Have you come across an ad on Facebook, Instagram or any other social media platform where an organisation is seeking donations specifically for Muslim prisoners in the US? We did, and we decided to check who they were after one of our team members saw the ad on a social media platform.
Notably, such advertisements started to crop up after the team member searched for some details on pending cases in Indian courts. The search and recent content consumed by the team member had nothing to do with the criminals in jail in the US or Muslims in jails in the US or anywhere outside India.
Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Council For Social Justice bills itself as a social justice/human rights organisation based out of the United States. As per its website, the organisation “strives to systematically facilitate assertive Muslim involvement in the field of human struggle for the rights of the poor and oppressed”. The ad attracted our attention, where it sought funds for buying hijabs for Muslim prisoners lodged in US jails. This is the ad that we came across.
The graphics read, “Muslim women behind bars are asking for hijabs to cover their hair”. It further describes the ’cause’ as “The Hijab can Serve as a Symbol of Submission to God, and a Way to Solidify One’s Identity as a Muslim Woman. Help Us Help Her.”
When we clicked on the ad, it took us to the organisation’s donation page that claimed that 10 per cent of the prison population in the US is Muslim. Interestingly, it further claimed that most of them “reverted” while in prison. The organisation runs a Muslim Prisoners’ Support Project (MPSP) to “distribute free religious material” to Muslims behind bars in the US. They distribute the “Qur’an, Islamic literature, headscarves, prayer mats, and more to prisons across the United States.” Interestingly, in the video on the donation page, one inmate described himself as a “new Muslim”. It is possible that the organisation is running a well-executed conversion program in US prisons and converting inmates to Islam using the money they collect via donations.
The over-the-board donation calls to give Islam-centric material to prisoners
Facebook Ad Library states that the organisation has over 200 active ads running in 39 different sets in India to collect donations. The recent mass campaign for India started on February 10, 2023. The ads call for donations for providing religious books, clean prison prayer rooms, hijabs, prayer rugs, and Eid meals. We did not find a single ad that runs in India and talks about their education or rehabilitation. It was strictly about making the Muslim prisoners more religious. Overall, there were 800+ ads from the organisation in the Facebook Ad Library alone.
The organisation also ran fundraisers for celebrating the birthdays of Muslims without much explanation.
The organisation’s anti-Modi crusade
Another alarming aspect of the organisation is now subtly interfering in India’s internal matters, which raises concerns. While the organisation is running ads to attract Muslims from India to donate money for Muslim prisoners in the US, they are using the anti-Modi narrative to gain sympathy from the viewers.
We found nine posts with the mention “Modi” on Twitter. The most recent one was about the BBC documentary. It talked about the ban that was imposed on the documentary by the Government of India. In the post, the organisation claimed Gujarat 2002 riots were a Pogrom on Muslims. Of course, they will never mention the burning of a train in Godhra, resulting in the death of 59 innocent Hindus that triggered the riots in the first place.
Older posts propagated the narrative that Hindutva is spreading in the US.
In another post, the organisation talked about the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and called it “Kashmir’s Black Day”.
In a post from October 2022, the organisation talked about freeing Kashmir.
How the organisation has been spreading propaganda about Kashmir for years can be explained by the fact that it is using stock images for its social media posts that have nothing to do with Kashmir or even India. Have a look at this post. The third image in this post has a photograph that was picked from istockphoto.com. It is a 2011 shot clicked by photographer Adrian Hillman. The description reads, “Editable vector illustration of a soldier carrying a wounded comrade with a background made using a gradient mesh.” It is not even a real photograph but an illustration.
The posts on its websites are full of anti-India and anti-Hindu narratives. For example, in a post, they talked about the demolition of rioters’ houses and claimed it was an anti-Muslim drive. It blamed Hindus and Hindutva for creating an anti-Muslim narrative here, here and here.
Who runs the organisation?
Dr Zahid Bukhari is the founder and Executive Director of ICNA CSJ. He was born in Pakistan and often shared anti-India narratives on social media. We noticed he has also shared reports by the infamous anti-Hindu professor Audrey Truschke.
From riding on the coaster against former BJP Spokesperson Nupur Sharma to blaming Hindus for attacking ‘innocent Muslims’ while talking about the gruesome murder of Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan, the Pakistan-born “scholar” Bukhari left no stone unturned to run well-planned propaganda on social media.
