Khalid Yasin is one of the most notorious Islamic hate
sheikhs in the world today. He had been widely condemned from the US to Britain
to Australia for his virulent Wahhabist extremism, his intense anti-Americanism
(despite the fact that he is an American-born convert), his justification of
Islamic terrorism, his wild-eyed conspiracy theories, and his outright racial
and religious bigotry. And an Australian news investigation found that Yasin
had claimed academic degrees that the schools had no record or, and also
discovered that he had engaged in outright fraud in his building his international
Islamic media empire.
So it is troubling to see that Khalid Yasin will be lecturing at Sinclair
Community College in Dayton,
Ohio on May 16th, sponsored by Dayton’s
Masjid-at-Taqwa.
For example, consider some of his stated positions and
activities:
• Yasin says that the US
government was behind the 9/11 attacks.
• Yasin claims that AIDS was invented at a US government lab and spread by Western
governments through UN agencies and Christian missionaries.
• Yasin advocates for the death penalty for homosexuality.
• Yasin justified the terrorist bombings in Bali
because of years of Western oppression.
• Yasin says that the Quran permits wife-beating and that equal rights for
women is a “delusion” and “foolishness”.
• Yasin calls the beliefs of Christians and Jews “filth”.
• Yasin says that Muslims cannot have non-Muslim friends.
• Yasin rejects any separation between Islam and the state and openly advocates
for the reestablishment of the caliphate.
• Yasin visited Jemaah Islamiah terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir in prison.
• Yasin has lectured with Hizb-ut-Tahrir hatemonger Omar Bakri Mohammed,
who was banned from the UK
in 2006.
• Yasin was in Saudi Arabia on 9/11 soliciting the support of Al-Qaeda front
Al-Haramain Foundation, which was designated
a terrorist organization in 2004 by the US government, to help finance his
Islamic Broadcasting Company,.
It is difficult to overstate the hatred, bigotry, misogyny
and malicious conspiracy theories spewed by Khalid Yasin. So despicable is his
warped ideology that he had been made a pariah by the international media and
his views have been condemned by numerous government officials.
For instance, statements made on his DVDs were featured in
the UK Channel 4 "Undercover Mosque" program, which were found available
for sale in British mosques. Here's the relevant part of that program's
transcript where he brands the Christian and Jewish faiths “filth”, rejects any
equality for women, and blames the West for AIDS:
N: Regular interfaith meetings with
other religions take place at this mosque, yet in a DVD (‘Changing The World
Through The Da’wah’; IBC Ltd/Islam Productions) bought from its bookshop, a
British-based (African-American) convert called Sheikh Khalid Yasin (KY), who
studied Arabic in Saudi Arabia, condemns the teachings of other religions -
KY: “We don’t need to go to the Christians, or the Jews, debating with them
about the filth which they believe … We Muslims have been ordered to do
‘brainwashing’ because the kuffaar … they are doing ‘braindefiling’ … You are
watching the kaffir TVs, and your wife is watching right now, and your children
are watching it right now, and they are being polluted, and they are being
penetrated, and they are being infected, so that your children and you go out
as Muslims and come back to the house as kaffirs.”
N: In this DVD (entitled: ‘Some Advice To The Muslim Woman’; Islam
Productions), from the Mosque bookshop, he preaches against the equality of
women
KY: “This whole delusion about the equality of women is a bunch of foolishness,
there’s no such thing.”
N: In this DVD (entitled: ‘Jihad or Terrorism?’, Ahlus Sunna’wal Jama’ah), he
claims that AIDS is a Western and Christian plot -
KY: “No, missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups
went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever,
and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus, which is a conspiracy.” (his emphasis)
In an interview with Sarah
Ferguson of Australia's
Sunday entitled, "Khalid Yasin: The New Voice of Islam?", he describes
his conspiracy theories related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, denying the
existence of Al-Qaeda:
SARAH FERGUSON: And he's waded right into one of
the most divisive issues between the Muslim community and the Federal
Government — September 11.
SHEIK KHALID YASIN: There has been no evidence that has surfaced, no bona fide
irrevocable, irrefutable evidence that had been surfaced that showed that there
is a group called al-Qa'ida that did the September 11 bombings. I'm of the
opinion there was a rogue operation that took place. Now, to go beyond that
would say I would have to have some evidence, which I don't.
SARAH FERGUSON:
But he does go beyond it.
SHEIK KHALID YASIN: An operation that took place with the complicity of some
very sophisticated entities other than some Middle Eastern guys on an airplane.
or being orchestrated by someone in a cave in Iraq.
SARAH FERGUSON:
What do you mean by "sophisticated entities"?
SHEIK KHALID YASIN: Sophisticated entities means entities who themselves were
governmentally instructed, equipped, motivated. We now know that the way that
the World Trade Center
fell the way that those buildings fell — they fell from internal explosive
charges, the same way it's done in a construction site.
The Sunday program
also asked him about his conspiracy theories claiming that the US
government and Christian organizations are responsible for the creation and the
spread of AIDS:
SARAH FERGUSON: Conspiracy theories are Yasin's
bread and butter, and the wilder, the better.
SHEIK KHALID YASIN, DVD EXCERPT: An AIDS virus, that is a classic disease that
was created in Fort McKinley,
United States. Fort McKinley,
the AIDS virus, 63,000 gallons.
SARAH FERGUSON:
This one comes from his DVD called 'Jihad or Terrorism'.
SHEIK KHALID YASIN, DVD EXCERPT: Missionaries from the World Health
Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa
and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the
medicine the AIDS virus.
And in a July
2003 conversation on Australia's
Sunday Nights with John Cleary program, Khalid Yasin articulated his
vision of the reinstitution of sharia and the dismantling of the wall between
Islam and state:
John Cleary: Where does the Sharia
fit into that?
