Alleged Muslim Brotherhood influence operations

The Muslim Brotherhood is a Pan-Islamic movement that seeks to reestablish a world-wide caliphate that rules based on Shariah Law.Template:Title? The brotherhood has expanded its influence throughout the world, including the United States, through building mosques, Islamic schools, and establishing various front organizations. Through these organizations it seeks to influence and penetrate U.S. government executive and legislative branches at all levels of government as well as the law enforcement community, intelligence agencies, military, penal institutions, media, academia, and policy groups.

Its early methods for achieving this end included bombings, assassinations armed conflict, and collaboration with the Nazis. .Template:Fact Some of the Muslim Brotherhood's leading members in the U.S. have been imprisoned and some of its organizations shut down or named as unindicted co-conspirators for helping fund terrorist organizations and activities. Others have successfully infiltrated the government without much notice.

According to Peter Probst, a global terrorism expert with the National Security Associates WorldWide and 20-year CIA veteran, "the American Branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has adopted the political play book of the Communist Party. As the Communists of an earlier era, it has established a web of front groups, media outlets, charities and other entities to promote an ideology that calls for the destruction of the U.S. Just as the Soviets, through the Comintern and similar mechanisms, mounted a more than 50-year campaign of subversion, covert action, deception, disinformation and misinformation against the Western democracies, so have the Radical Islamists through the Muslim Brotherhood. Like the Communists, they have been able to insinuate themselves into the highest councils of government and into the confidence of some of our most sensitive law enforcement and intelligence agencies. They meet with Presidents, policy makers, and those who shape American public opinion. Their assertion that they represent the voice of moderate Islam and Muslim America has largely gone unchallenged in the popular press and other media."

Steven Emerson, a counter-terrorism expert and Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), asserts that "Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations in the West have a goal of redefining moderate Islam and overseeing a separation between Western Muslim communities and their secular host societies in order to promote Islamism and reinforce loyalty to the global ummah and weaken Western resistance to Islam. Presenting themselves as the moderate voice of Islam, they have created a narrative to their community that the US government’s campaign against terrorism is a generalized 'war against Islam,' serving to demonize the efforts of the US government and the West, which ultimately serves to radicalize and alienate Western Muslims."

Predecessors and Ideological Contemporaries

Naqib al Misri

At some point before his death in 1368, Naqib al Misri published tables of Islamic law in the book Reliance of the Traveller (Umdat al-Salik). Misri described the book as "a summary of the school of Imam Shafi'i'" which "contains the most dependable positions of the school and omits the weak ones."

In 1991, Al-Azhar University, one of the Muslim Brotherhood's centers of power, stated that an English translation of the Reliance "corresponds to the Arabic original and conforms to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community." Traditionally, only texts in the original Arabic have been considered to have such authority.

Concepts and definitions

The Reliance has been used in modern times to promote an authoritarian interpretation of Islam.

Good and evil

Misri cites the Ashari school of Abul Hasan Ash'ari to say that the only measure of good or bad is what is in God's law.

"The good is not what reason considers good, not the bad what reason considers bad. The measure of good and bad, according to this school of thought, is the sacred Law not reason."

Misri leaves this as the only definition and later expands upon it, defining categories of human behavior as obligatory (fard), recommended (sunna or mandub), permissible (mubah), offensive (makruh), or unlawful (haram) that are based only on whatever is written in God's law about such behavior.

Study of religion

While Misri endorses "seeking sacred knowledge" to bring one closer to God, he cites Nawawi to say that the study of religion is "blameworthy" if done for any other purpose such as "prestige, fame, people inclining towards him, defeating opponents in a debate".

Misri cites Mohammed saying that the academic study of Islam is a sin.

"Anyone who seeks Sacred Knowledge to argue with fools, vie with scholars, or draw people's attention to himself, will take a place in hell. The most severely tortured on Resurrection Day shall be the scholar who did not benefit from his knowledge."

Misri then discourages the public from studying Islam.

"it is adequate for one to believe in everything brought by the Messenger ... and to credit it with absolute conviction free of any doubt. Whoever does this is not obliged to learn the evidences of the scholastic... [W]hat benefits the common people and the vast majority of those learning or possessing Sacred Knowledge is to re[s]train from discussing the subtleties of scholastic theology, lest corruption difficult to eliminate find its way into basic religious convictions.

Banned topics of study

Misri names as "unlawful knowledge" sorcery, philosophy, magic, astrology, "the sciences of the materialists", "anything that is a means to create doubts", and "post-classical poetry which contains romance and uselessness".

Obedience to the priesthood

Citing Muhammad Sa'id Buti, Misri distinguishes between Muslim leaders and followers and describes the obligation of followers to be obedient to their leaders.

The first aspect of it is the word of Allah most High: "Ask those who recall if you know not" (Koran 16:43). By consensus of the scholars, this verse is an imperative for someone who does not know a ruling in Sacred Law or the evidence for it to follow someone who does. Virtually

The Prophet used to dispatch the most knowledgeable of his Companions to places whose inhabitants knew nothing more of Islam than the its five pillars. The latter would follow the person sent to them in everything he gave his judgement upon and had them do...

Apostasy

Misri prescribes the death penalty for apostasy.

When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.

Apostasy is defined through twenty examples, among them:

to prostrate to an idol, whether sarcastically, out of mere contrariness, or in actual conviction ...

to intend to commit unbelief, even if in the future.

to deny any verse of the Koran or anything which by scholarly consensus belongs to it

to deny the obligatory character of something which by the consensus of Muslims is part of Islam

to believe that things in themselves or by their own nature have any causal influence independent of the will of Allah

After these examples, Mirsi adds: "There are others, for the subject is nearly limitless".

Jihad

Misri writes that "Jihad means to war against non-Muslims" and describes it as a "communal obligation". Misri had earlier written on communal obligations that "if someone undertakes it, then the obligation has been fulfilled", but on the subject of jihad he writes that "When enough people perform it to successfully accomplish it, it is no longer obligatory on others." Success is defined as forcing all non-Muslims to become Muslim or pay tribute. Jihad becomes a personal obligation for all Muslims "when non-Muslims invade a Muslim country or near to one".

Misri forbids the killing of women, children, and animals unless they are involved in war.

Misri allows temporary cease-fire agreements, "a cessation of fighting for a specified period", provided that there is "some interest served in making a truce other than mere preservation of the status quo." Peace for its own sake is forbidden.

Mohammedan Union of Turkey

In April 1909 the Mohammedan Union declared a revolution against the government of Turkey, demanding the implementation of Shari'a law. The declaration was matched that same day by massacres of Armenian Christians in the city of Adana, witnessed by British Major Doughty Wylie. Wylie felt the initial reports of Muslims preparing for violence were so unlikely that he took his wife with him. He arrived to find Adana "full of a howling mob looting the shops" that "claimed to be in terror of the Armenians, who they said were rising up against the government." Turkish soldiers were firing on the Armenians rather than the rioters. Wylie convinced a Turkish officer to put fifty men under his command. After leaving them for a moment, Wylie returned to find that "my own guard had joined in the attack on the nearest Armenian house and killed everybody in it."

Abul Ala Maududi

In a 1939 speech in Lahore, Jamaat-e-Islami founder Abul Ala Maududi defined Islam in Marxist terms as not a religion but an "International Militant Party" engaged in a continuous campaign to conquer the world.

So if Islam be a 'Religion' and the Muslims are a 'Nation', 'Jihad' (on account of which it has been accorded the dignity of 'The Best of all Prayers' in Islam) becomes [a] useless term. The truth is that Islam is not the name of a 'Religion', nor is 'Muslim' the title of a 'Nation'. In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals. 'Muslim' is the title of that International Revolutionary Party organized by Islam... and 'Jihad' refers to that revolutionary struggle...

Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it.

Concepts and definitions

Jihad

Maududi defined "jihad" as "A World Revolution"

It must be evident to you from this discussion that the objective of Islamic "Jihad" is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of State rule. ... The goal of such an all-embracing doctrine is naturally bound to be world revolution. ... it is imperative for the Muslim Party for reasons of both general welfare of humanity and self-defence that it should not rest content with establishing the Islamic System of Government in one territory, alone, but to extend the sway of Islamic System all around as far as its resources can carry it. ... if the Muslim Party commands adequate resources it will eliminate un-Islmaic Governments and establish the power of Islamic Government in their stead.

War

Maududi defined the term "war" as something that only Western countries do, and only for profit.

The motive forces behind these conflicts are such individual or collective purposes as are completely devoid of ideological bias or support for certain principles. Since Islamic War does not belong to this category, Islam shuns the use of the word "war" altogether.

Maududi dismissed the notions of "offensive" or "defensive" war as irrelevant to Islam, while defining the "capture [of] state power" as "defensive".

... the two terms 'offensive' and 'defensive' by which the nature of welfare is differentiated are not at all applicable to Islamic 'Jihad'... Islamic Jihad is both offensive and defensive at the same time. It is offensive because the Muslim Party assaults the rule of an opposing ideology and it is defensive because the Muslim Party is constrained to capture state power in order to arrest the principles of Islam in space-time forces.

