The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) has announced a “Weekend Of Twinning Of Mosques And Synagogues Across North America” as part of its ongoing attempts to form a coalition with elements of the U.S. Jewish community. According to the announcement :
Attached please find a document developed by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU). It offers suggestions as to how linked mosques and synagogues across the United States and Canada may hold a successful joint program on the theme of “Confronting Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism Together.” We hope this guide will be of value in planning for your 2008 Weekend of Twinningsm program…..FFEU asks each pair of twinned congregations participating in the Weekend of Twinningsm to designate at least one Jewish and one Muslim participant who will work together to keep a record of the event in their locality, either in written form or as a tape or video recording. The responsible parties agree to provide one copy of such record to FFEU so that we can produce an overview of the event chronicling all that transpired in each city and town in which a Weekend of Twinningsm event occurred.
ISNA is an important part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood with a history of fundamentalism, anti-semitism, and support for terrorism. A recent post has discussed the reasons given by the President of the Union for Reform Judaism for engaging in joint projects with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).
The announcement also identifies the following organizations as participating in the ISNA effort:
- Center for the Understanding of Islam
- Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California
- World Jewish Congress, American Section (WJC)
- Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims
MPAC was established in the mid 1980’s by individuals whose backgrounds are likely rooted in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and since its inception has acted in concert with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The organization, like other U.S. Brotherhood organizations, has a long history of fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and support for terrorism.
The Center for the Understanding of Islam (CUI) is a less well known organization co-founded by U.S. Muslim convert Robert Crane who still serves as an adviser to the group along with two Jewish rabbis. According to his resume on Islam Online, Dr. Crane has numerous ties to organizations associated with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network. He was a director of publications for the International Institute of Islamic Thought as its Director of Publications (IIIT), helped to found the American Muslim Council, and since 1996 has been a board member of the United Association for Studies and Research (USAR) and Managing Editor of its Middle East Affairs Journal. USAR is generally associated with the Hamas infrastructure in the U.S.