Sheikh Gilani’s texts say that he met with Hezb-i-Islami and the Islamic Revolution of Afghanistan in 1979 to try to unify their ranks against the Soviet Union. Gilani said he offered his services to any Islamic group taking part in the jihad.

Gilani’s recruits reportedly fought in Afghanistan as members of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami. Two dozen African-American recruits were seen amongst the mujahideen in Afghanistan in 1985.[i]

Reported Fuqra/MOA member Rodney Hampton-El was injured fighting in Afghanistan as a member of Hezb-i-Islami. He was later convicted for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a foiled wave of bombings in New York City in 1995.

A 1993 State Department intelligence document said that Sheikh Gilani is linked to a “mujahidin hub” that includes multiple allied Islamist terrorist groups. 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 of safe havens, bases and logistical support.”

The memo said that Osama Bin Laden is financially and ideologically tied to Hekmatyar.[ii]

In 1994, MOA published that book that included statements supportive of Hezb-i-Islami and condemned the “barrage of Zionist lies” accusing the group of terrorism.[iii]

Hekmatyar was designated as a “global terrorist” by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2003. The group is linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and is sponsored by the Iranian regime.

[i] Martines, Lawrence J. (2010). Jam’at Al-Fuqra, a.k.a. Society of the Impoverished. Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security International. Vo. 8, No. 3.

[ii] “The Wandering Mujahidin: Armed and Dangerous.” (1993). State Department Intelligence and Research Bureau.

[iii] Target Islam: Exposing the Malicious Conspiracy of the Zionists Against the World of Islam and Prominent Muslim Leaders. (1994). Quranic Open University and Pakistan Foundation for Strategic Studies.

2003 FBI Counter-Terrorism Investigation into MOA

Declassified FBI reports show that there was a counter-terrorism investigation into Jamaat ul-Fuqra / Muslims of America (MOA) in New York in 2003. One file has the heading, “American Islamic Radicals.”

The reports warn that MOA serves as a conduit to foreign terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Pakistan. It states:

“The MOA is a loosely structured U.S. based organization. Several current members in New York have been convicted of criminal acts to include murder and fraud. Recruitment most often occurs in prisons or neighborhood mosques. Once recruited, some members are selected to receive training in firearms and explosives in Pakistan.

While overseas, some of these recruits are then handpicked by high-ranking terrorist operatives, like that of Al-Qaeda, and are sent to receive more specialized training. Upon completing of their training, many of these recruits are ultimately asked to pledge ‘beyat’ [allegiance]. If they do not receive beyat, they become what source information reveals as a ‘friend of Al-Qaeda’ who are called upon no matter where he is living around the world to assist Al-Qaeda.”

The FBI reports state:

“The MOA in New York is involved in continuous criminal activity to include money laundering and wire fraud. It is suspected that the MOA in New York have laundered and transferred money through 786 Security and transported these funds on their person through Canada to Pakistan.

It is believed that [redacted] and MOA members located at 786 Security have had direct contact with [redacted] and/or terrorist organizations in Pakistan who provide both moral and material assistance. JUF [Jamaat ul-Fuqra] members also appear to be somewhat of a U.S. based host network used as a point of contact for overseas terrorist cells. The links and/or associations are mostly seen through weapons training.”

2005 Drug Enforcement Investigation into MOA

Documents from a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into MOA indicate that it came across information linking the group to Bin Laden. A heavily-redacted March 2005 file regarding the MOA presence in Red House, Virginia  mentions Bin Laden three times. The file is also indexed under Bin Laden.

A source connected to a MOA-related investigation said a MOA member linked to the “Islamville” compound in South Carolina was suspected of having met someone linked to Al-Qaeda during travel overseas. The MOA member also spent time in Virginia.

View of Usama Bin Laden

MOA believes that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by a Zionist-Satanic conspiracy that has seized control of the U.S. government.[1] Sheikh Gilani does not refer to Bin Laden as a terrorist but as a “Saudi activist.”[2]

He writes, “Many government agencies want the world to believe that Osama Bin Laden destroyed the World Trade Center. Few believe it because all research and evidences reveal that it was the job of insiders.”[3]

Sheikh Gilani says he has never met Bin Laden or a member of Al-Qaeda. He appears to view Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda as separate entities, as he condemns the latter and not the former. Gilani claims that Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood have tried to kill him six times in Pakistan, forcing him to move his family to the United States for their safety.[4]

MOA has consistently condemned Wahhabism, the hardline form of Islam exemplified by Saudi Arabia, over its history. It says that Salafist groups including Al-Qaeda and its allies like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are part of the Wahhabist enemy. Gilani preaches that Wahhabists are secret agents of the British, who are secret agents of a Satanic-Zionist conspiracy.