Welfare

Maududi described Islam as a welfare program for the benefit of mankind, and laid out a moral duty to conquer the world.

The sole interest of Islam is the welfare of mankind. Islam has its own particular ideological standpoint and practical programme to carry out reforms for the welfare of mankind.

Islam requires the earth -- not a portion, but the whole planet -- not because the sovereignty of over the earth should be wrested from one nation or several nations and vested in one particular nation, but because the entire mankind should benefit from the ideology and welfare programme or what would be truer to say from 'Islam' which is the programme of well-being for all humanity.

Muslim Brotherhood

Main Article: Muslim Brotherhood

Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Ismailia, Egypt in March 1928 as a fascist, Pan-Islamic, religious, political and social movement. The organization’s ideology is based on the beliefs of 18th century Muhammad Ibn abd al-Wahhab, an Arabian Islamic theologian and founder of the Wahhabi movement. The Muslim Brotherhood believes that society needs to return to a literal reading of the Quran and that governments should rule based on Islam and Shariah Law. They seek to reestablish a worldwide caliphate. Al-Banna himself said, “it is the nature of Islam to dominate, not be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations and extend its power to the entire planet.” Critics believe that the primary root of violent Sunni Islamic extremism in the modern era is the Muslim Brotherhood, as the vast majority of Sunni terrorist groups are derived from the Muslim Brotherhood, including Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In fact, Article II of Hamas’ charter states that Hamas is “one of the wings of the Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine.”

Early Political Action and Influence Operations

Al-Banna created an underground paramilitary wing of the Muslim Brotherhood called the “Special Apparatus,” which carried out attacks against the British as well as a campaign of bombings and assassinations that also targeted Egyptian Jews. The Brotherhood leadership regularly engaged in violent anti-Semitic rhetoric against Egyptian Jews which incited attacks against the community, including the torching of the Alexandria synagogue.

On the international level, Al-Banna supported Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem who worked for the Nazis to recruit international Arab support for Germany. The Nazis provided subsidies to the Brotherhood, which were coordinated by Al-Husseini, and part of the funds were used to purchase arms.

John Loftus, a former war crimes investigator, during his time in the government’s underground vaults, discovered information that connected al-Banna directly to the Nazis. “Mr. al-Banna was a devout admirer of a young Austrian writer named Adolf Hitler. His letters to Hitler were so supportive that when Hitler came to power in the 1930s he had Nazi intelligence make contact with al-Banna to see if they could work together,” Loftus said. Hitler had al-Banna establish a spy network for Nazi Germany throughout Arabia.

According to Yehudit Barsky, director of the American Jewish Committee's Division on Middle East and International Terorism, Members of the Brotherhood were also later recruited to take part in the 1948 war against Israel, which they considered to be part of their obligation to engage in jihad. The Brotherhood was declared illegal in 1948 after it was accused of assassinating Egyptian Prime Minister Muhammad Al-Nuqrashi. Later that year Al-Banna was assassinated, reportedly by a member of the Egyptian security forces.

Sayyid Qutb's Influence

Sayyid Qutb was another key figure in the early history of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was an Egyptian author, educator, islamist theorist, and poet. After spending two years in the U.S., he returned to Egypt and published an article entitled "The America that I Have Seen." He was critical of many things he had observed in the United States: its materialism, individual freedoms, economic system, racism, brutal boxing matches, "poor" haircuts, superficiality in conversations and friendships, restrictions on divorce, enthusiasm for sports, lack of artistic feeling, "animal-like" mixing of the sexes (which "went on even in churches"), and strong support for the new Israeli state.

Qutb concluded that major aspects of American life were primitive and "shocking", a people who were "numb to faith in religion, faith in art, and faith in spiritual values altogether". His experience in the U.S. is believed to have formed in part the impetus for his rejection of Western values and his move towards Islamism upon returning to Egypt. Resigning from the civil service, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1950s and became editor-in-chief of the Brothers' weekly Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin, and later head of its propaganda section, as well as an appointed member of the working committee and of its guidance council, the highest branch in the organization.

He is best known in the Muslim world for his work on what he believed to be the social and political role of Islam, particularly in his books Social Justice and Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones), in which he promotes Shariah Law as a complete way of life and advocates forming a vanguard to fight Jahiliyya (non-believers) through preaching (daw’a) and Jihad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system.

Qutb had influence on Islamic insurgent/terror groups in Egypt and elsewhere. His influence on Al Qaeda was felt through his writing, his followers and especially through his brother, Muhammad Qutb, who moved to Saudi Arabia following his release from prison in Egypt and became a professor of Islamic Studies and edited, published and promoted his brother Sayyid's work. One of Muhammad Qutb's students and later an ardent follower was Ayman Zawahiri, who went on to become a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and later a mentor of Osama bin Laden and a leading member of al-Qaeda.

Concepts and definitions

In Milestones, Qutb gave controversial definitions for many terms:

Islam

Qutb defined Islam as "the way of life ordained by Allah for all mankind ... and directing practical life in all its daily details. Jihad in Islam is simply a name for striving to make this system of life prevail in the world."

"One’s heart must be devoted exclusively to Allah and one must accept His law with full submission and reject all other laws, and one must do this right in the beginning, even before the details are shown to attract him. [...] The basis of the Islamic message is that one should accept the shari’ah without any question and reject all other laws, whatever their shape or form. This is Islam. There is no other meaning of Islam."

Freedom

Qutb defined "freedom" as "the freedom of man on earth from every authority except that of Allah", in particular freedom from the "obedience to human laws and judgments" of any other system of government.

"When they have no such freedom, then it becomes incumbent upon Muslims to launch a struggle through individual preaching as well by initiating an activist movement to restore their freedom, and to strike hard at all those political powers that force people to bow to their will and authority, defying the commandments of Allah, and denying people the freedom to listen to the message of Islam, and to accept it even when they wish to do so. After annihilating the tyrannical force, whether political or a racial tyranny, or domination of one class over the other within the same race, Islam establishes a new social, economic and political system, in which all men and women enjoy real freedom."

Defense

Finding that that Islam is the state of humanity as ordered by God, Qutb declares that any war to promote Islam is therefore a defensive war to retain the "freedom" of all mankind to live in this ideal state.

"If we insist on calling Islamic jihad a defensive movement, then we must change the meaning of the word “defense” and mean by it “the defense of man” against all those forces that limit his freedom. These forces may take the form of beliefs and concepts, as well of political systems based on economic, racial, or class distinctions. At the advent of Islam the world was full of such systems just as the present-day jahiliyyah abounds in various systems. When we take this broad meaning of the word “defense,” we understand the true character of Islam, in that it proclaims the universal freedom of every person and community from servitude to any other individual or society, the end of man’s arrogance and selfishness, the establishment of the sovereignty of Allah and His Lordship throughout the world, and the rule of the Divine shari’ah in human affairs."

"... wherever an Islamic community exists as a concrete example of the Divinely-ordained system of life, it has a Divinely-given right to step forward and establish political authority, so that it may establish the Divine system on earth ...

Jihad

Qutb describes all social systems other than Islam as "extraneous pressures" and "material obstacles" that impede the spread of Islam and must therefore be destroyed. Jihad is any action to bring about this destruction, which is described as a "liberation". Qutb aggressively rejects the opinions of other Islamic scholars that jihad is anything less than this. He approvingly quotes the Koran: “Fight against those among the People of the Book who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and who do not consider the true religion as their religion, until they ace subdued and pay jizyah.” Qutb continues:

"What kind of a man is he who, after listening to the commandments of Allah and the traditions of the Prophet, peace be on him, and after reading the whole history of Islamic jihad, still thinks that it is a temporary injunction related to transient conditions and that it is concerned only with the defense of borders? In the verse permitting Muslims to fight, Allah informed them that He checks one group of people by another, a law laid down by Him, so that the world maybe cleansed of corruption."

Qutb defines just causes for jihad as "to establish Allah’s authority on earth; to arrange human affairs according to the true guidance provided by Allah; to abolish all the Satanic forces and Satanic systems of life; to end the lordship of some men over others, since all men are creatures of Allah and no one has the authority to make others his slaves or to make arbitrary laws for them." He declares that "this struggle is not a temporary phase but an eternal state, because truth and falsehood cannot co-exist on this earth. ... The eternal struggle for the freedom of man will continue until all religion is for Allah, and man is free to worship and obey his Sustainer."

Orientalism

Qutb condemns the entire class of Middle East historians, known at the time as Orientalists, as "wily", "shrewd", and "dishonest" who cause Muslims to be "confused", "deceived", and "embarrassed" and who "distort the concept of Islamic jihad" by failing to accept the first principle that any action to promote Islam is justified as a matter of defense and freedom.

Abd al-Salam Faraj

In 1979, [Muhammad abd-al-Salam Faraj | Abd al-Salam Faraj]] constructed a religious justification for the overthrow of Muslim leaders in his book al-Faridah al-Gha'ibah, often translated as The Hidden Duty, The Neglected Duty, or The Neglected Obligation. His ideas gained prestige with the Iranian revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini, the assassination of Anwar Sadat for making peace with Israel, and the overthrow of the government of Sudan.

