Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood Leader With Links To US Muslim Brotherhood Returns To US For Lobbying Efforts

For­eign Lob­by report­ed last month that a UK group linked to Ennah­da, essen­tial­ly the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Tunisia, and an Ennah­da activist linked to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood have increased their lob­by­ing efforts in the US. Accord­ing to the For­eign Lob­by report:

August 6, 2021 Sup­port­ers of Tunisia’s embat­tled mod­er­ate Islamist par­ty have signed a new US lob­by­ing con­tract to push back against Pres­i­dent Kais Saied, spark­ing a media firestorm in Tunis and adamant denials by Ennah­da that it has any­thing to do with it. The Lon­don-based Ennah­da Par­ty Dias­po­ra Group signed a two-month, $30,000 con­tract with BCW (Bur­son Cohn & Wolfe) on July 29, four days after Saied sus­pend­ed par­lia­ment, accord­ing to a new lob­by­ing fil­ing under the For­eign Agents Reg­is­tra­tion Act (FARA). The New York-based glob­al com­mu­ni­ca­tions firm is tasked with “out­reach to key stake­hold­ers in the US, media sup­port, and strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions counsel.” […]

BCW isn’t the only orga­ni­za­tion defend­ing the party’s point of view in Wash­ing­ton. Tunisian-Amer­i­can activist Rad­wan Mas­mou­di, the founder of the non­prof­it Cen­ter for the Study of Islam and Democ­ra­cy (CSID) in Wash­ing­ton, recent­ly returned to the US from Tunisia after for­mal­ly join­ing Ennahda’s polit­i­cal com­mit­tee ear­li­er this year. He told For­eign Lob­by Report that after years build­ing up a sis­ter orga­ni­za­tion to solid­i­fy the demo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion in Tunisia, he wants to re-ener­gize the Wash­ing­ton cen­ter after four years of pared down activ­i­ty under Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.

Read the rest here.

Rad­wan Mas­mou­di, the founder of the US-based Cen­ter for the Study of Islam and Democ­ra­cy (CSID), left the think tank in March to offi­cial­ly join the polit­i­cal office of  Ennahda.

The Cen­ter for the Study of Islam and Democ­ra­cy (CSID) was found­ed in 1998 in a coop­er­a­tive effort among the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, the US State Depart­ment, and George­town Uni­ver­si­ty aca­d­e­m­ic Dr. John Espos­i­to. Espos­i­to served dur­ing the 1990s as a State Depart­ment “for­eign affairs ana­lyst” and has at least a dozen past or present affil­i­a­tions with Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood/Hamas orga­ni­za­tions. Past CSID board mem­bers includ­ed Jamal Barz­inji and Taha Al-Alwani, both asso­ci­at­ed with the Inter­na­tion­al Insti­tute of Islam­ic Thought (IIIT). Both were impor­tant lead­ers in the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood who helped estab­lish many of the most crit­i­cal US Broth­er­hood organizations.