Bin Laden hid in Abbottabad, Pakistan from 2005 to 2011 when he was found and killed by U.S. SEAL Team Six. Interestingly, it was reported in 2002 that Gilani had a training camp in Abbottabad.[5] Pakistani authorities raided the camp after Gilani’s detention in connection with the murder of Daniel Pearl but the site was abandoned.[6]

MOA says that its American Muslim Medical Relief Team personnel volunteered at the Ayyub Medical Center in Abbottabad in 2005 after an earthquake.[7]

Both Bin Laden and Gilani had ties to the Pakistani ISI intelligence service and groups it sponsors. It is suspected that elements of Pakistani intelligence protected Bin Laden because Abbottabad had a heavy intelligence and military presence. While in hiding, Bin Laden maintained contact with Harakat ul-Mujahideen and was reliant upon the group.[8]

Harakat ul-Mujahideen is closely linked to the ISI and has had a relationship with Gilani. A local Pakistani police officer said the compound was used by Hizbul Mujahideen, another group linked to the ISI and Gilani.[9]

Links to Al-Qaeda Affiliates

Gilani and MOA have had relationships with various Islamist terrorist and extremist groups that are related to Al-Qaeda. The list includes the Blind Sheikh’s Gama’a Islamiyya; Hasan al-Turabi’s National Islamic Front; Harakat ul-Mujahideen (also known as Harakat ul-Ansar); Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami; Hizbul Mujahideen; Jaish-e-Mohammed; Lashkar-e-Taiba; the Islamic Revolution Movement of Afghanistan and the Kashmir Freedom Front. There are also reports linking the Jamaat Al-Muslimeen of Trinidad to Al-Qaeda.[10]

A 1993 State Department intelligence document said that Sheikh Gilani is linked to a “mujahidin hub” that includes multiple allied Islamist terrorist groups. 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 of safe havens, bases and logistical support.”[11]

Every single one of the terrorist allies of Sheikh Gilani listed above are closely linked to Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. The memo said that Bin Laden was financing the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman’s network in the United States by funneling money through Hassan al-Turabi’s National Islamic Front.[12]

Makhtab al-Khidamat / Al-Kifa

Author John Wilson describes Fuqra (MOA) as being the “killer squad” of the Al-Kifa Refugee Center, the American branch of Maktab al-Khidmat, in the early 1990s.[13] It was run by Bin Laden and his mentor, Muslim Brotherhood cleric Abdullah Azzam. Maktab al-Khidmat worked closely with the Pakistani ISI intelligence service.

Wilson goes so far as to say Fuqra “was one of Azzam’s network of front organizations.”[14] MAK/Al-Kifa is regarded as the predecessor to Al-Qaeda. A Defense Department document from 2006 likewise refers to Fuqra/MOA as being another name for the Makhtab al-Khidamat. It identifies an operative of Tanzeem ul-Fuqra (another name for Jamaat ul-Fuqra) as also being part of Al-Qaeda.

The secret memo from the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay, released by Wikileaks, shows that a Saudi citizen from Kasim named Nasir M. Asubayi “is an Islamic extremist with admitted links to the Maktab al-Khidmat (MK), aka Tanzeem Ul Fuqra, a non-governmental organization (NGO), a known supporter of Al Qaida.”

The memo identifies Maktab al-Khidmat as a Tier 2 NGO counter-terrorism target that has “demonstrated the intent and willingness to support terrorist organizations willing to attack U.S. persons or interest.” In other words, this memo states that Fuqra/Maktab al-Khidmat may not directly engage in terrorism but is a conduit for supporting other terrorist groups’ activities.

Asubayi also went by the aliases of Nasir Mazid Abdullah Al-Qurayshi Al-Subii and Al-Dindah al-Najdi. It is suspected that he helped provide Maktabal-Khidmat with travel documents and other logistical aid. He “is believed to have linked up with three others in Dubai.” The memo does not indicate he had links to Fuqra or MAK in the U.S.

