On Friday the Anglican Theology program of Huron University College (HUC) at Western Ontario University announced the appointment of former ISNA President, Dr. Ingrid Mattson to an endowed chair in Islamic Studies. The press release states that
“Dr. Mattson brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and expertise to this area of study and Huron is privileged to have a scholar of her caliber,” said Dr. Stephen McClatchie, Principal of HUC. “We are honored that, with her pick of many positions around the world, Dr. Mattson has decided to return to Canada and accept our appointment to the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies.”
Mattson responded:
“It is an honor to be back in Canada and to accept this position at such a prestigious institution as HUC,” said Dr. Mattson. “Huron has a remarkable history of critical inquiry and I look forward to building on this tradition by offering Huron students the opportunity to learn about a faith that more than 20 per cent of the world’s population practices, in an open and liberal environment.”
According to the HUC release, Dr. Mattson will occupy “the first endowed chair of Islamic Studies at a theology faculty in Canada”. Mattson will assume her academic duties at HUC in July, 2012.
As we will see the funding of the $2 million (Cdn.) endowed chair at HUC involved a match of $1 million in funds from the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) and local Mosques with an equivalent amount from the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) located in Northern Virginia’s, Wahhabi Valley. The IIIT is an MB front group funded by Saudi and Gulf emirate donors. The founder of IIIT was cited as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of convicted felon, Sami al Arian, former computer science professor at the University of South Florida. Al-Arian was involved in funneling funds to the extremist Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza. The IIIT founder was also implicated in providing funds to Hamas. The source of funding for the HUC endowed chair and the presence of Canadian MAC leaders on the due diligence committee was objected to by HUC alumni and others.
Dr. Mattson, a former Catholic, and native of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, was the first woman convert to Islam to head the ISNA, a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) affiliate. She holds a Doctorate in Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago and is the Director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian Muslim Relations at the Hartford (Connecticut) Seminary (HS). She also headed one of three Pentagon programs for certification of Muslim military chaplains. That Muslim chaplaincy program was promoted by convicted felon, Abdul Rahman Alamoudi, now serving a term of 23 years in a Federal prison for laundering funds to an affiliate of al Qaeda.
Mattson is an avowed Wahhabist. In a 2001 interview, she described the Saudi fundamentalist sect with its intolerant dogma and derogation of women’s rights as akin to the Protestant Reformation. When the Federal Dallas Holy Land Foundation trial cited ISNA, one of several MB groups, as an unindicted co-conspirator. ISNA filed an appeal to expunge the designation from the trial record. The co-conspirator status was partially removed by a Fifth Circuit Court decision in October, 2010. Leaders of the Holy Land Foundation were convicted for funneling upwards of $35 million in Muslim charity funds or “Zakat” to Hamas, the MB in Palestine. She had been prominent during both the Bush and Obama Administrations as a ‘go to’ person on Muslim dialogue. She gave a prayer at an Interfaith Service in Washington’s National Cathedral during President Obama’s inauguration in January, 2009.
According to the pre-eminent Canadian counter-Jihad website, Point de Bascule, Dr. Mattson was a participant in a conference in 2008 held in Tripoli, Libya backed by then dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, the World Islamic Call Society (WICS). We shall see later that two of her supporters for the HUC chair were also participants in the WICS conferences in Chicago and Libya.
A letter addressed to HUC Acting Principal Fulton in April, 2011, when the appointment and its funding was first disclosed, identified the endowment from MAC and the IIIT in Virginia.
. . . a local group of alumni, friends and faculty (present and former) of the University of Western Ontario [expresses] our alarm over the disclosure that two Islamist organizations -- the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) and the International Institute of Islamic Thought(IIIT) -- will provide most of the $2 million in funding for a new Chair in Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Theology at Huron University College. While we commend the College for undertaking to “make a substantive contribution to understanding of Islamic thought and Muslim identity in pluralistic societies” through the establishment of this Chair, we think it is extremely ill-advised of the College to accept funding from any organization implicated in violent jihad.
