A Candian NGO is reporting that the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), a Pakistani Islamist organization closely tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood has been denied a visa to enter Canada to speak at a conference of the Islamic Society of North America. According to an earlier report from the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD):
The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) is calling on the federal government to review the application for a Canadian visa by Mr. Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who has been invited to speak in Canada this weekend. “Our research suggests that Qazi Hussain Ahmad is the name of a notorious Pakistani Islamist banned in 2007 from entering Egypt , and in 2004 from entering over 25 European countries for reasons of National Security,” said Alastair Gordon, President, CCD. “We have confirmed that a man by this name has been invited to speak at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) 34th annual convention endorsed by the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA Canada), and the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), and sponsored by Human Concern International (HCI).” Qazi Hussain Ahmad is the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a radical Islamist movement based in Pakistan . Should the invitee to the ISNA conference be the same Qazi Hussain Ahmad, it is troubling that he has been invited to visit Canada and address Muslim youth at a conference whose theme is “Our Youth, Our Future: Path to Paradise.” “If the government should confirm that this invitee is the same person who is denied entry to over 25 countries, then Mr. Ahmad must likewise be barred from entering Canada,” said Naresh Raghubeer, Executive Director, CCD. “Moreover, if Mr. Qazi Hussain Ahmad is the same person as the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, those organizations sponsoring his visit must explain to Canadians why they sought to expose Canadian Muslim youth to such a radical influence.”
Informed sources have said that the visa for Mr. Ahmad has since been denied.
The JEI was founded in 1941 and is Pakistan’s oldest religious party. The party had its origins in the thought of Maulana Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi (1903-79), the most important Islamist intellectual in the history of Southeast Asia. Maududi was also a major influence on the global Muslim Brotherhood with whom the JEI has long enjoyed close relations. In the United States, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is generally considered to represent the JEI. ICNA has a particularly close relationship with the Muslim American Society (MAS), part of the U.S. Brotherhood, and the two organizations have been holding joint conferences in recent years. In addition, many past and present leaders of ISNA have backgrounds that are strongly associated with JEI. One notable example is India-born Muzammil Siddiqi, a past ISNA president and leader of the Fiqh Council of North America.