The Letter to De Blasio
In November of 2017, Tawhidi found himself once again in the limelight when he released a letter he allegedly sent Mayor de Blasio in February of 2016 warning of extremist threats in New York City. On October 31, 2017, eight people were killed when a terrorist, who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, mowed down innocent pedestrians on the streets of New York. On November 2, 2017, Daily Mail published an article where Tawhidi stated “I truly believe we could have prevented the terror attack in New York if the mayor gave me just ten minutes of his time.” Tawhidi was referring to letters he allegedly sent Mayor de Blasio in February of 2016 warning de Blasio of extremist threats and radicalization that was occurring in New York. He attempted to embarrass the New York City mayor, who we certainly are not fans of for multiple reasons, whose press secretary, Eric Phillips, stated via Twitter that their office had never received the letter. With some obvious discrepancies found within the letter, and given Tawhidi’s less than flawless record where honesty and consistency are concerned, we decided to take a deeper look to see if we could determine who was being honest.
It becomes increasingly obvious that the entire episode was concocted by Imam Tawhidi to get media attention, as evident by the following details.
It was immediately evident that the letterhead Tawhidi alleges to have sent the letter on does not match the letterhead Tawhidi was using before, during, and after February 9, 2016. What’s even stranger is that the letterhead Tawhidi alleges to have sent the letter on did not emerge until 2017 when Tawhidi changed his domain from Tawhidi.com to ImamTawhidi.com, rebranded his website, and eventually changed the name of his organization from “the Islamic Association of South Australia” to “the Imam Tawhidi Foundation.” A Facebook post made in July of 2016 shows the logos Tawhidi was using at the time, and the logo found on the alleged letter is not one of them.
Another anomaly found in the letter is in the postal code of Tawhidi’s office location found in the lower left corner of the letter. While Tawhidi typically abstained from including details of his address on letters he sent around that time, the February 9 letter to de Blasio indicates Tawhidi is located in Adelaide, SA, 5000. According to the Australian Business Registry, Tawhidi’s organization was not located in 5000 until August of 2017, roughly around the same time Tawhidi rebranded his organization and adopted his current letterhead.
While analyzing Tawhidi’s letterhead may seem like splitting hairs, there is also an issue with the content of Tawhidi’s alleged February 2016 letter to de Blasio. In his letter, Tawhidi writes “I have spent the past two weeks in New York, both meeting and working with Muslims in the community and its leaders.” Tawhidi’s social network posts suggest this claim is not accurate. Tawhidi was in Indonesia establishing a Shirazi hawza through 2015, before returning to Australia to establish another Shirazi hawza in Adelaide. Tawhidi was meeting with community leaders, but not in New York, rather in Australia, where they discussed the teachings of Sayid Sadiq Shirazi that were being implemented in the Adelaide Islamic seminaries, according to a press release issued by the office of Sayid Sadiq Shirazi. Tawhidi made several Facebook posts of himself in Indonesia, one of himself teaching lessons at the newly established hawza on January 5, 2016. Tawhidi is also pictured in Australia on February 4th and 8th, 2016, then again at the Zainibiyah Hawza of Australia’s opening ceremony on February 13, 2016.
Perhaps the most absurd part about the alleged letter is the fact that Tawhidi is requesting a meeting, yet failed to provide any contact information for himself, as pointed out by de Blasio’s press secretary, who indicated de Blasio’s office never received a letter from Tawhidi. The only information the letter contained was an inaccurate postal code and an email address that we cannot find a record of Tawhidi using prior to 2017.
de Blasio’s press secretary indicates their office never received the letter
Tawhidi released a second letter to de Blasio that he represented as a “follow up” to the first letter he allegedly sent, however, this “follow up” makes zero references to the first letter he was following up on. Contrarily, the content of the “follow up” is introductory. Tawhidi indicates he would like to set up a meeting, but not to discuss radicalization occurring in New York mosques, rather Tawhidi wishes to discuss his own business agenda. His name is inconsistent, his position is inconsistent, and the company he’s claiming to represent is inconsistent between the two letters. To refer to the second letter as a “follow up” is an insult to anyone who is literate. While looking at Tawhidi’s different signature blocks, note that in the first letter, Tawhidi referred to himself as the director of an organization that, as of February 9, 2016, had not yet been established.
