US media has reported on the launch conference of the new US Muslim Brotherhood umbrella group known as the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO). According to a CNS News report:
March 13, 2014 (CNSNews.com) – Ten U.S. Islamic organizations have formed a new umbrella group to serve as a ‘representative voice’ for American Muslims, and one of their first tasks will be to carry out a census of the community.
Other focus areas for the new U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), according to speakers at the body’s launch in Washington on Wednesday, include enhancing Muslim political engagement and participation in forthcoming elections, civil rights issues, combating ‘Islamophobia’ and having an impact on U.S. foreign and domestic policy.
Participating organizations include high-profile groups that have been dogged by controversy, such as the Muslim American Society (MAS), founded by Muslim Brotherhood members, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was named by the Justice Department in 2007 as ‘unindicted co-conspirators’ in its case against the Holy Land Foundation in Texas, subsequently found guilty of raising money for Hamas.
‘The new national council’s first priority will be to build on Muslim citizenship rights by conducting a census of American Muslims to create a database that will be used to enhance civic and political participation in upcoming elections,’ USCMO said in a statement.
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad, a participant at the launch, said that Muslim organizations in 2011 had come up with a ‘guesstimate’ of seven to eight million Muslims in the United States.
‘Opponents of the Muslim community shot down the number for political reasons, to two-and-a-half, two million, and sometimes people even said half a million,’ he said.
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW reported last week on the formation of the USCMO which, as noted at that time, the appears to be comprised almost solely of elements of the US Muslim Brotherhood.
This is certainly not the first time that the US Muslim Brotherhood has formed such a coalition. As noted by our predecessor publication, one of the common tactics of the U.S. Brotherhood is to construct such coalitions of its own front organizations as well as inter-related groups and individuals, giving the appearance that the Brotherhood has more broad-based support than it actually enjoys. In February 2004, CAIR announced the formation of the “American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections” (AMT) that was intended to “encourage community-based Muslim political participation and to defend against the erosion of civil liberties in a post-9/11 social environment.” CAIR, MANA, MAS, and MUNA are all still listed as members of the AMT which appears to be moribund at the present time.