Turkish President Erdogan Meets With Muslim Brotherhood In The US

A Turkish media source has reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently met in New York with a group of what were described as “representatives of the Muslim community in the US.” According to the report:

September 23, 2016 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in New York to attend the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, met with representatives of the Muslim community in the US.

President Erdogan was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu, Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag, Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s Ambassador to Washington, DC Serdar Kilic, Deputy Chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Yasin Aktay, AK Party Istanbul Deputy Ravza Kavakci, Deputy Secretary General and Spokesperson of the Presidency Ibrahim Kalin.

Reported attending the meeting were 27 individuals of which 19 are known to be tied to US Muslim Brotherhood or Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood or which have significant associations with the Brotherhood:

• Executive Director of the Zakat Foundation Halil Demir
• Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Mazen Mokhtar
• Ayman Hammous and Lana Safah of the Muslim American Society
• President of the Adams Center Syed Moktadir
• Mohamed Elsanousi and Imrana Umar of the Adams Center
• Executive Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Mohamed Magid
• Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Nihad Awad
• Secretary General of the US Council of Muslim Organizations Oussama Jammal
• Executive Director of Muslim Legal Fund of America Khalil (Eric) Meek
• Zahid Bukhari of ICNA
• Chairman of the Islamic Relief Khaled Lamada
• Secretary General of ICNA Muhammad Tariq Rahman,
• Moviz Asad Siddiqi of ICNA Relief
• National Director of ISNA Sayyid Syeed,
• President of the Center for Egyptian-American Dialogue Abdul Mawgoud Dardery
• Coordinator for Egyptians Abroad for Democracy Worldwide Mohamed Ismail
• Ahmed Shehata of the Egyptian American Organization for Democracy and Human Rights (see note below)

The GMBDW reported in June that the Turkish state-run news agency had announced its “Anadolu World Report News Package” at the 2016 annual convention of two US Muslim Brotherhood organizations. As we noted at that time, the choice of venue for the announcement is unsurprising as we have frequently reported on the close ties of Erdogan and the Turkish government to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. This reporting largely began with a report by the GMBDW Editor, centered on the June 2010 Gaza flotilla but which also provided the following background on Erdogan:

The Turkish political establishment has had ties with the Global Muslim Brotherhood since at least the 1970s when Prime Minister Erdogan was reported to have been associated with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a fundamentalist Saudi religious organization that has been accused of promoting extremism and supporting terrorism all over the world. Erdogan has since maintained his ties to the Global Brotherhood as evidenced by his close relationships to Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders such as former Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Akef, Malaysian opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim, and Yassin Abdullah Qadi, a Saudi businessman blacklisted by the United Nations for funding terrorism and who had links with the US Muslim Brotherhood. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman has also said that the Brotherhood has maintained ties with the “Islamic movement” in Turkey since the days of Necmettin Erbakan’s early political parties, and the European Muslim Brotherhood has fused with Erbakan’s movement in Europe known as Millî Görüs. German Muslim Brotherhood leader Ibrahim El-Zayat is married to a member of the Erbakan family, and El-Zayat’s business partner is the Secretary-General of Millî Görüs in Germany. El-Zayat, formerly the head of WAMY in Western Europe, also runs Millis Gorus’ extensive portfolio of mosque properties throughout Europe as well as serving as a leader in the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the umbrella group representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.

(Note: based on confidential sources)