In 2001, he was inspired by a fatwa from a radical Saudi cleric to travel with another terrorist held at Guantanamo Bay (Khalid Rashd Ali Al-Muri) to go to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. They arrived via the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan. He trained for three weeks and was among the Al-Qaeda fighters who fled to the Tora Bora mountains after the U.S.-led invasion.

Asubayi’s leg was injured in December 2001 and was apprehended at a hospital in Jalalabad.

Khalid Khawaja: Pakistani Intelligence Service

Khalid Khawaja was one of Sheikh Gilani’s closest advisers until he was murdered in 2010 and often acted as Gilani’s liaison to the media and outside world. A former MOA member who traveled to Pakistan to meet Gilani describes him as Gilani’s “right-hand man.” He was murdered in South Waziristan in 2010.

Khawaja was a mid-level Pakistani ISI intelligence operative and known for his wide range of contacts amongst Islamist terrorist groups. He admittedly worked with Bin Laden during the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. He maintained contact with Bin Laden and is said to have been a pilot for him at one point in time.[15]

In 1993, Khawaja was with Gilani when they attended a massive Islamist terrorist summit in Khartoum, Sudan. The event included representatives of Al-Qaeda and possibly Bin Laden himself, who was sheltered in Khartoum at the time. The purpose of the event was to unite Islamist terrorists of different political beliefs into a common front against the West.

Gilani and Khawaja were noticed by Muslim journalist Nazim Baksh, who videotaped the event and interviewed Gilani for a documentary. Khawaja initially tried to cover up Gilani’s presence by asking Baksh not to publicize it.[16]

Khawaja also had his own organization named the Islamic Solidarity Movement. He was arrested in 1995 by the Pakistani government for intending to commit murder. Khawaja says the prosecution was a political persecution at the behest of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[17] He was again arrested in 2007 for distributing extremist material.

In Mariane Pearl’s book, she described Khawaja as acting like a “psycho” in conversations. He ranted about the legitimacy of jihad against the U.S., condemning U.S. military operations in Afghanistan against Al-Qaaeda and the Taliban and accused a Jewish conspiracy of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks. She writes that he seemed to know everyone in the jihadist movement in Pakistan.[18]

Khawaja said in 2002 after Pearl’s death:

“I am telling you, Osama doesn’t have many people in America. But here [in Pakistan], he has lots and lots of followers there and followers who are, I am telling you, I am sure of one thing, Osama does not have even one of his followers as committed as Sheikh Mubarak Gilani. Osama does not have even one as committed as the least of his people.”[19]

1990 Murder of Imam Rashid Khalifa: Wadih el-Hege

An Al-Qaeda operative named Wadih El-Hege was part of MOA’s surveillance team in the murder of Imam Rashad Khalifa in Tucson, Arizona in 1990.

Hege developed Al-Qaeda cells in Arizona using the Al-Kifah Refugee Office network, which was intertwined with MOA and the Blind Sheikh. He met with an Egyptian named Mahmud Abouhalima at the Al-Kifah office in Oklahoma City. Abouhalima was later convicted of involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Hege became Usama Bin Laden’s secretary and was convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda’s bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

Mujahid Menepta / Melvin Lattimore

Another connection is through Melvin Lattimore, also known as Mujahid Menepta, a reported MOA member. He lived at an address in Oklahoma City in 1990 that was the centerpiece of a broader terrorist network that included MOA, Al-Qaeda and Hamas.[20]

He moved to the address after returning from a trip to Pakistan. At the same time, other MOA members linked to the address were active in Talihina and Red House, VA.

He is a close associate of Al-Qaeda operative Zacharias Moussaoui, who is suspected of being the “20^th hijacker” who was unable to take part in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Moussaoui says that he was tasked with taking part in a follow-up wave of attacks.

They both attended the Islamic Society of Norman mosque. Menepta said that no one at the mosque knew Moussaoui better than he did.

On August 16, 2001, Moussaoui was arrested on immigration-related charges because authorities believed he was planning a terrorist attack involving airliners. Menepta said he was being used as a “scapegoat.”

After he defended Moussaoui and admitted his close friendship with him, the FBI arrested Menepta on terror-related charges. Agents who raided his home found an assault rifle, shotgun, handgun and over 1,500 rounds of ammunition. His family claimed he was peaceful and merely enjoyed hunting and target practice. As a felon, it was illegal for him to possess guns.