Current Leaders' Views

The current General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Badie, has demonstrated adherence to Hassan Al-Banna's ideology by reiterating its principles in a series of recent sermons. In a September 2010 sermon he reasserted that the Qur'an should be the constitution of the state, and declared it the duty of Muslims to enact Islamic law.

Badi also promotes jihad as a central means of returning Islam to its former glory. In April 2010 he declared, "Muslim leaders, Islam, to which you belong, advocates jihad as the only means for setting the Ummah's [nation's] situation aright." He continued, "Our revival, majesty, and glory depend on the return to righteousness, which will only be achieved through resistance and the support of [resistance] in every way ? with money, arms, information, and self [sacrifice]." Badi further proclaimed that it is the "obligation" of Muslims to stop all negotiations with Israel and to "support all forms of resistance for the sake of liberating every occupied piece of land in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all [other] parts of our Muslim world."

In a September 2010 sermon, Badi asserted that the U.S. "is now experiencing the beginning of its end, and is heading towards its demise...." He further declared that the victory of Muslims against their enemies was preordained and called upon Muslims to rise against Israel and the U.S.: "Resistance is the only solution against the Zio-American [sic] arrogance and tyranny, and all we need is for the Arab and Muslim peoples to stand behind it and support it."

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader and most prominent ideologue, is the author of fatwas legitimizing suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and U.S. military personnel, and expresses vehemently anti-Semitic views. Al-Qaradawi was named in the Holy Land Foundation trial as an unindicted co-conspirator for his involvement with that Hamas front.

World-Wide Expansion of Influence

The Arab League

From its inception in 1944 the Arab League has issued pronouncements in secular terms but acted in an Islamist manner, for example refusing to seat Christian Arab representatives on the grounds of their not being Muslim.

the former Lebanese Foreign Minister, Hamid Frangieh, a Maronite, had never been permitted to attend a League meeting. When the League's Military Committee assembles, the Lebanese Chief of Staff, Gen. Fuad Shehab, a Christian, is barred, and his place is filled by a Moslem officer of inferior rank."

Europe

Said Ramadan, al-Banna’s assistant for years and son-in-law, moved to Cologne, Germany where he received a law degree, and founded the Islamic Society of Germany. He presided over it from 1958-1968. In 1962, Ramadan founded the Muslim World League in Saudi Arabia.

In the 1960’s, senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders planned and built a huge complex known as the Islamic Center of Munich which became an important staging point for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. A new book by Ian Johnson entitled A Mosque in Munich describes the powerful force-multiplier this facility became for Ikhwan operations in Europe and beyond. It also reveals longstanding U.S. government ties to the Brothers, including Said Ramadan who contributed to the construction of this mosque.

Ghaleb Himmat, a Syrian by birth and Italian citzen, directed the Islamic Society of Germany from 1973-2002. He established the Al-Taqwa Bank, which Italian intelligence dubbed “the bank of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Himmat ran Al-Taqwa and a group of front companies in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Bahamas with Youssef Nada. Before it was shut down in 2002, Al-Taqwa became known for its funding of al Qaeda, Hamas, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters, and other terrorist organizations. The U.S. Treasury Department deemed Al-Taqwa as an entity that funds terrorism.

In 1973, several dozen Muslim Brothers attended a meeting of the Islamic Cultural Centres and Bodies in Europe in London, England in order to organize the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in Europe. Ghaleb Himmat was present as the head of the Islamic Community of Southern Germany. While no agreement on strategy to develop a European Islamic network was reached, this meeting laid the foundation for such a plan.

Four years later, the senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders met in Lugano, Switzerland, near the homes of Ghaleb Himmat and Youssef Nada, whom the U.S. Treasury Department designated as terrorism financiers in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, to discuss the strategy for moving the Brotherhood forward. Yousef al-Qaradawi, the current Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader, was among those present at this meeting. One of the first actions taken afterwards was the establishment of the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), whose role was to maintain the ideological purity and consistency of the Brotherhood’s expanding operations. During a subsequent meeting in Saudi Arabia in 1978, the Brotherhood decided to set up IIIT near Temple University in Philadelphia, an institution where leading Islamic thinker and Muslim Brother Ismail Faruqi was teaching at the time. Later, the IIIT moved its headquarters to Herndon, Virginia.

Muslim Students Association

At the University of Illinois in Urbana, the Ikhwan created the Muslim Students Association (MSA) in 1963. The initial leadership came from Arabic-speaking members, with the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood helping to establish the group. A Saudi Arabian charity, the Muslim World League, provided early funding for the group. Today, MSA chapters are present on many college campuses across the country.

United States and Canada

When the Muslim Brotherhood came to the United States in the 1960s, it called itself the Cultural Society.

In the 1970s, the Brotherhood formed a number of trade organizations in the U.S. including, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers (AMSE), the Islamic Medical Association (IMA), the Muslim Communities Association (MCA), and others. The Brothers also formed other student groups in the 1970s, including the Muslim Arab Youth Assembly (MAYA) and Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA).

In 1973, the Saudis created the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which is the financial arm of the Muslim Student Association. NAIT “controls” approximately 80 percent of the titles/deeds to the mosques, Islamic organizations and Islamic schools in the U.S. A 1991 Muslim Brotherhood internal memorandum on its US strategy mentioned NAIT as an allied organization. In 2007, federal prosecutors brought charges against the Holy Land Foundation for allegedly funding terrorist activities of Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organizations. NAIT was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

In 1980, the Brotherhood created a new organization to extend the footprint made possible by the swelling ranks of Muslim Students Association alumni. It brought together most of its groups under the authority of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which is today the largest Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization in North America. The creation of ISNA ushered in an era of massive growth of the Movement in North America.

Swiss authorities in pursuit of Youssef Nada discovered the document outlining a “project” for the expansion of Islamic rule worldwide. The 14 page plan outlines 12 steps to “establish an Islamic government on earth” involving a multi-phased long-term “cultural invasion” of the West.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the Brotherhood created hundreds of new organizations and built hundreds of mosques and Islamic schools across North America. It did so primarily with funding from Saudi Arabia.

Political Action and Influence Operations in the U.S.

Worldwide Strategy for Islamic Policy

A 1982 memorandum titled Towards a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy (Points of Departure, Elements, Procedures and Missions) was discovered by Swiss police in a November 2001 raid on the property of Youssef Nada. The document discusses twelve "points of departure" for a general strategic plan to conquer the world. These points include:

Point of Departure 5: To be used to establish an Islamic State; parallel, progressive efforts targeted at controlling the local centers of power through institutional action.

Point of Departure 7: To accept the principle of temporary cooperation between Islamic movements and nationalist movements in the broad sphere and on common ground such as the struggle against colonialism, preaching and the Jewish state, without however having to form alliances.

Point of Departure 8: To master the art of the possible on a temporary basis without abusing the basic principles [...] we should not look for confrontation with our adversaries, at the local or the global scale, which would be disproportionate and could lead to attacks against the dawa or its disciples.

Point of Departure 9: To construct a permanent force of the Islamic dawa and support movements engaged in jihad across the Muslim world, to varying degrees and insofar as possible.

Point of Departure 10: To use diverse and varied surveillance systems, in several places, to gather information and adopt a single effective warning system serving the worldwide Islamic movement.

General Strategic Goal for North America

The Holy Land Foundation trial helped bring into sharp focus the nature and extent of the Brotherhood’s activities within the United States. One of the most important documents the government entered into evidence was a 1991 memorandum titled “On the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America.” Written by senior Muslim Brotherhood official Mohamad Akram, the document lays out the role of the Brothers or Ikhwan in America:

“The process of settlement [in the United States] is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Brothers] must understand 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 and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. Without this level of understanding we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who chose (SIC) to slack…”

The document also lists 29 groups under the heading “A list of our organizations and organizations of our friends…” and includes some of the most prominent and vocal Muslim-American organizations in the United States. Those listed include the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust, the Muslim Student Association (MSA), the Muslim Arab Youth Association, and the Occupied Land Fund which later became the Holy Land Foundation.

According to Dr. Israel Elad-Altman, a Senior research fellow at the Institute for Policy and Strategy in Herzliya, Israel, "the Muslim Brotherhood believes that its purposes in the West are, for the moment, better advanced by the use of non-violent, stealthy techniques. In that connection, the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to establish relations with, influence and, wherever possible, penetrate: government circles in executive and legislative branches at the federal, state and local levels; the law enforcement community; intelligence agencies; the military; penal institutions; the media; think tanks and policy groups; academic institutions; non-Muslim religious communities; and other elites. The Brothers engage in all of these activities and more for one reason: to subvert the targeted communities in furtherance of the Muslim Brotherhood’s primary objective - the triumph of shariah."

