Coalition of Global Muslim Brotherhood Groups Publishes Report On US Counterterrorism Efforts Urging Muslim Communities Not To Cooperate With Law Enforcement

On 7 Octo­ber 2021, a coali­tion of Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood groups released a research report on US coun­tert­er­ror­ism efforts that urges Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties in the US not to coop­er­ate with the FBI and law enforce­ment. Accord­ing to the press release:

Today, a group of sev­en civ­il soci­ety and research orga­ni­za­tions are releas­ing a report to mark 20 years of the Glob­al War on Ter­ror. In The Ter­ror Trap: The Impact of the War on Ter­ror on Mus­lim Com­mu­ni­ties […]. The report exam­ines the var­i­ous dimen­sions of the so-called War on Ter­ror, and its dev­as­tat­ing impact on com­mu­ni­ties and nations worldwide.

Read the rest here.

The 192-page doc­u­ment, titled “The Ter­ror Trap,” fea­tures con­tri­bu­tions from 30 most­ly left and far-left inter­na­tion­al schol­ars, jour­nal­ists, and activists pro­vid­ing a crit­i­cal assess­ment of the US-led Glob­al War on Ter­ror. Although much of the report’s empha­sis is on the response after the 9/11 attacks, the report says it seeks to sit­u­ate the glob­al response in a “longer tra­jec­to­ry of the US tar­get­ing minori­ties through prac­tices of eth­nic pro­fil­ing, sur­veil­lance, deten­tion, and tor­ture.” The report’s release will be accom­pa­nied by a live-streamed, two-day con­fer­ence on 18 and 19 Octo­ber 2021, fea­tur­ing six round­table dis­cus­sions. On 20 Octo­ber 2021, the report’s lead­ing spon­sor Coali­tion for Civ­il Free­doms, along with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of its part­ner orga­ni­za­tions, plans to hold a vir­tu­al con­gres­sion­al brief­ing on the impact of the War on Ter­ror on Amer­i­can Muslims.

The report con­tains rec­om­men­da­tions to gov­ern­ments, media pro­fes­sion­als, civic orga­ni­za­tions, and Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties around the world. They include cre­at­ing a pri­vate nation­al secu­ri­ty and/or ter­ror­ism case data­base track­ing “prin­ci­pal actors respon­si­ble for the per­pet­u­a­tion of racist and repres­sive glob­al War on ter­ror poli­cies. “The authors also rec­om­mend that Mus­lims should not open the doors of their mosques and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters to the FBI and law enforce­ment “until entrap­ment and tar­get­ing of com­mu­ni­ties ends, “and that they should not “part­ner with Zion­ist orga­ni­za­tions. “They also sug­gest that law enforce­ment employ­ees, con­trac­tors, or con­sul­tants be dis­qual­i­fied from serv­ing on the board of a mosque or Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter, as their oath of loy­al­ty inher­ent­ly posed an issue.

The paper was co-spon­sored by a group of inter­na­tion­al Mus­lim advo­ca­cy and research ini­tia­tives, includ­ing the fol­low­ing tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB):

• CAGE, a UK Islam­ic advo­ca­cy group, tied to the British Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and, accord­ing to the UK gov­ern­ment, whose senior lead­ers have advo­cat­ed sup­port­ing vio­lent jihad overseas.

• George­town Uni­ver­si­ty’s The Bridge Ini­tia­tive (TBI), a mul­ti-year research project whose staff includes mul­ti­ple indi­vid­u­als tied to US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood groups.

• Cen­ter for Islam and Glob­al Affairs at Istan­bul’s Saba­hat­tin Zaim Uni­ver­si­ty, whose head Sami Al-Ari­an in 2006 plead­ed guilty to con­spir­ing to make or receive con­tri­bu­tions of funds, goods, or ser­vices to or for the ben­e­fit of the Pales­tin­ian Islam­ic Jihad.

• Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca Coun­cil for Social Jus­tice (ICNA-CSJ), an impor­tant part of the US MB.

• Coali­tion for Civ­il Free­doms, a group of US Mus­lim human rights NGOs whose mem­bers include the ICNA-CSJ and where CIGA leader Sami Al-Ari­an’s daugh­ter Leena Al-Ari­an serves as Asso­ciate Direc­tor.

The report was co-edit­ed by Sami and Leena Al-Ari­an as well as by CAGE Research Direc­tor Asim Qureshi. Its con­trib­u­tors include mul­ti­ple authors, researchers, and lec­tur­ers tied to the GMB, the most notable of which are:

• Farid Hafez, a senior researcher at TBI and a key sus­pect in Novem­ber 2020 raids by Aus­tri­an police tar­get­ing a large num­ber of Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als sus­pect­ed of ties to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and Hamas.

• John L. Espos­i­to, a found­ing direc­tor of George­town Uni­ver­si­ty’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Cen­ter for Mus­lim-Chris­t­ian Under­stand­ing (CMCU) Espos­i­to, who has also act­ed as a for­mer US State Depart­ment advi­sor, has at least a dozen past and/or present affil­i­a­tions with GMB and Hamas orga­ni­za­tions and is known to have espoused views con­sis­tent with Broth­er­hood doctrine.