Tawhidi’s name on the 2016 letter compared to the name on the “follow up” letter
In the future, we hope that Tawhidi will send critical letters containing potentially life-saving information via a channel where he can confirm receipt of the message. More importantly, we would encourage Tawhidi to engage the appropriate parties, such as the FBI, rather than sending an uncertified letter to a town politician halfway around the globe. In the unlikely instance that Tawhidi actually sent the letter as he claims, issuing an attention-seeking, post-mortem “I told you so” is grossly negligent, inappropriate, and disrespectful to the victims and their families.
AIFD Commentary: The New Mexico Militant Jihadi Training Compound and Child Abuse is the tip of the National Islamist Iceberg
August 9, 2018
By: M. Zuhdi Jasser, President & Founder
American Islamic Forum for Democracy
Make no mistake.
The militant Jihadi training camp and its horrific child abuse discovered in the small, quiet town of Amalia, New Mexico is not an isolated incident but rather is the tip of the proverbial iceberg of Islamist radicalization in America.
It is unconscionable that major media ignore the bigger story here on Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Sr. and his connections to so-called “mainstream” American Islamist organizations.
AIFD has been closely following the recent reporting regarding the five adults arrested for child abuse in New Mexico after they were found with 11 children held captive in third-world conditions. Every day more information is being released about the situation including the fact that this separatist compound was a terrorist training facility for Islamist radicalization that not only abused these children through starvation and torture, but apparently had plans for terror operations that included attacks on American schools by these radicalized children. This entire situation is straight from the ISIS playbook.
According to a number of sources, including the New York Post, five radical Islamists, three of which were female, were arrested including Siraj Wahhaj, 40; Lucas Morton, 40; Jany Leveille, 35; Hujrah Wahhaj, 38; and Subhanah Wahhaj, 35, including 11 children ages 1 to 15 that were found abused in the facility. The ringleader of the operation was Siraj Wahhaj, son of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Sr. who was accompanied by four of his relatives.
We bring this story to your attention from our perspective as a reformist American Muslim Organization, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, not only because of the horrific treatment of these children but because of the deeper connections their captors have to the organizations that are thrust upon American Muslims as so-called “mainstream Muslim organizations” in the United States like ISNA, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), MAS (Muslim American Society), and ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) to name a few. One of America’s most prominent Imams, Siraj Wahhaj, Sr. is a leading fundraiser, speaker, and Ideological leader among a host of Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups in the United States. Currently, there are no known, direct connections or implications that, Imam Siraj Wahhaj based in Brooklyn, New York, had anything to do with the training camp or the horrific conditions in Amalia, New Mexico, other than that the camp was run by his son. But most importantly here, is that this compound cannot be relegated to the status of “just another whacky cell” in order to continue to protect the reputation of leading American Islamist organizations and their Establishment heads from scrutiny. Honest Americans and Muslims cannot ignore the connection with Imam Wahhaj’s long-standing separationist Islamist ideology and his role in radicalizing Muslims in all of the organizations he has influenced across the country for decades.
Our founder, M. Zuhdi Jasser, had written about Siraj Wahhaj in his 2012 Simon and Schuster book “A Battle for the Soul of Islam“, and on pages 84-87 described his first interaction with America’s largest Muslim organization, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)[1]. In those pages, Dr. Jasser detailed an experience he had as a Naval officer on leave while attending ISNA’s annual convention in which Imam Siraj Wahhaj keynoted the opening of the conference. Wahhaj expressed his desire to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Qur’an and proceeded to direct that it is the duty of Muslims to bring the Qur’an and its teachings and legal system to the United States in lieu of its current constitution. He stated: “Can you imagine someone wondering if a document made by humans would be superior to a document made by God,” as he held up the Qur’an which he said should be the Constitution of this country. Dr. Jasser then went to the microphone and publicly voiced his horror with Siraj Wahhaj Sr.’s separationism and the acquiescence of the audience and the leadership of ISNA to his seditious point of view and commentary.
