Islamic American University (IAU) is an unaccredited university in Southfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. “At IAU,” says the university’s website, “you can earn your degree any way you want to; by correspondence, or on campus.” IAU states that it “has grown from a project of the Muslim American Society, the nation’s largest grass root [sic] for Islamic work.”

Islamic American University identifies its goals and objectives as follows:

a) “Produce a new generation of Muslims to serve Islam and make Da’wah [Arabic term meaning “inviting” others to join the faith by means of proselytizing] according to the principles of Qu’ran [the Muslim holy book] and Sunnah [the deeds and sayings of the prophet Muhammad].”

b) “Attract both Muslims and non-Muslims in North America to pursue Islamic studies and other academic degrees in order to strengthen their connection with Islam and its civilization.”

c) “Produce highly educated and trained Islamic researchers and scholars who have a sound understanding of Islam, practice Islam and can convey it to the larger community.”

d) “Bring the Holy Qur’an to the forefront of Muslim daily life.”

e) “Provide intensive courses in Arabic and English.”

f) “Initiate joint research and cooperation with other universities and research centers in North America to provide practical solutions for issues facing the American society.”

IAU offers a Certificate in Qur’anic Memorization and Recitation; Bachelor’s Degrees in “Islamic Studies” and “Arabic Language”; and Master’s Degrees in the science of Source Methodology in Islamic Jurisprudence. 

The courses offered at IAU include, among others, the following: Ethics in Islam; Islamic Economic System; Reasoning Analysis of Muslim Jurists’ Disagreements; Qur’an Recitation and Memorization; Scientific Miracles in the Qur’an; Islam in America; Muslim Family Law; Islamic Penal Law; Contemporary  Arabic Literature; and Islamization of Knowledge and Philosophy. 

The founder and President of Islamic American University is Dr. Salah Sultan. In his online resume, Sultan defines his personal vision as follows: “To live happily. To die as a martyr. To meet the beloved ones in the Paradise of the Lord of Heaven and the earth.” In a 1999 speech he delivered to the annual conference of the Islamic Association for Palestine (the primary U.S.-based front group for the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas), Dr. Sultan expressed his hope that all Muslim children would dream of martyrdom for the Palestinian cause: “I want every child to sleep on the wound of Palestine and the actions of martyrdom, just like that mother in the country whose son wrote to her that they are to meet in Paradise.”

In that same speech, Dr. Sultan also said: “What does ‘the Cause’ mean to you? … the Children of Zion … cut open the wombs of mothers. As Khalid M. Khalid mentioned in 1992 when he visited [then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Shamir and saw on his desk a strange ashtray. He asked him, ‘What strange ashtray is this?’ Shamir told him that this was the skull of an embryo. The skull of an embryo? An Israeli soldier opened the womb of a Palestinian mother, took out the embryo, cut off his head, and gave it to him as a present.…This is the method of the Jews. Killing a Muslim or any other non-Jew does not matter to them. Because their motto is, ‘The gentiles mean nothing to us.’ This is what the text of the Talmud says: ‘If you come across a non-Jew, kill him!’”

Dr. Yousef Al-Qaradhawi was a Trustee of IAU until at least June of 2003 and perhaps thereafter. One of the most influential clerics in Sunni Islam, Qaradhawi is active in the Muslim Brotherhood and is a strong supporter of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. In April 2001 Qaradhawi issued a fatwa declaring that suicide bombers are martyrs whose murders of non-Muslim civilians are permitted by Islam. Moreover, he declared that the United States had provoked the terror attacks of 9/11 by supporting Israel.