Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 03-09-2010 Regular — reading text

Moreover, DeLorenzo' s spiritual guru in Binori Town was the Mufti of Pakistan, Wali Hassan, a classic Deobandi Shariah authority who predictably considers Shia Muslims to be infidels and issued fatwas to that effect. Sheikh DeLorenzo is further reported to have worked between 1981 and 1984 as an advisor to the Pakistani President Zia ul -Haq on Islamic educa- tion. Zia was the military dictator and zealous Islamist who Islamized Pakistan from the top down, beginning in the late 1970s, and put into place the network jihadi madrassas that eventually produced the Taliban. It would appear that DeLorenzo may have assisted Zia in this process. Most of the Islamic organizations with which DeLorenzo has been closely associated since his return to the United States have also proven Islamist credentials. The Fiqh Council of North America ( FCNA), a fatwa- issuing organization in which DeLorenzo served as Secretary, for example, is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood -affiliated Muslim Student Association ( MSA) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Several of its key officials have been implicated and at least one has been jailed for terrorism -supporting activities. One of its founders, Taha Jaber AI- Alwani, was declared an unin- dicted co-conspirator in the Sami al -Arian trial for reportedly funding the ter- rorist Palestinian Islamic Jihad ( PIJ). A FCNA trustee, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, is currently serving a 23 -year sentence for terrorism -related activi- ties. After his sentencing, Alamoudi was found to have also provided large- 34 Shariah, Law and `Financial Jihad': How Should America Respond? scale financing to al Qaeda. Another individual identified by the U. S. Department of Justice as an unindicted co- conspirator in a terrorism trial is Muzamil Siddiqui, a FCNA president for a number of years. In addition, the International Institute of Islamic Thought ( IIIT) of which DeLorenzo was a board member, has provided funds to convicted Islamist Sami al -Arian and to the designated terrorist entity Al- Haramayn. IIIT has also been tied to the notorious terrorism -enabler and apologist for suicide - bombers, Yusuf AI- Qaradawi, and the Muslim Brotherhood. As director at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences GSISS), DeLorenzo has also been involved with two of the aforementioned Shariah advocates, Taha Jaber al- Alwani and Abdurrahman Alamoudi. Incredibly, they worked together on a program run by GSISS to train and certify Muslim chaplains for the U.S. armed forces. In fact, the GSISS and another Alamoudi operation, the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council were the only two Islamic educational institutions approved by the Department of Defense to provide this service to the United States government. In the course of a 2003 Senate hearing examining these arrangements for securing Muslim chaplains for the military, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona observed as follows: " it is remarkable that people who have known connec- tions to terrorism are the only people to approve these chaplains." The GSISS was raided by U. S. law enforcement agents in March of 2002 as part of Operation Green Quest as part of an investigation into terrorism financing Islamic networks in America. Finally, DeLorenzo has also served as Director of Education at the Saudi Islamic Academy in Fairfax, Virginia, an organization funded by the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. So egregious has been this school' s propaga- tion of the Shariah- adherent and virulently intolerant Wahhabi creed that the congressionally mandated U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom called on the Department of State in October 2007 to shut it down. On Islamic Finance As noted above, DeLorenzo' s statements in English appear calculated to obscure, rather than reflect, his actual views. They certainly seem intended to allay concerns about the SCF industry in which he plays a large role, rather than provide transparency about its true character and purposes. DeLorenzo on benefits of SCF for Shariah more generally. ' Adapting Islam to modern finance" could influence other areas of Shariah which has " essentially been in a coma for several centuries ... and desperately needs reviving." Interestingly, this formulation belies the real dynamic at work in Shariah- 35 The Shariah Advisors compliant finance: Under the influence of Shariah advisors like DeLorenzo, modern finance is forced to adapt to Islam, not the other way around.) DeLorenzo on Shariah investment in Israeli companies: In answering a question from a Dow Jones University student of Islamic investment on whether Israeli companies, or those that invest in Israel, should be excluded by Shariah screens like companies that deal with alcohol, pork, etc., DeLorenzo responds that there is no " Shariah dialogue involving investment prohibition" in such companies and reiterates that for the Dow Jones Islamic Index, considerations related to politics, culture, history, etc., are not rele- vant. And then he adds this: Having said all of this, though, it is important to note the difference between an index and a fund. The purpose of an index is to measure the market and provide a performance benchmark. A fund, however, is a dif- ferent matter because it invests the money of Muslims and puts it to use. Funds have the ability to embargo companies, by screening them out of their portfolios, or to engage them, by investing in those companies and then using corporate democracy to leverage their point of view." DeLorenzo on avoiding the use of the term Shariah in SCF-related busi- ness: " In order to be more readily understandable to regulators in Muslim - minority