Friday, July 10, 2009

Khalid Yasin

Khalid Yasin (also known as 'Abu Muhammad' [1], 'Abu Muhammad Khalid Yasin' [2]) and 'Abu Muhammad, Khalid Yasin' [3], born in the 1950s [4] in Harlem, New York, raised in Brooklyn, is a teacher and lecturer of Islam.

Yasin lives and operates a "Da'wah" organization in Manchester, England. He founded, directed and ran the Islamic Broadcasting Corporation and The Purpose of Life Centre on Shirecliffe Lane, Sheffield (closed down around September 2008) which is accused of fraud.[5]. The organization was formerly known as the Islamic Teaching Institute (ITI) and the Islamic Information Network Ltd. The organisation has now re-located in Manchester.

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[edit] Fraud

In 2005 researchers for the Australian television program Sunday[5] found that Yasin had embellished his resume and engaged in a pattern of fraud with his companies.[6] One incident occurred in 2004, Yasin traveled from his UK residence to Australia, armed with elaborate promotional materials for his startup IBC venture. One brochure, complete with photos and architects' drawings, gave details of a proposed TV broadcast center in England's Coventry Technology Park. Depicting IBC as "a unique investment opportunity" that "will host up to 50 multimedia TV channels and five radio stations," Yasin held fundraisers ostensibly designed to help launch the company. At one 2004 event, some $90,000 was pledged in a single evening.[5]

[edit] Controversy

Khalid Yasin begun his ministry as the "Ameer" or leader of Jammat Ita'hadul Iqwa on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn N.Y. (often referred to as the McDonalds Mosque, due to its proximity to a McDonalds). He quickly rose to fame in the Brooklyn "Imam Network" of the late 1980's, and was featured in several magazines, one of which "Our Islam" on page 14, "Their View" article (pictures of Khalid in Ihram).

Upon his return from Hajj, he was given money (alongside several prominent Muslim clerics, such as Siraj Wahhaj) by the Saudi Arabian government, through its religious ministries Darul Ifta and Rabitat. This money was for the establishment of a proper Masjid (instead of the store front) and for Dawah. Yasin returned to Jammat Iqwa, overthrew the leadership of the Masjid, assumed control, and allegedly used the funds to purchase a home for himself in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn

[edit] Views on Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks

During the Sunday interview, Yasin expressed his opinion that Osama Bin Laden is actually a creation and questioned Al-Qa'ida's role in the September 11th, 2001 attacks

[edit] Statement on the AIDS Virus

Regarding the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), virus, Yasin stated that "An AIDS virus, that is a classic disease that was created in Fort McKinley, United States. Fort McKinley, the AIDS virus, 63,000 gallons. Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus... I don't say [that AIDS was created] by the US Government. I say there were at least five governments that acted in complicity."[7]

[edit] Sunday Nights With John Cleary

On September 7, 2003 Yasin appeared on Sunday Nights With John Cleary [1] being interviewed. Cleary stated that:

Right now we’re going to introduce you to someone who, well perhaps is giving a message that many people would be alarmed that is being put about. Sheik Khalid Yasin is visiting Australia at the moment speaking to Muslim groups in mosques around the country. And as this marks the beginning of the week of the anniversary of the dreadful events of September 11 and the destruction of the World Trade Center, this quite frank and some may find disturbing interview with Khalid Yasin is something that I think deserves to be heard. I spoke to Khalid Yasin on Friday. Let me give you an observation from a press release that the group who is sponsoring him brought out. This is what they say:" ‘Last month, a prominent Sydney Islamic Imam accused scholars from abroad of brainwashing young Muslims in Australia. Sheik Yasin’s response to such inferences was that “There is no established religious body in Australia that can cast aspersions on other Muslims. Let anybody come to my talks and they will see that there is absolutely nothing in them that incites others to do wrong.”’ Well on listening to this interview, you may decide otherwise. The controversial Imam spoke at Lakemba mosque on Thursday evening to a packed audience, and he pointed out that in the past ten years there have been more than 5,000 people convert to Islam through his institute and other bodies, and suggests that an additional 1,476 have converted since the September 11 attacks. That’s in the press release accompanying the visit of Sheik Khalid Yasin, our guest on Sunday Night." [8]

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