The Investigative Project is reporting that the Illinois Attorney General is among a group of state officials who are praising the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) at the same time they are defending the state against litigation brought by CAIR in litigation invoking a controversial local imam. The IP report begins:
Kifah Mustapha
IPT News May 2, 2013 As her assistants defend the state against a discrimination suit brought by a Chicago-area imam, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is among a slew of state officials saluting the group representing him in advance of its annual fundraising banquet.
And the imam, rejected by the Illinois State Police (ISP) due to his past work for a Hamas-support network, is being honored at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago chapter banquet Saturday evening and will help with the fundraising. CAIR represents Kifah Mustapha in litigation claiming the state discriminated against him and violated his free speech rights when the ISP rescinded a 2009 invitation making Mustapha the agency’s first volunteer Muslim chaplain.
The reversal followed a report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism showing Mustapha had been a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, which was convicted in 2008 of being part of a multi-million dollar American-based Hamas-support network. Mustapha was an unindicted co-conspirator in the case and had been on the Holy Land payroll.
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Madigan’s office also cited this video from the 1990s, showing Mustapha as part of a performing troupe singing the praises of Hamas and jihad as a young boy dances with a rifle. ‘O Hamas, raise the banners of Jihad,’ the singers say. ‘The victory of God comes through it or through martyrdom. O Hamas, teach us the rifle.’
Mr. Mustafa is both an Imam at the Mosque Foundation, also home of the Bridgeview Mosque, as well as serving as the Foundation’s Associate Director. A 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that as much as $1 million a year had been raised from mosque members which was then sent to overseas Muslim charities, three of which were involved in financing terrorism—the Holy Land Foundation, Benevolence International, and the Global Relief Foundation. The Foundation’s last known Director was Sheikh Jamal Said whose salary, according to the Tribune, was partially paid by Saudi Arabia and who was characterized as inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, educated at a Saudi Arabian University, and noted for his sermons espousing strict Islamic fundamentalist views and critical of America as “a land of disbelievers.” One of the mosque’s executive committee was Muhammad Salah, a Muslim Brotherhood member who was arrested in Israel in 1993 and a known Hamas military commander. Mosque leaders were also leaders of the Quranic Literacy Institute and the Islamic Association for Palestine, the predecessor of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
In addition to his role at the Mosque Foundation, Mr. Mustafa is also a teacher at the Bridgeview Universal School. Both the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) former President Ingrid Mattson and former ISNA Secretary-General Safaa Zarzour have also been associated with the Universal School which although located next to the mosque has denied any connection to it. Yet, past school websites have listed Bassam Osman as both a school director and as a “Representative of NAIT.” The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), where Dr. Osman continues to serves as a trustee, is an affiliate of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and holds the title to many U.S. mosques and Islamic facilities associated with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The Tribune investigation reported that the Bridgeview mosque had also been deeded to NAIT in 1981 by Islamic fundamentalists who had taken over the mosque from its former leaders. Dr. Mattson has also served as one of the NAIT Trustees.
CAIR is part of the US Muslim Brotherhood and had its origins in the US Hamas infrastructure.
