Muslim World League

Muslim World League
Abbreviation MWL
Formation 1962
Type Religious Charitable organization
Headquarters Makkah
Location
Region served
 Worldwide
President
 Abdallah At-Turki
Parent organization
 Muslim World League
Website Website

The Muslim World League (Rabita al-Alam al-Islami, Arabic: رابطه العالم الاسلامئ‎, Arabic pronunciation: [ro:bitˤah al ʕa:lami al isla:mij]) is Pan-Islamic[1] NGO based in Makkah, Saudi Arabia that propagates conservative Islamic teachings.[2][3] The NGO was funded by the Saudi government from its inception in 1962,[4] with that contribution growing to approximately $13 million by 1980.[2] Because of the Saudi funding, the League is widely regarded as promoting Wahhabism.[2] The Oxford Dictionary of Islam says that "the group has acted as a mouthpiece for the Saudi Arabian government, which finances it."[5][6]

Abdallah Ben Abdel Mohsen At-Turki is the General Secretary.[2] The organization propagates the religion of Islam, encouraging Dawah and conversion of non-Muslims,[2] and promotes apologetics against criticism of Islam. The organization funds the construction of mosques, financial reliefs for Muslims afflicted by natural disasters, the distribution of copies of the Quran, and political tracts on Muslim minority groups.[7] The League says that they reject all acts of violence and promote dialogue with the people of other cultures, within their understanding of Sharia, but they are no strangers to controversy, having been the subject of several ongoing counterterrorism investigations in the U.S. related to Hamas, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.[8]

The League founded the International Islamic Relief Organization in 1978.[9][10][11][12]

History

The Muslim World League was founded in accordance with a resolution adopted during the meeting of the General Islamic Conference, which was held in Mecca on the 14th of Dhul Hijjah 1381 Hijra, corresponding to the 18th May 1962.

Following a meeting of 22 Muslim religious leaders held in 1962, the Muslim World League saw the light under the auspices of then Crown prince Faisal.[1]

Objectives

Charter

We the members of the Muslim World League, representing it religiously, hereby undertake before God, Almighty to: · Discharge our obligation towards God, by conveying and proclaiming His Message all over the world. We also reaffirm our belief that there shall be no peace in the world without the application of the principles of Islam. · Invite all communities to vie with one another for the common good and happiness of mankind, establish social justice and a better human society. · Call upon God to bear witness that we do not intend to undermine, dominate or practice hegemony over anyone else. Hence, in order to further these goals, we intend to: · Unite the ranks of the Muslims, and remove all divisive forces from the midst of the Muslim communities around the world. · Remove obstacles in the way of establishing the Muslim world union. · Support all advocates of charitable deeds. · Utilize our spiritual as well as material and moral potentialities in furthering the aims of this charter. · Unify efforts in order to achieve these purposes in a positive and practical way. · Reject all the pretenses of ancient as well as contemporary Jahiliah (attitudes of the pre-Islamic era). · Always reaffirm the fact that Islam has no place for either regionalism or racism.

"Means of Furthering the Goals"

Calling on individuals, communities and state entities to abide by the rules of the Sharia (Islamic law). - Coordinating the activities of Islamic activists in the world. - Enhancing the methods of Islamic propagation in conformity with the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah. - Raising the standard and productivity of Muslims in the fields of media, education, Da’wah and culture. - Organizing seminars and refresher courses. - Taking advantage of the Hajj seasons to bring Muslim intellectuals together, and encourage the exchange of views among them. - Supervising the activities of the Fiqh Council. - Supporting efforts to promote and raise the standard of the Arabic language. - Establishing Islamic bureau and centers to further Islamic purposes. - Providing people affected by war and natural disasters with emergency relief. - Helping activate the role and the maintenance of Mosques.

Jurisdiction

Organization structure

The WSCM consists of forty (40) members representing Muslim peoples and communities around the world. Members function voluntarily, without salary or remuneration.

