New Brunswick Islamic Center

The New Brunswick Islamic Center (NBIC) was founded by Islamist cleric Zaid Shakir.[1] It received funding from Saudi King Fahd.[2]

Shakir preached in 1992 that the Muslim world needs a new Caliphate that will wage jihad and “use…weaponry against the enemies of Islam.”[3] He legitimizes attacks on U.S. soldiers, saying, “Islam doesn’t permit us to hijack airplanes filled with civilian people…[but] if you hijack an airplane filled with the 82^nd Airborne, that’s something else.”[4] He teaches that Hezbollah’s bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 was not a terrorist attack.[5]

Shakir says that attacks inside the U.S. are not permissible because Muslims have a “covenant of protection.”[6]  He promotes 9/11 conspiracy theories, saying the attacks “occurred under dubious circumstances that have yet to be thoroughly investigated.”[7] He accuses the U.S. of “demonizing” Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi and Hugo Chavez[8] and depicts Al-Qaeda, Hamas and terrorists in Iraq and Chechnya as fighters against imperialism.[9]

In 2003, he preached that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was part of a war against Islam and accused the U.S. government of persecuting Muslim-Americans. He said that Muslim-Americans should participate in jihad through institution-building, particularly in education and media.[10] He teaches that the U.S. is controlled by a “small oligarchy.”[11]

In 2006, it was reported that ”he said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law.”[12] He recommends that Muslims advocate for “the enforcement of anti-defamation statues” against what he considers anti-Muslim bigotry.[13]

In April 2012, he wrote a poem that depicted the U.S. as a warmongering country whose soldiers ravage Muslim countries and murder and rape innocent civilians.[14] In September 2012, Shakir expressed his condolences for the family of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was killed in a terrorist attack, but coupled it with condolences for the families of eight Afghan women who were “brutally murdered by NATO bombs in Afghanistan.”[15]

In December 2012, Shakir said the school shooting in Newton, Connecticut should “serve as a reminder” of what’s happening to children in Gaza, Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, comparing the massacre to U.S. and Israeli military operations.[16]

On July 7, 2012, the Islamic Society of North America held a seminar at NBIC that featured several Islamist speakers:[17] Muzammil Siddiqi taught about community engagement. In 2001, he expressed his hope that Sharia law, including its criminal law, would be implemented in the U.S. He has also preached in support of the elimination of Israel and supports the death penalty for homosexuals in Muslim countries.[18] On the topic of wife-beating, Siddiqi has preached, “in some cases, a husband may use some light disciplinary action in order to correct the moral infraction of his wife.”[19]

Another speaker was Saffet Catovic, who used to be the New York representative of Benevolence International, a “charity” shut down for its ties to Al-Qaeda. In 1992, Catovic spoke at an Islamic Association for Palestine conference (a Brotherhood entity) where he said the “long-range” goal is building a Caliphate. He also spoke at a military-themed “Jihad Camp” in 2001.[20]

Imam Qatanani of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, whose deportation is sought by the Department of Homeland Security for his Hamas links, also spoke. Qatanani taught about Sharia, as did Jamal Badawi, who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the terrorism-financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation, a charity that he fundraised for. In 2010, Badawi endorsed “combative jihad.” He has also justified suicide bombings and refers to Hamas terrorists as “martyrs.”[21]

Khalid Lamada was identified as the NBIC’s outreach director in 2004.[22] He is from Egypt and endorsed Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential candidate in Egypt, in 2012.[23] He has served as a board member of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge and co-chairman of the joint national convention of Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).[24] The MAS-ICNA conferences feature radical speakers, often including defenders of Hamas and activists linked to the Brotherhood. For example, the 2012 conference had at least a dozen Islamist speakers.[25]

He was also the outreach director for MAS in 2006.[26] He is now the Vice Chair of the board of directors of Islamic Relief USA.