The Washington Times is reporting that the U.S. Justice Department is co-sponsoring the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) scheduled for September. According to the report, the acting deputy chief of the Voting Rights Division said that the sponsorship will involve sending government lawyers to operate a booth during the event:
“This is an important outreach opportunity, and a chance to reach a community that is at once very much discriminated against, and very wary of the national government and its willingness to protect them,” Mrs. Lorenzo-Giguere said in an e-mail obtained by The Washington Times. “It would be a great step forward to break through those barriers. And Chicago is lovely this time of year,” Mrs. Lorenzo-Giguere said.
The report also said that the participation of the Justice Department in the convention was being objected to by unidentified “rank and file” at the agency who were said to fear that it would undermine the current case against the Holy Land Foundation for financing Hamas. ISNA was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case. ISNA is one of the most important organizations in the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and was founded in 1981 by individuals linked to the Brotherhood.