Phases of the World Underground Movement Plan

In 2004 a Maryland transportation authority police officer observed a couple driving back and forth across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The woman in the car, dressed in the Muslim hijab, was taking pictures of the structural supports of the bridge, which the police officer observed as suspicious behavior. He pulled them over, ran their IDs, and discovered that the man driving the car, Ismael Elbarasse, was wanted on a material witness arrest warrant out of Chicago in connection with Hamas fundraising. The FBI obtained a search warrant to go into their home in Annandale, VA and discovered a secret subbasement, in which were 80 banker boxes filled with the archives of the Muslim Brotherhood in America. These documents helped provide detailed information that was used in the Holy Land Foundation Trial, which was the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history.

The Elbarasse trove of Muslim Brotherhood documents contained an undated paper entitled, “Phases of the World Underground Movement Plan.” It specifies the five phases of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in North America. They are described, together with comments about the Ikhwan’s progress in realizing each goal as follows:

Phase One: Phase of discreet and secret establishment of leadership.

Phase Two: Phase of gradual appearance on the public scene and exercising and utilizing various public activities (It greatly succeeded in implementing this stage). It also succeeded in achieving a great deal of its important goals, such as infiltrating various sectors of the Government. Gaining religious institutions and embracing senior scholars. Gaining public support and sympathy. Establishing a shadow government (secret) within the Government.

Phase Three: Escalation phase, prior to conflict and confrontation with the rulers, through utilizing mass media. Currently in progress.

Phase Four: Open public confrontation with the Government through exercising the political pressure approach. It is aggressively implementing the above-mentioned approach. Training on the use of weapons domestically and overseas in anticipation of zero-hour. It has noticeable activities in this regard.

Phase Five: Seizing power to establish their Islamic Nation under which all parties and Islamic groups are united.

Infiltration of the US Congress

Siraj Wahhaj

In 1991, Siraj Wahhaj was invited to be the first Muslim cleric to deliver opening prayers for Congress. Wahhaj would later be a character witness for al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya leader Omar Abdel Rahman.

Iftar dinner

Al-Qaeda operative Abdurahman Alamoudi and his American Muslim Council organized a Congressional Iftar dinner on February 13, 1996. Congressional co-sponsors included Senators Joe Lieberman and Spencer Abraham and Congressmen Nick Rahall, Dana Rohrabacher, Jim Moran, and Tom Davis.

Congressional Muslim Staffers Organization

Around 2001, future al-Qaeda leader Anwar Awlaki began hosting the prayer meetings of the Congressional Muslim Staffers Organization. CAIR director Nihad Awad and press officer Randall "Ismail" Royer were present at a CMSO prayer meeting led by Awlaki. The CMSO was organized by Suhail Khan and Jameel Aalim Johnson in the 1990s and would later be formally recognized by Congressmen Keith Ellison and Andre Carson. Johnson served as chief of staff to Congressman Gregory Meeks from 2006-2008. American Conservative Union board member Suhail Khan accused Fox News of "anti-Muslim bigotry" for reporting this information. Center for American Progress reporter Tanya Somanader condemned as "Islamophobia" all calls for an investigation into Awlaki's influence in Congress.

Anwar Hajjaj

In 2006, CMSO weekly prayers were led by World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) co-founder Anwar Hajjaj who previously served as education director of ISNA, president of Dar-al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, and president of the Taibah International Aid Association which was accused of funding al-Qaeda. The vice president of Taibah was Abdurahman Alamoudi. Hajjaj had co-founded WAMY with Abdullah bin Laden. In 2006, Congressman Meeks pressured the FBI and Homeland Security to drop their investigation of Hajjaj. Hajjaj was still serving as a CMSO prayer leader as of April 16, 2010.

Esam Omeish

At other times, CMSA prayer services have been led by Muslim American Society leader Esam Omeish who has been videotaped calling for DC-area Muslims to practice jihad to "liberate your land".

Muslim Mobilization Conference

In 2007, Congress's Sergeant-at-Arms cancelled the Muslim Mobilization Conference that had been organized by Jameel Johnson and the Peace and Justice Foundation of Mauri Saalakhan after discovering that invited speakers had ties to terrorist organizations. Invited speakers included:

• Anisa Abd El Fattah, former president of the United Association for Studies and Research which has been described as "the political command for Hamas in the United States" and who co-authored two books with Hamas spokesman Ahmed Yousef. Yousef and Fattah had been co-editors of Middle East Affairs Journal at the United Association for Studies and Research
• Abukar Arman, supporter of the Islamic Courts Union of Somalia

Dana Rohrabacher

Accoring to Kenneth Timmerman:

After 9-11, Rohrabacher's views and public actions took on a more sinister appearance, as radical Muslim groups began to count on him increasingly as support for their positions dwindled in Congress.

In a heated May 2, 2002 exchange with conservative talk show host Alan Keyes, for instance, Rohrabacher insisted that "[Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and [Palestinian Authority President Yasser] Arafat are cut out of the same cloth" and claimed that "there's been acts of terrorism committed against the Palestinian people as well," statements that made Keyes audibly gasp.

When challenged, Rohrabacher claimed that targeting civilians "was standard operating procedure of the Israeli army for years of occupation"... Rohrabacher was one of four Republicans and seventeen Democrats who voted no to a May 2, 2002 Congressional resolution (HR 392) that expressed support for Israel as it faced a wave of terrorist attacks that killed more than 600 civilians.

Timmerman noted Rohrabacher's closeness to fund-raiser Khaled Saffuri, a high-ranking American Muslim Council official and co-founder of the Islamic Institute.

May 2012 Democratic fundraiser

On May 16, 2012, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi hosted known Muslim Brotherhood leaders at a $5,000-a-seat fundraiser organized by Democratic congressmen Keith Ellison, Andre Carson, and Steve Israel. The guests were "about 20 members of a Syrian dissident group and 10 officials representing Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas front groups" including Nihad Awad and Jamal Barzinji.

Infiltration of the US military

Ali Mohamed

Ali Mohamed was an al-Qaeda spy who infiltrated the CIA, FBI, and US Army special forces. Shortly after Mohamed joined the CIA in 1984, the CIA identified him as trouble and issued an interagency alert. Others in the CIA Directorate of Operations gave Mohamed a visa wavier to allow his travel to the United States. Mohamed would join the US special forces in 1986 and become an instructor at the Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg. In the early 1990s, he approached the FBI to offer his services as an informant and would use this access to inform al-Qaeda of the extent of the FBI's knowledge of their activities. Mohamed would later be convicted of participating in the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Kenya.

During the "Day of Terror" trial, defense attorney Roger Stavis attempted to call Ali Mohamed as a witness. The FBI claimed to be unable to find Mohamed, who was then residing at his home in Santa Clara, California. Judge Michael Mukasey refused to require Mohamed to appear.

Peter Lance alleges that Ali Mohamed stole top secret files from the JFK Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg which were found in the home of El Sayyid Nosair.

Saudi recruitment

During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Saudi Arabia sent imams to attempt to convert US soldiers to Islam. Among them was Bilal Phillips, who would later say that "Western culture led by the United States is an enemy of Islam." Converts from this program included:

• James Yee, who was caught trafficing the names of interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison while serving as chaplain there. All charges against Yee were eventually dropped.
• Ahmed Mehalba, who was caught mishandling classified information while working as a translator at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
• Ahmad I. Halabi, who was caught with a large cache of classified documents while working as a translator at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Bilal Phillips

During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Bilal Phillips recruited US soldiers who he would later send to fight in Bosnia.

As a high school instructor in Riyadh, Phillips recruited Ali al-Timimi who would later be charged with recruiting soldiers to fight for Lashkar e-Taiba and al-Qaeda in Chechnya and Afghanistan while Timimi served as the primary lecturer at the Dar al-Arqam Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia.

Army chaplain program

In the 1990s, the US Department of Defense had a policy of only recruiting Muslim chaplains through two Muslim Brotherhood front organizations, the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council of Abdurahman Alamoudi and the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences of Taha Jabir al-Alwani. Alamoudi was later jailed for funding al-Qaeda. al-Alwani was raided during the Operation Green Quest investigation of al-Qaeda funding sources, but was not charged with a crime.

Gordon England

According to Diana West, Stephen Coughlin was the only expert on Islamic law in the US Department of Defense in 2008 when he was fired by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England on the advice of Hesham Islam, a "Special Assistant for International Affairs" who England valued for providing him with wonderful friendships and relationships" and "extraordinarily good advice in dealing with countries and people."

Gordon England addressed the 2006 national convention of the Islamic Society of North America at the invitation of Ingrid Mattson. He was introduced by Louay Safi.

Louay Safi

Common Word Fellow at Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Co-founder of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. Positions held with the Muslim Brotherhood front International Institute for Islamic Thought include Executive Director (1995-1997), Director of Research (1999-2003), director of the Leadership Development Center (2004-2008), and communications and leadership director (2009).

The Pentagon dispatched Safi to Fort Hood to teach about Islam after the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. In 2012, Safi would emerge as director of the political office of the Syrian National Council.

Martin Dempsey and Lloyd Austin

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fired Lt. Colonel Matthew Dooley for giving a presentation on counterterrorism strategies that identified Islamic doctrine as the root cause of Islamic terrorism. General Lloyd Austin, Vice Chief of Central Command, ordered Dooley removed from the command list. Dooley's presentation had included the prophetic complaint:

Political Correctness is killing us:

How can we properly identify the enemy, analyze his weaknesses, and defeat him, if we are NEVER permitted to examine him from the most basic doctrinal level?