The Secretariat General

The Secretariat General of the Muslim World League is the executive wing of the organization. It supervises the day-to-day activities of the ‘League’, and implements the policies and resolutions adopted by the Constituent Council, under the direction of the Secretary General, the assistant secretaries and the general staff. The Secretariat's headquarters is located in Om Al-Jood, Saudi Arabia.

Actvities

The General Islamic Conference

The General Islamic Conference is the highest policy making body that expresses the feelings and aspirations of Muslim peoples around the world. It is the source of the League’s legitimacy and capacity as the spokesman of Muslims world-wide. The GIC consists of leading Islamic preachers and activists who meet annually to review major issues facing Islam and Muslims and to find appropriate solutions for the realization of Muslim interests and aspirations.

The GIC has met on several occasions so far as follows:

In 2015, Abdallah Ben Abdel Mohsen At-Turki spoke on behalf of the speakers at the conference and commenting on the violence caused by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, he said: "The terrorism that we face within the Muslim Ummah and our own homelands today … is religiously motivated. It has been founded on extremism, and the misconception of some distorted Sharia concept."[13]

The Constituent Council

The Constituent Council is the highest authority in the Muslim World League. The Council consists of about sixty (60) prominent Muslim scholars representing Muslim peoples and minorities. Members are appointed according to the decision of the Council. The Council endorses plans adopted by the Secretariat General. Membership: The prospective member of the Constituent Council must be active in the field of Islamic propagation.

Meetings

The Constituent Council meets periodically to review research works and issues submitted either by the Secretariat General or by three members of the Council and to adopt appropriate resolutions. The Council may also provide governments and communities with advice and counseling in the service of Islam. Members function voluntarily. They receive neither salaries nor remunerations.

The World Supreme Council for Mosques

The WSCM has an independent legal personality. It aims at reactivating the mission of the Mosque as a vital focal point of the religious as well as the temporal life of the Muslim. Ultimately, the WSCM aims at restoring the Mosque’s role to what it was during the early days of Islam. It also strives to protect Mosques and Islamic trusts against assault, and to maintain the sanctity and purity of the Mosque. The WSCM was founded in compliance with a resolution adopted by the “Message of the Mosque” conference, which was held in Holy Makkah during the month of Ramadan 1395 (September 1975) under the auspices of the Muslim World League.

Aid for Stranded Pakistanis

In 1988, the Muslim World League together with Al Falah and Heed International - came forward and established semi-pucca houses for the Biharis in Bangladesh.[14]

Publications

The Muslim World League publishes the monthly Journal of the Muslim World League in Arabic and English. It also publishes a weekly News of the Muslim World.[15]

International affiliations

Controversy

During the 1980s, the MWL’s Pakistan office was run by Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Khalifa also was a co-founder of Benevolence International Foundation, a front for al-Qaeda. Along with being Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law, he was also the financier of a 1995 foiled plot to detonate bombs on 11 U.S. bound airliners.[16]

In 1993, bin Laden identified MWL as one of the three Muslim charitable organizations that served as primary funding sources for al Qaeda.[17]

The MWL has two offices in the United States. The one in Virginia was raided in 2002 and 2005 and its then US director, Abdullah al-Noshen was arrested for immigration fraud. The assistant director of the Virginia office was arrested for lying on immigration documents that enabled al-Noshen to work in the United States.[18]

Maulana Saidur Rahman, the chief of terrorist organization Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) named, upon his arrest, the main financial sources for the group. Muslim World League was named among other major Saudi international charities.[19]

MWL founded the International Relief Organization (IRO) as the U.S. branch of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) in 1991. IRO was raided once in 1997 and again in 2002 as part of investigations into terrorist financing, as the organization operated front businesses used in laundering money for terrorist operations.[17]

