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Influence: The Muslim Brotherhood in America

Congressman Pompeo’s Handling of ISW Shows How Muslim Americans Need to be “Regulated”

The Islamic Society of Wichita (ISW) scheduled a March 25th fundraising event featuring Sheik Monzer Taleb. As we see too often with guest speakers in the Muslim American circuit, Taleb was yet another unindicted co-conspirator in the well-known Holy Land Foundation trial that funneled money to Hamas. He was also identified by federal prosecutors as … Continue reading "Congressman Pompeo’s Handling of ISW Shows How Muslim Americans Need to be “Regulated”"

BY Shireen Qudosi · @ShireenQudosi | March 28, 2016

The Islamic Society of Wichita (ISW) scheduled a March 25th fundraising event featuring Sheik Monzer Taleb. As we see too often with guest speakers in the Muslim American circuit, Taleb was yet another unindicted co-conspirator in the well-known Holy Land Foundation trial that funneled money to Hamas. He was also identified by federal prosecutors as a member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian Committee, and appears in a video pledging allegiance to Hamas. Taleb’s LinkedIn profile bills him as a motivational speaker with a resume that includes guest-speaker roles at CAIR fundraisers, and a current directorship with the Islamic Center of Irving in Dallas, Texas.

Taleb is representative of the worst of what the American-Muslim community has to offer: the uninspiring, pedantic personality directly connected with Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a dangerous subversive Islamist organization that just last month was recognized as a terrorist organization by the House Judiciary Committee. The Muslim Brotherhood rarely makes the news because it’s not as sensational as ISIS. While ISIS beheads and bombs, the Muslim Brotherhood attacks America intellectually, undermining our Constitutional principles at every turn.

The ISW event hosting the pro-Brotherhood speaker was canceled thanks in part to pressure from planned protests and public outcry, including that of Congressman Mike Pompeo (KS). Pompeo published a blistering statement holding ISW responsible for choosing to bring a “Hamas-connected sheik to their community,” and no less, on Good Friday just days after the ISIS-affiliated attacks in Brussels, Belgium.

ISW’s spokesman Hussam Madi denied having knowledge of Taleb’s Hamas affiliation. Yet, as a one-time active member of an organized Muslim American community who cut off ties through a self-imposed exile, I can tell you these communities know fully well who they’re inviting – and they have no issue with it because there is no ideological conflicts of interest as far as they see it. They have no real issue with what their brothers in faith are doing, which is why you don’t see the same organized outcry over radical Islam as you do against ‘oppression’ in the West.

As Madi told a local reporter, “…anybody can protest and it’s anybody’s right to say what they want to say…but I think now we are infringed on to have our event and say what we want to say to our people and congregation on the same token.” He also accused Pompeo of pushing a “political agenda” by going through the media versus contacting ISW directly. Madi isn’t just representative of ISW; he’s representative of a larger organized Muslim-American community. The larger community feels oppressed but doesn’t want its own oppressive conduct questioned or challenged. The community also suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, afraid of a hidden hand undermining its efforts while also being completely unaware (or indifferent to) their own two-faced treatment of their non-Muslim neighbors.

Just five days after inviting a well-known Jew-hating, Hamas-affiliated speaker to address the Wichita community of Muslims – ISW hosted a tour for the local community. The event, attended by a Christian group, was designed to dispel the stereotypes about Muslims.

You know that thing we had to cancel last week because it got out the speaker hated Christians almost as much as he hated Jews – yeah well, ignore that. Trust us when we say Islam is really all about peace.

When local Islamic groups dip from the same fungal pool of Islamic speakers to lead their community, any one-sided interfaith gestures or statements of peace are little more self-preservation varnished as community engagement. It’s disingenuous and it’s dishonest to invite speakers who believe in the destruction of Israel, who support radical Islam and tolerate no alternative views. And then to five days later open the doors to the very people you five days prior tacitly supported in hate through the personality you were hosting, is nothing short of insufferable ignorance, arrogance – or both.

And yet when Americans switch on their tele at night, Pompeo’s impressive stand against ISW isn’t what you see. Instead you see a glossy TV presenter with lofty words of inclusion underscoring how we wouldn’t want Muslim Americans to feel unwanted. Echoing Jimmy Kimmel words: we won’t need to import terrorism; we’ll be creating them here.

The fact is they’re already here. Not every extremist is going to have a bomb strapped to his chest. Some wear suits and are highly organized, relying on liberal sentimentality to further undermine the American vision. The thickly knotted trail of extremist associations between Muslim organizations too frequently points to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egypt-born political ideology that has been dubbed the breeding ground of radical Islam. So when it comes to patrolling Muslim communities, the solution is that Muslim communities don’t need surveillance. Their public associations give them away through the types of speakers they bring on, to the poorly qualified but radically aligned people they promote to high levels of leadership. So there is no need to patrol a community that is openly and shamelessly regressive.

As the incident last week with ISW shows, what does work is social, political, and cultural pressure through collective shaming. We need the larger community to be aware and vocal about what goes on in their neighborhood, and then act in visible protest when the situation calls for it. We need elected officials like Congressman Pompeo to continue acting in defiance and hold Muslim groups accountable. And we need secular Muslim Americans to be vocal and amplify their dissent. Social shaming is an effective strategy that’s worked well in the Middle East for thousands of years; it’s about time the West used it too.

You can start here by seeing if your elected official supports the bill that will designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Ten senators are opposing the bill and eighteen senators still haven’t taken a position on it.

Backgrounders

Justice Department Finds Brotherhood Network During Terror-Funding Trial

In 2007, Federal prosecutors brought charges of terrorism financing against the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Islamic charity in America, which funneled $12.4 million to Hamas.

“An Explanatory Memorandum” – The Brotherhood’s Plan

In 2007, the Justice Department convicted the largest Islamic charity in North America, The Holy Land Foundation, and its leadership of channeling more than twelve million dollars to known terrorists in the Middle East.

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