Published reports state that the IIIT has agreed to match funds raised by the Muslim Association of Canada, the London Muslim Mosque and private individuals. That means that the IIIT contribution will be up to $1 million. TheIIITisincorporatedintheUnitedStates and is believedtoreceivemostofitsfundsfrom Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.
While leaders of the IIIT and the MAC insist that they are peaceful, moderate and democratic, these assurances cannot stand up to inquiry. Evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.
MAC states on its website that its mission is: “To establish an Islamic presence in Canada, that is balanced, constructive and integrated.” For greater clarity, the statement adds: “We believe that, in the twentieth century, the approach of Imam Hassan Al-Banna best exemplifies this balanced, comprehensive understanding of Islam.”
Al-Banna was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The MB was the creator of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). In the existing CovenantoftheIslamicResistanceMovement, Hamas quotes Al-Banna’s declamation: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
The IIIT is also an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood. Two examples of IIIT’s involvement with terror: In 2003, Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, a co-founder and former president of the IIIT, was cited asan un-indicted co-conspiratorin the trial of Sami al-Arian, an Islamist activist who serveda57-monthprisonsentencein the United States for conspiring to channel funds to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a designated terrorist group in the United States and Canada. In pleading guilty, al-Arian admitted that he knew that the PIJ engaged in suicide bombings and other “horrific and deadly acts of violence” against the people of Israel.
Jamal Barzinji, founding member and current vice-President of the IIIT, has likewise been implicated in funding for terrorists. Inaswornaffidavitfiledin2003, a senior special agent with the United States Customs Service testified: “I believe that Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJas evidenced by ties to Al-Arian..., but also with HAMAS.”
The letter to HUC Acting-Principal Fulton identified similar IIIT funding of Dr. Mattson’s current program at the HS:
Connecticut-based HS is deeply involved with the IIIT. Several IIIT academics are appointed to positions at the HS and a year ago itaccepteda$1-milliongiftfrom the IIIT, despite the organization’s well-known radical links. Meanwhile, the Muslim studies courses and programs at the seminary are roiled in controversy. In an article published last month by the National Association of Scholars,Islamo-CorrectnessatHartfordSeminary, Andrew Bieszad, a Catholic who graduated from Hartford Seminary last year with a master’s degree in Islamic studies, relates his very unpleasant personal experience at HS. He concludes: “In Islamic studies at universities today it has become difficult to disagree with Islam and still maintain one’s credibility, safety, or ability to study in school. Academia has refused to question Islamic teachings, and has thus become a participant in promoting Islamic orthodoxy at the expense of academic integrity. I know this because I am a product of this environment.”
Noted Canadian counter-terrorism expert, David Harris expressed concerns about the Mattson appointment and funding in an email to this author:
Even those of us who’d been appalled by the background to the creation of the Islamic Chair at Huron University College -- an Anglican college affiliated with the University of Western Ontario -- were surprised by the brazenness of the Mattson appointment.
It is said that hardline Islamic lawyer, who is on the Executive Board of HUC played a part in whatever “due diligence” review led the HUC to agree to establish the Chair on the basis of the funding arrangements.
He pointed out that Joseph and Dr. Munir El-Kassem a dental surgeon and former Muslim Chaplain at the University of Western Ontario were heavily involved with the establishment of the HUC Chair on Islamic studies.
Joseph attended the same WICS Conference in Libya with Dr. Mattson. “The Second Meeting of the Evangelical Christian-Muslim Dialogue Tripoli January 2008.” Dr El-Kassem participated in an earlier 2006 WICS conference in Chicago.
MAC infiltration in Canada has been emboldened by the HUC appointment of Dr. Mattson fueled by matching IIIT funds. The new version of the timeworn adage is in this case: “money talks and dhimmis walk”.
