Islam Online is reporting the death of Dr. Ahmed El-Kadi, described only as a “prominent leader” but thought to be the former leader of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. According to the report:
American Muslims are mourning Dr. Ahmed El-Kadi, a prominent leader who died this weekend after a life he spent sincerely serving Muslims and pioneering achievements that changed the face of the community. “He was a role model for the American Muslims,” Sheikh Shaker El-Sayed, Imam of the Dar-Al-Hijra Islamic Center in Virginia and a longtime friend of Kadi, told IslamOnline.net. “His leadership and guidance in pushing Islamic activities in America will always be remembered,” added Sayed, who is also head of the Muslim American Society (MAS). The veteran Muslim leader and famed retired heart surgeon died Saturday in Panama City, Florida, at the age of 69. Kadi, an Egyptian-origin, has been leading community work and spent much of his time in Islamic work in the US, where he lived for the past 44 years. “He was my colleague in the Muslim American Society and we worked together very closely,” said Sheikh Sayed. He has played a pivotal role in establishing numerous Muslim organizations, in the US and the entire North America. Kadi has also been a veteran leader in many of these organizations, including the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA) and the Islamic Medical Association (IMA). “Dr. El-Kadi will be greatly remembered for his contributions to Islamic medicine research and education,” the Muslim American Society said in a statement. “MAS offers its sincerest condolences to Dr. El-Kadi’s family, MAS members and the Muslim community-at-large.” ….. Kadi has played a pivotal role in establishing numerous Muslim organizations, in the US and the entire North America.Kadi will be rem embered for dedicating all his life to activism and community work. “He was the pioneer of the Muslim Youth of North America,” said Sheikh Sayed. The husband and father of four daughters came to the US in 1965 after he finished studying medicine in Austria. He shot to fame in his career as a heart surgeon in few years. He is also known as the author of the most comprehensive definition of Islamic Medicine. “He was a very prominent heart surgeon for a long time.” Kadi’s travels around the world have helped him build connections, which led him to start establishing charity, social and educational organizations for Muslims in the US and across the continent. One of his major achievements is helping in the establishment of ICNA, a New York-based grassroots organization that currently has 22 chapters across the US. In his Panama City, Kadi has been instrumental in establishing a full-time Islamic school and a medical research institute which researches the benefits of Prophetic medicines.
The Islam Online report omits important biographical information that is contained within a new report from the Hudson institute on the history of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Citing a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation, the Hudson report notes that Dr. El-Kadi’ s father-in-law was Mahmoud Abu-Saud, an economist and early Muslim Brotherhood leader who had been repeatedly jailed in connection with his Brotherhood activities. The Hudson report goes on to confirm that in October 1974, Dr. El-Kadi became an officer in the “Cultural Society”, essentially a name used to disguise the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as well as later serving as the President of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the investment vehicle for the U.S. Brotherhood. The Hudson report discusses a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood document referring to the election of a leader known as a “General Masul” sometime in the early 1980’s suggesting it was Dr. El-Kadi:
The “General Masul” referred to above may be Elkadi, who, according to the Chicago Tribune investigation, was elected president of the U.S. MB in 1984. By this time the Chicago Tribune reported that Elkadi, probably in 1977 or 1978, had relocated from Missouri to Panama City, Florida, where he established the Akbar Clinic. This Islamic medical center was funded with $2.4 million from a Luxembourg bank managed by his father-in-law (Abu-Saud). Inside the clinic, Elkadi set up a small mosque and an Islamic school.
According to the Chicago Tribune investigation, Dr. El-Kadi’s medical career was something less than stellar as the Islam Online article would suggest, reporting a series of problems in his medical practice that resulted in the revocation of his medical license in 1992:
First to go was the clinic. Elkadi had fallen behind on the bills, and by 1988 creditors had won thousands of dollars in judgments against him. To prevent a sheriff’s sale, the Islamic bank in Luxembourg took over the property, and eventually it was sold to a drug rehabilitation clinic. But Elkadi faced an even more serious professional problem: Florida regulators started disciplinary action against him for performing unnecessary surgeries at a Panama City hospital and for doing major operations, including a mastectomy, at his clinic without proper precautions, such as an adequate blood supply. Regulators determined that Elkadi had performed unneeded stomach surgery on nine patients. The Florida Board of Medicine concluded that Elkadi “exhibited a total lack of judgment” and was “not a competent physician.” The board revoked his license in 1992.
The Tribune report says that sometime in 1995, following these difficulties, Dr. El-Kadi was replaced as “President” of the U.S. MB. The Hudson report says that in his later years, Dr. Elkadi suffered from Binswanger’s disease, a rare neurological disorder which the Muslim American Society (MAS) attempted to use as evidence that his recollections about the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood could not be trusted. Nevertheless, the Hudson report confirms all of the important details of Dr. El-Kadi’s account.
It should be noted that the Islam Online report suggests a close connection between the MAS and Dr. El-Kadi. This is not surprising since as both the Tribune article and the Hudson report document that the MAS was created with the support of the leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in order to meet a series of challenges face by the U.S. Brotherhood at that time and to fill a “vacuum” in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). That Dr. El-Kadi also helped to establish ICNA, the Islamic Circle of North America and essentially representing the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami in the U.S., is new information but not surprising considering the close relationship between ICNA and the MAS.