The Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) is an advocacy group for Muslims that claims to promote the Islamic faith in North America, particularly in the United States, through interfaith dialogue and community outreach. ¹ MUNA has been accused of being a proxy group for a Bangladeshi branch of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), a violent South Asian Islamist movement and political party founded in India by the Islamist theorist Abul Ala Maududi. MUNA has become an influential, Palestinian nationalist group within the United States and has ties to several radical Islamists from South Asia. ^{2 3 4}

Background and Ideology

Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) was founded in 1990 in Brooklyn, New York. ¹ Critics of Islamism allege that the group has maintained a proximity to Jamaat-e-Islami religious scholars and political revolutionaries. ⁴ Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami and prominent South Asian Islamic theologian, argued that jihad is the central aim of the Muslim faith. He has been quoting saying that Islam’s “objective […] is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system, and establish in its place an Islamic system of state rule.” Maududi said jihad is a “universal revolution,” seeking to establish theocracy over all the world. ⁵

Jamaat-e-Islami played a key role in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, in which Islamist forces supported Pakistan (which ruled Bangladesh at the time) against Bangladeshi independence fighters in an attempt to achieve a unified Islamic state between Pakistan and Bangladesh. ³ The Muslim Ummah of North America maintained a connection with several Jamaat-e-Islami leaders who were eventually convicted war criminals for the part they played in the Bangladesh Independence War. ⁴

In 2005, the organization joined other Muslim groups in issuing a fatwa against terrorism. The fatwa was officially issued by the Fiqh Council of North America and supported by dozens of outside organizations. It specifically condemned suicide bombings, assaults on civilians, and assistance for those who commit either act. ⁶

Initiatives

The Muslim Ummah of North America has several initiatives, including regular prayer time, educational programming for children and adults, community outreach efforts, and other family services. ^{7 8} Its youth program has a location in Buffalo, New York. ⁹

One of MUNA’s most well-known initiatives is its annual MUNA Convention that it hosts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ¹⁰ This convention brings together Muslim leaders from various organizations, including the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Fiqh Council of North America, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the Muslim American Society (MAS). ¹¹ Several of these groups have alleged ties to Islamist extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Jamaat-e-Islami, or have records of radical rhetoric. ^{12 13 14 15}

The MUNA Convention regularly brings significant figures in U.S. Muslim circles to speak on various matters. The 2024 convention’s speakers included Shaun King, a radical-left activist who helped promote the Black Lives Matter movement. ¹⁶ King has been associated with Harvard University, the media outlet The Intercept, and many other organizations, some of which he founded or co-founded. ¹⁷

Two presidents of the Islamic Circle of North America spoke at the 2024 MUNA conference. ¹⁶ The Islamic Circle has been accused of maintaining ties with the international Muslim militant movement Jamaat-e-Islami. ¹⁸ In 2009, the Circle was one of ten prominent Muslim groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Alliance in North America to sign a statement threatening to suspend cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.(FBI). The groups accused federal agents of infiltrating mosques and conducting overly invasive investigations of potential extremism within Muslim populations across the United States. ¹⁹ In 2011, the ICNA joined several dozen other Muslim groups in signing a letter to the Obama administration which demanded that the federal government remove any information which may be critical of Islam from its counter-terrorism training materials. ²⁰

In 2019, Fareed Khan, a fundraiser for the ICNA, was prosecuted after an FBI investigation found that he was receiving large sums of money from Pakistan in exchange for sending repackaged medical equipment. Khan was found guilty of lying to federal authorities, as he denied his affiliation with the ICNA and attempted to conceal the shipments to Pakistan. ²¹

Connections to Radicalism

The Muslim Ummah of North America has a history of working with and supporting radical Islamist leaders who have been convicted of serious crimes. In 2010, MUNA organized a picnic with Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Jamaat-e-Islami’s assistant secretary general, as the guest of honor. In 2013, a Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death for his role in the murder and torture of unarmed civilians, including the massacre of 120 unarmed farmers, during the Bangladesh Independence War; there is dispute as to whether the trial was conducted fairly. ⁴ Kamaruzzaman was hanged for his crimes in 2015. ²²

MUNA’s national vice president, Abul Faizullah, praised Abdul Qader Mollah, another senior Jamaat-e-Islami official. Mollah was also sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, which included assisting Pakistani troops with the murder of 369 people. ^{4 23}

MUNA’s annual convention has also been an occasion for Islamist extremists to preach anti-Western rhetoric. In 2019, MUNA convention speakers called for the application of Sharia in the United States, and in 2023, two MUNA attendees criticized Asad Noor, a Bangladeshi human rights activist who has been targeted with death threats by Islamists in England and France for speaking out against MUNA, JI, and Islamist extremism in South Asia. ^{24 25} Also at the 2023 MUNA convention, Mohsin Ansari, president of the Islamic Circle of North America, praised and mourned the life of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, the former vice-president of Jamaat-e-Islami who was convicted of genocide, rape, and arson committed during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971. ²⁶

In June 2023, the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, including founding member MUNA, offered its support for controversial Islamist Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ²⁷ Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack against the State of Israel, the group claimed Israeli’s response and the resulting Israel-Hamas war in Gaza was an “unprovoked” attack on Palestinians. ²⁸

The Muslim Ummah of North America has also supported radical pro-Palestinian groups and events, including the “March on Washington for Gaza” in January 2024, which was organized by several pro-Hamas and pro-Houthi entities. ²

Leadership

Harun O. Rashid became the national president of Muslim Ummah of North America in 2020 for the 2021-2022 session and was re-elected as the national president for the 2023-2024 session. Prior to that, Rashid was the national executive director of MUNA and president of the New York chapter of MUNA. Previously, Harun Rashid also was president of the Parkchester Islamic Center. He is a widely known speaker on Islamic religious topics. ¹¹

Abul Basher Faizullah is the national vice president of the Muslim Ummah of North America. ²⁹ He has expressed support for Jamaat-e-Islami militants and terrorists, including Abdul Kader Mullah, who was sentenced to death in Bangladesh for war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence. ^{4 23}

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