As-Sabiqun

Sabiqun, Arabic for “vanguard,” published a document called “Resolution of Philadelphia,” on July 4, 1995. The document declared Sabiqun’s “independence from man-made concepts,” and was created to challenge the United States Declaration of Independence. The “Resolution of Philadelphia” also stated its “purpose of reestablishing the system of governance known as Khilafah, or the Caliphate.” ¹

The founder of As-Sabiqun, Abdul Alim Musa, is also the leader of the Masjid Al Islam mosque in Washington, D.C. ¹ Musa is a senior member of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, which the left-of-center Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a “pro-Iranian and pro-Hezbollah organization that distributes anti-Semitic material through its online magazine Crescent.” ³ The United Kingdom’s Home Office banned Musa from entering the U.K. in October 2009 for “fomenting and glorifying terrorist violence,” and “seeking to provoke others to terrorist acts.” ^{4 5} Musa, during a rally in July 1999, produced a cashier’s check addressed to “Hamas, Palestine,” as a sign of protest against the United States law that designated Hamas a terrorist organization. ⁶

Musa has made conspiratorial claims, arguing that “the Zionists” were responsible for the first World Trade Center attack in 1993; asserting that the Colleyville, Texas synagogue hostage crisis, in which a gunman entered the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue and took three congregants and Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker hostage, was “arranged by the Zionists”; and claiming that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified because “the Nazi party is getting big there.” ^{7 8 9}

During a 2007 interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Musa stated that “Hezbollah is a great movement,” that “Hamas just means enthusiasm,” and that Hamas are “very nice people.” ¹⁰

Background

As-Sabiqun, also known simply as “Sabiqun,” is an antisemitic radical Islamist movement created in the early 1990s by Abdul Alim Musa, who leads the Masjid Al Islam mosque in Washington, D.C. ^{11 2 3}

Sabiqun, Arabic for “vanguard,” is organized primarily around two mosques: the Masjid Al Islam led by Musa in Washington, D.C. and the Masjid Al Islam mosque in Oakland, California. The organization plans to open schools “at each location where a branch of the movement is established.” The Masjid Al Islam School teaches children from pre-kindergarten to 8th grade. ¹

The organization’s centers in California and D.C. also operate the movement’s “Islamic Institute for Counter Zionist American Psychological Warfare,” which, according to a Sabiqun newsletter referenced in a report by the left-leaning Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), was established to “monitor Zionist and Israeli networks, circles, and clubs which deceitfully infiltrate Muslim and Black groups.” ¹

According to the ADL, Sabiqun published a document called “Resolution of Philadelphia,” on July 4, 1995. The document declared Sabiqun’s “independence from man-made concepts,” and was created to challenge the United States Declaration of Independence. The “Resolution of Philadelphia” also stated its “purpose of reestablishing the system of governance known as Khilafah, or the Caliphate.” ¹

Sabiqun claims, in a blog post released on August 17, 2012, that its mission “inside and outside of the U.S., is to struggle to neutralize the efforts of the top three enemies of our global Ummah, which together constitute the Triangle of Terror,” referring to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Sabiqun also calls for an Islamic revolution to replace the United States government, and advocates for “the establishment of Islam as a complete way of life in America.” ^{3 12 13}

The organization also claims that the United States will become “the Islamic State of North America,” by “no later than 2050.” The movement’s founder Abdul Alim Musa claimed at a gathering that “Islam went everywhere in the [ancient] world…so why can’t Islam take over America…We are on the right road.” ¹

Abdul Alim Musa

Early Life

The founder of As-Sabiqun, Abdul Alim Musa, is also the leader of the Masjid Al Islam mosque in Washington, D.C. ¹

Musa was born in Arkansas but grew up in Oakland, California, in the 1960s. Musa was a supporter of the Islamic community’s “revolutionary sentiment,” and was “an active and very successful drug-dealer[sic],” according to an archived Sabiqun website biography page. According to the archived biography, Musa was “forced to leave” the United States after “evading the authorities for several years.” ⁶

The archived Sabiqun biography states that Musa became “a leading cocaine-exporter [sic] in Colombia” while traveling around countries in Africa, Europe, and Central and South America. On his travels, Musa met “several exiled Black Panther leaders” in Algeria. The Black Panther Party, also known as the Black Panthers, was a communist Black militant organization founded in 1966 that allied with extremist New Left organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and communist regimes abroad. ^{6 14}

One of the leaders Musa met was Eldridge Cleaver, who returned to the United States in 1977 and was prosecuted for his role in the 1968 shootout with police in which fellow Panther Bobby Hutton was killed. Initially charged with attempted murder, Cleaver pleaded guilty to a lesser assault charge and was sentenced to 1,200 hours of community service. ^{6 15}