The warrant for the raid stated that Menepta was under investigation for involvement in a terrorist plot and involvement in a seditious conspiracy to levy war against the U.S. His cell phone had contacts that were the subjects of criminal investigations including money laundering and drug trafficking in Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Detroit, El Paso and Kansas City.

Gray writes that Menepta expressed anti-American extremism in his presence. He would accuse the U.S. of terrorism for slavery and oppressing Muslims. Menepta claimed he confronted an individual he suspected of being a FBI agent for allegedly harassing Muslims.

Menepta and his wife also engaged in fraud that is consistent with Fuqra/MOA operations. After his arrest, the government learned that she did not declare their marriage to the state welfare authorities, which could reduce their government assistance. She was accused of receiving over $2,400 in state money including food stamps over the course of the unreported marriage.[21]

1993 Terror Summit in Sudan

A close ally of Gilani and Al-Qaeda, Sudanese cleric Hasan al-Turabi, was working hard to form a common Islamist front against the West. These efforts included a massive terrorist summit in Khartoum in 1993 that brought together jihadists of all stripes. Sheikh Gilani was seen there and initially attempted to keep his attendance secret.[22]

Al-Qaeda representatives were present. Usama Bin Laden may have attended the event as well, as he was harbored in Khartoum at the time.

The summit came at around the same time that Sheikh Gilani was emphasizing the need for MOA to work with other Islamist militants and formed a group called Soldiers of Allah for that purpose.[23]

Islamic Society of Susquehanna Valley

Declassified documents report that the MOA of Pennsylvania non-profit organization received many checks from a mosque named the Islamic Society of Susquehanna Valley. An online directory of mosques places that facility at Sunbury, PA.[24] A now-defunct website for the mosque stated that events were held at the Ghulam Rasool Mosque in Sunbury. The website did not acknowledge any ties to MOA when it was last updated in 2000.

The mosque website linked to various organizations and individuals tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. It also linked to the Benevolence International Foundation, an Al-Qaeda front used to support terrorists in Bosnia and Chechnya.[25]

Shoe-bomber Richard Reid

Gilani has been reported to have a link to Richard Colvin Reid, a British Al-Qaeda operative who tried to detonate a bomb hidden on his show onboard an American Airlines flight in 2001. Gilani denies that Reid was a follower of his, but admits that Reid was trying to contact him. He claims that Reid was part of an Indian and Israeli conspiracy to assassinate him. Gilani says:

“Many of my followers wait five to ten years before they are granted audience with me. This is why the recent conspiracy hatched against me by the Indian and Israeli agencies failed when they used Farah Stockman, Richard Reid and Daniel Pearl. Each of these people was trying to contact me, but they all failed…[26]

Reid was in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1999 to 2000. Farah Stockman of the Boston Globe reported that there was evidence that Reid went to a religious school in Lahore that is linked to Gilani.[27] Mariane Pearl mentions that there were reports that Reid even met Gilani at his home in Karachi.[28]

An anonymous Pakistani official involved in following Reid’s steps flatly told Stockman, “he [Reid] was there,” referring to Gilani’s compound in Lahore. A member of Gilani’s extended family also said that Reid had visited Gilani’s home.[29]

Gilani denies ever meeting him and said he had never even heard the name of Richard Reid. However, Islamist terrorists often travel under different names. Reid, for example, used the names of Abdul/Abdel Raheem and Abu Ibrahim.[30] He also went by Tariq Raja. Khalid Khawaja said, “He is not a follower and he is not known to any of the people within our system. If there was anything like that, we would have known it.”[31]

Richard Reid visited the Karachi home of Sheikh Gilani before boarding the flight from Paris to Miami where he unsuccessfully attempted his bomb plot. (A Mighty Heart, Mariane Pearl, p 11 (2007)). Reid considered Gilani a “spiritual advisor” but sources such as Daniel Pearl wondered if there was more than merely the “spiritual” connection between the two. (A Mighty Heart, Mariane Pearl, p 11 (2007)).

Another link between Reid and Gilani may have been Zacarias Moussaoui. After his conversion to Islam, Reid attended the same mosque as Moussaoui in Brixton, London. Reid “disappeared” from the mosque in 1998.[32] Moussaoui was closely linked to a reported MOA member named Melvin Lattimore, or Mujahid Menepta, in Oklahoma City.[33]

Murder of Daniel Pearl

 Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl believed he was on his way to interview Sheikh Gilani about his reported connection to shoebomber Richard Reid when Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan by Al-Qaeda affiliates and beheaded on videotape in 2002. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and then third-in-command of Al-Qaeda, credibly claims to have been the one to execute him.

