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ICNA Embraces America's Favorite Salafi Preacher THURSDAY, 02 AUGUST 2012 05:17 RIGHT SIDE NEWS 

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Yasir Qadhi billed by the New York Times as "one of the most influential conservative clerics in American

Islam," recently told one of the nation's largest Islamic conferences that the Quran "destroys" American

capitalism.

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"Who amongst us would have predicted five years ago that this

nation would despise and hate the very [economic] system that they used to claim was the reason for their

success?" he asked hundreds at a session of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)'snational

conference in late May. "Now the system has been destroyed and demolished. Now 99 percent of America is

saying Occupy Wall Street."

"This is a Pharonic society that we enjoy the pyramids, but you cannot enjoy pyramids without millions of

slaves. And this is what this society has become," Qadhi said, repeating a classic Muslim metaphor for a

society filled with corruption. Although his speech was intended to introduce a  Somali charity worker, Qadhi

used his time to call for converting America and radically altering its culture.

Qadhi's invitation to speak at the ICNA conference is puzzling, given the group's campaign to cast itself as a

moderate religious group whose values are fully compatible with life in America, and given Qadhi's record of

espousing a diametrically opposed viewpoint. The convention's theme, "Defending Religious Freedom,

Understanding Shariah," mirrors a national public relations campaign ICNA is waging.

Qadhi didn't limit his comments to attacking America's economic system. He argued that had the Muslims

engaged OWS protesters, they might have taken control of the movement and made huge gains in converts.

"Brothers and sisters, where were we at the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement to simply tell them,

'Oh fellow Americans, our lord has told us in the Quran that this system is not a good system, that this

system will collapse?" he said. "This Ayah [Quranic verse] is the strongest Ayah criticizing the capitalist

system as it exists in America. In five words, Allah demolishes this version of capitalism." His calls were

greeted with shouts of "Allahu Akbar" and excitement by the crowd.

As the dean of academic affairs for the United States' largest Muslim academic institution, Memphis-

basedAlMaghrib Institute, Qadhi's words reach more impressionable minds than most other Americanclerics. AlMaghrib partners with mosques, student organizations, and larger organizations nationwide to

provide a conservative education for young Muslims. With this powerful influence, the preacher sets the

standard for America's young Muslims, particularly on controversial issues like gender roles and

Muslim/non-Muslim relations.

While the Times described Qadhi as "uniquely deft at balancing the edicts of orthodox Islam with the mores

of contemporary America" and as someone who only used to "spout a harder line," several of his recent

statements show that the charismatic preacher hasn't changed from his hardline Salafi roots.

In a video posted to YouTube last November, Qadhi advocated Saudi Arabian-style restrictions on Muslim

women in the United States to protect them from Western "wolves and predators."

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"Well the question arises, would I recommend a job for any [Muslim] sister and the answer is in general, in

general no," Qadhi said.

"No one has liberated you from the wolves that are men more than Allah and the Sharia [law] of Allah. So if

you stick to the Sharia, you will keep your honor and dignity and liberty," he said. "And if you go beyond the

Sharia this is where the wolves and the predators will come and try to get you."

The average Muslim woman doesn't need to leave the home, Qadhi said. That kind of theology resembles

Saudi Arabia, where women cannot drive and require a male guardian's approval to engage in many day-to-

day activities. Qadhi received his undergraduate education from the nation's conservative Islamic University

of Medinah.

To Qadhi, working women destroy families. The rise of "women's liberation" in the 1920s started the

undermining of traditional values, which had been strong "even in kaffir [disbeliever] societies," he said. The

problem arises when, "women are trying to encroach on men's roles and vice versa. If each one did their job

properly then there is no point of competition."

His only exceptions to this rule are those jobs that deal with other females, like teachers at girls' schools and

gynecologists. These positions are permissible because they stop men and women from interacting.

However, even those jobs are permitted only "if her husband allows her; or if she is not married and herfather wishes her to, allows her to work; she may work as long the environment is permissible; and she is

doing something which she needs to do; and she's not interacting with men."

"Allah has told you that this is your best role [as mothers and wives], that this is what you are most capable

of doing. He has protected you from the wolves of society, stay at your house, your food and drink will come

to you," he said in the YouTube video. "What more do you want?"

Professional fields are out of the question. "I don't see the need for women in many other fields," Qadhi said.

"There are only a few fields, like for example in engineering, as I said, I don't see the need. We have men,

they're doing the job. We don't need women in this field where they're going to interact with men. What's the

point?"

God's Law Trumps Man's LawQadhi claims that he isn't promoting chauvinism; we're just predisposed to think of such sentiments that

way because of the influence of Western culture. It's the weakness and dastardliness of men that is the

danger, he says, so women shouldn't feel negative about staying at home and taking subservient roles.

Qadhi has also called for Islamic theocracy to replace democracy, and expressed blind hatred against non-

Muslims.

"Here in these verses [of the Quran], Surat Maida, verses 49-50, Allah categorizes all types of laws into two

categories, the law of Allah and the laws from others. And he calls the laws of Allah a fair and just law, and

he calls all others Jahiliya, ignorant laws," he  said in another speech. "It is not my right to legislate or your

right to legislate. No supreme court, no system of government, no democracy where they vote. Can you

believe it, a group of people coming together and voting, and the majority vote will then be the law of the

land. What gives you the right to prohibit something or allow something?"

"To believe that it is permissible to follow a way of life, to follow a system of laws other than the Sharia,negates one's testimony of Islam," he said in another speech. 

"This type of thinking is clear kufr, clear disbelief, to believe that you know better, or any system of

government knows better, any democracy, or any … whether it be communism or socialism, any type of 

philosophy is better than Islam, or it is allowed legitimately, it is allowed to follow this system, this is a

profession of the fact that you believe that Allah is not All-Knowledgeable," he said.

These quotes, part of the series "Fundamentals of Faith," were broadcast on thepopular British Muslim TV

'Islam Channel' and other English-language Islamic channels.

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In other speeches, he described an eternal conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims. "And this is the

Sunnah [Practice] of Allah that the Kafir [disbeliever] will always hate the Muslim - the Jews and the

Christians and the Hindus and every single non-Muslim," he said in an undated sermon. "He might allow

every other religious minority or any other religion inside of his society and culture, but when it comes to

Islam, because it is the religion of truth, he will find it inside of him to hate it. You cannot just be neutral

when it comes to Islam; you are either a Muslim or you are a Kaffir that hates Islam."

We've written at length about ICNA's extreme theology, as evidenced by the  curriculum it requires its

members to follow. In 2009, the group assured Americans that "[e]xtremism has no place in Islam, and ICNA

works tirelessly to oppose extremist and violent ideology."

Officials forgot about that statement when they invited Qadhi to speak about the demise of capitalism.