Infiltration of US prisons

A 2004 report by the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice found that the federal Bureau of Prisons "relies solely on two Islamic groups to endorse its Muslim chaplains", the Islamic Society of North America and the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences of Cordoba University. Both are Muslim Brotherhood front organizations.

Dar ul-Islam

Dar ul-Islam was formed in 1968 with the goal of founding a mosque in every US prison. Its early leaders included Warith Deen Umar, who served as the head chaplain of the New York state prison system, and Jamil al-Amin, better known as H. Rap Brown, who was jailed for killing two police officers. The leader of Dar ul-Islam's Detroit chapter, Luqman Abdullah, was killed in a shootout with police in December 2009.

The Muslim Alliance of North America listed Luqman Abdullah and Jamil al-Amin among its leadership, and supplied prison ministers to the state through the Majlis Ash-Shura of New York, also known as the Islamic Leadership Council.

El Sayyid Nosair

El Sayyid Nosair, the assassin of Meir Kahane, was made a chaplain's aide at Attica State Prison where he was allowed unguarded use of a telephone, which he used to help coordinate the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.

FBI agents recovered "top secret memos from the Joint Chiefs of Staff" from Nosair's house, such as one containing "the positions of all Special Forces and Navy SEAL units worldwide on Dec. 5, 1988". Peter Lance alleges that these files were stolen by Ali Mohamed.

Warith Deen Umar

In 2003, Umar praised the 9/11 attack and was subsequently fired by the state of New York. Umar would later say that God sent Hurricane Katrina to punish homosexuals.

Zulqarnain Abdu Shahid

Shahid, a prison chaplain, was arrested in 2010 for smuggling boxcutters into a Manhattan prison. He had previously been jailed for killing a grocery store clerk during a robbery and had been released in 1993 after serving his time. His chaplaincy was certified by the Majlis Ash-Shura.

Osamah Alwahaidy

Osamah Alwahaidy, chaplain of Auburn State Prison, was charged with sending $2.3 million to the Muslim Brotherhood front group Hamas through the Help The Needy foundation. Alwahaidy had been appointed by Warith Deen Umar.

The Talem Circle

In the late 1990s, an informant told police of a group called the Talem Circle which "was tasked with training incarcerated members to work with Middle Eastern Muslims to perform acts of Jihad." The Talem Circle was said to be composed of persons involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attack and a second 1993 "plot to destroy New York City landmarks", a "Pakistani national and a Yemini who were in prison for murder", and several members of the Black Liberation Army involved in the 1981 Brink's armored car robbery.

Patrick Dunleavy named Yassir Ahmed as a member of the Talem Circle.

Jam'iyaat Ul Islam

Jam'iyaat ul-Islam was founded in 1997 by Rollin' 30s Crips gang member Kevin James. James recruited Levar Washington while in prison in 2004. Upon his parole, Washington recruited Gregory Patterson and Hammad Samana at an Inglewood mosque. The group was caught robbing gas stations to finance planned attacks on Army recruiting centers and local Jews.

Infiltration of US national security agencies

2002 O’Neill meeting

After the US Customs Department raided the Safa Group during Operation Greenquest, Khaled Saffuri and Talat Othman met with the department's ultimate superior, Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, to ask that he curtail the investigation. The meeting was arranged by Grover Norquist.

Outreach programs

Patrick Poole:

In many cases federal prosecutors have gone into federal court and identified American Islamic organizations and leaders as supporters of terrorism, and no sooner have left court before government officials openly embrace these same organizations and leaders as moderates and outreach partners. In several notable cases, the FBI’s outreach partners have been under active FBI criminal investigation and were later convicted on terrorism-related charges at the time the outreach occurred.

Islamic Society of Boston

Islamic Society of Boston head Yusufi Vali reported that the FBI and DHS have partnered with his mosque and the Muslim American Society since around 2009. The mosque was founded by Aburahaman Alamoudi and was attended by the Boston Marathon bombers, al-Qaeda operatives Aafia Siddiqui and Tarek Mehanna, fugitive Ahmad Abousamra, and Jamal Badawi.

Faisal Gill

Faisal Gill was the spokesman for the American Muslim Council while it was under the control of al-Qaeda financier Abdurahman Alamoudi.

In 2004, Gill was Policy Director of the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

FBI Counterterrorism Lexicon

Clare Lopez:

where the 2004 9/11 Commission Report contained hundreds of instances of the use of words like "Jihad," "Muslim," and "Islam," by the time the FBI published its unclassified Counterterrorism Lexicon in 2008, those words were gone, entirely missing from the document ...

2007 DHS terminology meeting

On May 8, 2007, U.S. Department of Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff met with "a group of influential Muslim Americans" who advised him to forbid U.S. analysts from using the words "jihadist," "Islamic terrorist," "Islamist," "holy warrior," and "Salafist," and to begin to describe "moderate" Muslims as "mainstream," "ordinary," and "traditional."

Yasir Qadhi invitation

The National Counterterrorism Center invited [Yasir Qadhi]] to participate in a 2008 conference while Qadhi was on a terrorism watch list.

Robert Mueller

In 2008, FBI director Robert Mueller gave an award to Yahya Hendi of the Fiqh Council. Hendi had been was a character witness for Islamic Jihad official Sami al-Arian.

CIA meeting cancellation

The CIA cancelled a planned August 2011 conference of the Threat Management Unit at the direction of "Muslim advocacy groups" who were opposed to the presence of Stephen Caughlin and Steve Emerson.

2011 letter to Brennan

In October 2011, over 50 organizations including known Muslim Brotherhood fronts wrote an open letter to National Security Advisor John Brennan to demand a "purge" of "bigoted and distorted materials" that accurately describe Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Arab world. The letter was digitally signed by Nura Maznavi of Muslim Advocates. Alleged grievances included:

• An FBI report that increasing evidence of fundamentalist beliefs in an individual implies an increased likelihood of associating with fundamentalists.
• William Gawthrop's statement that "Muhammed's mindset is a source for terrorism"
• A powerpoint slide stating that the imposition of a modern Islamist government "transforms [a] country’s culture into 7th-century Arabian ways", as has been seen in Iran, Sudan, Somalia, and Afghanistan.
• Robert Spencer's book The Truth About Mohammed, on the grounds that Spencer is "a well-known Muslim basher" and not of there being anything wrong with the book.
• Raphael Patai's book The Arab Mind, for making sweeping statements about Arab culture.
• An Army report stating that "Moderate Muslims are not exercising moderation; they are simply applying other means to accomplish the same goal of establishing global Islamic dominance." This is the subject of Mohamed Akram's Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America.
• An Army report stating that "Islamic doctrine is based upon the establishment of its culture in dominance of all others. In essence, all other cultures must not only accept, but convert or submit, to Islam."
• A U.S. Attorney's Office statement that internal conflicts appeared in the Muslim world after Mohammed's death.
• Robert Spencer presented two lectures on "the belief system of Islamic jihadists."
• Stephen Coughlin gave a presentation on Islamic law which one anonymous attendee described as implying that "Islam is out to take over the world and there is no such thing as a loyal American Muslim."
• A FBI presenter noted that jihadists believe fighting is obligatory and find support for their values in orthodox ideology, and zakat funds may be used to arm combatants.
• An FBI presenter used a badly designed graphic to make the point that Christians and Jews have moderated their values over the centuries while Muslims remain largely orthodox.
• William Gawthrop called for a propaganda campaign to attack the validity of Islamic scriptures that call for war against non-Muslims
• JTTF training materials state that Sunni core doctrine calls for the Islamic domination of the world
• The FBI intranet carries old books about Islam from 1915 and 1880
• The FBI library includes books by Daniel Pipes, Rafael Israeli, David Bukay, and Robert Spencer.

Co-signatories included:

• AlMaghrib Institute
• American Coalition for Good Government
• American Muslim Association of Lawyers
• American Muslim Voice
• American Pakistan Foundation
• American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
• Arab American Association of New York
• Arab American Institute (AAI)
• Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services(ACCESS)
• Arab Muslim American Federation (AMAF)
• Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers (BAAML)
• Capitol Area Muslim Bar Association
• Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC)
• Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan (CIOM)
• Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
• DRUM - Desis Rising Up and Moving
• EMERGE-USA
• Florida Muslim Bar Association
• Georgia Association of Muslim Lawyers
• Houston Shifa Services Foundation
• indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC)
• Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)
• Islamic Information Center
• Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA)
• Islamic Networks Group (ING)
• Islamic Relief USA
• Islamic Shura Council of Southern California
• Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH)
• Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
• KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights
• Majlis Ash-Shura (Islamic Leadership Council) of Metropolitan NY
• Michigan Muslim Bar Association
• Muslim Advocates
• Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC)
• Muslim American Society (MAS)
• Muslim Bar Association of Chicago
• Muslim Bar Association of New York
• Muslim Bar Association of Southern California
• Muslim Congress/Justice360
• Muslim Consultative Network (MCN)
• Muslim Lawyers Association of Houston
• Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA)
• Muslim Peace Coalition USA
• Muslim Progressive Traditionalist Alliance
• Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
• National Muslim Law Students Association
• National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC)
• New England Muslim Bar Association
• Northern California Islamic Council
• Ohio Muslim Bar Association
• Pakistani American Bar Association(PABA)
• Pakistani American Leadership Center (PAL-C)
• Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee
• Somali Action Alliance
• South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
• South Asian Network (SAN)
• Women in Islam, Inc.

