U.S. media is reporting that a former member of the national board of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was order deported on Friday. According to a Dallas Morning News report:
A Richardson man with links to the defunct Holy Land Foundation and the Palestinian militant group Hamas was ordered deported Friday at a hearing in Dallas. Immigration Judge Anthony Rogers ordered that Nabil Sadoun, 50, be deported to his native Jordan. Sadoun was not present at Friday’s hearing at the downtown Dallas federal courthouse. Authorities say he has already left the country. Sadoun is a former member of the national board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land terrorism financing case. In 2008, five former Holy Land organizers were convicted in Dallas of providing support to Hamas. Last fall, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents issued Sadoun a notice to appear before an immigration court on charges of violating immigration laws and omitting critical information on his application for an immigrant visa in 1993, officials said. Authorities say Sadoun failed to disclose that he was associated with, among other things, the United Association for Studies and Research. According to the FBI, the group was one of several established in the late 1980s and early 1990s, along with the Holy Land Foundation, to benefit Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization. Sadoun, who has a doctorate in education, was also the former head of the Islamic studies department at Brighter Horizons Academy in Garland.
Documents released in the Holy Land Trial have revealed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as well as identifying the organization itself as being part of the U.S. Brotherhood. A recent 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 had it origins in the U.S. Hamas infrastructure and CAIR and its leaders have a long history of defending almost all individuals accused of terrorism by the U.S. government, frequently calling such prosecutions a “war on Islam.”
The United Association for Studies and Research (USAR) was founded by Hamas deputy political chief Mousa Abu Marzook and listed in many documents introduced by federal prosecutors as part of the Palestine Committee of the U.S. Brotherhood, set up in order to assist Hamas. The Investigative Project has posted a portion of a 1998 edition of a journal published by the USAR which identifies the group’s Board of Advisory Editors during that time. Notable names include:
- Kurshid Ahmad, a leader of the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami political party
- Charles Butterworth, University of Maryland
- Louis Cantori (deceased), founding board member of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID)
- Graham Fuller, former Vice-Chair of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA
- Fathi Osman, one of the early leaders in the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
- Louay Safi, an important leader of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
- Sayyid Syeed, former Secretary-General of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
- Sulayman Nyang, Howard University, frequent speaker at ISNA and CAIR events