Khalid Yasin: Well the Sharia is the cement that keeps all the bricks together.
The Sharia is the legislative element. The Sharia is the judicial element. This
is where rules, this is where juristic decisions, this is where the courts,
this is where law. And I mean if you don’t have a people that is governed by
Sharia, then you have a lawless people.
John Cleary: Christianity once had a problem with that in the Middle Ages, and
so canon law developed, and church law was the law of the State. And then
alongside that civic law developed. And gradually over the years, they split
and then civil law became predominant over church law. Do you see that sort of
evolution taking place in Islam as well?
Khalid Yasin: No. As a matter of fact this dichotomy of church and State and
civil law and religious law, doesn’t exist in Islam. Because the source of law
has never been the human being. In Christianity the source of law, human beings
have always had something to do with the evolution of the law, but in Islam it
is not the case. The law is an inspiration from God, the Qu’ran is the word of
God alone. Even it is not the law of Mohamed. Mohamed was inspired by God, it
is his example of the law, his explanation of the law, his personal example of
the law. So in this sense civil law and religious law are congruous together.
John Cleary: Could you have a secular Islamic state, like Turkey is trying to be, over the
years?
Khalid Yasin: No, it doesn't work. These are experiments that have been tried,
but they haven't worked. Of course, you can have it, but you'll see that after
a certain amount of time it disintegrates, it cannot work.
John Cleary: So ultimately the Sharia should become the law of the land?
Khalid Yasin: Exactly. It has to be. I mean, who is the best lawgiver? Who is
the best legislator: the designer, the author, the creator or the human beings
who themselves are subjected to that law? It has to be.
When investigators for the Sunday
program looked into his academic background and his media company,
they found a pattern of rampant fraud and misrepresentations:
SARAH FERGUSON:
Yasin moved to the UK.
He made headquarters here in the northern city of Sheffield and began looking for new
investors. Armed with this glossy brochure on the UK
operation, Yasin came back to Australia
last year.
VOICE-OVER: Islamic Broadcasting Corporation — a unique investment opportunity.
It will host up to 50 multimedia TV channels and five radio stations.
potentially serving 1.2 billion viewers across the globe.
SARAH FERGUSON: The brochure's biggest selling
point is a TV broadcast centre in Coventry,
complete with photos and architects' drawings.
VOICE-OVER: We are currently relocating to our brand new purpose-built 8,000
square feet broadcast centre. It will be opened for business in September 2005.
SARAH FERGUSON:
By the time we'd discovered Yasin's brochure, Yasin had left the country on an
overseas trip. We put its claims to the new managing director of IBC Australia,
Walid Ali. IBC in the UK
claims it's building a massive ?2 million broadcast centre. And that broadcast
centre is under construction now. In fact it's supposed to be ready now. Have
you seen it?
WALID ALI, MANAGING DIRECTOR ISLAMIC BROADCASTING GROUP: I will be very honest
with you. I don't know a great deal about their operations but I do know that
that facility has not been built as yet. Obviously with any organisation, any
business venture that you take on, there will be unexpected delays. I'm sure
they're having some unexpected delays. The idea of a Muslim-owned TV station
was very attractive to Muslims here, and the brochure was crucial. Yasin used
it to convince them that the UK
operation was worth investing in. We've spoken to people who attended
fundraisers in Sydney
run by Yasin. At one event last year, $90,000 was pledged in a single evening.
We've also seen bank documents transferring almost $50,000 of that money to a
bank account in the UK
in the name of one of Yasin's companies.
The question is — what happened to that money? This is the real technology park
in Coventry and
there is no broadcast centre because the brochure is a work of fiction, indeed
fraud. Yasin's only connection with the Coventry
Technology Park
was a small office space rented out by his UK associate Channel Islam.
According to the company which leases space here, Channel Islam broke its lease
last year and is being pursued by debt collectors. None of these groups is
collaborating with Yasin. The sums don't add up and the drawings were lifted
from someone else's brochure.
MUHAMMAD ALI, ISLAM CHANNEL, UK: I don't think now after this long time of
promises that channel is going to start broadcasting tomorrow, after tomorrow,
next week, next month, next year I don't think there is much credibility left
for such promises.
*****
SARAH FERGUSON:
Where Yasin's accreditation lies is another mystery. He prepared this CV to
support an application to the Immigration Department. Neither institution has
any record of a Khalid Yasin graduating. While he was still in Australia,
we asked Yasin about his qualifications as a preacher.
SHEIK KHALID YASIN: I say to you that whatever qualifications I have they are
subjective. And I don't even care. And if there was a choice for Khalid Yasin I
would take any qualification, academic qualification I have and I throw it out
the window. And I tell you whatever other qualifications I have, whatever
convictions I have will stand on their own.
SARAH FERGUSON:
The issue is that he has claimed to have those qualifications. I've checked. He
doesn't. Does that concern you?
WALID ALI: Well, I guess it would concern me. I would really need to understand
why he would make those claims if they weren't true.
SARAH FERGUSON:
Sunday sent Yasin a series of questions about these discrepancies but we
haven't received a reply. No doubt his rhetoric of Muslim victimhood will apply
equally to him.
See also the August 2005 Sydney Morning Herald
article on Yasin, "Koranic TV next step for radical sheik", where he
reaffirms many of these extremist positions.
With such extensive media criticism, it is difficult to
believe that the officials for Masjid At-Taqwa are unaware of Yasin’s
statements and activities. But it is undeniable that considering their
sponsorship of his upcoming lectures in Dayton, Ohio, they are helping to nurture and spread Islamic
hatred and extremism in America’s
heartland.