Situated on a 23-acre property in Villanova, Pennsylvania, the Foundation for Islamic Education (FIE) is “dedicated to the establishment of a world class Islamic educational institution for K-12,” and “to serving the needs of the Muslims and society at large,” particularly in “the Philadelphia-region Pennsylvania counties of Chester, Delaware and Montgomery.”

FIE has intimate ties to the Saudi Wahhabist religious establishment, which represents the most extreme form of Islam. Past FIE web pages (which the organization has since removed) stated that FIE “is a private institute owned and managed by its own Board of Trustees in Saudi Arabia,” and “is in correlation with The American Open University, a satellite campus accredited through [Egypt’s] Al-Azhar University.” (Al-Azhar is the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, and is the alma mater of Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden’s spiritual mentor.)

FIE serves as the Tri-State headquarters of the American Muslim Society (AMS), which is an outgrowth of the Islamic Association for Palestine and is directly tied to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

FIE’s Board President is Mahmoud Abdullah Taiba, Vice Chairman of the Majlis Ash-Shoura (a Muslim advisory council, or “Council of Consultation”) and former Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Electricity in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. According to Militant Islam Monitor, “The Majlis Ash-Shoura . . . evaluates most matters in the kingdom for their compatibility with Islamic law. Decisions made by the Shoura council are implemented upon the review of King Fahd. Taiba is therefore a key player in the inner workings of Saudi Arabia’s official religion, which is the Wahhabist Sunni sect of Islam, Islam’s most fundamentalist, intolerant strain.”

The Washington Post reports: “Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, [FIE’s] summer gatherings were called ‘Jihad Camp.’” According to Militant Islam Monitor, speakers at these and other FIE events included:

• Riyadh Ul Haq:  Islamica magazine reports that this Muslim cleric from Britain has extolled the virtues of “martyrdom” (shahadah); claimed that the blood of “anyone who supports Muslims who engage in jihad . . . is made halal” [blessed]; expressed his admiration for the Taliban and his disdain for homosexuals; embraced the conspiracy theories found in the infamous 19-century forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion; and prayed that Allah might “expose the Jews for what they truly are and give all Muslims the understanding and the sense to see through their propaganda, their lies, and deceit and to view them as they really are and thus treat them accordingly.”
• Mazen Mokhtar: Currently the Youth Director for the New Jersey chapter of the Muslim American Society, this Imam has been under investigation for administering a mirror website for al Qaeda, and for his suspected ties to bomb-plotters in the United Kingdom.
• Siraj Wahhaj: This Advisory Board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations was named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
• Jamal Badawi: Badawi is a member of the Islamic Society of North America, a Board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a former Board of Directors member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States, and a founding incorporator of the Muslim American Society. In a July 2006 forum (titled “Dying for Allah: Martyrdom in Islam, Let’s Discuss It”) on the Islam Online website, he supported suicide bombings.
• Faisal Hamouda: A civil engineer by profession, Hamouda is affiliated with Islamic Relief, a charity whose Gaza coordinator was arrested in Israel on charges that he was funding Hamas.
• Maher Hathout: This founder and Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council has supported attacks by the terrorist group Hezbollah, whose members he characterizes as “freedom fighters.” He has called Israel a land of “butchers” who have set up an oppressive system of “racist apartheid.”
• Tariq Ramadan: This Swiss-born Muslim philosophy professor had his visa revoked by the U.S. State Department because he had given money to Hamas.

In November 2007, the Council on American Islamic Relations organized a trip where students from Conestoga High School (located in Berwyn, Pennsylvania) visited FIE.