At 8:15 AM PDT today I’m scheduled to debate Esam Omeish of the Muslim American Society on the Laura Ingraham Show, which I have done before, so I thought that some might find this report illuminating — the MAS is a Muslim Brotherhood entity, and the Muslim Brotherhood is the direct forefather of Hamas and Al-Qaeda, as well as a leading proponent of the Islamic supremacist, pro-Sharia imperative.
“Muslim Brotherhood Phonebook Confirms that MAS is Brotherhood’s Baby,” by The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT):
As the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) continued today, FBI agent Lara Burns testified that a phonebook found at the home of Ismail Elbarrasse – un-indicted co-conspirator and former assistant to HAMAS leader Musa Abu Marzook – listed the names and numbers of the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in the United States. On the first page of the phonebook under the title “Members of the Board of Directors” were fifteen names. Among those names are Ahmad Elkadi, Jamal Badawi, and Omar Soubani: the founding incorporators of the Muslim American Society (MAS).
This evidence confirms Counterterrorism Blog contributor Matthew Levitt’s expert testimony that MAS is the representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States, and is substantiated by a 2003 Chicago Tribune article that outlined the history of MAS.
Ahmad Elkadi, who told the Chicago Tribune that he was the leader of the Brotherhood in the U.S. from 1984-1994, worked with Mohammed Mahdi Akef, head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood since 2003, to advocate for the founding of MAS. According to the Tribune report, Akef and Elkadi pushed for more openness for the Muslim Brotherhood through MAS. Akef himself “says he helped found MAS by lobbying for the change during trips to the U.S.”
In fact, MAS does not deny its Muslim Brotherhood foundations. In 2004, then-Secretary General of MAS Shaker Elsayed stated to the Tribune that “Ikhwan [Brotherhood] members founded MAS”¦” Elsayed even went so far as to admit that about 45 percent of MAS”s active members belong to the Brotherhood. Federal officials have confirmed this, noting continued ties between MAS and the Muslim Brotherhood.
A senior Muslim Brotherhood official in Cairo, Mohamed Habib, seems to explain MAS” motivations for espousing Brotherhood ideology while simultaneously distancing itself from the movement that birthed it: “I don’t want to say MAS is a [Brotherhood] entity. This causes some security inconveniences for them in a post-Sept. 11 world.”
Yes indeed.
Here Daniel Pipes notes that “Esam Omeish, the president of the Muslim American Society, acknowledges that MAS has been influenced by the ‘moderate school of thought prevalent in the Muslim Brotherhood’ and makes no effort to refute the article’s premise that MAS has in mind ‘the goal of an Islamic state.'”