Sheikh Gilani was never charged with involvement in the Al-Qaeda plot to kill Pearl. However, a significant body of evidence exists to consider him a suspect.  Though mainly circumstantial, its comprehensive value in totality would be considered quite strong in a U.S. court of law. A detailed explanation of this evidence is available in the section of this website about Daniel Pearl’s death.

A 1995 U.S. State Department memo states that Harakat-ul-Ansar (now known as Harakat-ul-Mujahideen) had a “handful” of American Muslim recruits, estimating the number to be between 6 and 16 “who are adherents to a Pakistani pir.”

It then says a source identified that pir (a Sufi religious title) as named Wijahad Ali and located in Rawalpindi, but there is no publicly-available information about that.[ii] The only Sufi pir that fits the description is Sheikh Gilani and he is known to have had a presence in Rawalpindi. It is probable that a confusion in names occurred due the large number of titles and identities used by Gilani and his followers.

Harakat ul-Ansar was created in 1993 by Abdelkader Mokhtari combining Harakat-ul-Mujahideen and Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami. The terrorist group is focused on violent jihad against India over Kashmir. It returned to the name of Harakat-ul-Mujahideen after the U.S. designated it as a terrorist group in 1997.

A State Department memo from 1995 states that Harakat Ul-Ansar is becoming more aggressive and kidnapped two British citizens in Indian-controlled Kashmir the previous year. It says that the group numbers between 2,000 and 10,000, many of which fought in the jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It said that HUA claims to be active in Chechnya, Bosnia, the Philippines and Burma and its members believe in “permanent jihad.”[iii]

The 1995 memo said that many of HUA’s members previously fought alongside Jalaluddin Haqqani in Paktia Province in Afghanistan. Haqqani later went on to lead the Haqqani Network, a terrorist group allegedly backed by Pakistani intelligence and closely linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Haqqani died in 2014. It says that HUA is known for being essentially the “foreign wing” of the Sipah-e-Sahaba terrorist group that primarily targets Shiites.

The memo states that an unidentified party is using HUA to build political and financial support for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), an Islamist political party founded by Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman. It accused this party of fundraising for HUA in order to “cash in” and steal money.

The U.S. State Department says HUA is linked to the Kashmiri terrorist group Al-Faran that kidnapped and executed five Western tourists in Kashmir in 1995. HUA is also responsible for hijacking an Indian airliner in 1999 in order to successfully demand the release of its former leader, Masood Azhar. He founded Jaish-e-Mohammed after his release and many HUA members joined his new group. HUA continues to attack Indian targets in Kashmir and operates in Afghanistan.[iv]

[i] “Amendments to, and Maintenance of, the Terrorist Designations of Harakat-ul-Mujahideen.” (2014). U.S. State Department: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/230373.htm

[ii] U.S. Department of State, Karachi Consulate. (1995). Document number: 1995KARACH01617.

[iii] U.S. Department of State, Karachi Consulate. (1995). Document number: 1995KARACH01617.

[iv] “Country Reports on Terrorism 2015.” (2015). U.S. State Department Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism. http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257523.htm

Sheikh Gilani and Hizbul Mujahideen are commonly associated with Pakistani intelligence, specifically Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed, a senior operative of the Pakistani ISI intelligence service who led the Intelligence Bureau from 1990 to 1993. Various reports have linked Brig. Imtiaz to Sheikh Gilani.[ii]

An official MOA letter to President Bush dated March 18, 1990 declared that all able-bodied Muslims are required to participate in a jihad against India over its actions in Kashmir. The letter called on Muslims to support an organization named the Kashmir Freedom Front.

A second letter was sent to President Bush two months later. It reiterated that jihad against India was mandatory, comparing India’s alleged crimes in Kashmir to those committed by Nazi Germany. It stated that the MOA endorses “all efforts” to intervene in Kashmir and that Sheikh Gilani had met with the Kashmir Freedom Front. The letter asked the U.S. government to not interfere from stopping Muslim-American recruits from joining the jihad, claiming that the U.S. stopped its recruits from entering Afghanistan in 1982.

