Sayed Hassan Qazwini

DEARBORN — Sayed Hassan Qazwini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of America (ICA), resigned on Friday, Jan. 23.

Speaking to a crowd of young Muslims later that day, the sayed said he would go back on his resignation if the ICA board of trustees is dissolved and the bylaws are suspended. However, the chairman of the board confirmed that these conditions will not be met and Friday, Jan. 30, will be Qazwini’s last sermon at the mosque.

The resignation rocked the community and sparked passionate debates on social media between Qazwini’s supporters and opponents. The controversy was fueled by a letter from the ICA treasurer alleging financial irregularities by Qazwini, including diversion of funds. 

Qazwini resigns

Sayed Qazwini had been the target of anonymous letters that accused him of corruption and adultery— claims that he denies.

In an interview with The Arab American News last month, Qazwini said the letters must have been sent by an enemy of Islam, adding that he has raised more than $10 million for the center over the past decade.

In the same interview, Qazwini criticized the ICA’s board, saying that some of its members lack the vision and only want to “hold prayers, distribute pies and organize fundraisers.”

Ron Amen, the chairman of the board, who was attacked in the same letters, confirmed Qazwini’s resignation. Amen said “a combination of reasons” led to Qazwini’s decision. 

“The news came as a total shock to the board,” Amen said. “I think it’s a huge mistake. There have been derogatory comments about the sayed, but I don’t believe resigning is the way to handle the adversary.”

Amen added that senders of the letters will be “running around declaring victory” after Qazwini’s resignation.

“They are a small group and the community does not believe them,” Amen said of the authors of the letters. “But the sayed must have felt so dishonored that he can’t serve the community anymore.” 

The ICA is one of the biggest Islamic centers in America. Its grand building on Ford Road has become synonymous with Islam in the United States. 

“I have been at the Islamic Center for 18 years, serving you with all my heart,” Qazwini said during his Friday sermon. “You have become dear friends and family members. I feel like I am one of you. I have not met anybody kinder or more honorable than this community.”

He added that he will be departing from the ICA after examining the state of the center. 

“You’ve seen me, and you know me,” Qazwini told his congregation. “After 18 years, I feel— and agony haunts my heart— that my role at the Islamic Center is over.” 

Voices supporting Qazwini rose at the mosque. 

Qazwini calmed the crowd and enumerated his contributions to the center, including building the MAYA Islamic school and founding the Young Muslims Association (YMA).

Qazwini said he feels his hands are tied and that he cannot achieve the goals he has for the community. 

“For example, I would like to have an Islamic college, an Islamic TV station, a charitable hospital,” he said. “I want these projects to become a reality and I feel like I have the potential of achieving these visions, but not at the Islamic Center.”

He added that his vision differs drastically from some of the members of the board.

The sayed reiterated what he told The Arab American News in December, that some members of the board want the center to be a social club or a village mosque. 

He said he has reached a dead end and the Islamic Center became an environment with no prospect for growth. 

Qazwini said his honor and reputation are under attack at the ICA, referring to the anonymous letters. 

“The problem did not start yesterday,” Qazwini continued. “It started 18 years ago when I first started at the center. There were people trying to cause trouble and halt the progress at the center.”

Qazwini said he has been silent all these years to preserve the unity of the community. He added that after his foes ran out of insults to bestow on him, they brought up the fact that he is Iraqi. 

“When you brought me here 18 years ago, did you not know that I am Iraqi?” He asked. “Besides, in Islam, is there a difference between Iraqi or Lebanese or Yemeni? And have you ever witnessed me favoring people because of their nationality. To me, believers are all brothers. We don’t have this useless rationale in Islam. Some people in the leadership of this mosque have a problem with my being born in Iraq.”

Qazwini highlighted his service and fund-raising efforts for the center, adding that some people at the center have made it a priority to destroy his image. 

The entire congregation stood praising Qazwini, as he told stories detailing how some board members were plotting against him. 

“The board has to go,” worshipers chanted in support of the sayed. 

“Life will go on”

After days of confusion in the community, Amen posted a message on YouTube on Tuesday afternoon, addressing the issue. However, the video was taken down by the YMA, which runs the center’s YouTube channel. According to amen, the youth group took down the video because of inflammatory comments on it.

In the video, Amen expressed the board’s support for the sayed. But speaking to The Arab American News on Wednesday, Amen said the door for negotiations with Qazwini has closed, confirming that Friday, Jan. 30, will be his last prayer at the center.

“He has upset his utmost supporters, including myself,” Amen said of Qazwini. “There might be two or three people on the board who want him gone, but there are 32 of us on the board. He resigned on the podium without telling anybody. How he let those few voices outweigh all of us is beyond me.”

Amen added that the sayed disappointed the entire board when he called those who don’t support him followers of Yazid in his address to the YMA on Friday evening. Yazid, the second Umayyad caliph who killed Imam Hussain, is one of the most loathed figure to Shi’a Muslims.

Amen said the board believes Qazwini is ready to start his own center in Canton. The sayed has hinted to a delegation of community leaders and board members who visited his house on Friday that if he leaves the ICA, he might become the leader of another mosque, according to one of the delegates. 

