U.S. media has reported on the FBI reaction to a threat by the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood to suspend outreach efforts with the FBI by saying that the agency would avoid “formally constructed partnerships” with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to tA CNN report:
The FBI declined to comment on specific allegations but called the proposed move unproductive. “Limiting honest dialogue, especially when complex issues are on the table, is generally not an effective advocacy strategy,” spokesman John Miller said in a statement. “The FBI has continued our outreach efforts, across the board, with a number of concerned groups and where we agree — or disagree — most have concluded the best results are achieved through continued conversation. We believe that, too.”…..The FBI’s Miller declined to comment on specifics, but said the FBI wants to avoid “formally constructed partnerships” with CAIR. “Our concerns relate to a number of distinct narrow issues specific to CAIR and its national leadership,” Miller said. Before the FBI severed formal ties, CAIR officials had met with the FBI to discuss hate crimes targeting Muslims. On occasion, CAIR offered assistance in investigations. The group also held training sessions for FBI agents on Islamic culture and ways to improve interactions with the Muslim community.
As previous posts have discussed, the Brotherhood threat, issued by a coalition of U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations known as the The American Muslim Taskforce (AMT), was based partly on recent revelations that an undercover FBI informant was used in Southern California mosques as part of an FBI operation that resulted in the arrest of a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard on charges of lying about his ties to terrorist groups on his citizenship and passport applications. The AMT statement also mentioned the recent FBI decision to disengage with CAIR on the basis of CAIR’s origins in the Hamas infrastructure in the U.S.
A report recently issued by the Hudson Institute discusses the origins of CAIR and its founders/leaders in both the Palestine Committee of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and the U.S. Hamas support infrastructure. A previous post discussed an interview with the Deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in which he confirms a relationship between his organization and CAIR. Investigative research posted on GMBDW had determined that CAIR has a long history of support for fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and terrorism.