The website of the IQRA International Educational Foundation, a Chicago-based organization tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood, has announced its 25 anniversary celebration dinner. According to the announcement :
IQRA’ International Educational Foundation invites you to celebrate its 25th anniversary this year on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. at Monty’s Elegant Banquets in Bensenville, Illinois…The event will include a dinner with entertainment and will provide an opportunity for all involved to converse and network with leading civic and educational activists in the country. One of America’s most valued Islamic scholars, Imam Zaid Shakir, will present the keynote address focusing on the challenges to Islamic education in pluralistic societies. IQRA’ will also honor three American Muslim scholars – Shaykh Abdullah Idris Ali, Dr. Ahmad Sakr and Dr. Seema Imam – with lifetime achievement awards.
The Iqra website explains the organization as follows:
As an official organization, IQRA’ International Educational Foundation was registered in the State of Illinois as a non-profit organization in 1983 in compliance with IRS section 501-C (3). Since then, IQRA’ has produced a comprehensive, systematic and integrated system of Islamic religious knowledge, involving 150 textbooks, workbooks, teacher’s guides, curriculum manuals and other educational materials. It is a program that is extremely popular in North America and in many English-speaking communities across the world.
Iqra founders and current officers Abidullah and Tasneema Ghazi, as well as Iqra honoree Abdullah Idris Ali, are also associated with the International Board of Educational Research and Resources (IBERR), a little known South African organization linked to the global Muslim Brotherhood. IBERR was founded by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) and says that it distributes Islamic educational material around the world. Although its website has recently been redone and contains very little information about the organization, earlier websites indicated that IBERR members included some prominent names from the global Muslim Brotherhood. In addition to Yusuf Islam, these include:
- Abdalla Idris Ali (Islamic Society of North America)
- Abdul Hamid Abu Sulaiman (International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) USA)
- Ibrahim Hewitt (INTERPAL, Muslim Council of Britain)
- Fathi Malkawi (IIIT USA)
The older websites also said that IBERR resulted from the First World Conference on Islamic Education held in Makkah, Saudi Arabia in 1977.
Iqra honoree Ahmad Sakr is an important figure in the early history of U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.