A window on the muslim brotherhood in america

Mauro: Do you have any connection to the Holy Land Foundation

(HLF)?

Elibiary: For background, I grew up in Dallas prior to the building ofthe Dallas Central Mosque in Richardson, and well over a decade before any of the founders of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) or any other associated entity moved in­to the Dallas Muslim community. My only connection to HLF was as adonor, and I published an op-ed¹¹ on November 1, 2007 in the Dallas Morning News, prior to HLF’s conviction, publicly outlining that experi­ence.

In order to understand the significance of Elibiary’s 2007 op-ed¹² that he men­tions above, it is necessary to understand the background of the Holy Land Foundationand its CEO, Shukri Abu Baker, who is now in prison along with four co-conspiratorsfor financing Hamas.

Shukri Abu Baker’s first conversation with Elibiary was political, focusing on thealleged mistreatment of Palestinian civilians by Israel. Elibiary was so moved by the ex­perience that he donated the first $50 he ever put into his bank account to the Holy Land Foundation and donated monthly thereafter until the US government shut itdown in 2001. Elibiary freely admits his intimate knowledge of the US Muslim Broth­erhood network: “[O]ur government is playing a post-9/11 script it played in the 1960sagainst the Mafia, but this time against a social network it calls the ‘International Mus­lim Brotherhood.’ People like me know of the brotherhood group in a much more per­sonal manner than the Average White Guy, who has no more insight than what’s available in the media.”

The influence of this “social network” was strong enough in Elibiary’s life to prompt him to write a letter in 2006¹³ defending Brotherhood theologian Sayyid Qutb,one of the main inspirers of Osama Bin Laden. He wrote, “I’d recommend everyoneread Qutb, but read him with an eye to improving America not just to be jealous withmalice in our hearts.”