Little information is available about the Kashmir Freedom Front in 1990. However, a coalition of over 30 pro-Pakistan militant groups formed in 1993 and was named the All Kashmir Freedom Front. It was essentially controlled by Hizbul Mujahideen.[iii]

Sheikh Gilani has acted as an extension of Hizbul Mujahideen. In 1991, Gilani attended a massive summit in Sudan that brought together leaders of all kinds of jihadist groups in order to foster cooperation despite ideological differences. Hizbul Mujahideen’s chosen representative was Sheikh Gilani.[iii.i]

Brig. Imtiaz led an operation in 1992 by the ISI’s Political Division to unite Kashmiri militants into a single coalition against India. Hizbul Mujahideen was a major focus of the effort.[iv] Sheikh Gilani was likewise preaching in favor of unity at the time and offering guerilla warfare training courses in Pakistan and Kashmir to any aspiring Muslim fighter.[v]

The Buffalo Police Department learned about a newly-established MOA website in 2002.[vi] A search of that website shows that its section about Kashmir linked to the Kashmir American Council. Khadijah Ghafur, a top MOA official, also was a representative of the organization.

The KAC’s leader was arrested by the FBI for being a Pakistani ISI spy who reported to the section that oversees Pakistani support for Kashmiri militant and terrorist groups. The spy, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, was a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party and grew up with the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen.

A 2016 State Department counter-terrorism report said that members of the group had been arrested by India for involvement in attacks that included Lashkar-e-Taiba.[vii]

In June of 2017, the U.S. sanctioned the leader of an Islamist terrorist group in Kashmir named Hizbul Mujahideen. The move targets an ideological ally of the U.S.-based Muslims of America organization (MOA), a cultish group known for its “Islamic villages” like Islamberg that is expressing support for the Kashmir terrorist group.

On June 26, the State Department blacklisted Mohammad Yusuf Shah (commonly known as Syed Salahuddin), the leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group that fights in Kashmir against India and operates in Pakistan with backing from the Pakistani government.

Pakistan condemned the U.S. action.

Hizbul Mujahideen is the largest militant force in Kashmir. It condemns nationalism and democracy. It fights to create a theocratic Islamic state and caliphate. It is also closely linked to other Pakistani terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda affiliates.

MOA’s extremist leader, Sheikh Gilani, is based in Lahore, Pakistan and has long been involved in this circle of Pakistani terrorist groups. A 2003 FBI report says MOA acts as a conduit to groups in Pakistan affiliated with Al-Qaeda. This is substantiated by a former MOA member who went to Pakistan.

That is why it is so concerning that Muslims of America, a group that has boasted of having 22 “Islamic villages” in the U.S., is expressing solidarity with Hizbul Mujahideen.

MOA’s relationship with the group goes as far back as 1990.

On May 2, MOA announced a “multi-dimensional campaign” to “liberate” Kashmir from India. Its written statement was essentially a declaration to Muslims that Allah requires them to rally behind Hizbul Mujahideen.

It exalts the “charismatic leadership” of Burhan Wani, a top Hizbul Mujahideen commander killed last year. It credits him with inspiring “a new generation of fearless youth” and “freedom fighters.” MOA depicts the terrorist group as the face of the Kashmiri resistance to India.

In August 2016, MOA’s newspaper condemned India for killing a “top pro-independence militant leader.” Based on the wording, you’d think MOA was talking about a Kashmiri George Washington. Actually, it was Hizbul Mujahideen’s operations commander. MOA’s coverage presented the group as enjoying massive popular support.

In March 2017, MOA’s newspaper covered a battle between Indian forces and Hizbul Mujahideen and sided with the jihadists. It referred to them as “Kashmiri freedom fighters” contesting the “oppressive and violent treatment of the Kashmiri people by Indian forces.”

There’s good reason to suspect that MOA is providing Hizbul Mujahideen with more than sympathy.

MOA has a long relationship with the terrorist group. In 1990, MOA even wrote a public letter calling on all Muslims to contribute to jihad in Kashmir and to support the “Kashmir Freedom Front,” which was essentially another name for Hizbul Mujahideen.

On July 6, 2016, MOA published a public letter to the U.N. that said Muslims in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir are required to defend the Kashmiris against India “by every possible means.” Gilani and MOA have had a long presence in Kashmir, including a village named “Gillaniville.” Therefore, the letter is declaring that MOA is obligated to become involved “by every possible means.”

