Islamic Thinkers Society


The Islamic Thinkers Society is an Islamist group based in New York City that seeks the goal of restoring the Islamic Caliphate to create what it calls "an ideal Islamic society." Its members are located mainly in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, United States. The ITS is an offshoot of Al-Muhajiroun, a pro Al-Qaeda British Islamic extremist group.
According to Michael Kenney, a scholar of Islamist extremism at the University of Pittsburgh, by 2014 the group had "fallen apart."

Platform

The group states that it wishes to see a reversal of the Balfour Declaration, the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the San Remo conference. Its members allege that these agreements are part of 'Colonialist Designs' on the Islamic world, and they urge Muslims to consider them illegal, null and void. The group calls for an end to what it says are "Colonialist-Imposed Borders," "Colonialist-Imposed States," and "Colonialist-Imposed Rulers." Its members also show dislike for Jews, Christians, homosexuals and Shi'ites.
ITS calls on Muslims to oppose the United States, Christianity and Western society and culture, especially homosexuality, which it sees as Western. ITS is also notable for its hostility to Shi'ites whom its members view as not true Muslims.

Controversy

ITS is suspected of being an American offshoot of the London-based Al-Muhajiroun, a group that celebrated the 9/11 attacks, referring to the hijackers as "the Magnificent 19," and posted a burning picture of the United States Capitol on its website. The Islamic Thinkers Society also used to fly the Al-Muhajiroun flag and distribute Al-Muhajiroun tracts. The Anti-Defamation League called ITS "a pseudonym or an offshoot of the British-based Al Muhajiroun, a now-disbanded radical Islamic group that supported terrorism and the imposition of Islamic hegemony worldwide."
In the CNN program ParkerSpitzer, the ex-leader of Al-Muhajiroun, Anjem Choudary, was interviewed with the title "heinous terrorist" and linked to militant groups like Al-Qaeda. Choudary however, denounced these allegations in a press release on his personal website. The ITS has also published a press release in response to the CNN interview supporting Al-Muhajiroun's former leader Anjem Choudary, but denouncing links to violence in a similar fashion, stating "as the struggle is always intellectual and political."
When the group still called itself Al-Muhajiroun, its members held an event at Queensborough Community College, during which an Al-Muhajiroun speaker said, "We reject the U.N., reject America, reject all law and order. Don't lobby Congress or protest because we don't recognize Congress! The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it!"
Observers such as the Intelligence Summit have called the Islamic Thinkers Society a Fundamentalist Islamic group.

Activities

The group is based in the largely immigrant community of the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens, New York City but operates in the wider New York area. It is composed mainly of second-generation young Arab, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslim immigrants with a few converts.

2005

Press Release 10.31.2010: CNN Lies and Spitzer's Entrapment
Press Release 09.11.2010
Press Release 06.11.2010
Press Release 11.12.2007: On the Crisis in Pakistan
Press Release 10.15.2007
Press Release 11.14.2006: I.T.S. Press Release to the Muslim Communities of North America
Press Release 10.11.2006: I.T.S. Press Release to the Media
Press Release 06.15.2006
Press Release 03.16.2006: Press Release on the UK Arrests
Press Release 02.15.2006: Refuting Shia Heretic Claims of I.T.S. Linked to Al-Qaeda
Press Release 09.03.2005: I.T.S. Press Release on Katrina
Press Release 09.03.2005: Press Release on FCNA & Their Pathetic Fatwa