Who's Who in the American Muslim Brotherhood

Part 18 of a serialization of Shariah – The Threat to America, the report of Team B II of the Center for Security Policy. This section introduces the main Muslim Brotherhood components in the United States and Canada. The full text of the report is available on Amazon.

This section of the Team B II serialization discusses two of the most worrisome of the Muslim Brotherhood front groups operating in the United States: the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Muslim Students Association

As we have seen, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) was the first Muslim Brotherhood entity formed in the United States at the University of Illinois, Urbana campus in 1962-63. The MSA has chapters at nearly every major college and university campus in the United States making it the most visible and influential of all Islamic student organizations in North America. The MSA is a point of recruitment for the Muslim Brotherhood and for jihadis.

The MSA’s own website previously noted that all major Muslim organizations in America grew out of the MSA.

These references have been removed from the MSA website, however. It is nonetheless indisputable that among the MSA’s offshoots are: the Islamic Medical Association (IMA), the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA), the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

While presenting itself as just another moderate Muslim group working on college campuses, MSA in fact promotes a shariah-based Islamic agenda dedicated to spreading Islam among North American youth by way of an aggressive dawa program. The ideology that underpins the MSA mission is the same ideology as defines the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda. The MSA perspective is global and its aspirations are closely linked to those of the “global Islamic Movement.”

A succession of MSA leaders have made statements condemning the United States and/or calling for the killing of all Jews. Several MSA presidents have publicly supported jihad, and in the case of at least one, Omar Hammami from Alabama, have actually participated in violent jihad overseas. MSA members routinely express admiration and support for terror organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah and for the foundational leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood such as Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb.

In addition to promoting aggressive political influence and intimidation operations like “Israel Apartheid Week” on many campuses, MSA chapters are also focal points for efforts to impose shariah blasphemy rules or otherwise control speech. To this end, members frequently engage in disruptive actions aimed at preventing speakers from exposing students to information about shariah Islam, jihad and their targets – notably, the United States and Israel – that would be deemed “offensive” or otherwise contrary to the ambitions of the Ikhwan.

Islamic Society of North America

In 1980, the Muslim Brotherhood created the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) “to be a nucleus for the Islamic Movement in North America.” From the time of its founding in Plainfield, Indiana, ISNA has been run by the senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Movement in the United States and Canada, and has emerged as the largest of the MB fronts in North America.

ISNA’s prominent role in the Ikhwan operations in America is suggested by its listing at the top of the Explanatory Memorandum‘s roster of its front groups. The subheading on that list is: “Imagine if they all march according to one plan.” ISNA was established as an umbrella organization to help foster such a plan, and ensure that all MB organizations “march” according to it.

Over the past three decades, thanks largely to its numerous chapters, its “over 300 community and professional organizations in North America,” its substantial resources and aggressive influence operations, the U.S. government has accorded ISNA considerable stature as its leading “educational” and “outreach” partner in the Muslim-American community.

For agencies with national and homeland security responsibilities like the White House, the FBI, the State, Defense and Homeland Security departments and the intelligence community to confer such legitimacy on ISNA is all the more astounding given the results of the aforementioned successful prosecution of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in the Northern District of Texas in 2008.

Part 19 continues the introduction to the most troublesome constituent elements of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States, with a more in-depth look at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).