U.S. public diplomacy programs continue use of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates

State Department responds to concerns against funding Islamists

On July 30, 2008, Senators Tom Coburn and Jon Kyl sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to stop funding affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists tasked to wage a "Civilization-Jihadist Process" to "destroy Western Civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands" (pg 21 of Muslim Brotherhood Memorandum: “On the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America").

In a August 20th response letter, the State Department provided no indication that it would cease funding Islamists groups to carry out U.S. public diplomacy programs. These programs, managed by State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, are meant to invest in relationships with Muslim clerics in Muslim countries so they are more likely to preach positively about America and Americans. Grantees and subgrantees currently used by the Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs to carry out these programs include the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and a leader of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS). Both organizations are identified by the Muslim Brotherhood as its U.S. affiliates, and both organizations are tasked by the Muslim Brotherhood with destroying Western Civilization in North America.

According to testimony from Zeyno Baran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and witness for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on violent Islamist extremism held in July, ISNA and AMSS are not appropriate organizations to carry out these programs.

ISNA has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing Holy Land Foundation trial. Both of these groups have direct and indirect ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a political Islamist network that considers Islam a “civilization alternative” to America (and to liberal democracy in general), and is thus fundamentally anti-American. The Muslim Brotherhood’s mission statement is "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope”. Hamas is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is not possible for groups founded to further the goals and messages of the Muslim Brotherhood to convey instead the kind of messages the State Department would wish to be conveyed. Ultimately, it is likely that these groups would take advantage of such programs to further expand their own international networks. In short, the money of American taxpayers will not benefit American interests in the hands of groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Congress provides State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with over $500 million annually to carry out its programs.

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