IIRO has numerous ties to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Al-Qaeda leader Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri frequently traveled and worked globally on behalf of IIRO. Following the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa, the government of Kenya closed down IIRO’s chapter in Nairobi. After the Americans retaliated for the attacks, Indian police arrested members of a terrorist cell trying to plan attacks against U.S. consulates in Madras and Calcutta. The cell was led by Sayed Abu Nasir, who was an IIRO employee directed by Shaykh Ahmed al-Gamdin, IIRO’s director in Asia. Nasir also admitted to meeting bin Laden in Afghanistan at a training camp. During raids post-9/11, meeting minutes on IIRO and MWL letterhead were uncovered from meetings with bin Laden discussing setting up international league offices from which to plan attacks. [18]

Western intelligence services frequently traced IIRO money transfers to bank accounts in London and Amman, Jordan. The money was then funneled to groups in Gaza and the West Bank with ties to Hamas. In 2006, the US Treasury Department designated IIRO’s offices in the Philippines and Indonesia for “fundraising for al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups”.[17]

MWL has frequently been a platform for inflammatory, anti-Semitic speech and invited radical, controversial Muslim Brotherhood cleric, Yusef Qaradawi to speak at their first International Islamic Conference on Dialogue in Mecca in June 2008. During his speech at the conference, he made anti-Israel and anti-Semitic comments.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 Juan Eduardo Campo (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing. pp. 511–. ISBN 978-1-4381-2696-8.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Muslim World League and World Assembly of Muslim Youth". Pew Research Center. 15 Sep 2010.
  3. ↑ Golam W. Choudhury, James Piscatori, Saad S. Khan. "Organization of the Islamic Conference". The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. The movement for Pan-Islamic unity, however, was not without some results. Its tenacious adherence to the concept of a united world of Islam ultimately triumphed in the 1960 S, when new and more vigorous attempts to develop bonds among Muslim countries emerged. The Saudi crown prince, later King Fayṣal, led this new effort, motivated by his desire to contain Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser's Arab nationalism. He toured Pakistan, Iran, Jordan, Sudan, Turkey, Morocco, Guinea, Mali, and Tunisia advocating an Islamic ummah. In 1962 Saudi Arabia also established a philanthropic organization, the Muslim World League (Rābiṭat al-ʿĀlam al-Islāmī) to combat socialism and secularism.
  4. ↑ Islam in the World Today: A Handbook of Politics, Religion, Culture, and Society. Cornell University Press. pp. 745–. ISBN 0-8014-6489-7.
  5. ↑ http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1652
  6. ↑ "Islam in Japan: A Cause for Concern?" (PDF). National Bureau of Asian Research.
  7. ↑ Jacob M. Landau (24 July 2015). Pan-Islam: History and Politics. Routledge. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-317-39753-3.
  8. ↑ Levitt, Matthew. (2006). Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Chapter 1.
  9. ↑ John L. Esposito (2004). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 139–. ISBN 978-0-19-512559-7.
  10. ↑ http://www.ihc.ae/member_details.php?uname=international-islamic-relief-organisation
  11. ↑ "Egypt: The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and whether it is involved in funding terrorist activities". Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 28 Jan 2003.
  12. ↑ "International Islamic Relief Organization". Berkley Center.
  13. ↑ Delman, Edward (26 February 2015). "An Anti-ISIS Summit in Mecca". The Atlantic. The Atlantic. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  14. ↑ "Background information about the Rabita Trust". Stateless in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  15. ↑ Thomas Hegghammer (2010). "The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters" (PDF). International Security 35 (3): 83–85.
  16. ↑ http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=7347
  17. 1 2 3 Emerson, Steven. (2006). “Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US”. New York: Prometheus Books. Chapter 9.
  18. 1 2 Emerson, Steven. (2006). “Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US”. New York: Prometheus Books. Chapter 10.
  19. ↑ https://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/jihad-chief-discloses-islamic-charity-donors/
  20. ↑ http://archive.adl.org/main_terrorism/muslim_world_league_backgrounder.html#.Vo_QEvkrKUk
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