Justice Department 2011 meeting

In October 2011:

Top Justice Department officials convened a meeting Wednesday where

invited Islamist advocates lobbied them for cutbacks in anti-terror funding, changes in agents’ training manuals, additional curbs on investigators and a legal declaration that U.S. citizens’ criticism of Islam constitutes racial

discrimination.

Speakers included:

• Sahar Aziz
• Mohamed Magid - head of the Islamic Society of North America

Those in attendance included:

• Thomas Perez - head of the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice
• Dwight Holton - acting US Attorney for Oregon

Homeland Security CVE Directives

In October 2011, the Department of Homeland Security issued a list of "Training Do’s and Don’ts" which forbid instructors from discussing Islamic doctrine, giving lessons learned from past events, or mentioning the terrorist ties of "mainstream Muslim organizations." The memo favorably mentioned the report Manufacturing the Muslim Menace by Political Research Associates analyst Thomas Cincotta, a former regional director for the Russian intelligence front National Lawyers Guild.

Touchstone document

In March 2012, the FBI published the Touchstone training principles document which stated that:

Training must emphasize that no investigative or intelligence collection activity may be based solely on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religious affiliation. Specifically, training must focus on behavioral indicators that have a potential nexus to terrorist or criminal activity, while making clear that religious expression, protest activity, and the espousing of political or ideological beliefs are constitutionally protected activities that must not be equated with terrorism or criminality absent other indicia of such offenses.

This paragraph is widely understood by law enforcement agents to mean that membership in a known terrorist organization and expressed support for terrorism is not to be considered "a potential nexus to terrorist or criminal activity". Template:Cn

CIA Countering Violent Extremism panel

In July 2012, the CIA invited Mohamed Magid of the Muslim Brotherhood front ADAMS to sit on a panel at the "Countering Violent Extremism Workshop for the National Capitol Region."

Infiltration of the White House

Iftar dinners

Hillary Clinton hosted Iftar dinners for unidentified "Muslim-American leaders" at the White House during the 1990s. According to Christopher S. Carson:

Bill Clinton’s personal charm offensive to the world of Islamic extremism actually began on November 9th, 1995, when he and Al Gore met with Abdulrahman Alamoudi, executive director of the American Muslim Council (AMC), as part of an overall suck-up session with 23 other Muslim leaders. December 8th saw his NSC chief, Anthony Lake, meet again with Mr. Alamoudi at the White House, this time with some AMC board members. By February 20th of 1996, Mrs. Clinton herself was allowing the AMC to literally draw up the Muslim guest list for the historic White House reception marking the end of Ramadan. Mrs. Clinton even took it to the next level, as she has been wont to do. Mrs. Clinton's syndicated newspaper column of Feb. 8th, 1996, called "Islam in America," was actually based on literal "talking points" supplied by the AMC.

On November 19, 2001, President George W. Bush began hosting the annual Iftar dinner at the White House. Invited attendees that year included Abdurahman Alamoudi and Nihad Awad.

The 2009 White House Iftar dinner was attended by:

• Ingrid Mattson - head of the Islamic Society of North America
• Yahya Hendi - Member of the Fiqh Council of North America and the Islamic Society of North America , imam of Georgetown University and the Islamic Society of Frederick, Maryland
• Dalia Mogahed - supporter of ISNA and CAIR, associate of John Esposito

In 2011, the White House left the names of certain invitees off their published guest list. These included:

• Mohamed Magid - imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque and president of the Islamic Society of North America
• Haris Tarin - Washington regional director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council

Huma Abedin

In the mid-1990s, Huma Abedin was a member of the executive board of the Georgetown University Muslim Students' Association. Abedin "worked for Hillary Clinton in various capacities" in 1996-2003 and became one of Clinton's top advisors while she was Secretary of State under Barack Obama.

Huma Abedin's extremist connections include:

• Abdullah Omar Nasseef - Founder of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs where Huma Abedin was assistant editor from 1996-2008. Former Secretary General of the Muslim World League and former deputy president of Shura Council of the World Muslim Congress which was founded by Said Ramadan and Hassan al-Banna. Described as "a major Muslim Brotherhood figure involved in the financing of al-Qaeda" and "a senior Muslim Brotherhood leadership figure and Saudi royal family insider with direct connections to financial entities implicated in pre-9/11 funding of al-Qa'eda." Founded the Rabita Trust in 1988 and appointed al-Qaeda co-founder Wa'el Hamza Julaidan as its manager. "The journal was operated under the management of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth".
• Zyed Abedin - Huma Abedin's father. Co-founder and managing editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.
• Saleha Mahmoud Abedin - Huma Abedin's mother. Co-founder of the Muslim Sisterhood, the womens' branch of the Muslim Brotherood. Leader of the International Islamic Committee for Woman and Child, a component of the Union of Good of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, which calls for the revocation of laws against child marriage, child abuse, spousal abuse, and female genital mutilation. Board member of the International Islamic Council for Dawa and Relief, another Union of Good subsidiary.
• Hassan Abedin - Huma Abedin's brother. Fellow at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies at a time when its board included Abdullah Omar Nasseef and Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
• Heba A. Khaled - Huma Abedin's sister. Assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.

Akin Gump

In December 2001 it was reported that: "Bush has faced stiff resistance from the kingdom in his repeated requests to freeze suspected terrorist bank accounts." This resistance was heavily implied to come from the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld which represented Khalid bin Mahfouz, Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory owner Salah Idris, and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, and was a registered lobbyist for Saudi Arabia.

Akin Gump partners named as particularly suspicious include:

• James C. Langdon, Jr. - "one of President Bush's closest Texas friends" Appointed to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in October 2001.
• George R. Salem - "a Bush fund-raiser who chaired his 2000 campaign's outreach to Arab-Americans"
• Barnett A. Kress - also known as Sandy Kress, appointed by Bush to work in the White House as an unpaid consultant
• Vernon Jordan - influential in the Clinton administration

Rashad Hussain

In October 2000, Rashad Hussain spoke alongside Muslim Brotherhood figures Murad Wilfried Hofmann, Louay Safi, Jamal al Barzinji, Hisham Al-Talib, and AbdulHamid AbuSulayman at a conference of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists held at the Georgetown University Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

In 2002, Hussain was a congressional staffer.

Hussain spoke at the 2004 convention of the Muslim Students Association where he condemned the prosecution of Islamic Jihad treasurer Sami al-Arian as "politically motivated." The Washington Report on Middle East Affair deleted this quote from an old report on Hussain after October 2007.

In 2008, Hussein wrote a paper that called on US war policy makers to take advice from the Fiqh Council of North America and that blamed the United States for anti-American terrorism.

In 2010, Hussein was appointed US Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference by U.S. President Barack Obama. At that time, Hussain was deputy assistant counsel to President Obama.

Mehdi K. Alhassani

Mehdi Alhassani was head of the Georgetown University Muslim Student Association (2005-2006) and a former employee of the Arab American Institute. By 2012, Alhassani was deep enough inside the White House to have received an email from Obama spokesman Ben Rhodes defining the talking points for the Benghazi attack.

Alhassani had met with Samir Mayekar at the White House on September 11, 2012, the day of the 2012 Benghazi attack. Mayekar, the former White House Director of National Security Personnel in 2009-2010, was then a Boeing operative in Strategy and Business Capture and an Associate Fellow of the Truman National Security Project.

Eboo Patel

In 2005, Eboo Patel contributed to the book Letters from Young Activists by editor Dan Berger. Other contributors included Ismail Khalidi, son of Rashid Khalidi; Chesa Boudin, son of Bill Ayers; and Bernardine Dohrn. Template:Cn

Patel became a member of the Obama administrations' Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.

In July 2011, Patel spoke at a Muslim Students Association event alongside Tariq Ramadan, Siraj Wahhaj, and Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi.

Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett invited Islamic Society of North America leader Ingrid Mattson to speak at President Barack Obama's 2008 inauguration and to work in the White House Council on Women and Girls.

Jarrett spoke at the 2009 ISNA convention.

Key Influence Operators in the U.S.

Abdurahman Alamoudi

Abdurahman Alamoudi was a Muslim Brother who had established a couple Muslim groups in the U.S. associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and who was on the board of several other associated groups. He founded and was Executive Director of the American Muslim Council (AMC), which, for many years, was regarded as the premier American Muslim organization, was regarded by both Republican and Democratic administrations as the “go to guy” on issues that could affect Muslim America. Alamoudi was an honored guest at the White House, posed for photographs with American Presidents and their families, and rubbed elbows with political movers and shakers of both political parties. The government believed Alamoudi represented moderation and the best Muslim America had to offer. He even represented the Muslim American community at memorial services held at the National Cathedral to honor the victims of 9/11.

