Thread by @Islamist_Watch

1) From asking fellow Muslims to “shed a tear for the Taliban” following its 2002 defeat, to rejoicing Afghanistan’s return to Islamic rule 2 decades later, @IAMCouncil and its associates have long admired the Taliban’s Deobandi fundamentalism. @meforum

meforum.org/islamist-watch…

2) @IAMCouncil’s very first convention in 2003 included Islamists such as Asim Ghafoor, who worked as a spokesman for not one — but three separate charities shut down after 9/11 for allegedly funding Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

3) @ajitsahi, the advocacy director for @IAMCouncil, has referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as “people’s movements,” and questioned why ISIS and the Taliban should be called “terrorists when they shoot the invader,” or American soldiers.

4) @IAMCouncil appears to be close supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), an Islamist movement that seeks the “reconstruction” of Indian society in accordance w/ Islamic values. No surprise, then, that a JIH leader apparently close to IAMC defended the Taliban on Indian news.

https://twitter.com/news18india/status/1427995745253138433

5) Kameel Kawaja, the @IAMCouncil official who asked fellow Muslims to “spare a tear” for the Taliban on the occasion of its 2002 defeat, was given a chance to recant his views in an interview with @Islamist_Watch. He urged the world not to “pronounce the Taliban as evil.”

6) Despite the obvious problems with playing cheerleader to one of the most dangerously oppressive regimes in the world, U.S. governments agencies such as @USCIRF continue to consult with @IAMCouncil as a supposed expert on religious freedom in India.

7) Write to @USCIRF publicly on Twitter, or privately at [e-mail], and tell them that the Taliban sympathizers @IAMCouncil are in no position to discuss religious persecution — not in Afghanistan, and certainly not in India. @DrZuhdiJasser @TarekFatah @Ayaan @DanielPipes