Muslim Brotherhood Rallies to Ground Zero Mosque

After initially staying away from the controversy, the Muslim Brotherhood has embraced the cause of the Ground Zero mosque and some of its US-based front groups are now engaged.

A summit of Muslim organizations in the US met in New York City on Sunday, September 19, to discuss what sponsors perceive as increased anti-Islamic rhetoric, much of which emerged as a result of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the controversial Muslim militant behind the Ground Zero mosque project.

The Ground Zero mosque “is slowly being embraced by some Muslims who initially were indifferent about the plan,” the Associated Press reports from New York.

AP says that some of those formerly indifferent groups slated to be part of the summit include the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

A new Center for Security Policy report on enemy threat doctrine, titled Shariah: The Threat to America, lists the participating organizations as front groups and spinoffs of the Muslim Brotherhood, known in Arabic as Ikhwan. According to the Center’s report, “The Muslim Brotherhood’s own Explanatory Memorandum” identifies ISNA, ICNA and others as “a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” CAIR is also considered a wing or front of the terrorist group Hamas, which is a Palestinian franchise of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood has blasted the Center for Security Policy and its president, Frank Gaffney, for criticizing the Ground Zero mosque project and denouncing the attempts to insinuate shariah in America. On its official website, the Muslim Brotherhood criticized Gaffney for being “unfair” to GOP activist Grover Norquist, a Ground Zero mosque supporter who is close to the Muslim Brotherhood and provides its operatives and front groups with political cover.

Support for the Ground Zero mosque is part of what the Muslim Brotherhood calls “civilization jihad,” a “pre-violent” form of warfare against civil society that operates generally within the law to infiltrate shariah attitudes and practices in Western democratic societies.