Backgrounder: Revolution Muslim
Updated: October 7, 2009
Revolution Muslim (RM) is a New York City-based anti-Semitic Muslim organization that justifies terrorist attacks and other forms of violence against non-Muslims and seeks "the dismantlement of western, secular dominance across the world," according to its Web site.
While the group is not known to be involved in any terrorist activity, its statements include implicit, if not explicit, threats of violence and its radical ideology is rooted in the propagation of violence.
For example, on October 7, 2009, RM posted to its Web site a poem asking God to "kill the Jews" and listing ways Jews could be hurt, including by burning "their flammable sukkos while they sleep" and throwing "liquid drain cleaner in their faces."
The group, which has only a handful of active members, has reportedly received the attention of law enforcement. In January 2009, in response to the Israeli military operation against Hamas in
RM was created in 2007 by Yousef al-Khattab, a Jewish convert to Islam, to promote the ideas of Abdullah al-Faisal, a Jamaica-born Muslim preacher who served four years in a British prison for urging his followers to kill non-Muslims, including Americans, Hindus and Jews.
RM has organized and participated in several anti-Israel demonstrations. For example, in June 2009, members protested the Israel Day Parade in New York holding signs that read: "May Allah give victory to the mujahedeen in Palestine; May Allah wipe out the Zionist vermin in Palestine" and "every supporter of 'Israel' is an enemy combatant." Members taunted marchers with obscenities such as: "remember Auschwitz," "mushroom cloud over
Yousef al-Khattab created Revolution Muslim (RM) in 2007 to promote the ideas of Abdullah al-Faisal, a Jamaica-born Muslim preacher who served four years in a British prison for urging his followers to kill non-Muslims, including Americans, Hindus and Jews. Al-Faisal was deported from
In 2008, NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence David Cohen said that al-Faisal was "the Caribbean equivalent of the Blind Sheikh" in reference to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric serving a life sentence for conspiracy to blow up
According to the RM Web site, one of the group's missions is to "support the dawa [propagation of faith] of our beloved Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal." In addition to being listed on the RM Web site as the group's "imam and spiritual advisor," al-Faisal appears to communicate with the group. An apparent letter from al-Faisal to al-Khattab on the RM Web site preaches a complete rejection of democracy and modern economics as a condition to being a Muslim. In addition, RM posts recordings of al-Faisal to its Web site and distributes CDs of his speeches on Fridays at locations throughout
Al-Khattab and his followers seek to bring about a global Islamic government that will abolish all other forms of governance, including "the dismantlement of western, secular dominance across the world," according to its Web site. This global Islamic movement will be achieved through propagation of the faith, or dawa, and through violence. According to By All Means Necessary, a pamphlet written by RM's spokesperson Younes Abdullah Muhammad, "preaching alone could never have achieved the fruit of the effort of a single day," a reference to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
During an impromptu January 23, 2009, speech that Abdullah Muhammad gave while manning RM's information table, which was set up on a midtown Manhattan street, he stated that the September 11 attacks were directed at legitimate "military targets" and explained that the World Trade Center was the "home of the economic power house that has kept the Muslims enslaved since the end of World War Two." In By All Means Necessary, Abdullah Muhammad also explained that the 2002 bombing of a nightclub in
RM's messages often condemn Jews, especially orthodox Jewry, reflecting al-Khattab's personal rejection of the religious Jewish practice he first embraced as a young man. While al-Khattab has claimed his hatred is directed not simply at Jews but at the Jewish religion, which he terms the "Rabbinical racist cult," RM holds an extremely anti-Semitic and conspiratorial world view.
For example, RM explicitly calls for genocide against Jews in
In June 2008, members taunted marchers at the Israel Day Parade in
Revolution Muslim (RM) activity ranges from distributing CDs and printed materials outside mosques during Friday services and participating in anti-Israel rallies to distributing propaganda online.
Its distributions often take place in front of mosques that RM perceives as being too moderate. For example, on January 16, 2009, the group set up an information table outside a mosque on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and criticized its Imam, who gave a sermon at the mosque that day. Pointing to the mosque, RM's spokesperson Younes Abdullah Muhammad asked: "How dare you tell someone to integrate into society?" RM also uses these occasions to collect contributions.
RM has organized and participated in several anti-Israel demonstrations, including several rallies held to protest Israeli military actions against Hamas in
RM often cooperates with representatives of the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), an offshoot of a British group by the name Al Muhajiroun. Like RM, ITS supports violence in order to create a global Islamic state. During one rally near the Israeli consulate in
RM runs online forums, a Web site and uses social networking sites to extend its reach. It regularly posts videos of its rallies and actions. Its Internet forum has several hundred registered members, including
Some of RM's online activity seems to go beyond merely sharing of information and includes implicit, if not explicit, threats. In one thread on an RM forum during the war in
Around that time, RM also posted a picture on its Web site of Chabad's world headquarters in
In a subsequent online video, al-Khattab recommended that Muslims protest at the home of the head of the Jewish Federation and said that the Chabad center and the
Another posting in March 20, 2009, encouraged Muslims to attack members of a Hindu group in
In March 2009, RM posted a link to an audio message by Osama bin Laden in which the Al Qaeda leader berated the Arab governments for not supporting the Palestinians in
Abdullah Muhammad also contributes to Jihad Recollections, an English language online publication put out by Al-Fursan Media, an apparent collaboration of online terrorist sympathizers. In the inaugural issue, released in April 2009 and purporting to be "the first English Jihad magazine," Abdullah Muhammad expresses support for Al Qaeda, writing that the September 11 terrorist attacks "…were, for the most part, positive and the results even better than expected." He also calls on like-minded Muslims to "exploit these results and advance the jihad... It is time to begin to think about the necessary next steps that must predicate the conquering of
Yusuf al-Khatab (a.k.a. Joseph Leonard Cohen), 40, was born in Brooklyn, attended a Jewish seminary in
Al-Khattab says his conversion to Islam started after a series of conversations online with a Muslim from the
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Al-Khattab and his wife converted to Islam and together with their children moved to an Arab neighborhood in
The JFA site contains anti-Semitic content. For example one section called "Judaism: A Religion of Terrorists?" argues that Zionist-Jews are terrorists and explains that "Jews who accept Islam are in reality leaving the proven illegal terrorists and joining the peaceful Muslims."
In November 2002, al-Khattab posted online a seemingly threatening note regarding a
After a brief time living on
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
