Iran’s Secret ‘Interfaith’ Outreach in America

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Alavi Foundation, Iran, Islamic Society of North America, Ryan Mauro

By Ryan Mauro (@RyanMauro)

The Clarion Project recently exposed how an Iranian regime front based in New York donated to over 30 colleges and over 60 Islamic centers and organizations in North America. Like Sunni Islamists, the Shiite Iranian regime also finds interfaith engagement to be a worthwhile investment.

The data was found by combing the website and published financial reports of the Alavi Foundation, an alleged Iranian regime front. The Foundation’s offices were searched after evidence surfaced that it was sending money to a bank that is sanctioned by the U.S. because of its role in Iran’s nuclear program. U.S. government investigator said “the government of Iran really controlled everything about the foundation.”

One of the Alavi Foundation’s primary functions is to influence public opinion. U.S. officials said that it “promotes Tehran’s views on world affairs” and a prominent Iranian in California bluntly accuses it of being part of the regime’s “propaganda machine.” This should put the foundation’s donations in new light, especially when the money went to major power players like the William J. Clinton Foundation, which received $30,000 in 2005.

The Alavi Foundation is not a small operation. Its 2010 financial report states that the market value of all its assets was almost $125 million. To this day, the Alavi Foundation is accepting applications for grants from its “interfaith dialogue and religious pluralism” initiative. The page states that the organization has funded interfaith conferences at the Temple of Understanding in New York, Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia and Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.

The Alavi Foundation’s financial reports and website disclose that it donated heavily to the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., making contributions of $45,000 in 2007; $60,000 in 2006; and $75,000 in 2005 and 2004.

The Roman Catholic Sacred Heart University in Connecticut received $5,000 in 2008; $39,000 in 2007; $60,000 in 2006; $10,000 in 2005 and $3,000 in 2004.

Hartford Seminary, a theological college, was awarded $35,000 in September 2012; $47,000 in August 2011 and $17,500 in 2008. The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity, also has a close relationship with Hartford University and donated over $1 million to endow a chair in Islamic Chaplaincy.

Eastern Mennonite University received $20,000 from the Alavi Foundation in 2010. The IIIT has also partnered with this Christian school. In August 2011, the director of the University’s Center for Interfaith Engagement attended an IIIT fundraiser.

The Iranian regime front also donated $5,000 to the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia in 2009. Last month, we exposed how two colleagues of radical imam Siraj Wahhaj have had official positions in the Center. Wahhaj has restrained his rhetoric a bit since 9/11 out of necessity. In 2011, he advised Muslims not to discuss Sharia Law because “we aren’t there yet.”

The Interfaith Freedom Foundation in California and the Temple of Understanding in New York were each given $3,000 in 2005 and 2006, respectively. The Islamic Education Center of Maryland, owned by Alavi, held an interfaith event with Christians and Jews in April.

One Muslim organization that received a large amount of Alavi financing is the Universal Muslim Association of America. The Foundation’s website discloses donations of $100,000 in 2005; $3,000 in 2006; $6,000 in 2007; $5,000 in 2008; $4,000 in 2009; $10,000 in 2010 and $10,000 in 2012.

The Universal Muslim Association of America is a member of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign, an interfaith coalition allied with the Islamic Society of North America. U.S. Muslim Brotherhood documents identify ISNA as one of its fronts.

To be fair, it is not proven that each recipient knew of the Alavi Foundation’s background and that each one helped advance Iran’s viewpoint. For example, the Red Cross, the American Museum of Natural History and many charities have received large gifts.

However, the regime does not have money to spare and in each case, the Foundation decided that the contribution’s benefit justified its cost. The Foundation was originally established under the Shah in the 1970s, so this article only touches the surface of this influence operation.

A more direct interfaith partner of the Iranian regime is the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign against Israel. It was part of a Christian coalition that wrote a letter to Congress criticizing U.S. military aid to Israel. Fifteen Christian groups endorsed the letter, including American Baptist Churches USA, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church Council of Bishops.