Amen said the ICA might lose some of its congregation to Qazwini, “but life will go on.”

“The founder of the center [Imam Mohamad Jawad Chirri] died and we did not close our doors,” Amen said. “The true backers of the ICA will remain with us. This is not a house for Sayed Qazwini. This is the house of Allah, and as long as there are prayers, Allah is not leaving.” 

The YMA stands with Qazwini

YMA members came out strongly in support of Qazwini on social media and at the mosque.

“The Young Muslim Association is forever indebted to Sayed Hassan Qazwini for his dedication to the establishment of an organization that serves the needs of the English-speaking community,” the YMA said in a statement. 

The organization said it is committed to representing young Muslims. It called for a change, mirroring Qazwini’s demands of the dismissal of the board.

“This community, with the guidance of visionary and personable leaders, such as Sayed Qazwini, has the potential to move Islam in America forward,” the statement continued. “Let’s create the positive change that is needed to allow the community to progress together.”

On Tuesday evening, the YMA held a special prayer at the Islamic Center for the unification of the community and in support of Qazwini. After the regular evening prayer, which was not led for Qazwini, a YMA member asked worshipers to keep the sayed in their prayers. Then a prayer for the “betterment of the community” was read.

Despite their outspokenness on social media, members of the YMA refused to speak to The Arab American News on Tuesday. 

“It’s a family fight and we want to keep it within the family, not out in the community,” an activist with the YMA said.

Najah Bazzi, the mentor of the YMA, did not answer The Arab American News’ request for comments.

Leaked letter 

A letter sent last month by Salah Hazimi, the treasurer of the ICA, to other board members, pointing out alleged diversion of funds by Qazwini made the rounds on social media. 

In the letter, Hazimi tells board members that the sayed had kept half the donations made to the ICA on four different occasions; and that he uses his office at the center to solicit donations for other organizations, including an orphanage managed by his family in Iraq.

Qazwini, who did not return our calls for comments this week, had explained that the center cannot hold on to all of the Khums donations. Khums, a form of mandatory alms in Shi’a Islam, amounts to 20 percent of the yearly surplus of a household income after all expenses are discounted.

According to Qazwini, the center must send a part of Khums donations to the Marja’a (grand ayatollah), who is the representative of Imam Mahdi, and another part to poor descendants of the Prophet Mohamad. 

Hazimi told The Arab American News that he did not leak the letter, which was supposed to be a private message among board members. “We communicate via email,” Hazimi said. “I don’t know who made this public.”

Hazimi also denied having anything to do with the anonymous letters that attacked Qazwini. He said he intended to voice his concerns at a board meeting, but was not given the opportunity. He added that he cannot talk about the content of the letter in further details before consulting his lawyer.

Amen said Hazimi had already discussed the letter at previous meetings “three or four times,” and the sayed explained the matter to the board.

Calls for unity

Dawud Walid, The Michigan executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), said the feud at the ICA affects all American Muslims.

“The ICA is a symbol for Islam in America,” Walid said. “Not only because it is the largest, but also because of the amount of attention it received both from the media and allies, but also from bigots and Islamophobes.”

Terry Jones rose to national infamy in 2012 following his plans to burn the Quran in front of the ICA. The self-proclaimed Florida pastor was faced by Muslim and Christian religious scholars and community leaders who voiced peaceful opposition to his plans. 

Walid said the ICA “fiasco”, which made national headlines, could harm the already-scrutinized Muslim community.

He called for unity and the creation of a Muslim arbitration board of wise men and women who can tackle inter-conflicts within Islamic organizations. 

Walid, who is an outspoken activist against racism in the Muslim community, said he does not believe that the letter-writing campaign against Qazwini was primarily based on racism. 

“But there is no secret that anti-Iraqi racism exists in the Lebanese community,” he said. “There is racism and colorism in the Muslim community, including and being prevalent in Dearborn.”

Dawud urged all the parties involved to calm their supporters, so that the situation does not escalate into violence or personal attacks. 

Wissam Charafeddine, the chairman of IRSHAD, a reformist community organization, described the situation as “divisive.”

“Why does everything we have to say have to stir hate to another part of our community body?” he asked. “Isn’t there a common ground and aren’t we all good people? Why the vilification of the other side?” 

Charafeddine criticized the community for emphasizing differences to promote division.

“We repeat our history,” he said.  “We create Yazid and Hussain, Omar and Ali, Sunnis and Shi’a, Persian and Arab, southern and northern, eastern and western. But it’s all in our heads.”

Charafeddine said imams need to be more transparent in their financial practices, and community leaders should be more sensitive in their criticism to religious scholars. 

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, the spiritual leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom, who was the imam of the ICA before Qazwini, urged the community members to refrain from posting degrading comments that encourage animosity.

“Let’s stop fueling this devastating fire, which would eventually burn both sides of this crisis,” Elahi wrote on Facebook. “Let’s be part of a solution; let’s work for some reconciliation between Sayed Qazwini and certain board members of the Islamic Center. Even if reconciliation was impossible, let’s find a peaceful end.”