DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: MOSLEM AMERICAN SOCIETY, MOSLEM BROTHERHOODS & DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FOR P.O.T.U.S.

Strange Bedfellows on the Campaign Trail
by Steven Emerson
IPT News Service
January 14, 2008

The primary season is in full swing, with the both parties seeing different winners in the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary. For the first time in more than a generation, both the Democratic and Republican party nominations are wide open. So it's seems a good time to point out that what the eventual nominees say and do now in appealing to their respective bases can come back to bite them in November.

That's why it's curious to see some of the Democratic candidates courting support from Islamist organizations with a record of support for those who actively seek to thwart American interests in the Middle East.

There's no question Muslim voters should be heard in this campaign. The question is who is best to speak for them? Far be it from us to advise the candidates, but the record shows that while the Muslim American Society (MAS) may claim a deep list of registered voters—a claim we believe is highly suspect -- the baggage it carries with it can do a campaign far more harm than good.

According to the organization's Jan. 2 newsletter:

Democratic candidates Senators Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Hillary Clinton, Cong. Dennis Kucinich, former Sen. John Edwards, and Gov. Bill Richardson, have all given MAS Freedom the opportunity for one-on-one meetings where they have expressed their solidarity with ending the wars, torture and rendition, and stated their proposed policies for immigration reform.

Biden, Richardson and Dodd no longer are candidates.

MAS was established by American-based members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a global Islamist movement with a stated long-range objective of making Shariah law "the basis controlling the affairs of state and society." As stated by Hassan al-Banna, the Brotherhood's founder, "It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." That helps explain the Muslim Brotherhood's motto: "God is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations."

While MAS officials deny any ongoing affiliation, a senior Brotherhood official played it coy just three years ago in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "I don't want to say MAS is a [Brotherhood] entity," said Mohammed Habib in a Sept. 19, 2004 article. "This causes some security inconveniences for them in a post-Sept. 11 world."

This year, we learned what the Brotherhood sees as its ambitions in America. According to an internal memo written in 1991, "their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

It was introduced into evidence at the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The case ended in a mistrial when jurors failed to reach unanimous verdicts on most of the counts and will be retried later this year. Chances are, some cunning media consultant may remind voters about that memo as the election draws near, especially if one of the nominees is seen as cozy with a group that supports HLF and hailed the mistrial as a victory.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Strange Bedfellows on the Campaign Trail