In 2006, American Friends Service Committee leader Mary Ellen McNish and about 45 other religious activists met with Iranian President Ahmadinejad in New York. Then in February 2007, she and a dozen other American religious leaders spent eight days in Iran and again met with Ahmadinejad. Meetings with Ahmadinejad were again held in New York in 2007 and 2008. The latter event was co-sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee and also involved the World Council of Churches and Religions for Peace.

The American Friends Service Committee also filed an Amicus brief on behalf of the Holy Land Foundation, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity shut down for financing Hamas. The organization also joined the lawsuit of Muhammad Salah as a co-plantiff. Salah was designated a “specially designated terrorist” by the Treasury Department for his Hamas ties until November 2012.

Every dollar and every moment spent by the Iranian regime courting foreigners deserves scrutiny. Any resource used in interfaith engagement is a resource that could have been used to advance the regime’s agenda another way. The Iranian regime wouldn’t be making these investments if it was dissatisfied with the results.

This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy. It originally appeared on Front Page Magazine and was reposted with permission.

Bloomberg vs. CAIR’s Interfaith Friends

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CAIR, Islamic Society of North America, Michael Bloomberg, New York City, Ryan Mauro

The Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign, an interfaith coalition allied with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), is praising the passage of two bills by the New York City Council aimed at stopping the alleged abuses of the NYPD. Mayor Bloomberg says he will veto the bills, even though they passed with enough support to override it.

The passed bills, the End Discriminatory Profiling Bill and NYPD Oversight Bill, outraged Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The latter bill requires the overseeing of the NYPD by an independent Inspector-General. The former opens the door for the NYPD to be sued in state court for policies that disproportionately affect certain ages, genders, sexual orientations or housing statuses.

Mayor Bloomberg considers the bills to be a matter of “life and death” vows to “not give up for one minute.”

“The bill would allow virtually everyone in New York City to sue the Police Department and individual police officers over the entire range of law enforcement functions they perform,” Kelly explained.

He said the result will be skyrocketing liability costs, the unnecessary use of resources and an overall decrease in effectiveness.

When asked about the so-called problem of NYPD racial profiling, Bloomberg dismissively said, “Nobody racially profiles.” He made perhaps the most politically-incorrect statement of his career in defense of the NYPD:

“…They just keep saying, ‘Oh it’s a disproportionate percentage of a particular ethnic group.’ That may be, but it’s not a disproportionate percentage of those who witnesses and victims describe as committing the murder. In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.”

Bloomberg refuses to apologize. “The numbers clearly show that the stops are generally proportionate with suspect’s descriptions,” he said.

The bills were aggressively supported by the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), joined by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has often allied itself with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network that CAIR and ISNA belong to.

CAIR’s chapter in New York is among its more radical ones. Former CAIR-NY director Cyrus McGoldrick has sent out tweets with anti-law enforcement rhetoric and support for Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the destruction of Israel.

CAIR-NY board president Zead Ramadan refused to condemn Hamas in December 2011 and has portrayed American-Muslims as a brutally-repressed minority on Iranian state TV. Another board member, Lamis Deek, has praised Hamas, supports the elimination of Israel and claims that the NYPD has a secret alliance with Israel to target Muslims. Deek also supported the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt as a blow to American “imperialism.”

The Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign, an interfaith political coalition that includes ISNA as a member, celebrated the bills’ passage. ISNA is so proud of its work in putting together the coalition that it highlighted it as a crowning achievement when it met with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan in May.

The Campaign’s members include American Baptist Churches USA, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and many others.

ISNA and its interfaith allies’ fight with the NYPD reached out a whole other level when the news broke that officers had been shown The Third Jihad, which Police Commissioner Ray Kelly appeared in. The film discusses the Islamist threat to American and mentions that ISNA and CAIR are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Shoulder-to-Shoulder responded by writing a writing a letter to Mayor Bloomberg blasting the NYPD and the Clarion Project, the producer of the film, for promoting a negative image of Muslims—even though the film is narrated by a devout Muslim.

In its May/June magazine, ISNA fired at the NYPD and made the Department sound like New York City Muslims are being intimidated into silence and are even afraid to pray in public. In an almost comical blow to its own credibility, ISNA’s article said “Muslim terrorism is not a threat after 9/11.”

Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t have the strongest anti-Islamist credentials, but his standing on the side of the NYPD against the CAIR-supported bill is something he should be praised for. He previously defended the NYPD when it faced an avalanche of criticism for its reasonable counter-terrorism efforts, such as investigating Muslim Students Association chapters with evidence of extremism.

Bloomberg’s veto will be overridden if none of the New York City Council members change their mind. It is up to residents to convince them not to believe the hysteria of CAIR and its interfaith allies.

This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy. It originally appeared on Front Page Magazine and was reposted with permission.

 

Texas Mega-Church Leader Partners with Muslim Brotherhood Front

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Bob Roberts, Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Brotherhood, NorthWood Church, Ryan Mauro, Texas

(Photo credit: The Brook Network)

Ryan Mauro (@RyanMauro)

On June 9, the Clarion Project reported that the U.S. envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will be speaking at an Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) regional conference, sharing the stage with at least three Islamists. But there are some other featured guests: ISNA’s interfaith allies, including Pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church in Texas.

ISNA is identified in a 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memorandum as one of its fronts. The U.S. government also listed ISNA as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity when it designated the group an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation. The so-called “charity” was another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity that, in the words of Judge Jorge Solis, “operated from within ISNA.” ISNA denies it has “ever been subject to the control of…the Muslim Brotherhood.”

ISNA’s South Central Conference will be held in Dallas on June 15. The event will feature an interfaith panel that includes its Community Outreach Director, Mohamed Elsanousi, who attended a Muslim Brotherhood-linked conference in Mauritania last year.

Other participants include Rabbi Joshua S. Taub of Temple Emanuel and Cristina Warner, the Campaign Director of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign, an ISNA-allied interfaith coalition. ISNA is so proud of Shoulder-to-Shoulder that its success was a top talking point of senior officials when they met with the Islamist Prime Minister of Turkey.

The most high-profile interfaith speaker at the ISNA regional conference is Pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church, a critic of “Christian Zionists.” As reported last month, Pastor Roberts’ NorthWood Church is holding its own Islamist-stocked interfaith event called the Global Faith Forum in November. Pastor Roberts’ speakers include ISNA officials, former senior Saudi officials and a former director-general of Al-Jazeera.

The Clarion Project’s original article on the event provides insight into some of the fellow speakers of Pastor Roberts, Rabbi Taub and Cristina Warner.

The keynote speaker is Dr. Jamal Badawi, who will also be on panels about Sharia and having a healthy family. His record includes praise for Hamas, “combative jihad,” and justifying the physical disciplining of wives (or, as he says, “a gentle tap on the body” for disobedience). His name also appears in a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood phonebook from 1992 and he hangs out with Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi. The radicalism of his resume is strong enough to prompt counter-terrorism expert Patrick Poole to ask, “Why is Jamal Badawi Still Allowed into the United States?”

ISNA official Yusuf Ziya Kavakci will be handling the opening remarks, leading a prayer and joining Badawi for the panel on Sharia. He used to lead a mosque that an article in 1999 said “is considered to be one of the most active centers of Hamas activity in the United States[.]” The mosque was linked to the Holy Land Foundation, the aforementioned U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity that was housed by ISNA and shut down for financing Hamas.

The notorious Imam Siraj Wahhaj is listed as an invited speaker at the event. His radicalism is unquestionable. He has preached that “America is the most wicked government on the face of the planet Earth.” America, he told his audience, is a “garbage can” that he prays “crumbles.” Unlike some Islamists, he doesn’t hide his desire for Sharia Law in America.

“If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if eight million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us,” he said.

The book Muslim Mafia quotes Wahhaj even condoning violence. “We don’t need to arm the people with 9mms and Uzis. You need to arm them with righteousness first. And once you arm them with righteousness first, then you can arm them,” he said, as well as “I will never tell people, ‘Don’t be violent.’ That’s not the Islamic way.”

Wahhaj’s rhetoric lines right up with the private words of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The 1991 memorandumthat identified ISNA as one of its fronts said its “work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

Page 21 of the document states: “[W]e must possess a mastery of the art of ‘coalitions’, the art of ‘absorption’ and the principles of ‘cooperation.’” That is the context that ISNA’s interfaith alliances need to be put in.

