Part 17 of a serialization of Shariah – The Threat to America, the report of Team B II of the Center for Security Policy. Here, we look at how to gauge the extent of Muslim Brotherhood control over a Muslim organization, and how to differentiate between groups that promote shariah versus those that are committed to democracy and freedom. A copy of the full report is available on Amazon.
The Team B II report shows how most Muslim organizations in North America are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood or a derivative group (Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jamaat, Jamaat-e-Islami, etc).
The investigation has found that if an individual is the president, vice president, executive director, general secretary, board member or otherwise carries a significant leadership title within a Muslim organization controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood in America – particularly if he is responsible for the group’s financial affairs, or sits on the Fiqh Council of North America – he is a Muslim Brotherhood operative.
The Ikhwan, as the Brotherhood is known in Arabic, simply will not entrust such stature and responsibility to anyone unless he enjoys the trust that derives from being a member in good standing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Exceptions to the rule
There are seemingly a few exceptions to this rule. Females have been utilized more often of late as “leaders” in several of these organizations (notably, the Muslim Students Association, MSA; and the Islamic Society of North America, ISNA) in order to project a softer image for these hostile organizations. This is particularly useful in confusing non-Muslims insofar as it would appear that such groups could not adhere to shariah’s misogynistic practices and yet confer upon women positions of true responsibility.
Even a cursory examination, however, of the views of the current ISNA president, Ingrid Mattson, and former MSA President Hadia Mubarak reveals their philosophies are right in line with Muslim Brotherhood doctrine. And, in both organizations, the male leadership within the Brotherhood continues to make operational decisions, despite the title conferred upon such women.
A second exception to this rule involves some of the more recently established Muslim American organizations, especially where younger men and women are at the helm.
While they are not technically Brotherhood fronts, the message is nonetheless communicated in fairly explicit terms to these newer groups at major MB conferences (such as the annual ISNA conclaves): So long as these organizations observe the policy and doctrinal parameters set by the Brotherhood, they will be afforded access to the Brotherhood’s infrastructure and financial support.
Stigmatizing Muslims who do not embrace the Brotherhood line
On the other hand, historically any Muslim individual or organization that does not embrace shariah and the MB line has not been able to gain broad recognition as a Muslim-American force in America. Instead, they are systematically ostracized, delegitimized and, in some cases, directly threatened.
We saw this in the Alamoudi network‘s bid to marginalize the Islamic Supreme Council of America, a Sufi organization led by Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani who warned often about Muslim Brotherhood operations against the United States as they were being put into place.
The Brotherhood’s strong-arm tactics are made all the more effective by the Ikhwan’s ability to demonstrate that its doctrine is in line with Islamic law and backed by the threat of declaring the deviating Muslim an “apostate,” undercutting the authority and any opportunities for leadership among Muslims of those working against the MB.
As a result of this modus operandi, the Muslim Brotherhood is not only to prevent any appreciable challenge to its efforts to dominate the Muslim-American community. It is also able to exercise effective control over nearly all the Muslim organizational infrastructure in the United States, including most of those Muslim-American groups that are nominally outside its network. In any event, the latter pale by comparison in terms of their influence to those U.S.-based Islamic groups that are Ikhwan operations.
Part 18 of the Team B series on shariah is about “Who’s Who in the American Muslim Brotherhood.”