countries, such as the U.S. and Europe, there is nothing wrong in using another term, like Ethical Advisory Board." DeLorenzo on the benign role of Shariah advisors: " It is of primary impor- tance to understand Shariah supervision as consumer advocacy." And by assuming responsibility for the Shariah compliance..., the Shariah supervisor places himself in a position of directly representing the religious interests of the investor." The problem with this remark, of course, is that it contradicts what Shariah authorities and even non -Muslim Shariah scholars have said repeatedly. DeLorenzo on Islamic finance as a modernizing force in Islam: " Islamic finance is a modernist movement in Islamic communities. It has no political agenda — it' s about a new Islamic identity for moderate Muslims and an attempt to bring Muslims out of the mosque and into the market [ as] they interact and trade with people." The problem with this remark, of course, is that it contradicts what Shariah authorities and even non -Muslim Shariah scholars have said repeatedly. Interestingly, DeLorenzo has been assailed for his public comments about Shariah -compliant hedge funds as " a thinly -veiled advertisement piece for the `Islamic hedge fund' that retains his services" by Rice University profes- sor of Islamic finance, Mahmoud EI- Gamal. EI -Gamal went on to denounce DeLorenzo' s conduct as " a case of willful fraudulent advertisement to 36 Shariah, Law and `Financial Jihad': How Should America Respond? unsophisticated investors, something that would not be tolerated in the developed world." Publications Sheikh Talal DeLorenzo is the author of A Compendium of Legal Opinions on the Operations of Islamic Banks, a collection of fatwas and legal rulings on Islamic finance that is considered an authoritative reference work on the subject. He also wrote the introduction to Islamic Bonds. His articles have appeared in journals and newsletters and as chapters in books, including Euromoney Magazine' s Islamic Asset Management, Islamic Retail Finance and Islamic Finance: Innovation & Growth. He is the author of entries on the terminology of Islamic Finance in the Oxford Dictionary of Islam. DeLorenzo is also a well -known translator from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu with some twenty translated books to his credit. Bassam Osman Bassam Osman has held leadership positions in Shariah -based Islamist networks that have either been closed down as terror financing - institutions or listed as unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism -funding trials. He is also a key figure in the American Shariah -compliant finance industry in his capacity as an executive in the Dow Jones Islamic Fund and affiliated enti- ties. Background Osman was born November 14, 1950 in Syria. Bassam Osman is a physi- cian. He lives and practices neurology in Hinsdale, Illinois. His brother is Dr. Ayman Osman, a physician in Florida who is also active in the Islamic networks as a board member of the Islamic Academy of Florida. Education Osman received his M. D. from Damascus University in 1973, and a Diploma in Neurology, University of Illinois, 1980. His professional life is not Islamic but in fact is entirely focused on his successful medical affiliations as: Neurologist —Chief of Neurology at Mercy Hospital in Illinois Neurologist— Forest Medical Center in Justice, Illinois Professor —University of Illinois School of Medicine 37 The Shariah Advisors Professor —Cook County Graduate Medical School Resident -- University of Illinois Hospital and Clinic He also is not just affiliated with, but leads major Islamist Organizations: President - -The Islamic Academy of Florida Chairman - - North American Islamic Trust ( NAIT) Board Member —Islamic Society of North America ( ISNA) President, Portfolio Manager and Chairman —Board of Allied Asset Advisors ( AAA) Former Director —Quranic Literacy Institute Council Representative —Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago ( CIOGC) Osman is President of the linked groups associated with the Dow Jones Islamic Fund in his affiliations with Shariah Finance Banks and Institutions: President —Al- Sanabel International for Islamic Financial Investment Sana Financial) President —Dow Jones Islamic Index Fund ( IMANX) President - -Iman Fund ( new name of IMANX as of March 21, 2008) Registered Agent and President —Allied Asset Advisors Funds ( invest- ment advisor to IMANX) Chairman —Amana Mutual Funds Trust. Ideology and Views Unlike many of his colleagues in the Islamist movement in America and the Shariah -compliant finance community, Bassam Osman seldom speaks out publicly and in English on controversial issues. Nonetheless, his numerous high -level positions and long -term associations with Islamist organizations and individuals leave little doubt as to his key role in pursu- ing Shariah' s Islamist agenda. Osman lacks a degree in religious studies. Therefore, his prominence and standing as a Shariah advisor largely derives from his long -time leadership of the North American Islamic Trust ( NAIT). Founded in 1973, NAIT was one of the first organizations spun -off from the progenitor of all Islamist institu- tions in the United States, the Muslim Student Association ( MSA), which, in turn, was founded by Muslim Brotherhood activists in 1963. NAIT' s impor- tance stems from its function as a religious foundation ( waqf) that both finances and holds the title to a large number of American mosques, Islamic cultural centers and similar institutions. This arrangement allows NAIT to have an unprecedented degree of con- trol over such mosques so as to " ensure conformity to the Islamic purposes 38 Shariah, Law and ` Financial Jihad': How Should America Respond? for which their founders established them," a control that is often directly enshrined in their bylaws. Information on the