After my last article on NorthWood Church was published, a reader emailed me to say that he posted it to the Facebook page of the church and the personal page of Pastor Roberts. It didn’t take long for it to be deleted. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.

This blog post originally appeared as an article on the First Things website.

ISNA Discusses Interfaith Success with Turkey PM

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Islamic Society of North America, ISNA, Mohamed Elsanousi, Muslim Brotherhood, Ryan Mauro, Taksim Square, terrorism

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the embattled Prime Minister of Turkey. (Photo credit: ABC News)

By Ryan Mauro (@RyanMauro)

Tens of thousands of Turks are protesting Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan, but the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood is happy to welcome him. On May 18, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) officials met with Erdogan. Of all the things to talk about, ISNA most emphasized the success of its interfaith political alliances. The lesson will not be forgotten by Turkey as it tries to reclaim its position as the leader of the Muslim world.

According to an ISNA press release, Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi, its Community Outreach Director, briefed Erdogan in San Francisco on ISNA’s activism. As an example of its success, ISNA pointed to an interfaith alliance called the Shoulder-to-Shoulder campaign.

Internal U.S. Muslim Brotherhood documents and the U.S. government agree that ISNA is a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood identity, despite its denials. The importance it places in its interfaith outreach is evident when you look at its Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances, locatedwithin the United Methodist Building in Washington D.C. It is led by former Secretary-General Sayyid Syeed who was recorded in 2006 saying, “Our job is to change the constitution of America.”

ISNA also asked for Erdogan’s involvement in an international campaign to help minorities in Muslim countries. This sounds like a “moderate” goal but there’s an Islamist component even here. The international campaign ISNA is talking about is led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Last year, ISNA President Mohamed Magid and Elsanousi traveled to Mauritania for a conference about the “challenges faced by religious minorities in Muslim-majority communities.” It was hosted by the vice chair of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, whose President is Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi. Also present was the Obama Administration’s envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Rashad Hussain.

ISNA’s publicized list of “interfaith partners” includes the United Methodist Church, American Baptist Church USA, Presbyterian Church (USA), Episcopal Church, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, United Church of Christ, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Union for Reform Judaism, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Hartford Seminary and the National Council of Churches in the USA, among others.

Many of these partners belong to the Shoulder-to-Shoulder campaign that ISNA boasted about to Erdogan. The ISNA-allied interfaith coalition published a letter of protest to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on March 12, 2013, blasting the New York Police Department for showing The Third Jihad.

Although the film’s narrator is a devout Muslim, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Shoulder-to-Shoulder labeled it as anti-Muslim “bigoted propaganda.” ISNA’s Muslim Brotherhood origins are mentioned in the film. ISNA uses the coalition to discredit its critics as haters of Muslims. One of the coalition’s stated tasks is:

“Urging each faith group to prioritize ending anti-Muslim sentiment by encouraging their regional bodies and congregations to engage in this work, discussing the issue of anti-Muslim bigotry at their annual meetings, and seeking press coverage of their efforts on the issue.”

Erdogan was also in the presence of ISNA on May 15, when he spoke in support of a $100 million mega-mosque project in Maryland launched by his government. ISNA President Mohamed Magid was in attendance. Also present was the leader of the Islamic Circle of North America, a group that is also identified as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in a 1991 memo.

Turkey’s project will probably be the largest Islamic site in the Western Hemisphere and it will consist of Ottoman architecture, another sign that Turkey aims to relive its glory days. At the meeting with ISNA, Erdogan said that the U.N. Security Council must be changed to fit additional Muslim members; a hint at his aspiration for Turkey to join it and therefore have veto power over any decision.

Erdogan also told the Muslim leaders in San Francisco to unite for the sake of promoting democracy. In ISNA’s words, he talked of “the notion of justice as essential to Islamic rule.” Justice must govern all aspects of society, including the economy, culture and politics and Muslims must push for this, he said.

Erdogan’s version of “democracy” and “justice” is why tens of thousands of secular Turks are now demonstrating against him. His confrontational stance towards Israel is designed to make him the unofficial king of the Islamists.Unlike the more hardline Islamists like Al-Qaeda and the Iranian regime, Erdogan’s implementation of the Islamist doctrine of gradualism has allowed him to maintain popular and international support, with President Obama calling him a “friend.”