The Clinton administration used Alamoudi as a goodwill ambassador with Muslim communities, foreign and abroad, and made him responsible for identifying, training and credentialing chaplains for the United States military and penal institutions.He was also an advisor on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

In 1998, Alamoudi provided at least $20,000 in checks enabling Republican activist Grover Norquist to establish what Paul E. Sperry, investigative journalist and Stanford University Hoover Institute fellow, believes is a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization targeted at penetrating GOP circles and the campaign of then-Governor George W. Bush. The new entity was called the Islamic Free Market Institute (better known as the Islamic Institute, or II). Alamoudi also detailed his long-time deputy, Khaled Saffuri to serve as its first executive director, with Norquist as the Chairman of the Board. Norquist’s old lobbying firm, Janus-Merritt, was a registered agent for Alamoudi, and received some $40,000 from him. (Norquist and his Muslim partner at the firm also represented the Pakistani government on military aid.)

In 2003, Alamoudi was detained at Gatwick Airport trying to enter the U.S. with some $340,000 of Libyan money. He was arrested on his arrival at Dulles and ultimately charged with making some 10 illegal trips to Libya in violation of U.S. law. As part of a plea agreement, he surrendered an estimated $910,000 he had received from the Libyan government, and acknowledged his role in a plot to assassinate then- Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. (Alamoudi had agreed to try to recruit the assassins). Alamoudi also acknowledged membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Treasury Department reports that he had raised a million dollars for al Qaeda. A July 14, 2005, U.S. Treasury Department press release stated: “According to information available to the U.S. government, the September 2003 arrest of Alamoudi was a severe blow to al-Qaida, as Alamoudi had a close relationship with al-Qaida and had raised money for al-Qaida in the United States.”

Alamoudi funded the IHH through the Success Foundation and the Happy Hearts Foundation. Mohamed Omeish and Yaqub Mizra assisted in the formation of these groups. Alamoudi also served as vice president of Abudllah bin Laden's Taibah International Aid Association. Between 1996 and 2002, Alamoudi guided $3.8 million through the Success Foundation and the American Muslim Foundation, and he deposited over $2 million into his personal bank accounts that he did not report as income. Five of Alamoudi's relatives working for the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia gave him over $500,000 during this time period.

Anwar Awlaki

Anwar Awlaki was the imam of Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia and a prayer leader in Congress during the early 2000s. He later became the operational leader of al-Qaeda and was killed in a US drone strike in 2011.

Awlaki claimed to have lived with "the mujahideen" in Afghanistan during the early 1990s and to have returned to the United States after the 1993 conquest of Kabul. Upon his return, he attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins where he led the campus Muslim Students Association. During the late 1990s, Awlaki was the San Diego regional director for the Charitable Society for Social Welfare which had been founded by Abdul Majid Al Zindani. CSSW spokesman Jamal Al-Haddi fully denied this and other allegations that were confirmed by information on the CSSW website. FBI agent Brian Murphy called CSSW a "front organization to funnel money to terrorists" while testifying in the trial of Numan Maflahi, the New York regional director of the CSSW. The US Department of Labor gave the CSSW $3.5 million in 2008-2009.

In July and August 2001, Anwar Awlaki purchased airline tickets for future 9/11 hijackers Mohammed Atta, Satam al-Suqami, and Walid al-Sheri. The FBI was aware of this information by September 27. Awlaki also had ties to 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi, Khalid al-Mihdhar, and Hani Hanjour, and was questioned by the FBI about these relationships before September 20.

In October 2001, New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein promoted Awlaki as "a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West" and one of several leaders calling on Muslims to moderate their message. Others promoted in Goodstein's article included:

• Hassan and Maher Hathout of the Islamic Center of Southern California and American Muslim Political Coordinating Council
• Hamza Yusuf of the Zaytuna Institute of Berkeley, California
• W. Deen Muhammad of the Nation of Islam
• Jamal M. Said of the Bridgeview Mosque of Chicago
• Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Al-Farah mosque of New York City and founder of the American Sufi Muslim Association
• John Esposito, who was quoted praising the diversity of Islam

Shortly after 9/11, Awlaki began leading prayers for Muslim Congressional staffers. On February 5, 2002, the Secretary of the Army's Office of General Counsel hosted Awlaki as the guest speaker at a Pentagon luncheon on the subject of "Islam and Middle Eastern Politics and Culture." Awlaki was recommended by an attendee of the Fairfax Mosque. FBI documents released in 2013 suggest that the FBI had considered Awlaki a US intelligence asset.

In October 2002, US Attorney David Gaouette cancelled an arrest warrant for Awlaki on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

Upon Awlaki's death in 2009, Dar al-Hijrah issued a statement praising "his interfaith outreach, civic engagement and tolerance" and blaming alleged torture while in Yemeni custody in 2002 for his turn to al-Qaeda.

Suhail Khan

According to Frank Gaffney, founder and President of the American Center for Security Policy, Alamoudi sponsored Suhail Khan ? Khan being the eldest son of one of the founding fathers of the Brotherhood in America ? and got Khan into the Bush White House as the gatekeeper for Muslims, whereupon he got Sami al-Arian and other senior Brotherhood figures "past security." At the time, Sami al-Arian was running Palestinian Islamic Jihad from his University of Florida professorship. He directed Suhail Khan to lobby the Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress to get rid of the secret evidence law, which stipulated that classified information could be used to make a deportation case against an illegal alien without having to share this information with the illegal alien. The purpose of the law was to protect sources and methods. Al-Arian’s brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, was being held at the time in a federal detention center in Florida on the basis of secret evidence. He enlisted Grover Norquist and two Congressmen, Tom Campbell and John Conyers, to help him abolish the secret evidence law. Gaffney believes, they persuaded George W. Bush to say, in a presidential debate against Al Gore, that if elected he would abolish the secret evidence law. On the eve of 9/11, Norquist personally went to the Hill and lobbied to, in his words, “get rid of the secret evidence laws which have been used to discriminate against Muslims and Arabs in this country.” After 9/11, he and his Islamic Institute lobbied against the Patriot Act.

After discovering that Suhail Khan’s parents were top Muslim Brotherhood figures, the Bush Administration moved him from the White House to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation as the Assistant for Policy, giving him Top Secret clearance. While he was working for the Transportation Department, Grover Norquist got him onto the board of the American Conservative Union ? which means that he and Norquist, who is also on the ACU board, get to control a lot of what happens at CPAC, Conservative Political Action Conference.

David Ramadan

Grover Norquist has also encouraged a man named Imad “David” Ramadan to run for a State House of Delegates seat in Virginia in the 2011 election. Ramadan is a Lebanese immigrant whose father-in-law is a major-general in the Lebanese intelligence service with links to Syra, Iran, and Hezbollah. Last year, Ramadan signed an open letter to Republicans in support of the Ground Zero mosque. He signed it with Khan and Norquist’s wife, who is a Palestinian Muslim.

Ramadan says he is involved in various “consulting” businesses in the Middle East. He also processes U.S. visas and green cards for Muslim immigrants. He has given large sums of cash to GOP officials, to shore up their support, as well as to his own campaign.

Mukit Hossain

Ramadan's Muslim contributors include the Virginia Muslim PAC. Its president is Mukit Hossain, who also runs a charitable organization associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Herndon, Va., called FAITH. A few years ago, Wachovia bank closed FAITH’s accounts due to suspicious activity related to possible money-laundering. A year earlier, the so-called charity received a $150,000 donation from Brotherhood leader and Saudi M. Yacub Mirza, whose home and offices were raided by the feds after 9/11. Hossain keeps his FAITH office in the same raided building. Hossain’s benefactor was close to Alamoudi before Alamoudi went to prison. According to a federal affidavit (unsealed Oct 2003) for a search warrant of Mirza’s Herndon, Va., residence and offices, Mirza is president of SAAR Foundation, a suspected charitable front for al-Qaida founded by Saudi billionaire Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al-Rajhi (S.A.A.R.), one of the original Golden Chain sponsors of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida.

According to page 53 of the affidavit, written by special agent David C. Kane: “I believe that one source of funds flowing through (Mirza’s offices) is from the wealthy Al-Rajhi family in Saudi Arabia.” He cites one transaction of $3,388,000, along with others in the millions. The affidavit says Mirza has “signatory authority” over the bank accounts. SAAR had an active account with Wachovia before closing it within weeks of the 9/11 attacks. Some checks also were drawn on a bank account in the name of Al-Rajhi Banking and Investment Corp., Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Hossain serves on the board of a mosque run by imam Magid, the ISNA chief working with Khan and Obama. This Ramadan donor is also active in the Muslim American Society, which prosecutors say is a key node in the Muslim Brotherhood’s network.

Ali Tulbah

Another Muslim listed as a donor to Ramadan’s campaign is Norquist protege Ali Tulbah, who replaced Khan at the White House when Khan landed a high-level spot at the Transportation Department. Tulbah’s father helps run a Brotherhood mosque in Houston.

