US Muslim Brotherhood Group Hosts Virtual Banquet Featuring Democrat Legislators, Government Officials

On 20 Novem­ber 2021, the Chica­go chap­ter of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR) host­ed this year’s vir­tu­al edi­tion of its annu­al ban­quet that fea­tured address­es and speech­es by a large num­ber of US leg­is­la­tors and high-lev­el gov­ern­ment offi­cials, all from the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. Accord­ing to a recap on the CAIR-Chica­go website:

This year, our speak­ers tru­ly showed us how per­se­ver­ance helps us stay hope­ful dur­ing a pan­dem­ic. Mod­er­at­ed by Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Ahmed Rehab, our speak­ers led us through a night of ded­i­ca­tion and ambi­tion. After some moti­vat­ing words from our keynote pan­el, the event closed with some words of faith by Dr. Mazen Kudaimi.

Read the rest here.

The live-streamed event includ­ed a keynote speech by Dalia Moga­hed, Direc­tor of Research at the US Insti­tute for Social Pol­i­cy and Under­stand­ing, a group whose Board of Advi­sors and staff includes promi­nent fig­ures in the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. The ban­quet was also addressed by a large num­ber of Demo­c­rat politi­cians, including:

• Con­gress­woman Rashi­da Tlaib, serv­ing as the US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Michi­gan’s 13th con­gres­sion­al district

• Con­gress­woman Ilhan Omar, serv­ing as the US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Min­neso­ta’s 5th con­gres­sion­al district

• Con­gress­man André Car­son, serv­ing as the US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Indi­ana’s 7th con­gres­sion­al district

• Con­gress­man Jesús G. Gar­cía, serv­ing as the US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Illi­nois’s 4th district

• Marie New­man, serv­ing as the US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Illi­nois’s 3rd con­gres­sion­al district

• JB. Pritzk­er, Gov­er­nor of Illinois

• Kei­th Elli­son, Attor­ney Gen­er­al of Minnesota

• Dick Durbin, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor for Illinois

Omar, Car­son, and Elli­son have their own ties to the USMB.

Accord­ing to its 2021 annu­al report, CAIR-Chica­go also received let­ters of sup­port from mul­ti­ple state and coun­ty offi­cials, includ­ing Illi­nois Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Juliana Strat­ton, Illi­nois Sen­a­tor Tam­my Duck­worth, and Chica­go May­or Lori Lightfoot.

Being sup­port­ed by sev­er­al local and state Islam­ic asso­ci­a­tions and inter­faith groups, CAIR-Chica­go said it was able to raise more than 272,000 USD. One of the group’s main spon­sors was the Mosque Foun­da­tion in Bridgeview, one of the Chica­go area’s old­est and largest mosques, and whose imam Kifah Mustapha also deliv­ered a speech as part of the ban­quet. In 2010, the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch report­ed that the Illi­nois State Police had revoked the appoint­ment of Kifah Mustapha as its first Mus­lim chap­lain, like­ly as a result of his ties to the Pales­tine Com­mit­tee of the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. In 2004, the mosque itself was the focus of a Chica­go Tri­bune inves­ti­ga­tion which revealed that as much as $1 mil­lion a year had been raised from mosque mem­bers, which was sent to over­seas Mus­lim char­i­ties, three of which were involved in financ­ing terrorism.

CAIR is part of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, a transna­tion­al Islamist net­work cov­ered by the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR). It describes itself as “a grass­roots civ­il rights and advo­ca­cy group” and as “Amer­i­ca’s largest Islam­ic civ­il lib­er­ties group” and was found­ed in 1994 by three offi­cers of the Islam­ic Asso­ci­a­tion of Pales­tine, part of the US Hamas infra­struc­ture at that time. The orga­ni­za­tion has repeat­ed­ly joined oth­er groups with ties to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in engag­ing Mus­lim cit­i­zens to par­tic­i­pate in con­sul­ta­tive meet­ings with leg­isla­tive offices and state sen­a­tors, high­light­ing the need to com­bat Islam­o­pho­bia and anti-Mus­lim sen­ti­ment in the US.