Musa is a senior member of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, which the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center described as a “pro-Iranian and pro-Hezbollah organization that distributes anti-Semitic material through its online magazine Crescent.” ³

The United Kingdom’s Home Office banned Musa from entering the U.K., in October 2009, for “fomenting and glorifying terrorist violence,” and “seeking to provoke others to terrorist acts.” ^{16 5}

Return to the United States

When Musa returned to the United States, he handed himself in to the authorities and was sent to prison, where he converted to “traditional Islam.” ⁶

After his release from prison, Musa continued to study Islam. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Musa announced his support for the Islamic Republic and its leader Ruhollah Khomeini. Musa has visited Iran several times since the early 1980s, representing American Muslims, and supporting the “Islamic revival.” ⁶

Musa’s methodology, and Sabiqun’s ideology, is inspired heavily by figures such as Malcolm X; Maulana Mawdudi, the founder of the Pakistani Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami; Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood; and Sayyid Qutb, whom the New York Times called “the intellectual hero of every one of the groups that eventually went into Al Qaeda,” likening him to Al Qaeda’s version of Karl Marx. ^{6 17 18 19 20}

Antisemitism

Musa, who has spoken at college campuses and Islamic events across America and around the world, has been accused of promoting antisemitism during his speeches and sermons, although Musa claimed that rhetoric was “directed at Zionist supporters of Israel and not at Jewish people in general.” ⁶

Musa, during a rally in July 1999, produced a cashier’s check addressed to “Hamas, Palestine,” as a sign of protest against the United States law that designated Hamas a terrorist organization. ⁶

Musa appeared at the National Press Club on October 31, 2001. During a program televised by C-Span, Musa disputed the official narrative of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and implied that the United States government was involved in them. ⁶

Musa spoke at an event on July 4, 2009, hosted by the Muslim Congress, a Shia community organization based in Houston, Texas. During the event, Musa handed out fliers that referred to the U.S. government as “Zionist occupied.” During his speech, Musa reportedly “accused U.S. leaders of fabricating a Muslim threat to national security so Americans could stop the global spread of Islam.” ^{1 21}

While delivering a sermon on November 18, 2016, while discussing the results of the general election, Musa claimed that “the Zionists” were responsible for the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, adding that “they set the Muslims up real good.” Musa added that “they created a ‘Hitlerian’ environment,” likening the situation in America to “the one that existed in Germany before World War II.” ⁷

Musa also claimed, in January 2017, that then-President Donald Trump was a dictator, compared Trump to Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler, and said that “we don’t want to make America like it was in the past,” as “America has never been great,” referencing then-President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan. ²²

During a sermon in late August 2021, Musa stated that the “main enemy of Islam were Zionists,” adding that Americans “were servants of Zionism” and that “America has been taken over by the Zionists.” ²³

Musa continued by accusing “the Zionists” of carrying out the August 2021 Kabul airport bombings which killed American military personnel and accused “Zionists” of having a “history of people standing on buildings, cheering while 9/11 goes off.” Musa concluded by claiming that “Zionists” controlled Congress, the Senate, the economy, and America as a whole. ²³

Another sermon by Musa, delivered in late December 2021, opened with an apology to the people of Iran, Yemen, the disputed Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq, and to Hezbollah, also spelled Hizballah, a Lebanese Islamist political party that the United States designated as a terrorist organization in October 1997. The apology was for “not speaking out on their behalf with open condemnation of the Zionist entity.” ^{24 25}

The sermon continued by calling for the normalization of “sacrifice” and “striking back,” adding that Sabiqun was “trying to stand up to boss-man,” which Musa later described as “the American system,” which he claimed is controlled by “the Zionists.” Musa also called upon Muslims to “help” because he knew Muslims didn’t want Sabiqun to “raise the funds, prepare all our jihad materials, and then go out and tussle with boss-man and the Zionists.” ²⁶

Musa delivered a sermon in late January 2022 in which he claimed that the Colleyville, Texas synagogue hostage crisis, in which a gunman entered the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue and took three congregants and Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker hostage, was “arranged by the Zionists.” ⁸

During the sermon, Musa also claimed that when people look back to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, they “have to look at the Zionists” as “Muslims didn’t have the ability” to perform the attacks. ⁸

During a sermon in late February 2022, Musa claimed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified because “the Nazi party is getting big there.” Musa also claimed that claims of the genocide of Muslims in China “isn’t true,” adding that “Taiwan belongs to China.” ⁹

During a 2007 interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Musa stated that Osama Bin Laden was “misconstrued,” that “Hezbollah is a great movement,” that “Hamas just means enthusiasm,” and that Hamas are “very nice people.” ¹⁰

Sabiqun’s website has a link to Musa’s MySpace account, which on his music page lists the song “Death to Zionism,” which was composed by Musa himself.  ^{12 27}