Al Jazeera is reporting on the conviction of Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director of Kashmiri American Council, for violation of federal tax laws. According to the report:
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, the Executive Director of Kashmiri American Council, says during his incarceration at the minimal security Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Cumberland, Maryland, he will continue his work for the cause of Kashmir. Addressing a gathering of American Muslim leadership and well-wishers on June 21, 2012 in Fremont, CA, Dr Fai said there is no restriction on him to continue his work for the cause of Kashmir. He pointed out that the prosecution had withdrawn charges initially leveled against him to be the agent of a foreign government. Dr. Fai begins a two-year imprisonment term on June 26 for violating certain tax laws related to non-profit organizations. On March 30th he was sentenced to two-year imprisonment for conspiracy and violations of certain tax laws. He was initially charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) but the prosecution dropped these charges. Judge Liam O’Grady, while announcing the verdict for two-year imprisonment had made it clear that ‘it’s (sentencing) necessary, even though you have done some very moving things on behalf of the Kashmiri people and that your cause is a wonderful cause,’ Fai told the gathering. He quoted again Judge O’Grady as saying: ‘I sincerely hope that while you’re at a minimal security facility like Cumberland, that I see no reason why you can’t continue to advocate on behalf of the Kashmiri people and to write.’ Dr Fai stressed that no solution to the 65-year-old Kashmir conflict that didn’t command a consensus among the 17 million Kashmiri people could endure just as no solution to East Timor held a chance of success until the East Timor’s leadership was consulted and a referendum on independence from Indonesia was held. For too long, Fai pointed out, India’s persecution of people of Kashmir has been buried under the rubric of ‘the world’s largest democracy.’ ‘There is no democracy in Kashmir; only military rule and the law of the gun. In fact the presence of more than 700,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces have made Kashmir the largest army concentration anywhere in the world.’ Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is the Executive Director of the Washington based Kashmiri American Council Kashmir Center. He believes in the peaceful settlement of the Kashmir conflict through tripartite negotiations between
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An earlier post discussed the arrest of Dr. Fai who was accused by the FBI of acting as an agent for the Pakistani intelligence service involved in secret lobbying efforts inside the U.S.
According to an online profile of Dr. Fai:
Dr. Fai is the founding chairman of the California-based World Peace Forum. He is the Chairman of the International Institute of Kashmir Studies. He is also the Chairman of the Kashmiri American Foundation & the London-based Justice Foundation. Dr. Fai is also the Member of the Board of Director of Istanbul-based the Union of the NGOs of the Islamic World. Dr. Fai holds a Ph.D. in mass communications from Temple University, Pennsylvania, and an M.A. from the Aligarh University in India. As a student leader, he represented the International Federation of Student Organizations at many international conferences. In 1986, he addressed the United Nations Conference in New York on Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries. At Temple University, he was elected as the President of the International Students Association and Director of Temple University, Graduate Students Council. He was also a member of the Temple University President’s Students Advisory Council. He was also elected as the General Secretary of the Temple University Space & Funding Committee. Dr. Fai was elected as the “President of the Muslim Students Association of the United States & Canada” between 1984-1988, whose membership exceeded 73,000 in 1988.
During his studies at Temple University, Dr. Fai was associated with Ismail Faruqi, one of the early leaders of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and who was instrumental in the idea for establishing the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), an important part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Both the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the International Federation of Student Organizations (IIFSO) were critical components of the US and Global Muslim Brotherhood during the time Dr. Fai was active. According to a recent report on the first Gaza flotilla by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), the Union of the NGOs of the Islamic World is a key part of the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood network that was instrumental in developing and executing that flotilla. In addition, Dr. Fai has been a regular speaker at a number of conferences of the Islamic Society of North America, another part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.
In October 2011, ProPublica published a long investigative report on Dr.Fai.