AlMaghrib Institute

AlMaghrib Institute
Non-profit educational
Industry Education
Founded 2001
Founder Muhammad Alshareef
Headquarters Houston, Texas,
Ottawa, Ontario,
London, England, United States,
Canada,
United Kingdom
Area served
 United States,
Canada,
United Kingdom
Key people
 Noor Syed, CEO
Products Seminars
Website www.almaghrib.org

AlMaghrib Institute is an Islamic studies institute[1] founded by Muhammad AlShareef[2] in 2002.[3] AlMaghrib provides courses on Islam in a six-day, two weekend intensive seminar format.[4]

Instructors

Most of AlMaghrib instructors are graduates of the Islamic University of Madinah,[5] which is why AlMaghrib is characterized as Salafi in ideological orientation, despite founder Muhammad AlShareef's commitment not to use labels other than "Islam" and "Muslim".[6]

Academics

AlMaghrib's founders are working towards establishing an M.A. and Ph.D.-granting Islamic seminary with a permanent campus in the United States, featuring teachers as full-time faculty.[7]

Controversy

Stance on Terrorism

AlMaghrib has received a significant amount of public scrutiny primarily because recordings of the highest English-speaking cleric in Al-Qaeda, Anwar al-Awlaki, continued to be sold at AlMaghrib events, even after they were banned by AlMaghrib in 2009.[8]

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who in December 2009 attempted to detonate plastic explosives on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, once took a class at the AlMaghrib Institute.[9] Abdulmutallab claimed that al-Awlaki was also a student at AlMaghrib.[10] Yasir Qadhi, the Dean of Academic Affairs at AlMaghrib Institute, was quoted by CNN saying, "At some level, we did not convince him of the validity of our views," and "that is cause for regret".[11]

Other controversial students include Daniel Maldonado, a convert who was convicted in 2007 of training with a group linked to Al Qaeeda militia in Somalia; Tarek Mehanna, a pharmacist arrested for conspiring to attack Americans; and two young American men held in Pakistan in 2009 for seeking to train with militants.[12][13]

AlMaghrib has been accused of being "liberal" and "apolitical" by other American Salafi groups. As a result of this external and internal scrutiny, AlMaghrib rebranded itself and moved away from the public use of the label "Salafi".[14]

Stance on Holocaust

Yasir Qadhi made headlines in 2001 when he made public claims doubting the extent of the Holocaust. He later recanted those statements saying his past views were based on misinformation.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Asef Bayat, Linda Herrera, Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North, p 170. ISBN 0195369211
  2. ↑ Gary R. Bunt, iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam: Rewiring the House of Islam, p 122. ISBN 0807887714
  3. ↑ Zareena Grewal, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, p 330. ISBN 1479800902
  4. ↑ Asef Bayat, Linda Herrera, Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North, p 170. ISBN 0195369211
  5. ↑ Zareena Grewal, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, p 331. ISBN 1479800902
  6. ↑ Juliane Hammer, Omid Safi, The Cambridge Companion to American Islam, p 261. ISBN 110743386X
  7. ↑ Juliane Hammer, Omid Safi, The Cambridge Companion to American Islam, p 262. ISBN 110743386X
  8. ↑ Zareena Grewal, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, p 331. ISBN 1479800902
  9. ↑ Terror suspect was student in Houston, Detroit Free Press, December 31, 2009
  10. ↑ Zareena Grewal, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, p 331. ISBN 1479800902
  11. ↑ Terror suspect attended 2008 Islamic 'knowledge fest' in Houston, CNN, December 31, 2009
  12. ↑ Zareena Grewal, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, p 331. ISBN 1479800902
  13. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/magazine/mag-20Salafis-t.html?pagewanted=1&sq=qadhi&st=cse&scp=1&_r=0
  14. ↑ Zareena Grewal, Islam Is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority, p 331. ISBN 1479800902
  15. ↑ Muslim leaders visit concentration camps as part of effort to combat Holocaust denial, Washington Post, August 21, 2010

External links