A coalition including two U.S. Muslim Brotherhood groups has written a letter to the Senate Homeland Security Committee expressing concern over the Committee’s recent report entitled “Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat.” The crux of the opposition to the report centers on a report issued in 2007 by the New York Police Department that analyzed the threat of “home-grown” Islamic radicalization in the U.S:
…the report places unwarranted emphasis – and indeed relies upon – a discredited 2007 report by the New York Police Department (“NYPD”) that recommends particular scrutiny of American Muslims. 5 The NYPD report proposes a four-step “radicalization process” recited in the Committee’s report. 6 However, the NYPD analysis prompted criticism for examining a statistically insignificant, unrepresentative sample set, as well as for drawing conclusions based on logical fallacies. In fact, federal counterterrorism officials have privately repudiated the NYPD report.
The letter supports instead recent reports from the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center urging employees not to use terms including ‘jihad,’ ‘jihadist’ or ‘Islamic terrorist’ in describing Islamic terrorists:
We are confident that, had the Committee substantially heard from — rather than about — Muslims, it would have developed a more credible report with useful recommendations. Notably, only one of nineteen witnesses before the Committee represented the American Muslim community. In contrast, after a sustained effort to engage community leaders (which the Committee’s report praised), the National Counterterrorism Center and DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties recently issued analyses providing tangible recommendations to improve our national security.
Earlier posts discussed these reports and suggested that this proposed policy was in accord with global Muslim Brotherhood strategies attempting to control the use of language used in counter-terrorism efforts.
The letter was signed by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) along with two other Arab/Islamic advocacy groups. CAIR has a long history of support for terrorism which includes organizational ties to Hamas infrastructure, helping to fundraise for Hamas, frequent defense of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist suspects, and opposition to virtually all anti-terror efforts by the U.S. government. MPAC has also had a long history of support for terrorist organizations including:
-Consistently attempting to focus attention away from Islamic terrorism by repeated accusations of double standards and, before 911, claiming that most terrorism in the world was committed by Christians and Jews.
-Engaging in a campaign of deception about the nature of Jihad by expounding the Muslim Brotherhood interpretation of Jihad as “struggle against oppression” as the “true” definition of the concept. Building on this definition, MPAC has also repeatedly insisted that terrorism, while employing tactics with which it does not agree, is based on “legitimate grievances” which could then be seen, in turn, as justifying Jihad.
-Mounting a defense of Palestinian terrorist organizations by supporting their goals and causes while professing once again to disagree with their “tactics.” While condemning the actions of Al Qaeda, MPAC has also consistently asserted that the organization is facilitated by “legitimate grievances.”
-Obstructing U.S. counter-terror efforts by resisting any attempt to prosecute U.S. Islamic charities accused and/or convicted in connection with financial support of Hamas. MPAC has also opposed virtually every counter-terror initiative undertaken or proposed by the U.S. government. At times this opposition was said to be on civil-rights grounds but, just as often, MPAC claimed that U.S. counter-terror efforts were aimed at the U.S. Muslim community itself.
Both CAIR and MPAC are part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.