Gulam Bakali
Secretary, Board of Trustees
Islamic Association of North Texas
840 Abrams Road
Richardson, TX 75080

Honorable Members of the United States Senate – Committee on the Judiciary

We are submitting this written documentation to be recorded during the Committee Hearing on Tuesday November 8, 2005 – Panel II of - “Saudi Arabia: Friend or Foe in the War on Terror”

For the Record – Our submittal strictly deals with, and comments on the Freedom House Report -

“SAUDI PUBLICATIONS ON HATE IDEOLOGY INVADE AMERICAN MOSQUES”, published by the Center for Religious Freedom located in Washington, DC. Our Response to the referenced

Freedom House Report includes an Executive Summary section summarizing the various facts, details, pictures, references, activities, etc for easy reading. The individual sections following the Executive Summary provide further insight and details as to who we are, our philosophy, our track record, etc that can be and should be reasonably extrapolated to a Picture quite different than what could be intended to be implied in the referenced Report.

Our Mosque has neither been “filled” or “invaded” by the literature eluded to in the referenced report. Majority of our congregation do not understand Arabic as a language to even read, absorb the contents and propagate the line of thinking alleged to be advanced by such documents.

Furthermore, the total number of books and literature pieces in our reference/research library amount to over a few thousands. Our Library functions as a central storage and collection area for literature in the Southwest US for academic research.

We have certainly been wronged by this report that initially was published earlier this year. We certainly have no knowledge of such documents being present at our premises, nor have we ever endorsed any of these materials. The later version of this report issued in October clarified this point.

We invite you to visit our facility and see our community firsthand. You may join us at any of our Friday prayer sermons, any of our classes, and any of our interfaith events. In the past several years, hundreds of government officials and candidates have observed our Friday prayer sermons as they have come regularly to address our congregation. Our US Senators along with several of our US Congress Representatives have been to our community gatherings; City of Richardson officials have been to our organization and know us very well. FBI officials, both past and present know many of our leaders personally and have been to many interfaith and community gatherings. The list of collaborative events on a weekly basis is beyond the scope of this submittal. We would love to host any and all of you who seek to understand us further, and ask questions. Only by asking and listening to each other can we initiate and establish a better understanding about who we are as Americans, and what makes our democracy work.

The accompanying Appendices detail more facets about Our Organization, Our Activities, Our Imam, Our involvement with other Faith-Based Organizations, Our Civic Involvement, Our Women Committee, Our Full Time School (very unique – 6 days a week full year and Religious Studies plus Full Public School Curriculum), Our Adult, Youth & Women’s Classes, Our Partnership with State Department & World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas for International Visitor Leadership Program… just to name a few.

We are very proud of our over 30-year heritage in the North Texas Region as a place of worship and more importantly a Center for sharing information about Islam in America in particular. We plan to continue our open door policy wherein every segment, group, race, faith-based organization of our society is welcome to join us, understand who we are and share their concerns, beliefs to help enrich our society. Our partners and patrons such as the Thanksgiving Square, City of Richardson, Habitat for Humanity, Arapaho United Methodist Church and others can further attest to our organization and what we stand for.

Sincerely,
Gulam Bakali
Secretary, Board of Trustees
Former Chairman, Board of Directors
Islamic Association of North Texas
840 Abrams Road
Richardson, TX 75080
(214) 213-3039
bakali1@yahoo.com

Executive Summary
This section provides salient highlights that are enumerated in further detailed sections to follow.

These points resonate a consistent message: Islamic Association of North Texas’ Dallas Central Mosque referred to as “Richardson Mosque” in the referenced Freedom House Report, is in fact NOT what could be the implied intent or extrapolation(s) of this report. The Islamic Association of North Texas’ (IANT) Imam, Board of Trustees, Board of Directors, and the community base served emphatically reject all sorts of “extremes,” and remain constantly vigilant against such possibilities. In fact, we have been condemning violence since our inception vocally by our press releases such as the one for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Our place of worship is a nonprofit Texas Corporation for over 30 years, we are democratically governed; a good and safe neighbor; an active and Contributing Citizen; collaborative with other faith-based institutions; maintains an open door policy for general populace, academic research, schools, colleges, and State Department Foreign Visitors; partners with City and Law Enforcement, encourages civic involvement, etc.

The highlights elaborated in the accompanying sections detail the following:

1. IANT is a 501(c) 3 religious institution established over 35 years ago and serving approximately 100,000 North Texas Muslims and over 4,000 people from faith-based, civic, academic, schools and law enforcement agencies.

2. IANT’s spiritual leader is a well-known international figure Dr. Yusuf Ziya Kavakci, highly respected locally in the interfaith and civic circles. He is a sought after speaker for community events both locally and nationally. He has been a steady spiritual leader at the helm for over 18 years.

