American Muslim Council

Last updated
American Muslim Council
AbbreviationAMC
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois, United States

The American Muslim Council (AMC) is an Islamic organization and registered charity in the United States. Its headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. [ citation needed ]

An earlier organization with the same name was founded in 1990 by Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. [1] (Al-Amoudi is also the former leader of the Islamic Society of Boston.) [ citation needed ]

The AMC later reorganized itself under a new name and moved its national headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Chicago. The organization currently using the name "The American Muslim Council" is different from the AMC founded by al-Amoudi; it is much more moderate. [1]

AMC took part in the defense of South Florida Professor and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian and questioned the US government's allegation that the professor took part in terrorist activities. [2] AMC produced a pamphlet in which it said that "the FBI has a history of harassing and harming minority and immigrant communities". [3] On March 2, 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization. [4] Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and ordered deported following his prison term. [5]

AMC is also a member of the American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC), along with the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). AMPCC's primary concern is to coordinate the member organizations on activism and lobbying. [6]

Related Research Articles


Islamic Association of Palestine was an organization convicted of providing material support for terrorism in the United States for Hamas. The organization was established in 1981 and has been defunct since 2004. It described itself as "a not-for-profit, public-awareness, educational, political, social, and civic, national grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a just, comprehensive, and eternal solution to the cause of Palestine and suffrages of the Palestinians." For a time it also used the name American Muslim Society (AMS) and operated as the American Middle Eastern League for Palestine (AMEL).

Sami Amin Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin who was a computer engineering professor at University of South Florida. During the Clinton administration and Bush administration, he was invited to the White House. He actively campaigned for the Bush presidential campaign in the United States presidential election in 2000.

The Minaret of Freedom Institute is an Islamic libertarian organization established in 1993 and based in Bethesda, Maryland. It is dedicated to educating both Muslims and non-Muslims. It was co-founded by Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, its president, and Shahid N. Shah, its treasurer. Its early board of advisers included former Richard Nixon advisor Robert D. Crane, a convert to Islam, and Charles Butterworth, a University of Maryland Islamic scholar. Its current board of directors and board of advisers include religious, academic and business leaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Deutsch</span> American politician (born 1957)

Peter Russell Deutsch is an American politician from the U.S. state of Florida. Deutsch was a Democratic Representative from Florida's 20th congressional district from 1993 until 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Emerson</span> American film producer (born 1954)

Steven Emerson is an American investigative journalist, author, and pundit on national security, terrorism, and Islamic extremism. He is the founder and director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, and received a George Polk Award for the 1994 documentary Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi</span> American Muslim activist

Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, better known as Abdurahman Alamoudi, is a former American Muslim activist known for founding the American Muslim Council. He pleaded guilty to financial and conspiracy charges in 2004, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) states that it is "the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States." According to its webpage, it is open to people of all backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities and has a national network of chapters and members in all 50 states. It claims that three million Americans trace their roots to an Arab country.

<i>Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America</i> 1994 American TV series or program

Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America is a documentary by Steven Emerson. It first aired in the United States in 1994 on PBS. The documentary has won numerous awards for journalism, including the George Polk Award for best television documentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abd Al Aziz Awda</span> Palestinian militant leader

Abd Al Aziz Awda, also known as Sheik Awda, is a Palestinian cleric who, along with Fathi Shaqaqi, founded the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, also known as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an Islamist paramilitary organization based in Damascus, Syria.

Louay M. Safi is a Syrian-American, a scholar of Islam and the Middle East, and an advocate of Arab and Muslim American rights. He published on such issues as social and political development, modernization, democracy, human rights, and Islam and Modernity. He is the author of 11 books and numerous papers, and speaker on questions of leadership, democracy, Islam, and the Middle East. He is also a spokesperson for the Syrian National Coalition, a league of Syrian opposition groups fighting Syrian President Assad, which was formed in November 2012 in Doha, Qatar.

Johari Abdul-Malik Ibn Winslow Seale is a convert to Islam, and was previously the Director of Outreach for the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Northern Virginia from June 2002 until June 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian Islamic Jihad</span> Palestinian paramilitary force

The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, commonly known simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization formed in 1981.

Revolution Muslim (RM) was an organization based in New York City that advocated the establishment of a traditionalist Islamic state through the removal of the current rulers in Muslim-majority nations and an end to what they consider "Western imperialism". It was founded in 2007 by two American Muslim men: Jesse Curtis Morton and Yousef al-Khattab.

Shaker Elsayed is an Egyptian American imam who was posted at the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia from 2005 to 2017, when he resigned because of backlash stemming from his comments about female genital mutilation. He was born in Cairo, Egypt.

Abelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar is a Palestinian Muslim activist who was an assistant professor of business at Howard University. He was convicted of criminal contempt and obstruction of justice for refusal to testify before a grand jury in a trial related to the funding of Hamas by donors in the United States, and was sentenced in November 2007 to 135 months in prison.

A Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) is a person who has been designated by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to be a specially designated terrorist under notices or regulations issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), under the U.S. Treasury Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sami Al-Arian indictments and trial</span>

Sami Al-Arian indictments and trial began on February 20, 2003, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Sami Al-Arian had been arrested as the alleged leader of the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the U.S., and Secretary of the PIJ's central worldwide governing group. It also charged three others living in the U.S., as well as four outside the U.S. These included Al-Arian's long-time top USF/WISE associate Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, who had been designated a Specially Designated Terrorist by the U.S. in 1995, and was accused of being Secretary General of the PIJ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramadan Shalah</span> Palestinian military officer

Ramadan Abdullah Mohammed Shalah was a Palestinian military officer and the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a militant anti-zionist group, between 27 October 1995 and 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim Legal Fund of America</span> Islamic organization based in the United States

The Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) is a charity that funds legal work and programs to defend the rights of Muslims in US courtrooms, prisons, and communities. They provide funding for cases that impact the civil rights of Muslims in America, issue grants for projects to increase the legal community's ability and defend Muslims, and conduct informational campaigns to spread awareness of issues and cases that impact Muslim communities.

References

  1. 1 2 John Mintz; Douglas Farah (September 11, 2004). "In Search Of Friends Among The Foes U.S. Hopes to Work With Diverse Group". The Washington Post . p. A01. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  2. Gaffney, Frank (June 28, 2002). "The Truth About The AMC". Fox News . Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  3. Levin, Jon (May 7, 2003). "Sami's Still Their Man". National Review . Retrieved May 19, 2009.
  4. "Plea Agreement; U.S. v. Al-Arian" (PDF). February 28, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 1, 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  5. MegLaughlin, In his plea deal, what did Sami Al-Arian admit to?, St. Petersburg Times, April 23, 2006.
  6. Arab-American faces and voices: the origins of an immigrant community, p. 261, Elizabeth Boosahda, University of Texas Press, 2003, ISBN   0-292-70920-X, 9780292709201, accessed November 30, 2009