Muslim World League

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The Muslim World League (MWL; Arabic: رابطة العالم الإسلامي, romanized: Rābiṭat al-ʿĀlam al-ʾIslāmī) is an international Islamic non-governmental organization based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia that promotes what it calls the true message of Islam by advancing moderate values that promote peace, tolerance and love.[1][2][3][4]

The NGO has been funded by the Saudi government from its inception in 1962,[5] with that contribution growing to approximately $13 million by 1980.[2] Because of the Saudi funding, the League is widely recognized as a representative of the Islamic principles promoted in that country. Under Saudi Arabia's modernization agenda, Vision 2030, the country has embraced a moderate form of Islam, which the Muslim World League seeks to promote in Saudi Arabia and around the world.[6][7] The Oxford Dictionary of Islam says that "the group has acted as a mouthpiece for the Saudi Arabian government, which finances it."[8][9]

Muhammad al-Isa is the General Secretary.[2] The organization propagates the religion of Islam, encouraging Dawah and conversion of non-Muslims,[2] and rebuke and debunk criticism of Islam. The organization funds the construction of mosques, financial reliefs for Muslims afflicted by natural disasters, the distribution of copies of the Quran, and political tracts on Muslim minority groups.[10] The League says that they reject all acts of violence and promote dialogue with the people of other cultures, within their understanding of Sharia, but they are no strangers to controversy, having been the subject of several ongoing counterterrorism investigations in the U.S. related to Hamas, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.[11]

In its 2019 Country Reports on Terrorism, the U.S. State Department stated that the Muslim World League's Secretary General, al-Isa "pressed a message of interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, and peaceful coexistence with global religious authorities, including Muslim imams outside the Arab world," as well as conducted extensive outreach to prominent U.S. Jewish and Christian leaders.[12]

The League founded the International Islamic Relief Organization in 1978.[13][14][15][16]

  1. ^ "First Presidency Welcomes Leader of Muslim World League". newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d "Muslim World League and World Assembly of Muslim Youth". Pew Research Center. 15 September 2010. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  3. ^ Golam W. Choudhury; James Piscatori; Saad S. Khan. "Organization of the Islamic Conference". The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2015. The movement for Pan-Islamic unity, however, was not without some results. Its tenacious adherence to the concept of a united world of Islam ultimately triumphed in the 1960s, when new and more vigorous attempts to develop bonds among Muslim countries emerged. The Saudi crown prince, later King Fayṣal, led this new effort, motivated by his desire to contain Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser's Arab nationalism. He toured Pakistan, Iran, Jordan, Sudan, Turkey, Morocco, Guinea, Mali, and Tunisia advocating an Islamic ummah. In 1962 Saudi Arabia also established a philanthropic organization, the Muslim World League (Rābiṭat al-ʿĀlam al-Islāmī) to combat socialism and secularism.
  4. ^ Juan Eduardo Campo (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Infobase Publishing. pp. 511–. ISBN 978-1-4381-2696-8.
  5. ^ Islam in the World Today: A Handbook of Politics, Religion, Culture, and Society. Cornell University Press. 15 December 2011. pp. 745–. ISBN 978-0-8014-6489-8.
  6. ^ "How Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) has brought seismic changes to Saudi Arabia". The Washington Times. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  7. ^ Feuer, Sarah (November 2019). Course Correction: The Muslim World League, Saudi Arabia's Export of Islam, and Opportunities for Washington (Report). The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. p. 4.
  8. ^ "Muslim World League". The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015 – via Oxford Islamic Studies Online.
  9. ^ "Islam in Japan: A Cause for Concern?" (PDF). National Bureau of Asian Research. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  10. ^ Jacob M. Landau (24 July 2015). Pan-Islam: History and Politics. Routledge. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-317-39753-3.
  11. ^ Levitt, Matthew. (2006). Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Chapter 1.
  12. ^ "Saudi Arabia". United States Department of State. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  13. ^ John L. Esposito (2004). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 139–. ISBN 978-0-19-512559-7.
  14. ^ "International Islamic Relief Organisation". International Humanitarian City. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  15. ^ "Egypt: The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and whether it is involved in funding terrorist activities". Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 28 January 2003. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  16. ^ "International Islamic Relief Organization". Berkley Center. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.