3. IANT is governed by an executive elected body – Board of Trustees (5), and an Operations elected body – Board of Directors (7). The Board of Trustees providing an oversight to the daily operations includes elected members who collectively have over 160 years of Corporate America/Business Entrepreneur experience. Previous Board of Trustees Presidents have been high profile figures from the Professional, Business and Medical Community. IANT’s Legal Counsel has been with IANT for over 20 years, and has provided us guidance over the years in dealing with media hype, stereotyping, etc.

4. IANT has been a law-abiding member of society and condemning terrorism since our inception. We have attached the 1993 bulletin wherein we deplored and condemned the World Trade Center bombing. We fully embrace the July 28, 2005 Fiqh Council of North America Fatwa against Terrorism.

5. Since 9/11, there has been even a greater bond between IANT and its neighbors, City of Richardson, Faith-Based Organizations, and society at large. This was due largely to IANT’s immediate action plan wherein Press Releases were issued, three Major Open Houses arranged for public tours – each followed up with Q & A, Strategy sessions with Law Enforcement for security enhancement, etc.

6. IANT maintains a Library with access to those requesting for reading, research, and school projects. IANT being the largest organization in the area provides the library as a service to not only Muslims but all other faith based groups for research and special projects. IANT records indicate that the books referenced in the Freedom House Report as collected from the “Richardson Mosque”:

A. Were NOT found in the Library

B. Were NOT ordered/purchased for use by IANT

C. Were NOT distributed to IANT congregation

D. Were NOT “read from” to IANT congregation

E. Were NOT promoted “FOR PURCHASE” to its congregation

F. Were NOT used to develop or author any POSITION paper to promote a “point of view”

In fact, majority of our members do not access the library books unless there is a dire need for Academic research or something similar. The Library Operations amount to a very small portion of the overall IANT functions.

7. In addition to a place of worship serving American Muslims, IANT is an ACTIVE, PARTICIPATING and CONTRIBUTING Member of Society as evidenced by IANT’s Activities (Classes, Study Groups, Women’s activities); Services provided (Outreach, Interfaith, Refugee Relief, Medical Clinic); Education Services (Arabic & Dr. Kavakci’s Lectures); School Programs - Full time (6 days weekly, all year) and other civic and collaborative events with City, Law Enforcement & other faith-based institutions, etc.

8. High Profile Visitors/Patrons & Friends/References belong to various groups such as: City, FBI, State elected officials, US Congress officials, Thanksgiving Square, Schools, Churches, Dallas International Visitors Bureau, Major Hospitals/Medical Community, State & Federal Agencies, Special State Department Guests from Iraq, Mali, Jordan, India, Sierra Leone, Niger, Crown Prince (then, now king) Abdullah’s special assistants, China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan (just to name a few) ……

9. IANT had Women’s active participation from its initial inception which continues to this day. The first IANT Board Member was (still living) Ms Amina Ismail and the currently elected IANT Board Member is Mrs. Bassima Dandan. IANT Women are VERY active and have their own elected volunteer committee headed by Ms Noor Sadeh. This committee participates in any IANT activities whether it is Outreach, Relief, etc. Currently the IANT Operations staff split as follows: Office Operations: (2 Women, 4 Men) IQA (Full-Time School) Teachers: (10 Women, 6 Men) PTO Board President Mrs. Sadia Muzaffar

10. IANT has continued to receive the same treatment in terms of full cooperation and support from the City of Richardson Police Department and the FBI since 9/11. In fact, depending on the alert level bulletin issued by the Homeland Security Department and the media attention, we receive calls from them before we request additional surveillance.

11. IANT’s collaboration and coordination with faith-based groups and others include for example: GDCC (Greater Dallas Community of Churches), Thanksgiving Square, DISD Religious Task Force, RISD Religious Task Force, Arapaho United Methodist Church, North Dallas Bible fellowship, Dallas Mayor’s Interfaith Group, Habitat for Humanity, Adopt-a-Highway Program, Temple Shalom, Temple Emanuel just to name a few.

12. On the Human Relief & Development issues, IANT has empowered Cindy Weber to organize and manage the Refugee Committee for over 5 years. She runs a Warehouse for storing supplies needed for the ones that came to our shores from Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq (Kurds), Ethiopia and others.

13. Lately, with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita disasters – IANT opened its prayer locations for accommodating evacuees that were served three meals plus a 24 hour food supply stored in the coolers for as needed arrivals. Lastly, we have been encouraging Funds to be collected from all faith based organizations to be sent as part of the relief efforts for the latest earthquake.

Appendices:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=1669&wit_id=4793 

Source: US Senate Judiciary Committee