahmoud Sidibe Qadree signed a statement in July 2016 authored by Sheikh Gilani that appears to be an indirect call to jihad in Kashmir against India. It demanded that an international unified Islamic force to “come to the aid” of oppressed Muslims wherever they are and to “defend” Pakistan and Kashmir. “[W]e believe that it is the duty of the Muslims who are living in unoccupied Kashmir to reach out and help their Kashmiri brethren in the Indian-occupied Kashmir. This is the law of Sharia, which does not…

Sheikh Gilani and MOA have had strong ties to Hasan al-Turabi, the leader of the National Islamic Front and the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir when it has partnered with Turabi. The cleric has been dubbed the “Pope of Terrorism” for his wide-ranging contacts in the terrorist world and efforts to unify Islamist groups into a common front.[i] On December 16, 2003, a member of the Sudanese parliament named Syed Dr. Malik Hussein Hamid visited MOA’s Islamville compound in York County, South Carolina.[ii] The Sudanese regime is listed by the U.S. State Department as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.…