Jihadist group linked charities running anti-India campaign in the US

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Christine Douglass-Williams

The Holy Land Foundation trial revealed the intricate network of stealth jihadists (including mainstream Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups) working with violent jihadists (Hamas) throughout North America. Links were even revealed between the Holy Land Foundation and al Qaeda.

Unindicted co-conspirators in this jihad financing case were exposed, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the Muslim Student Associations (MSA) in US and Canada, among others.

Foreign funding from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran also influences recruitment for jihad in Western mosques, demonstrating further the infiltration of the West by Islamic supremacist interests. The messages and propaganda from the highest and most sophisticated level of jihadist organizations is circulating throughout America and Canada.

Now it’s emerging, according to IANS, India’s largest independent news agency, that the jihad group Jamaat-e-Islaami ran a “ persistent anti-India campaign” in the U.S.,“ leading to Congress’ Kashmir Resolution.”

The revelations from IANS are alarming. ICNA is also implicated.

As per an IANS investigation, Islamic Circle of North America and its self-described “sister organization” Helping Hands for Relief and Development (HHRD) were at the forefront of running campaigns in the US against New Delhi after the government revoked special status of Jammu and Kashmir and brought the state at par with union territories of India, last year on August 5.

Documentary evidence accessed by IANS reveals that both ICNA and its sister organization HHRD are affiliated to Jamaat-e-Islami, the pan-Islamic fundamentalist organization which India banned last year after a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber killed over 40 paramilitary soldiers in a terror attack in February 2019.

And here’s where the influence of ICNA, CAIR, and Rashida Tlaib, among others, comes in:

In September, ICNA hosted a benefit dinner for its activists on Kashmir at the Islamic Center of Conejo Valley, to raise funds. A few days later, the organization along with CAIR and Indian American Muslim Council announced a protest rally in the last week of September……President of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan soon after urged “Muslim across the world to stand united” and “relieve Muslim Ummah of agonies” and asked ICNA and United States Coalition of Muslim Organizations to engage “lawmakers in encouraging hearings on Kashmir in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and initiate debates on Kashmir in the Congress.

The result of the sustained campaign against India was that not only did the US House Foreign Affairs Committee held at least two hearings on Kashmir, but Pramila Jayapal and Rashida Tlaib, introduced and unsuccessfully attempted to pass two resolutions against India over Kashmir in the US Congress”.

“Banned Islamist Group Jamaat-e-Islaami Ran Persistent Anti-India Campaign in U.S., Leading to Congress’ Kashmir Resolution,” IANS, March 31, 2020:

Two Islamic charities, linked to the banned Islamist outfit Jamaat-e-Islami, ran a persistent disinformation campaign against India leading to hearings and resolutions on Kashmir in the US Congress last year.

As per an IANS investigation, Islamic Circle of North America and its self-described “sister organization” Helping Hands for Relief and Development (HHRD) were at the forefront of running campaigns in the US against New Delhi after the government revoked special status of Jammu and Kashmir and brought the state at par with union territories of India, last year on August 5.

Documentary evidence accessed by IANS reveals that both ICNA and its sister organization HHRD are affiliated to Jamaat-e-Islami, the pan-Islamic fundamentalist organization which India banned last year after a Jaish-e-Mohammad suicide bomber killed over 40 paramilitary soldiers in a terror attack in February 2019.

The Jamaat was proscribed for five years under anti-terror law on the grounds that it was in cahoots with terror outfits in Kashmir to strengthen the Pakistan-sponsored violent separatist militancy in the valley.

After Article 370 (which granted special status to J&K) was nullified, the US-based ICNA and HHRD along with other Islamic groups ran ”Stand With Kashmir” a red dot logo campaign, using the same handle on Twitter. Under the banner ”Stand With Kashmir”, they together led a protest in front of the consulate General of India in New York four days and a similar protest in Los Angeles.

Two more protest rallies were held in August last year, one in Sacramento, California and another one outside the Indian embassy in Washington. Both were sponsored by the ICNA among others like Pakistan American Association of Sacramento, Pakistan American Sports and Cultural Organisation, Turkish American National Steering Committee and Islamic Society.

ICNA also published ”Kashmiri Crisis: A Complete Guide,” handouts and a sample of Congressional letter in its campaign in alignment with Pakistan’s position on Kashmir.

In September, ICNA hosted a benefit dinner for its activists on Kashmir at the Islamic Center of Conejo Valley, to raise funds. A few days later, the organization along with CAIR and Indian American Muslim Council announced a protest rally in the last week of September.

As per media reports, President of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan soon after urged “Muslim across the world to stand united” and “relieve Muslim Ummah of agonies” and asked ICNA and United States Coalition of Muslim Organizations to engage “lawmakers in encouraging hearings on Kashmir in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and initiate debates on Kashmir in the Congress.”

Apart from organizing another fund-raising dinner for Kashmir, the twin organizations in November, helped install a billboard on Kashmir in Michigan and asked Muslims across the US to send a letter to Congress Representative Eliot Engel in support of a resolution sponsored by Pramila Jayapal on Kashmir.

The result of the sustained campaign against India was that not only did the US House Foreign Affairs Committee held at least two hearings on Kashmir, but Pramila Jayapal and Rashida Tlaib, introduced and unsuccessfully attempted to pass two resolutions against India over Kashmir in the US Congress.

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