Synopsis
The leadership of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood (MB, or Ikhwan) has said that its goal was and is jihad aimed at destroying the U.S. from within. The Brotherhood leadership has also said that the means of achieving this goal is to establish Islamic organizations in the U.S. under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Since the early 1960s, the Brotherhood has constructed an elaborate covert organizational infrastructure on which was built a set of public or “front” organizations. The current U.S. Brotherhood leadership has attempted to deny this history, both claiming that it is not accurate and at the same time that saying that it represents an older form of thought inside the Brotherhood. An examination of public and private Brotherhood documents, however, indicates that this history is both accurate and that the Brotherhood has taken no action to demonstrate change in its mode of thought and/or activity.
Contents
SYNOPSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
BACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Goals of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
THE BEGINNINGS (1962-1970) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Three Iraqis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
FOUNDATIONS OF U.S. INFRASTRUCTURE (1970-1975) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
New Organizations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
North American Islamic Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Elkadi Becomes Brotherhood Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Parallel International Organizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Nada International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
MAJOR FRONT ORGANIZATIONS (1975-1984) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Islamic Society of North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Islamic Association for Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
SAFA GROUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The International Institute of Islamic Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
SAAR Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
THE ERA OF PROBLEMS (1985-1994) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Leadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1. Political Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2. ISNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The Muslim American Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The Palestine Committee of the U.S. Brotherhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Founding of CAIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Fiqh Council of North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Ahmed Elkadi Replaced. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
TODAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Brotherhood Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
1. Muslim Student Association (MSA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2. North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4. International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5. Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6. Muslim American Society (MAS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7. Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8. No longer existing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
U.S. Brotherhood Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
CONCLUSION: THE BROTHERHOOD RESPONSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Attacking Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Denying Ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Have They Changed? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Appendix 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Appendix 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
MORE: https://www.hudson.org/content/researchattachments/attachment/1163/20090411_merley.usbrotherhood.pdf