Siraj Wahhaj, Sr. has since remained, and in fact grown to be, a thought leader in position, ideologically, and for fundraising among various American Islamist organizations. Apparently, it has never bothered them that he was also named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, as he testified as a character witness for the convicted bomber, the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. Yet, as recently as in the past few months, Siraj Wahhaj, Sr. was openly described at an ISNA meeting proudly by Linda Sarsour, now a leading national advocate for the Women’s March in addition to a host of other Islamist causes, as her mentor she said “favorite person in this room. Imam Siraj Wahhaj who has been a mentor, motivator, and encourager of mine”. Siraj Wahhaj, Sr. has served in various capacities including being on the board of advisers and participating in the speaking circuit of the CAIR, ISNA, ICNA; and MAS to name a few.
It is the responsibility of every media organization and thought leader in America to expose Imam Siraj Wahhaj Sr.’s connection to what’s happening in New Mexico. While he may not have had anything to do directly with the violence or the compound, there should be little doubt that his longtime separationist Islamist ideology proven by concerned Muslims like us at AIFD at every step along the way (yet ignored by most media) very likely played a significant role in the radicalization of his son Siraj Wahhaj Jr.
NOW is the time for Americans to realize that separationist Islamism, like that of the Wahhaj family, is a gateway drug in all of its forms– violent and non-violent— to the radicalization of our youth. It is incumbent upon American media and thought leaders to cover this story and the connection of the abductor(s) and torturer(s) to his father. While Imam Siraj Wahhaj Sr. did voice his desire to have his abducted grandchildren returned safely, earlier this year on Facebook, that does not absolve him of the decades of radicalizing many, as was seen first hand by Dr. Jasser, witnessed in 1995, and that the United States has witnessed repeatedly over and over and over in his positions and ideas about America.
The discovery in New Mexico is just one. How many more camps are actively radicalizing individuals who will carry out terrorist attacks on our soil while we do nothing? Let us rally together to remove the blanket of political correctness that shields these radical leaders who continue to prosper in our denial and use our unprecedented freedoms against us.
1. M. Zuhdi Jasser, A Battle for the Soul of Islam” (Schuster: New York, 2012), 84-87
08/08/2018: “REFORM IN A POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD: THE INTERNAL STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM”
Dear Supporters, you are invited to hear AIFD President & Founder, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. and other highly qualified reformers discuss:
“REFORM IN A POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD:
THE INTERNAL STRUGGLE FOR THE
SOUL OF ISLAM”
1:00-5:30pm (MT)
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Aspen Jewish Community Center
435 West Main Street, Aspen, CO 81611
Reservations are necessary to attend
RSVP: jccaspen.com | info@jccaspen.com | 970-544-3770
If you’re unable to attend you can watch the live event here.
Panelists Include:
Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser
President and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement (MRM) and a former Vice-Chair of U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) appointed by the U.S. Senate. Author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s fight to Save his Faith”
Dr. Elham Manea
A political scientist specialized on the Arab Middle East, a writer, and a human rights activist, she is well known for her writings on a Humanistic Islam; fight against extremism and Islamism, and defence of universal human rights. Author of “Women and Shari’a Law; The Impact of Legal Pluralism in the UK
Professor Salim Mansur
ProfessorDepartment of Political Science, the University of Western Ontario, London; and author of The Qur’an Problem and Islamism and Delectable Lie: a liberal repudiation of multiculturalism. Mansur is a survivor and witness of Muslim-on-Muslim violence and ethnic cleansing in the 1971 war and genocide in Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan.
