The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) is based in

Plainfield, Indiana Plainfield is a town in Guilford Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, Guilford, Liberty Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, Liberty, and Washington Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, Washington townships, Hendricks County, Indiana, Hendricks ...

, owns Islamic properties and promotes ''

waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...

'' (

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

endowments) in North America. Many Muslim institutions founded by immigrants who arrived in the US during the 1960s have roots in the

Muslim Students Association The Muslim Students Association, or Muslim Student Union, of the U.S. and Canada, also known as MSA National, is a religious organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United Sta ...

where they were college activists. In the 1970s and thereafter, NAIT helped provide college students with a place to provide worship services. NAIT does not provide any financial or other monetary support to the Muslim Student Association. NAIT serves as the trustee of about 200 Islamic centers, mosques and schools. The properties of those mosques are estimated to be worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Background

NAIT was established in 1973 in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

by the

(MSA) of the United States and Canada, by some of the same

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

members who started the MSA. ISNA's President, Dr.

Ingrid Mattson Ingrid Mattson (born August 24, 1963) is a Canadian activist and scholar. A professor of Islamic studies, she is currently the London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario ...

, is a former member of the NAIT board of directors. A sister organization under the same name registered a few years later in the Canadian

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Financial services

Financing mosques and Islamic schools

NAIT offers ''waqf'' protection to properties of mosques, safeguards these community assets, and ensures their conformity to Islamic purposes. According to a report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in 2000 NAIT funded an estimated 27% of the 1,209 mosques in the US. NAIT held title to over 320 properties as of June 2003. Title to about one in four mosques in the US are held by NAIT. NAIT does not monitor, manage, or supervise any mosque, community center, school, or place of worshi

NAIT facilitates the establishment of mosques (such as the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center, the grounds of which were purchased on June 19, 1983, by NAIT) and Islamic schools by extending limited interest-free loans to needy communities from its investment venture called the Islamic Centers Cooperative Fund (ICCF). About 8% of this fund goes annually to support local communities acquiring and improving mosques. The remainder is placed in real estate and other investments.

Controversy

In 2007, federal prosecutors brought charges against Holy Land Foundation for allegedly funding terrorist activities of

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

and other Islamic terrorist organizations. NAIT was named as an

unindicted co-conspirator In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance ...

in the case, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and ISNA. The '' Al Ahram Weekly'' said "Muslims are witnessing a smear campaign", and said "these groups represent the viewpoints and interests of the mainstream American Muslim community." In 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the Justice Department violated the Fifth Amendment rights of the NAIT and CAIR in 2007 by including them on the co-conspirator list. At the same time, Solis said that there was "ample evidence to establish the association" of NAIT with

. On October 20, 2010, Judges Garza, Benavides, and Crone of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the U.S. Department of Justice violated the Fifth Amendment rights of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), and by implication the rights of more than 300 similarly-named Muslim organizations and individuals, such as CAIR, when it included them on the publicly-filed unindicted co-conspirator list in 2007. The court also ruled that inclusion on the list was the result of "simply an untested allegation of the Government made in anticipation of a possible evidentiary dispute that never came to pass." The listing is simply part of tactical pre-trial maneuvering and not an indicator of guilt. In 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder indicated that Department of Justice officials determined after "looking at the facts and the law, a prosecution would not be appropriate." This conclusion was reached after two reviews conducted under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

References

External links

NAIT website''Muslim communities in North America''
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith,

SUNY Press The State University of New York Press (more commonly referred to as the SUNY Press) is a university press affiliated with the State University of New York system. The press, which was founded in 1966, is located in Albany, New York and publishe ...

, 1994,
''Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America'', "Chapter 20: NAIT and the Economic Jihad,"
P. David Gaubatz, Paul Sperry, WND Books, 2009, {{ISBN, 9781935071105 Non-profit organizations based in Indiana Islamic charities based in the United States Book publishing companies based in Indiana Financial services companies of the United States Islamic organizations established in 1973