A window on the muslim brotherhood in america

RYAN MAURO: A WINDOW ON THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN AMERICA

An Annotated Interview with DHS Advisor Mohamed Elibiary

Introduction

The conflict that the West finds itself in is not about a single organization like al-Qaeda or a single tactic like terrorism. These are merely the symptoms of the Islamistideology—a political-religious belief system that views shariah as the Allah-approvedform of governance for humanity, with its implementation throughout the globe as adivine, legal imperative.

Since 9/11, though, Islamists—most prominently, the Muslim Brotherhood—have sought to narrow our awareness of the scope of the conflict. They would have usbelieve that “moderate” and “mainstream” Islamism is an alternative and antidote to al-Qaeda and its violent jihadism.

In order to accomplish this, the Brotherhood needs to obscure its true characterand achieve the sort of makeover that will appeal to, or at least encourage acquiescencein, the non-Islamic West and particularly the United States. That, in turn, requires thatits critics be silenced, marginalized and suppressed. Consequently, the Muslim Broth­erhood and its apologists routinely portray their opponents as “Islamophobes,” even when the latter are simply citing the Brotherhood’s own statements and internal docu­ments.

Muslim Brotherhood-associated individuals and their friends have had far-reaching influence in recent years on US policy, both domestic and foreign. The Obama administration’s support for the Brotherhood in Egypt is but one example of their success.

Few of these individuals have been as successful as Mohamed Elibiary, a Texas-based Muslim who has parlayed his ties to other Islamists into the role of outreach fa­cilitator for state and federal agencies to the Muslim-American community. He is the founder of Lone Star Intelligence LLC and the Freedom and Justice Foundation, thelatter’s name using a formulation that happens to have been subsequently adopted bythe Muslim Brotherhood as the brand of its political party in Egypt.

Elibiary has secured senior advisory positions at the Department of Homeland Se­curity (DHS) including as a member¹ of the Secretary’s Homeland Security AdvisoryCommittee, the Department of Homeland Security Countering Violent ExtremismWorking Group² and the DHS Faith-Based Security and Communications Advisory Committee.³

Mohamed Elibiary has been invited to testify before Congress on US counter­terrorism policy. He is also an Associate Member of the International Association of

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