Dr. Tawfik Hamid
Islamic thinker, reformer, and one-time Islamic extremist from Egypt who was a member of the radical Islamist organization Jamaa Islameia with Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaherri who later became the second in command of Al-Qaeda. Dr. Hamid started fighting Radical Islam 35 years ago. Author of “Inside Jihad: How Radical Islam Works; Why It Should Terrify Us; How to Defeat It”, he has authored a modern commentary on the Quran which has more than 2 million followers.
Raheel Raza (Moderator)
President of The Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, founding member of The Muslim Reform Movement, Director of Forum for Learning, award winning journalist, public speaker, advocate for human rights, gender equality and dignity in diversity. Author of
“Their Jihad, Not My Jihad”
This will be the first time such luminaries will appear together under one roof. These are highly qualified reformers who are all practicing Muslims. It is an event you won’t want to miss.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND
MEDIA INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT:
Dr. Alan Altman (970-456-3063)
doca55@aol.com
Raheel Raza (416-505-6052)
raheel@raheelraza.com
A MEETING OF MODERN MUSLIM MINDS – FIVE REFORMIST MUSLIMS AT ONE EVENT
“REFORM IN A POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD:
THE INTERNAL STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM”
1:00-5:30pm MT on Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Aspen Jewish Community Center
435 West Main Street, Aspen, CO 81611
Reservations are necessary to attend
RSVP: info@jccaspen.com – 970-544-3770
If you’re unable to attend, watch the live event here!
Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser: President and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement (MRM) and a former Vice-Chair of U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) appointed by the U.S. Senate. Author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s fight to Save his Faith”
Dr. Elham Manea: A political scientist specialized on the Arab Middle East, a writer, and a human rights activist, she is well known for her writings on a Humanistic Islam; fight against extremism and Islamism, and defence of universal human rights. Author of “Women and Shari’a Law; The Impact of Legal Pluralism in the UK
Professor Salim Mansur: ProfessorDepartment of Political Science, the University of Western Ontario, London; and author of The Qur’an Problem and Islamism and Delectable Lie: a liberal repudiation of multiculturalism. Mansur is a survivor and witness of Muslim-on-Muslim violence and ethnic cleansing in the 1971 war and genocide in Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan.
Dr. Tawfik Hamid: Islamic thinker, reformer, and one-time Islamic extremist from Egypt who was a member of the radical Islamist organization Jamaa Islameia with Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaherri who later became the second in command of Al-Qaeda. Dr. Hamid started fighting Radical Islam 35 years ago. Author of “Inside Jihad: How Radical Islam Works; Why It Should Terrify Us; How to Defeat It”, he has authored a modern commentary on the Quran which has more than 2 million followers.
Raheel Raza: Moderator:
President of The Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, founding member of The Muslim Reform Movement, Director of Forum for Learning, award winning journalist, public speaker, advocate for human rights, gender equality and dignity in diversity. Author of “Their Jihad, Not My Jihad”
This will be the first time such luminaries will appear together under one roof. These are highly qualified reformers who are all practicing Muslims. It is an event you won’t want to miss.+
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND MEDIA INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT:
Dr. Alan Altman (970-456-3063)
doca55@aol.com
Raheel Raza (416-505-6052)
raheel@raheelraza.com
About AIFD
The American Islamic Forum for Democracy is a non-profit organization based in Phoenix, Ariz. dedicated to providing an American Muslim voice advocating genuine Muslim reform against Islamism and the ideologies which fuel global Muslim radicalization. AIFD’s mission is to advocate for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. In December 2015, AIFD convened and helped launch the Muslim Reform Movement, a coalition of over 12 Muslim organizations and leaders dedicated to reform for values of peace, human rights and secular governance.
About M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.
Dr. Jasser is the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a think tank dedicated to protecting American national security against the global threat of Islamism. AIFD promotes reform-minded Muslim voices for liberty and is shaking the hold which Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood have upon Muslim leadership. Dr. Jasser is the author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith”. He is also founder of Take Back Islam and a co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement.
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