(IPT) Most religious groups exist to provide fellowship for their members and help them with spiritual needs.
The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) stands apart, both for its close ties to South Asian Islamist radicals, and for its overt and repeatedly stated ambitions to convert the world to Islam, a new report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) finds.
ICNA has been described as “openly affiliated” with the Sunni revivalist movement Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). In addition to advancing a rigid interpretation of Islam, the Islamist movement has provided an ideological platform and recruiting base for South Asian terrorist groups.
In many ways, ICNA’s ideology echoes the JI, which was created in 1941 by Islamist ideologue Maulana Syed [Abul] Ala Maududi in Lahore, Pakistan, which was then part of British India.