The letter also called on Muslim countries to unite into a single organization with a single force for intervention in places where Muslims are oppressed. In other words, to form a caliphate. MOA’s ideology has always been in favor of a caliphate, theocratic sharia law and violent jihad in places like Kashmir.

MOA’s May 2 press conference emphasized activism and humanitarian aid, but it did not reject violence or supporting violent elements.

In fact, MOA endorsed jihad by calling on Pakistan to intervene against the Indian military, an obviously violent action. Additionally, MOA’s claim that India is engaged in “genocide” would make jihad defensible, if not mandatory, to any Muslim audience.

The online statement announces its support for Kashmiris’ “struggle for self-determination.” Struggle is the synonym for jihad. That same statement heaps praise upon Hizbul Mujahideen for its jihad against India. MOA obviously chose to avoid using the eye-catching word in favor of the vaguer synonym, knowing that a Muslim audience would understand that it is referring to jihad.

MOA chief executive Hussein Adams, son of convicted terrorist Barry Adams, boasted at the May 2 press conference that MOA has been involved in supporting the Kashmiri “struggle” since the 1980s. Of course, he didn’t mention their involvement in jihad and soliciting of support for Hizbul Mujahideen.

Their own documents acknowledge this violent role in the Kashmir jihad. It is also seen in a secret video by Sheikh Gilani filmed and distributed among some MOA members in 1991-1993. Gilani explicitly says that MOA communes in North America can facilitate such training for jihad in places where Muslims are in battle, with Kashmir being the top priority. Training was open to Muslims outside of MOA.

“Sheikh Gilani’s tape, which I was the first to publicly release long excerpts of, showed that MOA’s public face is different than what it says and does in private. This is undeniable proof that MOA was engaged in terrorism and that Gilani used his American camps to train and recruit terrorists for Kashmir and other places,” Martin Mawyer, president of the Christian Action Network told Fuqra Files.

The Fuqra Files later obtained and released a video of women at Islamberg receiving guerilla training that was filmed in 2001-2002.

MOA spoke of its providing of money, food, supplies and medical to Kashmiris using two fronts: The Kashmir American Friendship Society and the American Muslim Medical Relief Team. We know from government reports and prosecutions that MOA sends money, personnel and material to Gilani in Pakistan for more extremist purposes.

MOA complained that its applications for its “journalists” with its newspapers to go to Pakistan and Kashmir are not being approved. Obviously, the Pakistani government and/or the U.S. government don’t see their trips to Pakistan so innocuously.

This issue exposes a gap in America’s national security policy: Neither Hizbul Mujahideen nor Jamaat ul-Fuqra (the original informal name of MOA) are on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

A dozen Muslim organizations in North America have asked the State Department to review Fuqra/MOA for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, as it fits the listed criteria. The case for designating Hizbul Mujahideen is much stronger, as the State Department has just acknowledged that it fits the criteria for its leader to be blacklisted as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

The State Department acknowledges that Hizbul Mujahideen fits the definition of a Foreign Terrorist Organization and it should now designate it as such. Doing so could sever whatever material relationship exists between Hizbul Mujahideen and Islamists in America like MOA and enable investigations and prosecutions of jihadists in America involved with the Pakistan-backed terrorist group.

[i] “Iran Destroys 100,000 Satellite Dishes in ‘Morality Crackdown.’” (2016). Islamic Post. https://www.islamicpostonline.com/featured/2016/08/13/iran-destroys-100000-satellite-dishes-in-morality-crackdown/

[ii] These ties are discussed in greater detail in the section of this website about Fuqra activity outside of the U.S.

[iii] Phillips, David L. (2011). From Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition. Transaction Publishers.

[iii.i] Jewett Millard Burr, “The Terrorists’ International,” American Center for Democracy, 2009.

[iv] “Slain Pakistani Militants Were on ‘Unity’ Mission.” (1992). India Times.

[v] The appeal for unity was stated in the “Soldiers of Allah” tape produced by Sheikh Gilani. More information about the tape can be found in the section of this website about Fuqra/MOA guerilla training.

[vi] The discovery was mentioned in an Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into MOA in 2003-2004.

