Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him and seek His aid and His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own selves and from our evil deeds. Whomsoever is guided by Allah, there is none to misguide him. And whomsoever He misguides, there is none to guide him. And I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah, Who is alone, without any partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad ibn Abdullah is his slave/servant and His Messenger. To Proceed: Allah Most High has said: "And of mankind, there are some who say: 'We believe in Allah and the Last Day' while in fact, they believe not. They think to deceive Allah and those who believe, while they only deceive themselves, and perceive it not! In their hearts is a disease and Allah has increased their disease. A painful torment is theirs because they used to tell lies. And when it is said to them: 'Make not mischief in the earth,' they say: 'We are only peacemakers.' Indeed, they are the ones who make mischief, but they perceive it not." [Al-Baqarah, 2: 8-12] Imagine the late David Koresh creating an organization, placing himself as its head, and naming it the "United Supreme Christian Council of America." He would then hold a conference in a palatial, five-star hotel in a major city, inviting elected officials, intellectuals and international representatives from the Jehovah Witnesses, The Church of Scientology, The Mormons, The Rosicrucian Fellowship, the Unification Church, and then entitling the gathering, "The International Christian Unity Conference." Each speaker would mount the podium to praise Koresh's leadership and would stress the need for Christian unity as they enter the 21st Century. For maximum impact, this entire event would be broadcast worldwide on cable television, and made accessible live via the Internet. Obviously, the "Unity" theme would succeed in drawing numbers of curiosity seekers and supportive people to the conference. Yet in spite of the outward display, no Christian church, council, archbishop, individual or nation would formally acknowledge either Koresh or his "United Supreme Christian Council of America" or say that they represented the Christians or Christianity. In the end, the entire event would be none other than a cleverly orchestrated ruse, specifically geared to place an official stamp of legitimacy on a personality cult. Such is the scenario at the Naqshbandi sufi "International Islamic Unity Conference" in Washington DC. Hisham Kabbani, the creator and self-appointed leader of the "Islamic Supreme Council of America", has succeeded in deceiving the media and a number of non-Muslims into assuming that ISCA is a legitimate Islamic council. Both Kabbani and his leader, Nazim Al-Qubrusi, have rocketed to prominence largely on the merit of a circle of devoted followers, a number of whom possess computer skills and internet savvy, far surpassing the efforts of New Age cults like the Church of Scientology and Heaven's Gate. Yet the reality is far removed from Kabbani's theatrics. The seven ISCA organizations, and its three related sites, in spite of officially registered addresses (three of them shared by up to four ISCA organizations, in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles and the Mountain View, California area), all exist solely in cyberspace via a single Internet service provider named "Meer.net" (www.meer.net) located at P.O. Box 390804, Mountain View, California 94039. ISCA however, and its main branch, "As-Sunna Foundation of America" (ASFA) have always attempted to portray themselves as "several Islamic organizations of Muslims working for Islam." However, the ISCA organizational structure was officially launched on Sept 25, 1996 with "American Muslim Assistance" and continued up to March 20, 1998 with the launch of "Kamilat" (although ISCA did not officially issue a press release until June 27, 1998). Hisham Kabbani's "Islamic Supreme Council of America" (ISCA) officially consists of the following organizations (including commencement dates & web site addresses): * - [Sept. 26, 1996] American Muslim Assistance (www.amahelp.com) * - [Oct. 23, 1996] As-Sunnah Foundation Of America (www.sunnah.org) * - [Dec. 16, 1996] Naqshbandi.Org (www.naqshbandi.org) * - [Feb. 3, 1997] Haqqani Sufi Foundation (www.naqshbandi.net) * - [June 3, 1997] The Islamic Center of Beverly Hills (www.icbh.com) * - [Nov. 28, 1997] Muslim Magazine (www.muslimmag.org) * - [March 20, 1998] Kamilat (www.kamilat.org) In addition to the above listed organizations, there are three related ISCA sites, (along with commencement dates & web site addresses): * - [June 4, 1997] Dr. Mike Mirahmadi (www.mirahmadi.com) * - [July 22, 1997] High performance computers (www.computers-arcadia.com) * - [Feb 23, 1998] UnityOne (www.unityone.org) Meer.net, is ISCA's internet service provider (ISP) which supports all California-based ISCA sites and associates. A common rule is that any Internet web server domain or "hostmaster" which registers for a web site, is automatically assigned a site registration number. This registration number is then automatically attached to every web site originating from the ISP. The site registration numbers for every ISCA branch or associate, irrespective of their officially registered mailing addresses, are always the same: 140.174.164.2, 209.143.231.66 (for verification, check http://site.register.com, type in any of ISCA's web site addresses, and then simply follow the instructions). All sites are maintained by the following four ISCA members: Ahmad Salman: * As-Sunnah Foundation of America (www.sunnah.org) * Haqqani Sufi Foundation (www.naqshbandi.net) * Dr. Mike Mirahmadi (www.mirahmadi.com) * UnityOne (www.unityone.org) Nurjan Mirahmadi (brother of Kabbani lawyer, Hediah Mirahmadi): * The Islamic Center of Beverly Hills (www.icbh.com) * Kamilat (www.kamilat.org) * Naqshbandi.Org (www.naqshbandi.org) * Worldwide Ads (www.wads.com) Dilshad Fakhrouddin: * Muslim Magazine (www.muslimmag.org) Dr. Mike Mirahmadi (brother of Hediah and Nurjan): * American Muslim Assistance (www.amahelp.com) Since their inception, ISCA web sites have either mass marketed or tacitly linked themselves to a variety of heretical Sufi doctrines which run counter to the established precepts of Islam; such as worship of the dead, claiming divinity for Sufi spiritual leaders, claiming that all beings are a manifestation of Allah, etc. Kabbani's Sufi doctrines, unethical tactics (including threats of lawsuit) and deceptive internet methods, share a common bond with a smorgasbord of self-serving personality cults, such as the ill- fated Heaven's Gate or L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology. In the socio- political realm, ISCA is the Islamic equivalent of the Unification Church, in attempting a high-tech, craftily strategized, hostile takeover of Islam in America. Indeed, in many ways, they are the Qadianis of the 21st century. Yet ISCA is very quick to claim that they are not Sufis, nor a organization revolving around the personality of a man. For example, according to ISCA vice-chairman Mateen Siddiqui, in a letter posted on msa-net, dated Wed, 24 Jun 1998 03:04:36, it is incorrect for anyone to accuse ISCA of being "a Kabbani organization", or to say that the Unity conference is a "sufi" conference because according to Siddiqui, ISCA comprises "several Islamic organizations of Muslims working for Islam." However, in a letter also posted to msa-net, dated Wed, 13 Dec 1995 15:45:39, Siddiqui states, "I am member of a Sufi group of Traditional Muslims who believe in Islam as a way of Love and Peace and as such the MSA-Net Maintainer's have decided that any discussion related to Sufism or Sufi Islam are banned from the main MSA-Net. This has been their position recently and they have tried to prevent me and many other persons with Sufi inclinations to speak publicly about Sufism," (see http://www.msa-natl.org/msa- net/shstmt.html) Also, the alleged Sri Lanka "debate" between Naqshbandi Ismaeel dhul-Qarnayn and Abdur-Raheem Green of the UK, which never took place. Yet according to Naqshbandi web sites, this "debate" resulted in a resounding victory for the sufis. Moreover, ISCA has been caught more than once, engaging in internet shamanism and thuggery, such as the 1995-96 msa-net fiasco where several Kabbani followers, Mateen Siddiqui among them, established several false e-mail accounts and an imaginary "shura" and worked in tandem with other Naqshbandi followers to portray MSA-net as a group of "fundamentalists and extremists" and then worked to destroy Msa-net by shutting it down for three months (see http://www.msa-natl.org/msa-net/shstmt.html). Recently, Kabbani's ISCA attempted to publicly disassociate itself from its one of its branches, the Islamic Center of Beverly Hills (ICBH), after it was reported that ICBH distributed a booklet depicting the image of the Prophet (saaws), which it urged Muslims to display them in their homes "to earn the favor of Allah." ISCA, using its ASFA (asfa@world.std.com) account, issued a statement dated Wed, 29 Jul 1998 22:10:30 saying, "…The ICBH has NO affiliation with Shaykh Hisham Kabbani or any of his aforementioned affiliate organizations. We deny any association with the ICBH…" ISCA's denials however, backfired badly when official California state documentation verified both ICBH and Kabbani are inextricably linked. Indeed, ISCA's conference received public support from Omar S. Ashmawy, the chairman of the heretofore unknown "Islamic Student Steering Committee" which actively promoted the ISCA conference on the internet. On February 23, 1998, Ashmawy and Mossad agent and Islam basher Steven Emerson testified before the US senate on "Technology, Terrorism and Government Information" and "Foreign Terrorists in America." Interestingly enough, Emerson praised Ashmawy's presentation, and emphasized support for what Emerson termed "moderate Islam". These are terms which ISCA regularly brandishes against any critic and in its campaign against both MSA-net and last year against ISNA in Chicago, where Kabbani mounted the outdoor podium to scream about "Wahhabis" and "extremists" who he said controlled ISNA (and presumably were responsible for calling the police on him). In recent years, the onslaught against Islam has taken on a new dimension. Today, this onslaught takes the form of perverting Islamic ideas and beliefs. In his novel, "1984," the late George Orwell illustrated the dangers of perverted semantics in which the redefinition of common terms lead to slavery when it was allowed to pass unchallenged by a lethargic populace. In the same way, the Naqshbandi sufi cult has done this with impunity with respect to the terms "Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'at", "Salafi" and "innovation". They have succeeded via internet slight-of-hand and perverted semantics, to delude masses of people into assuming that sufism is the true path of Islam. This however, is all but the "tip of the iceberg", as in the next segment inshaAllah, we will explore Kabbani's practice of perverted semantics, fabrication of evidence, misquotation and deliberate lies in each and every one of his own books, as well as a full report on the Naqshabandi conference. There is nothing outside of Paradise except Hellfire, there is nothing outside of Truth but falsehood, and there is nothing outside of the Sunnah but bid'a. Wa salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barkatu Abu Umar