Islamic Housing Cooperative (IHC)

• Seeks to help Muslims in North America purchase homes while adhering to Islamic Law's prohibition against the payment of interest
• Affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood

The Toronto-based Islamic Housing Cooperative (IHC) – also known as the Islamic Cooperative Housing Corporation – was established by Muhammad D. Khalid in 1981 to help Muslims in North America purchase homes while adhering to Islamic Law‘s prohibition against the payment of interest, known in Arabic as riba. IHC is set up as a cooperative, where members buy shares in a single equity pool. Once a member has accumulated enough shares to cover at least 25 % of a home’s purchase price, the co-op buys the house on behalf of that member. Thereafter, the member and his family live in the home while paying the co-op a fixed sum of money each month, including a 20% administration fee, until the debt is paid off in its entirety. At that point, the property’s title is transferred to the buyer. As of 2005, IHC had sold $30 million in shares and had purchased housing units for 495 Muslim families.

IHC was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document — titled “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America” — as one of the Brotherhood’s 29 likeminded “organizations of our friends” that shared the common goal of destroying America and turning it into a Muslim nation. These “friends” were identified by the Brotherhood as groups that could help teach Muslims “that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands … so that … God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.”

Also named in the Muslim Brotherhood document were:

• Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers
• Association of Muslim Social Scientists (of North America)
• Audio-Visual Center
• Baitul Mal Inc.
• Foundation for International Development
• International Institute of Islamic Thought
• Islamic Association for Palestine
• Islamic Book Service
• Islamic Centers Division
• Islamic Circle of North America
• Islamic Education Department
• Islamic Housing Cooperative
• Islamic Information Center (of America)
• Islamic Medical Association (of North America)
• Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
• Islamic Teaching Center
• ISNA Fiqh Committee (now known as the Fiqh Council of North America)
• ISNA Political Awareness Committee
• Malaysian Islamic Study Group
• Mercy International Association
• Muslim Arab Youth Association
• Muslim Businessmen Association
• Muslim Communities Association
• Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada
• Muslim Youth of North America
• North American Islamic Trust
• Occupied Land Fund (later known as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development)
• United Association for Studies and Research