[vii] “Country Reports: South and Central Asia Overview.” (2015). U.S. State Department Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism. http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257518.htm

Fuqra/MOA is linked to T.J., according to B. Raman, who the counter-terrorism division of India’s Research and Analysis Wing intelligence agency from 1988 to 1994. He went so far as to say that Fuqra is a “front organization” for the TJ movement.[iii]

One of the founding fathers of MOA, Muhammad Hasib Haqq, said in a deposition that the terminology used for Jamaat ul-Fuqra came from TJ.[iv] A MOA book published in 1994 tried to deny the existence of Fuqra by saying that TJ also uses the Islamic terminology of “Jamaat ul-Fuqra” and “Jamaat ul-Muslimeen.”[v]

One of Sheikh Gilani’s earliest followers was a preacher in Brooklyn for the TJ. He joined Fuqra/MOA in 1980.[vi]

MOA is not openly hostile or supportive of TJ. However, an issue of its newspaper described the movement as “lethargic.”

MOA-affiliated sources say that members seek out Pakistani mosques affiliated with TJ as a second option if they are unable to attend a MOA mosque or religious event.

New York Police Department counter-terrorism investigations indicate that MOA members do associate with TJ institutions. A 2009 NYPD file shows that the Department conducted surveillance on one member of MOA as part of a Terrorism Enterprise Investigation into the TJ.

The file states that Mian Ahmad, a suspect on the terrorist watch list, lived at Islamberg “for some time” and “was and may still be” a MOA member. He was a member of the TJ-affiliated Masjid Zakariyya mosque in Buffalo.

Three other members of the mosque—Farid Bhana, Abdulmuqeet Choudhury and Muhammad Sadruzzaman, are mentioned as being on terrorism watch lists.

Sadruzzaman is named as a suspected member of a terrorist organization. The NYPD document says he led a “jamaat” from the mosque attended by MOA member Mian Ahmad to the TJ-affiliated Masjid Al-Huda mosque in Lackawanna, N.Y. The leader arranged various international trips of concern that included terrorism suspects and involved stays in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Talagan-Multan, Pakistan.[vii]

Those three locations in Pakistan are known as destinations for MOA members, with Lahore being the headquarters of Sheikh Gilani.

The NYPD files also document a significant amount of suspicious TJ-affiliated travel between the N.Y./N.J. and South Africa. TJ travel involving terrorism suspects also took place to/from Pakistan, Trinidad, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mozambique, Morocco, Sri Lanka, France, the United Kingdom and Canada.

On January 3, TJ scholar, Mufti Muhammad Ameen, author of “Aab-e-Kauthar,” died. MOA immediately honored him with a public statement describing his book as “monumental” and sating, “May Allah bless him immensely.” A former MOA member told Fuqra Files that it is one of MOA’s favorite books to promote. A current MOA member said that MOA members are increasingly friendly with members of TJ in New York.

[i] Alexiev, Alex. (2005). Tablighi Jamaat: Jihad’s Stealthy Legions. Middle East Quarterly. http://www.meforum.org/686/tablighi-jamaat-jihads-stealthy-legions

[ii] Fred Burton and Scott Stewart. (2008). Tablighi Jamaat: An Indirect Line to Terrorism. Stratfor. https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/tablighi_jamaat_indirect_line_terrorism

[iii] Raman, B. (1999). Dagestan: Focus on Pakistan’s Tablighi Jamaat. South Asia Analysis Group. http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/paper80

[iv] The Muslims of America Inc. V. Martin Mawyer.

[v] Target Islam: Exposing the Malicious Conspiracy of the Zionists Against the World of Islam and Prominent Muslim Leaders. (1994). Quranic Open University and Pakistan Foundation for Strategic Studies.

[vi] Jilani, Mubarak Ali. (1981). Futuhat-i-Muhammadiyah. Quranic Research Institute of Pakistan: Lahore.

[vii] “Amended Investigative Statement: TEI # 08/03 Extension #06.” (2009). New York Police Department.

The Sultan of Brunei took power in 1984 and has remained in power ever since. He sparked international controversy in 2014 when his phased implementation of theocratic Sharia Law escalated to outlawing homosexuality. Celebrities like Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres protested and vowed to boycott hotels and other companies that the Sultan had a significant financial stake in.

[i] The solicitation letter was seized by the law enforcement authorities during investigations of Fuqra/MOA in the early 1990s.

Proposal to Sultan of Brunai by Banaatun Nur, Inc. – PDF