The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, has announced that it has signed an agreement with the International Islamic University in Malaysia (IIUM) to provide seventy scholarships for students studying at the IIUM. According to the announcement :
IIIT has signed an agreement with the International Islamic University in Malaysia (IIUM) to provide seventy scholarships for students studying at the IIUM. The board approved fifty scholarships to be granted to undergraduate students from depressed countries and 20 scholarships to be awarded to meritorious post-graduate students. The scholarship awardees will begin classes in July 2009. Dr. Jamal Barzinji and Dr. Anas al Sheikh Ali (London Office) visited IIUM from February 10-12, 2009 to negotiate the operational plan for the scholarships. There, they had a meeting with Dr. Hazizan bin Md Noon, the Dean of Kulliya of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (KIRKHS). They also had a meeting with Prof. Syed Arabi Idid, the Rector of IIUM, to report the outcome of the meeting.
IIIT was founded in the U.S. in 1980 by important members of the Global Muslim Brotherhood who wished to promote the “Islamization of Knowledge.” IIIT was associated with the now defunct SAAR Foundation, a network of Islamic organizations located in Northern Virginia that was raided by the Federal government in 2003 in connection with the financing of terrorism. The organization appeared to have withdrawn from public view following the 2003 raids and although a report in the Washington Post from June 2007 indicated that IIIT and the SAAR Foundation were still under investigation by the Justice Department, IIIT seems to be enjoying a renaissance of late. Previous posts have discussed other visits by foreign Muslims to IIIT sponsored by the U.S. State Department, a relationship between IIIT and George Mason University, and the role of IIIT in working with a probably Pentagon subcontractor in Iraq. Another post discussed plans by IIIT to construct colleges in Bosnia and Lebanon.
The IIIT announcement went on to identify meetings involving between Dr. Barzinji, Dr. Ali, and Anwar Ibrahim.
While in Malaysia, Dr. Barzinji and Dr. al-Sheikh Ali were invited to dinner by Dr. Anwar Ibrahim at his residence where they met with several intellectuals. Dr. Jamal Barzinji, Dr. Anas al-Sheikh Ali joined Dr. Anwar Ibrahim to Brookings’ Saban Center for Middle East Policy’s 6th Annual Conference in Doha, Qatar titled: “US-Islamic World Relations.” Dr. Anwar Ibrahim – board member of IIIT- was a keynote speaker at the conference.
Dr. Ibrahim, a leading Malaysian opposition figure, has many ties to the global U.S Muslim Brotherhood including helping to found IIIT where he currently serves as a director, representing Asian youth and serving as a trustee for the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, and appearances at numerous Brotherhood-linked conferences. As a previous post noted, Ibrahim was scheduled to speak last December at a conference in Istanbul that featured a large number of prominent speakers with ties to the global Brotherhood. Another recent post also discussed Ibrahim’s appearance at a Saudi economic forum. In 1988, Dr. Ibrahim as the Minister of Education, was appointed as the 2nd President of the International Islamic University in Malaysia (IIUM).
An IIIT biography indicates that Dr. Barzinji; a founding member, Trustee, and Vice President of IIIT; was one of the early leaders of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and had been part of and/or founded many of the most important U.S. Brotherhood organizations such as the Muslim Student Society, the North American Islamic Trust, the SAAR Foundation, and the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. From 1994 to 1998 he was dean of School of Islamic Revealed Knowledge & Human Sciences at IIUM and also has been a member of the board of the Bank Islam Malaysia.