Islamic Center of New England
The Islamic Center of New England (ICNE) (Arabic: المركز الاسلامي بنيو انجلند) is an Islamic organization incorporated in the state of Massachusetts in the early 1960s.
The mosque generally relied on elders and recent immigrants for religious guidance. In 1982, Talal Eid became the first imam of the mosque.[1] In 1993, the ICNE opened a sister location in Sharon, Massachusetts, called the Sharon Mosque.
The primary function of ICNE is to oversee the operation of the two mosques it owns, located in Quincy and Sharon, Massachusetts.[2] ICNE has about 3,000 members, many from various nations, and including Sunnis and Shias.[3][4]
Allegations of extremism
[edit]A former board director (1982-2005) and imam, Talal Eid, says that in 2005 the ICNE board forced him from his leadership position because of his moderate Islamic teachings. Some news reports accuse several board members who forced him out of having connections to Islamic extremists, including then board president Dr. Abdul-badi Abousamra, a prominent endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who was also vice president of the Muslim American Society of Boston, which ran the Islamic Society of Boston, a Cambridge mosque. Dr. Abousamra's son, Ahmad Abousamra, is on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.[2] The ICNE responded that it was an employment disagreement and that their "teachings fully respect the rule of American law and the sanctity of human life, and we have always unequivocally condemned all acts of terrorism."[3]
Eid's replacement was Imam Hafiz Masood, an assistant imam who "had been forced on him in 1998 by Abousamra and who was known for fiery sermons easily interpreted as promoting violence."[3] The non-profit organization Americans for Peace and Tolerance claims many of Masood's supporters remain in leadership roles in the Boston Muslim community, and some news reports claim that these radical doctrines at ICNE (and another mosque run by the Islamic Society of Boston) had a motivating influence on several well known local jihadists, including several below.[3] However, Eid later clarified that although "he believed the city’s mosques should operate more democratically... he said the ideological tensions had no relationship to violence. 'Muslims all over are very good people, working hard, living their lives,' he said. 'In Boston, when you talk about terrorists, you can count them on the fingers of one hand. It’s not even one in 10,000.'"[5]
Imam Hafiz Masood later left ICNE after volunteering for deportation in 2008 after being arrested on criminal visa fraud charges by the United States U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.[6] After returning to his hometown of Lahore, Pakistan, he became spokesman for the Pakistani terrorist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a group founded by his brother, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.[7]
Anti-extremism program
[edit]In 2015, with new leadership, the ICNE in Sharon began offering a youth curriculum designed to counter foreign social-media-based enticements to violent extremism.[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Curtis, Edward E. (2010-01-01). Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438130408.
- ^ ICNE. "About Us". Islamic Center of New England. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
- ^ a b c d "Moderate imam reveals how radicals won battle for soul of Boston mosques". FoxNews. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- ^ "Pakistani brothers reflect their country's contradictions". WashPost.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
- ^ Shane, Scott (June 15, 2015). "Boston Muslims Struggle to Wrest Image of Islam From Terrorists". The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ Lambert, Lane. "Deported imam expects to be 'a stranger in my own country'". The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
- ^ "Page Not Found - The Washington Post". The Washington Post. 2012-04-30. Archived from the original on 2012-10-29. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
{{cite news}}: Cite uses generic title (help) - ^ "Fighting the lure of the galaxy of jihad". The Boston Globe. May 3, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2015.