Charlotte Muslim Group Sits in Building Owned by Terrorist Group But Denies Terror Ties

The ISNA is an umbrella organization of Mosques and other Muslim groups in the United States. It was established by the Muslim Students Association with the help of one of' Palestinian Islamic Jihad's founding students, Sami Al-Arian. Around the same time, Al-Arian was involved in the creation (with future Hamas leader, Mousa Abu Marzook) of another organization, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was incorporated in the state of Illinois, in November of 1981.The ISNA and its financial wing, the NAIT has tried to project itself as a friendly "family-type" organization.

You may remember that the ISNA/NAIT were named as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding trial. In May 2007 the ACLU filed a lawsuit on their behalf to have them removed from the co-conspirator list. To respond to the law suit the Holy Land prosecutors have released all of the evidence of the ISNA/NAIT relationship with Muslim Brotherhood. And now the cat is officially out of the bag. According to the FBI Files released:

Within the organizational structure of NAIT, there have been numerous groups and individuals identified as being a part of a covert network of revolutionaries who have Ayatollah Khomeini and his government as well as other fanatical Islamic Shiite fundamentalist leaders in the Middle East. This faction of Muslims have declared war on the United States, Israel and any other country they deem as an enemy of Islam. The common bond between these various organizations is both religious and political with the underlying common goal being to further the holy war. 

Just to translate that from FBI-speak to normal English, the NAIT wants us to submit, convert or die.

In Charlotte NC Leaders of Islamic Center of Charlotte said they and other local Muslims were victims of "a campaign of fear and smear" that has sought to link them with terrorism. At issue is the fact that the deed to their Islamic center is held by terror-inked NAIT.

At issue is a charge first leveled at the end of the Feb. 26 town hall meeting by Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim physician and political ally of [Congresswoman Sue] Myrick's who heads the Arizona-based Islamic Forum for Democracy. At the town hall meeting - Myrick turned the microphone over to him - then again on Keith Larson's morning show on WBT, Jasser pointed out that the deed to the Islamic Center of Charlotte's property is held by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).

Jibril Hough, a spokesman for the mosque on Progress Lane, blamed the "baseless attacks" on Myrick's office and on WBT (1110-AM), which gave the claims wide airing.

...On Wednesday, Hough and Izzat Saymeh, who also spoke at the news conference, said NAIT holds the deed for their mosque - and for more than 300 others in the United States.

NAIT, founded in 1973, holds the deed "in order to protect the status of the property. ... (Mosques) are traditionally looked after by a trust," said Saymeh, the mosque's volunteer outreach coordinator. It also offers interest-free loans, in accordance with Islamic law, though the Charlotte mosque did not borrow from NAIT, said Saymeh.

According to Hough and Saymeh while the terrorists own the real estate, they do not exert political pressure on the local mosque.

"There's no real contact (with NAIT), except when we're getting ready to buy or sell a piece of property," Hough said. "(NAIT) doesn't send down a school of thought and they do not dictate."

Asked about NAIT's status as unindicted co-conspirator in the Dallas case, Saymeh said, "I highly doubt that they are (tied to terrorists). If they were, the government would have brought them to trial. ... Muslims have been experiencing, in the last nine or 10 years, guilt by association. They're guilty of being Muslim."

Funny though, when given the opportunity to deny the evidence of their terrorist the NAIT complained that the evidence was old but didn't deny its truthfulness. The bottom line is if Islamic Center of Charlotte was cared about guilt by association, they wouldn't operate on a building run by terrorist.