Khalid Yasin

Khalid Yasin (born 1946) is an American Islamic preacher, a former Christian, who lives in Manchester, England and lectures in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. Yasin frequently travels overseas to spread his faith and has called himself a "media-bedouin," remarking that the Bedouins are willing to settle wherever there is "water and shelter". He began his ministry as the "Amir" or leader of Jammat Ita'hadul Iqwa on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.

Yasin has been accused of espousing a radical form of Islam. Channel Nine in Australia described him as "a charismatic preacher who’s capturing the hearts and minds of young Australian Muslims with a radical mix of pleas for the understanding of terrorism, anti-Western conspiracy theories and radical homophobia. Rather differently, the Oman Tribune described him as a "learned scholar" who "regularly tours different countries debunking the misinformation about Islam".

Yasin has operated dawah organizations under various names, including Islamic Broadcasting Corporation Ltd which was dissolved in 2010.

Notable views

In a speech that Yasin delivered at Bankstown Town Hall in Sydney, Australia, as well as in a televised interview, seen as critical of Muslims befriending non-Muslims, Yasin said: "There's no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend, so a non-Muslim could be your associate but they can't be a friend. They're not your friend because they don't understand your religious principles and they cannot because they don't understand your faith."

Yasin believes that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is probably man-made and that the US government is the likely culprit. He said that “missionaries from the World Health Organization and Christian groups ... went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus.”

On September 7, 2003 Yasin appeared on Australian radio program Sunday Night with John Cleary. Discussing the rarity of international governing bodies within Islam, Cleary asked where Sharia fits into that and Yasin replied: "Well the Sharia is the cement that keeps all the bricks together. The Sharia is the legislative element. The Sharia is the judicial element. This is where rules, this is where juristic decisions, this is where the courts, this is where law is. And I mean if you don't have a people that is governed by Sharia, then you have a lawless people." In June 2017 he was banned from entering the Kingdom of Denmark for two years.

Netherlands

On a Dutch-Muslim feature interview Yasin compared the controversial reaction he and Islam stirs to "someone walking in the dark, without knowing where they are going", and to people being afraid of things they are not familiar with.