Islamic media is reporting on this years Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention, held annually since 2003 and always featuring major Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders. According to the Iqra.ca report:
Thousands of Muslims from across North America will gather in Canada’s largest city of Toronto this weekend for the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention. ‘The conference has always been about uniting and joining hands with scholars, journalists, academics, representatives from other faiths, and artists to promote messages of peace and tolerance,’ said RIS spokeswoman Farhia Ahmed. The event, to run from December 21 through December 23, will be held in the heart of downtown Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, next to the iconic CN Tower. Themed ‘Divine Light for Living Right: The Light of Prophetic Guidance in the Midst of Modern Darkness’, the convention is organized and managed by approximately 400 young Canadian volunteers. It brings a galaxy of prominent Muslim scholars including Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, Karen Armstrong and Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an Islamic studies professor at George Washington University Also attending are the Grand Mufti of Bosnia Mustafa Ceri?, scholar Habib Ali Al-Jifri, Swiss professor Tariq Ramadan, Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled, Dr. Aisha al-Adawiyya; Dr. Tawfique Chowdhury; Yasmin Mogahed and Edina Lekovic. Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention was first launched in 2003 by Muslim youth to tackle the backlash on Islam and Muslims after the 9/11 and to build a bridge of understanding with non-Muslims. Read the rest here.
Almost all of the individuals identified above are tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood:
- Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah (member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi)
- Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (frequent speaker at U.S. Muslim Brotherhood events)
- Mustafa Ceric (member of the ECFR)
- Tariq Ramadan (grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood)
- Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled (Egyptian “tele-preacher” who frequently appears at Muslim Brotherhood events)
- Dr. Aisha al-Adawiyya (boards of the Council on American Islamic Relations, Islamic Society of North America
- Yasmin Mogahed (sister of Dahlia Mogahed who was a Obama Administration faith advisor and close to the Global Muslim Brotherhood)
- Edina Lekovic (official of the Muslim Public Affairs Council)
- Jamal Badawi ( one of the most important leaders and senior individuals in the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood)
- Abdalla Idris ( Islamic Society of North America)
A post from last week reported that Canadian Liberal Party leadership candidate Justin Trudeau had defended his decision to speak at at the RIS convention in spite of the fact that one of the sponsors was a charity whose charity status had been revoked because of its funding of Hamas. The Point de Bascule blog has detailed information on the controversy. Previous posts have discussed the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 RIS conventions.