In the Holy Land Foundation trial the U.S. government entered into evidence information pertaining to a 1993 clandestine meeting held in Philadelphia. There, Omar Ahmad, then-President of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP) emphasized the need to strengthen radical Islamist influence within Congress. The IAP has been named by the government as both a Muslim Brotherhood and HAMAS front.

“This can be achieved by infiltrating the American media outlets, university and research centers… If Muslims engage in political activism in America and started to be concerned with Congress and public relations we will an entry point to use them to pressure Congress and the decision-makers in America.”

Ahmad Totonji

Chairman of the ADAMS mosque of Sterling, Virginia. Co-founder of Muslim Students Association, founder of the World Association of Muslim Youth. Financier of Sami al-Arian.

Totonji was also named as a defendant in a $1 trillion lawsuit filed by more than 600 relatives of people who died in the 9/11 attacks He acted as a co-founder and officer of the Saudi-founded/Saudi-funded (and now defunct) SAAR Trust. Additionally, he served as Vice President of the Safa Group and the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT). Officials have linked the non-profit IIIT to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda...

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

According to an article by Nihad Awad, (IAP Public Relations Director) he, together with Omar Ahmad (IAP President) resigned from the organization to establish the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Joined by Rafeeq Jaber (who also had served as an IAP President), they wanted to create a new organization that would not be defined by the Palestinian struggle but, rather, had a broader mission and would project an image of moderation and accommodation. It was determined that CAIR would define itself as the premier Muslim American organization dedicated to combating anti-Muslim discrimination nationwide. Four federal judges have affirmed that CAIR is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and was spawned by one of its American affiliates ? the Islamic Association for Palestine. Indeed, we know from wiretapped conversations at the time of its founding that CAIR was established by Muslim Brotherhood operatives as a political arm and fundraising mechanism for Hamas, a designated terrorist organization and the Brotherhood’s franchise in “Palestine.”

Alleged operatives in Obama administration

Ahmed Shawki of the Egyptian magazine Rose El-Youssef accused several Obama administration employees of being Muslim Brotherhood operatives. The information in Shawki's report is similar to that in a report by Tiffany Gabbay of The Blaze, which itself cited the documentary Rumors of War III by Glenn Beck TV.

The accused are:

• Huma Abedin, adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
• Alif Alikhan, co-founder of the Muslim Brotherhood front World Islamic Organization and Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for policy development.
• Mohammed Elibiary, a vocal supporter of Sayyid Qutb, director of the Houston chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood front Council on American-Islamic Relations, founder of the Freedom and Justice Foundation of Texas, speechwriter for President Barack Obama, and member of the Homeland Security Advisory Committee, appointed at the request of Janet Napolitano. Shawki alleged that Elibiary received funding directly from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
• Rashad Hussain member of Abdulrahman Alamoudi's American Muslim Council, analyst at the Brookings Institution, and US envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
• Salam Marayati, director of the Muslim Brotherhood front Muslim Public Affairs Council and employee of the National Security Agency
• Mohamed Magid, head of the Muslim Brotherhood front Islamic Society of North America and imam of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) mosque, "a regular visitor to the White House" who "gives speeches and conferences on American policy in the Middle East at the State Department", has "worked as a lawyer at the Department of Justice to criminalize defamation of Islam", and "works in the Department of Homeland Security"
• Eboo Patel, a friend of Muslim Brotherhood activist Hani Ramadan, who spoke alongside Siraj Wahhaj and Tariq Ramadan at a meeting of the Muslim Brotherhood front Muslim Students Association, member of the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, and advisor to Barack Obama on faith relations

Al Jazeera

Al-Jazeera is a news network funded by the state of Qatar, staffed by Western journalists, and run by the Muslim Brotherhood. The network's director from 2003-2010, Wadah Khanfar, was previously the human resources director for the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations, a Muslim Brotherhood front organization. In 2013, Al-Jazeera was found to be paying for the hotel rooms of Muslim Brotherhood leaders exiled from Egypt.

Dubai Initiative

The Dubai Initiative was a project funded by the United Arab Emirates to influence US elites through Harvard University. The first paper released by the Initiative encouraged "European engagement with moderate Islamists" to promote "a genuine representation of the popular will through peaceful means", with the list of "moderates" including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Juliette Kayyem

Juliette Kayyem was a co-faculty chair of the Dubai Initiative. She would later advocate for al-Jazeera and discourage the notion that the Boston Marathon bombers may have had a supporting network. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Kayyem condemned whoever would consider the relationship between al-Qaeda and the United States to be a state of war.

Counter Propaganda

Hollywood Bureau

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), which was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, has a “Hollywood Bureau” whose mission is to clean up the Muslim image in movies and TV.

Islamophobia

According to Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, the term Islamophobia was invented by the IIIT in northern Virginia as a weapon to "beat up" critics of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated CAIR has teamed up with UC Berkeley for an “Islamophobia” Campaign. The two organizations co-authored a report entitled “Same Hate, New Target.” The report recommends passing legislation banning racial profiling, speaking out strongly against smearing entire faiths or peoples and refusing to offer a legitimizing platform to those who spout anti-Muslim rhetoric. The report also names specific individuals and institutions that they believe are at the center of pushing “Islamophobia.” The two organizations also hosted a conference on April 21 and 22nd, 2011 called “Islamophobia Production and Re-Defining the Global ‘Security’ Agenda for the 21st Century.” Scholars, activists and experts, including representatives from CAIR, participated in panels discussions on topics such as, “Producing Islamophobia and Fomenting Fear,” “Islamophobia, Citizenship, Patriotism and the Security State,” “Race and Racism in US Elections: Wedge Issue and Who Benefits?” and “Clash of Civilizations Discourse and Muslim Otherness.”

Congressional Activities

David Bonior

In 1991, FBI assistant director Bill Baker started an outreach program with Muslim communities in the United States. In response, several Muslim leaders wrote a letter of protest to FBI Director William Sessions and others in Washington. Congressman David Bonior condemned the outreach program as "increasing the climate for a backlash" against Arabs "living in fear that hostilities against them will increase as a result of events in the Middle East." Congressmen John Conyers and John Dingell joined him in threatening to hold hearings over the matter. The Democratic Party would appoint Bonior as House Whip the same year, a position he held through 2001.

Over the next decade, Bonior would accept $1,000 in campaign donations from Muslim Brotherhood operative Abdurahman Alamoudi and $3,200 from Islamic Jihad operative Sami al-Arian. Bonoir would also hire al-Arian's son Abdullah al-Arian as an aide and would petition for Islamic Jihad shura member Mazen Al-Najjar to be released from jail. Al-Najjar had been held for three years without any evidence being presented against him.

2011 al-Qaeda recruitment hearings

Main Article: 2011 US Congress hearings on al-Qaeda recruitment

In 2011, Congressman Peter King called a series of hearings to discuss al-Qaeda's recruitment efforts in the United States. Well before the hearings began, CAIR and several other Muslim Brotherhood front organizations issued a press release condemning the hearings as "singling out a group of Americans for government scrutiny based on their faith". Other signatories to the press release included Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Open Society Institute of George Soros. The hearing contained no such "singling out" or "scrutiny" of Muslims in general, but several Democratic representatives repeated the Muslim Brotherhood's accusations and a number of Democratic organizations issued their own open letters condemning the hearings, many using the exact same wording as that of the original CAIR press release.

Deletion of this Wikipedia page

This Wikipedia page, previously titled "Influence Operations of the Muslim Brotherhood" and "Muslim Brotherhood activities in the United States", was deleted without a Talk or A4D discussion and was replaced with a page titled Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracy Theories with most of the content and all verifiable references removed.

Editors responsible for the deletion include:

• Student7 -- First advocated for the page name to be changed on the grounds that he does not know what an influence operation is and the words have too many syllables for English speakers to understand , in early April 2012. Initially renamed the original article to "conspiracy theories" on 18 April 2012.
• LonelyBoy2012 -- Created the new "conspiracy theories" page and deleted the old page on 20 July 2012.
• Sceptre -- Deleted the section on Key Influence Operators in the United States and deleted the page on 28 July 2012.
• ArtifexMayhem -- Deleted the page on 1 August 2012.
• Rrius -- Insults anyone on the talk page who calls the new page badly referenced or an NPOV violation.

Editors responsible for partial deletions include:

• 175.107.232.114 -- deleted the section Counter Propaganda on 13 April 2012.
• Monkey497 -- deleted the section on criminal convictions of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and replaced it with a section calling it a conspiracy theory to claim that the Muslim Brotherhood has any presence in the United States, on 14 April 2012. Also deleted the citations of Fereydoun Hoveyda and Ian Denis Johnson and replaced them with text describing the Muslim Brotherhood as only a charity and political organization, on 13 April 2012.
• MohammedBinAbdullah and Vice Regent -- deleted all citations for the Muslim Brotherhood engaging in assassinations, bombings, etc.

See Also

• Assault on the Right - allegations of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the Republican Party

• Political warfare

• Influence operations

• Front Organizations

• Transnational Organizations

• Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy theories

• Muslim Brotherhood