Islamist Infiltration of American Politics

Overview

Islamist Infiltration of American Politics

This section of Discover The Networks features profiles of Islamists who have held positions of influence in federal, state, and local government. Some of these individuals were elected to their offices by the voting public; others were appointed by elected officials.

It is important to emphasize that the men and women profiled in this section are not included here merely because they are Muslims. Indeed, many Muslims in government positions perform their duties competently and in a manner that is consistent with America’s national-security needs. As journalist Andrew C. McCarthy, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and author of The Grand Jihad, puts it:

“I don’t know how many Muslims work in the U.S. government, but I feel pretty safe saying there are thousands. As a federal prosecutor on terrorism cases, I had the privilege of working with several of them. These were patriotic American Muslims, and a number of Muslims who may not be Americans but who have embraced America and the West. Without them, we could not have infiltrated jihadist cells in New York and stopped terrorists from killing thousands of people. Without them, we could not have translated, understood and processed our evidence so it could be presented to a jury as a compelling narrative. Pro-American Muslims serve honorably in government, in our military, in our intelligence services, and in our major institutions.”

Such individuals are to be distinguished from Islamists, who, to varying degrees, support and/or whitewash the radical and supremacist agendas of Sharia Law and jihadism, be it of the violent or the stealth variety, and of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations.

A number of the Islamists profiled in this section have participated in events hosted and sponsored by organizations with ties to Islamic extremism, jihadism, and terrorism. They have refused to unambiguously condemn the actions and objectives of such entities as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood. And they have been inclined to ascribe Islamic terrorism not to any particular doctrines that are central to Islam itself, but rather, to objectionable Western “policies” that allegedly antagonize Muslims and constitute a veritable “war against Islam.”

Islamist Infiltration of the Obama Administration

In June 2012, five Republican lawmakers (most prominently, Michele Bachmann) sent letters to the inspectors general at the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense, and State, asking that they investigate government “policies and activities that appear to be the result of influence operations conducted by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood”—the ideological wellspring from which such terrorist outfits as al Qaeda and Hamas first emerged.^[1] One letter, for instance, noted that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s closest aide, her deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, “has three family members … connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.” (In fact, Abedin herself spent 12 years working for for the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, a Saudi-based Islamic think tank whose agenda was—and remains to this day, as journalist Andrew C. McCarthy explains—“to grow an unassimilated, aggressive population of Islamic supremacists who will gradually but dramatically alter the character of the West.” For details about this agenda, cl ick here.)

While Bachmann was widely criticized and ridiculed for daring to suggest that Muslim Brotherhood elements had infiltrated the U.S. government, corroboration of her allegations came, in December 2012, from an unlikely quarter: Egypt’s Rose El-Youssef magazine, which asserted that six highly-placed Muslim Brotherhood infiltrators within the Obama administration had transformed the United States “from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.” (A translation of the article is available from the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), here.)

According to the IPT, the six named people included: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships. These represent many of the individuals and groups about whom Bachmann had raised concerns.

In addition to profiles of Islamists who influenced, or who were appointed to positions within, the Obama administration, this section of Discover The Networks also includes profiles of some Islamists who may not have been officially connected to the administration, but who had a significant influence on Obama’s thinking over the course of his life.

Moreover, this section contains a link to a profile of the Barack H. Obama Foundation (BHOF), which was established in 2008 by Abon’go Malik Obama, President Obama’s half-brother, a Kenyan-born Muslim who has been: the overseer of the Muslim Brotherhood’s international investments; the executive secretary of the Sudan-based Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO), an organization primarily focused on expanding Wahhabist Islam on the African subcontinent; and a close associate of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a jihadist tyrant responsible for the deaths of more than three million people.

Individuals With Ties to Obama:

* Abedin, Huma: Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
* Abunimah, Ali: Vice president of the Arab American Action Network
* Al-Hibri, Azizah: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
* Al-Mansour, Khalid Abdullah Tariq: Patron of Obama during the 1980s
* Al-Marayati, Salam: Representative of the U.S. government at the annual Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference
* Alikhan, Areef: Department of Homeland Security
* Asbahi, Mazen: National Coordinator for Muslim American Affairs (during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign)
* Elibiary, Mohamed: Homeland Security Advisory Council
* Hussain, Rashad: Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference
* Khalidi, Rashid: Professor of Middle East Studies at Columbia University; a strong influence on Obama.
* Magid, Mohamed: Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Countering Violent Extremism Working Group
* Mattson, Ingrid: Invited by an Obama adviser to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls
* Mogahed, Dalia: Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
* Obama, Abon’go Malik: the older half-brother of Barack Obama
* Patel, Eboo: Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
* Said, Edward: Professor and Arab activist who was the keynote speaker at 1998 fundraiser attended by Obama
* Shora, Kareem: Homeland Security Advisory Council
* Shora, Nawar: Senior Advisor to the Civil Rights and Liberties Office of the Transportation Security Administration

Organizations With Ties to Obama:

* Arab American Action Network: Received money from the Woods Fund Of Chicago when Obama was a board member of Woods Fund
* Barack H. Obama Foundation: Headed by President Obama’s half-brother, who oversees the Muslim Brotherhood’s international investments