The American Muslims for Constructive Engagement (AMCE), a new coalition of U.S. Muslim Brotherhood groups, has announced the launch of its Book Digest Project to be held at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). According to the announcement:
The American Muslims for Constructive Engagement (AMCE) will launch its Book Digest Project, “Books-In-Brief” at the headquarters of the International Institute of Islamic Thought on November 21, 2008. The Books-In-Brief series provides summaries of selected and recently published books that can contribute to the shaping of national debate on domestic and foreign policy issues in the US. These summaries cover the book’s main ideas and prepare the interested reader for a perusal of the original book. Our first book summary is for John Esposito and Dalia Mugahed’s book “Who Speaks for Islam?” published by Gallup Press, New York in 2007.
As previous posts have noted, the AMCE leadership is a Who’s Who of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood representing almost the entire U.S Muslim Brotherhood network including IIIT, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Council for Islamic American Relations (CAIR), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a former executive of the SAAR Foundation and others. The AMCE appears to have grown out of an earlier relationship between IIIT, the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD), and the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), also discussed in earlier posts.
IIIT, in turn, was founded in the U.S. in 1980 by important members of the Global Muslim Brotherhood who wished to promote the “Islamization of Knowledge.” IIIT was associated with the now defunct SAAR Foundation, a network of Islamic organizations located in Northern Virginia that was raided by the Federal government in 2003 and is still under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department in connection with the financing of terrorism. The organization appeared to have withdrawn from public view following the 2003 raids, but seems to be enjoying a renaissance of late. IIIT has a network of affiliates located in Europe, Africa, the MIddle East, and Asia. Although little is known about the activities of these IIIT affiliates, recent posts have discussed plans by IIIT to construct colleges in Bosnia and Lebanon.
The Muslim Brotherhood connections of the Gallup study and its authors which will be the subject of the first AMCE “Book Digest’ have been discussed in an earlier post.
The AMCE website describes identifies the organization’s strategies to forge closer contacts with the U.S. Government:
Fostering a constructive partnership between the U.S. Muslim Community and the U.S. Government that would enable Muslims to play a positive and patriotic role in the Global War on Terrorism; aligning expectations and goals so as to contribute the Muslim voice and influence to public and political debates and in forging approaches to domestic and foreign policy; charting specific courses of action and conducting specific projects that will establish and enhance informed mutual cooperation between the U.S. Muslim Community and the U.S. Government, enabling the U.S. to make the best use of the American Muslim community’s potential for building bridges between the United States and the global Muslim Community.