• Advisory board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
• Named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
• Advocates the replacement of the U.S. government with an Islamic Caliphate

Siraj Wahhaj is an African American convert to Islam. He currently serves as Imam of the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York.

Born as Jeffrey Kearse, Wahhaj was raised as a Baptist in New York City. He attended Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, where he studied math education. His interest in Islam, he says, arose shortly after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., which prompted Wahhaj to go "looking for more militancy."

In the course of that search, Wahhaj became involved with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan, under whose influence he converted to Islam in 1969. Aligning himself with Islam's Sunni sect, Wahhaj studied at Umm al-Qura University in Mecca in 1978.

In 1981 Wahhaj founded his own mosque, the aforementioned Masjid Al-Taqwa, which initially was based in a friend's Brooklyn apartment (with a membership of fewer than 25 people). Today, however, Wahhaj’s mosque is recognized by Muslims all around the world.

In 1991 Wahhaj, who had managed to cultivate an image as a moderate in the eyes of the American public, became the first Muslim ever to recite an opening prayer before a meeting of the U.S. House of Representatives.

That same year, however, Wahhaj, in a speech before the Islamic Association of North Texas, called Operation Desert Storm (the U.S.-led military campaign to drive Saddam Hussein's invading forces out of Kuwait) "one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals of history." Moreover, he predicted that America would fall unless it "accepts the Islamic agenda."

In September 1991 Wahhaj stated the following:

"…And [Allah] declared 'Whoever is at war with my friends, I declare war on them.' ... Your true friend is Allah, the messenger, and those who believe.... Hear what I'm telling you well. The Americans are not your friends ... The Canadians are not your friends ... The Europeans are not your friends. Your friend is Allah, the Messenger and those who believe. These people will never be satisfied with you until you follow their religion ..." 

In a 1992 address to an audience of Muslims in New Jersey, Wahhaj expressed his desire to see Muslims seize control of the United States and replace its constitutional government with an Islamic caliphate. “If we were united and strong,” Wahhaj said, “we'd elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him.... [T]ake my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”

In 1995 Wahhaj was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White as a possible co-conspirator to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Wahhaj angrily objected to that designation, noting in his defense that he had eaten "dinner with Secretary of State [Madeline] Albright -- after the list" of co-conspirators had been released.

In the summer of 1999, Wahhaj testified as a character witness for convicted terror mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. Wahhaj stated, on the record, that he considered it an honor to have had an opportunity to host Abdel-Rahman at his mosque, describing the latter as a “respected scholar ... bold ... [and] a strong preacher of Islam.”

In February 2001 Wahhaj, along with Ihsan Bagby, founded the Muslim Alliance of North America, a predominantly black organization representing Muslims indigenous to the United States.

In August and September of 2001, just prior to the 9/11 attacks, Wahhaj was a guest speaker a "Jihad Camp" in Pennsylvania. The camp was organized by Safet Abid Catovic, a leader of the Benevolence International Foundation, a "charity" that would be shut down in November 2002 on charges that it had provided funding for al Qaeda.

In the wake of 9/11, Wahhaj spoke at a convention in Baltimore sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America.

On October 20, 2001, Wahhaj told a meeting of Muslim activists in Houston:

"[T]his [American] government has already sent in[to] every major [mosque], agent provocateurs. Most of you don't know what that is. All you know is about spies. The government has spies, they have infiltrators. But there's some difference from being a spy and an agent provocateur. What an agent provocateur does, he goes to a [mosque], he looks just like you. He's got a beard just like your beard... And their job is to entrap you no different than the prostitute, the police women dressed as a prostitute, whereas he's coming to the [mosque], dressed as a Muslim."

Wahhaj is a well known speaker on Islamic issues, traveling the U.S. and abroad to lecture on the virtues of his faith. For his talks, Wahhaj typically receives an honorarium of $1,000 to $2,000.

In June 2004 Wahhaj spoke at an event titled “Next Generation Muslims—Education & Survival,” which was organized by the Universal Heritage Foundation, a Florida-based outpost of Islamism and anti-Semitism.

Wahhaj was once an Advisory Board member for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). On June 6, 2006, CAIR's Ohio affiliate held a large fundraiser in honor of Wahhaj. Following the event, CAIR-Ohio issued a press release heralding the more than $100,000 that Wahhaj had helped raise that evening for the organization's “civil liberties work.”

In August 2006 Wahhaj was a guest speaker at an event organized by Young Muslims, where he shared the stage with Mazen Mokhtarm, Youth Director for the Muslim American Society's New Jersey chapter. Mokhtarm has promoted the official website of Hamas, a group which he has called "heroic."

Wahhaj today is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America, and he serves as a Board of Trustees member for the North American Imams Federation.

Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz has said the following of Wahhaj:

"People like Wahhaj went from Nation of Islam to Saudi Wahhabism, and they preach those extreme views to their followers.... Wahhabism is hostile to all 'nonbelievers,' to secular society, certainly to American society, and it can fit with black radical thought. Despite denouncing Islamic terrorism on a number of occasions, Wahhaj has expressed a desire to remain neutral about Osama bin Laden and his complicity in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has said: 'I'm just not so sure I want to be one of the ones who say, Yeah, he did it. He's a horrible man.'"