US public records and media reporting indicate that Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, the man accused of killing four Marines at Navy-Marine training facility, had regularly attended a mosque owned by an organization associated with the US Muslim Brotherhood. A New York Times article states that Abdulazeez:
….had begun showing up fairly regularly at Friday Prayer at the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, a large mosque and cultural center, said Dr. Azhar S. Sheikh, a founding member of the center’s board.
Local media had reported in August 2012 that the mosque now occupying one part of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga (ISGC) is the former Masjid Annour, previously located at another address. In turn, Hamilton County, Tennessee property records indicate that North American Islamic Trust is registered in care of the Masjid Annour.
The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) has described itself as “a waqf, the historical Islamic equivalent of an American trust or endowment, serving Muslims in the United States and their institutions”. NAIT facilitates the realization of American Muslims’ desire for a virtuous and happy life in a Shari’ah-compliant way.” A research report on the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) authored by the GMBDW editor describes the origins of NAIT and the role that it played in the early development of the US Muslim Brotherhood:
The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) was established on May 23, 1973 and later became known as an affiliate of ISNA. According to the incorporation documents, the purpose of NAIT was to “serve the best interests of Islam and the Muslim Student’s Association of the United States and Canada” by establishing a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation to hold “investment property.” …: An Islamic scholar writes: “With its ability to raise funds, especially from overseas, MSA began establishing business and professional organizations useful in establishing off-campus institutions. The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) became instrumental in establishing masajid, student houses, Islamic centers, full-time schools, and literature publishing (under the American Trust Publications, International Graphics Press, and Islamic Book Service). Its members created the American Muslim Scientists and Engineers (AMSE), the American Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), and the Islamic Medical Association (IMA).”
The report goes to describe how NAIT today has become the custodian of a large number of U.S. mosques and Islamic centers:
The NAIT website states that it “holds the title of approximately 300 properties” a figure consistent with a LEXIS/NEXIS search showing 332 properties in the real-estate related database and with a report by the Council on American Islamic Relations which says that NAIT owns about 27 percent of the estimated 1200 mosques in the United States. In a hearing before the United States Senate, witness testimony shows that NAIT holds the deeds to between 50% and 79% of American mosques.
Former FBI special agent Robert Stauffer headed an investigation in the 1980s of Muslim Brotherhood finances and reportedly discovered that the Islamic Society of North America had received “Millions and millions of dollars” through NAIT which, he says, “served as a financial holding company for Muslim Brotherhood-related groups.” The money, he says, was wired into the United States from Islamic countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Egypt, Malaysia and Libya.
The ISNA research report also describes examples of how NAIT played a role in the ideological takeover of two U.S. mosques, driving out moderate leaders and replacing them with those close to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. One of those mosques was the Bridgeview mosque who imam, Jamal Said, is one of the Allied Asset Advisers trustees listed above. A document released in 2007 by the prosecution in the Holy Land Terrorism financing case names NAIT as one of the entities that is part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.
As the GMBDW noted at the time of the May 2015 shootings outside an event in Garland, Texas devoted to cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, what we called “the usual parties” were engaged in doing their best to connect the Muslim Brotherhood in the US to the attacks, chiefly though the Islamic Community Center (ICC) of Phoenix and its ownership by the NAIT. As we also pointed out, since NAIT is thought to be the owner of about about 27 percent of the estimated 1200 mosques in the United States, there are likely many many thousands or hundreds of thousands of individuals attending those mosques and that it is beyond any credibility to suggest that every Muslim worshipping at a NAIT-owned facility is somehow also tied to the US Muslim Brotherhood. Far more credible links would be demonstrable and substantial connections to the mosques’ leadership or that the shooters were somehow radicalized at the mosques themselves. However, the GMBDW does note that this is the second time that a shooter has been found to have been attending a NAIT affiliated mosque and even though in both cases the mosque leadership has condemned the shootings and denied any connection to the mosques, we believe that perhaps it is now the time for a more serous investigation of NAIT to be undertaken by the US government.
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