ISNA (and now, Erdogan) is well-aware of the success of its interfaith outreach. People of faith who oppose the Islamists must also become aware.

This blog post originally appeared as an article on the FrontPage Magazine website earlier this week.

Presbyterian Church Uses Islamists for Interfaith Study

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All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center, American Islamic College, Farhanahz Eliz, Islam, Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Society of North America, Naeem Baig, Presbyterian, Ryan Mauro

(Photo credit: Mangagirl3535/ Deviant Art)

By Ryan Mauro (@RyanMauro)

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is updating its 2010 study, ““Toward an Understanding of Christian-Muslim Relations,” which was prompted by “alarming anti-Muslim statements and actions.” The 2-million member church partnered with Islamist groups for the project and its website promotes U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities as interfaith partners.

The listed advisors for the study include Naeem Baig, president of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Farhanahz Eliz of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, a mosque led by the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo lists ISNA and ICNA among “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” ISNA was labeled by the government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial and U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity.

Another advisor was Ghulam Haider Aasi of American Islamic College. The chairman of the board of trustees is Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, theSecretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Its advisory board includes Ahmed Rehab of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Kifah Mustapha of the Mosque Foundation. CAIR and Mustapha are also unindicted co-conspirators that were listed as part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. The president of the Mosque Foundation, Oussama Jamal, is also on the advisory board.

The study’s bibliography cites Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s creator; Dr. John Esposito, one of the top allies of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network and Ingrid Mattson, former ISNA president, described by the authors as an “excellent and readable scholar.” She is also on the International Institute of Islamic Thought’s Council of Scholars, another group mentioned in the 1991 memo.

The Presbyterian Mission Agency’s “interfaith links of interest” include CAIR, ICNA, ISNA and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a group founded by Muslim Brotherhood ideologues that has opposed the designations of Hamas and Hezbollah as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

An e-mail sent to an address on the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s website was not returned.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) also whitewashed Imam Zaid Shakir and Zaytuna College in a book it published titled, “The Search for Truth About Islam: A Christian Pastor Separates Fact from Fiction” by Reverend Ben Daniel. The book “explores what he calls ‘the American cult of fear,’ particularly as it relates to the rise of Islamophobia in the United States.”

The book says that Zaytuna College, which Shakir is a founder and co-chairman of, is “filling an important niche in American higher education.” The reader is not told about his history of extremism, which includes preaching that a new Caliphate is needed to wage jihad with “weaponry against the enemies of Islam.” Instead, readers are left with the impression that Shakir is a living rebuttal to all the negative stereotypes that moderate Muslims must contend with.

What begins as an interfaith partnership often becomes a political partnership. In July 2012, the Presbyterian Church Office of Public Witness and other Christian groups came to the defense of ISNA, MPAC and Huma Abedin, the State Department appointee with Islamist links. The Presbyterian Church was offended that Rep. Michele Bachmann and four other congressmen had raised concerns about the Brotherhood links of these organizations and individuals.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) and its Islamic interfaith partners have also made common cause when it comes to Israel. The Church almost voted in favor of divestment from Israel last summer, winning praise from the director of ISNA’s Office of Interfaith Relations, Sayyid Syeed. He was previouslyrecorded in 2006 saying, “Our job is to change the constitution of America.”

Its Israel-Palestine Mission Network endorsed the “No Blank Check for Israel” rally on January 19. It is a member of the Interfaith Boycott Coalition, the faith-based wing of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. The Interfaith Boycott Coalition supported the boycott of SodaStream because it is based in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

The revised study is scheduled to be presented during the 221^st General Assembly in 2014. The current version states that Presbyterians are called to “identify and speak out against bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, and violence against Islam and Muslim peoples of all cultures, especially in the United States.”

This may be a laudable goal, but we’ve seen how these groups use “Islamophobia” as a weapon against their critics. When Rep. Bachmann and her colleagues confronted these groups, they responded by deploying the Presbyterian Church and their other interfaith partners. They were criticized as paranoid and bigoted.

The Islamists want to make the church their “Islamophobia” police and undermine American-Christian support for Israel. And they are making progress.

 

This blog post originally appeared as an article at FrontPage Magazine.