Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin
Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin is an authorized Deputy of Shaykh Nazim al-Qubrusi, al-Hanafi, the Grand Mufti of Turkish Cyprus. He is a born Canadian, and also a prominent Canadian Sufi Shaykh with hundreds of followers in Canada and who has appeared in almost all of the Canadian media and promoted peace and tolerance between Canadians of all faiths.
Family Background
Shaykh Ahmed hails from an internationally acclaimed Sunni Muslim family with Arab roots which settled in the former Hyderabad State. He is a 26th generation grandson of Shaykh Abdul-Qadir Gilani from his maternal side and a direct descendent of Imam Zayn al-Abidin, the son of Husayn ibn Ali from his paternal side. His family has had a history of ties with Palestinian President H.E. Yassir Arafat who visited his home twice and the Arab League. The head of Shaykh Ahmed’s family in Hyderabad was a personal guest of three Saudi Kings, including Fahd of Saudi Arabia ibn Abd al Aziz, and was given official recognition by H.R.H. Mohammed VI of Morocco; from the Alaouite dynasty of Morocco.
Prominent dignitaries and leaders from the Islamic world who have personally visited his family home in Hyderabad include the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Imam of the Ka'ba in Makkah, H.E.Shaykh Abd al-Halim Mahmood; the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University; Palestinian President H.E. Yasser Arafat; the Grand Mufti of Palestine and Jerusalem H.E. Shaykh Ikramah Sabri and the Spiritual Head of Iraq's Sunni Muslims; the Custodian of the Mosque and Tomb of Ghawth al-Adham Shaykh Abdul-Qadir Gilani of Baghdad; Naqib al Ashraaf H.E. Sayed Ahmed Zaffar al-Jilani, a direct descendent of the Shaykh.
Religious Training
Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin was personally trained and commissioned by H.E. Shaykh Nazim al-Qubrusi to spread the message of peace and spirituality throughout the world, and as such was granted over eight consecutive Ijazah in the Naqshbandi Tariqah and was granted the ‘Cloak, Khilafa, and Ijazah Mutlaqa’ (successorship and complete license) in the Qadiriyyah Tariqa of his maternal ancestor Ghawth-al-Adham Shaykh Abdul-Qadir Gilani.
Work
Shaykh Ahmed has established the ASFC (Ahlus Sunnah Foundation of Canada) . He has been approved and recognized not only by his own Shaykh in Cyprus, but also by H.E. Naqib-al-Ashraaf of Baghdad, the Spiritual Head of Iraq's Sunni Muslims, and by the Custodians of the Shrines of the Ahlul Bayt in Iraq at Najaf, Karbala, Kazimiyya and Al Askariyya. Additionally, the Sufi Shaykh was personally invited by the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, and has spoken at conferences the attendees of which include former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Deputy Prime Ministers of Canada Anne McLellan (MP), and the Hon. John Manley (MP), Bill Graham (MP), Justin Trudeau, Dr. Keith Martin (MP), Senator Art Eggleton, and Alison McDermott (Chief of Fiscal Policy Analysis Division of Canada). He has been honoured for his efforts to promote peace, religious harmony and to end religious ideological extremism and intolerance.
In the Media
Shaykh Ahmed has appeared in the following national and international media: PBS, Toronto Star, CBC, CBC Fifth Estate, CTV, CP24, Yahoo! Canada News, Vancouver Star, Mississauga News, Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, Cross Country Check Up With Rex Murphy, The New York Times, National Post, CHQR 770AM, MacLeans, Western Standard, and The Pluralism Project.
Controversy
He recently courted controversy for appearing to brand Muslim youth and mainstream Muslim organisations in Canada who have ideological ties to the Saudis and their "brand" of "Islaam" as being inherently extreme. He also claimed that Saudi was distributing free Qur'ans with "essays for the need of offensive jihad" within some of them. He also said that the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia was an "extremist radical" university and that the AlMaghrib Institute was connected to this. However, more than thirty Canadian Muslim organizations, including two MP's joined with him at the CCAS press conference and rejected that very same "brand" of Islam and called upon the rest of Canada's Muslim community to also reject it as Shaykh Amiruddin was doing1.
The Shaykh also attracted controversy when he called the comments of Pope Benedict XVI about the Prophet Muhammad "irreligious" and claimed that the Pope's comments "openly insulted the legacy of late Pope John Paul II".
Shaykh Ahmed was however defended for his stance against Al Maghrib Institute and Wahabi/Salafi Islam and the Saudi/Al Qaeda link through the following article titled, "Al Maghrib Institute, Islamic Fundamentalism, Madinah University, Al Qaeda, and the Saudi Connection".
In the article, the author argued that it was no secret that Wahabism/Salafism was the religion of Saudi Arabia, and cited the 9/11 Commission Report to prove that Wahabism was the ideology of Al Qaeda and Usamah bin Laden. He then went on to demonstrate how the Saudis taught and proliferated this ideology through Madinah University, and then cited the Harvard Graduate School of Education and claimed that "fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers and Usamah bin Laden himself, all graduated from Madinah University" and since at the time of the article, all of the Al Maghrib Institute's instructors were educated in "Islaam" in Saudi Arabia, and 4 out of 6 Al Maghrib instructors were educated at Madinah University in Saudi Arabia, Canadians and Americans needed to be more vigilant and call for it to be immediately held accountable and or even shut down.