Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Former U.S. Officials Promoting American Wing Of Muslim Brotherhood's "U.S. Muslim Engagement Project"
Former U.S. Officials Promoting American Wing Of Muslim Brotherhood's "U.S. Muslim Engagement Project"
September 25, 2008
Former U.S. Officials Promoting American Wing Of Muslim Brotherhood's "U.S. Muslim Engagement Project"
By BEILA RABINOWITZ and WILLIAM MAYER
September 25, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Ingrid Mattson, the president of the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA], recently addressed the launch of the "Report of the Leadership Group on U.S. Muslim Relations," part of a new stealth jihad effort called the U.S. Muslim Engagement Project. ISNA is an unindicted co- conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding prosecution and is widely regarded as being the American wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to their website, the U.S. Muslim Engagement Project, "...has been producing a new set of strategies that better meet the long-term national security interests of the U.S. by addressing the sources of tension between the U.S. and Muslims in key countries and region..." [source, http://www.usmuslimengagement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=42]
The ISNA website identified a number of prominent lefties as being associated with the effort, including Madeline Albright and former ambassador Dennis Ross, "The Group includes respected names in public service and business such former secretary of state Madeline Albright, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Paul Brest, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Stephen Heintz, Bishop Denis Madden, Tufts University professor, Dr. Vali Nasr, and U.S. Special Middle East envoy and negotiator, Dennis Ross." [source, http://www.isna.net/articles/News/ISNA-SERVES-ON-GROUP-THAT-SEEKS-BETTER-US-MUSLIM-WORLD-RELATIONS.aspx]
Islamists on the board of the Leadership Group on U.S. Muslim Engagement include, Ingrid Mattson, the President of ISNA, Ziad Asali President and Founder, American Task Force on Palestine, Daisy Khan,Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, her husband Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam of Masjid Farah in New York City and Ahmed Younis, the former director of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee. [source, http://www.usmuslimengagement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=44]
Members of the group briefed House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), who stated that, "Congress should give these proposals the fullest possible considerations."
The ability of Islamists to garner support among formerly prominent U.S. government officials, in this case working directly with the Muslim Brotherhood by aligning with ISNA and granting the group undeserved legitimacy, continues unabated. The phenomenon is seemingly omnipresent, as these writers recently wrote in "Homeland Security Official Addresses American Wing of The Muslim Brotherhood, "why did Daniel Sutherland (a DHS official) seemingly bestow the semi-official seal of approval to ISNA, an Islamist group which proclaims their goal is to turn the United States into "the Islamic society of North America?" [source, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=dhsid=9.23.08%2Ehtm]
The same question could be asked of the government officials and others who are involved with this newest stealth jihad initiative. It is long past time that ISNA and other Islamist groups and individuals should be shunned because of their terror friendliness while rejecting their plans to Islamize the United States.
Launch Event Draws Large Audience at National Press Club (9/24)
No seats were left at the official release of the Report of the Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement, "Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World," at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Leadership Group members, including Steve Bartlett, Richard Land and Ingrid Mattson, presented their recommendations to a diverse and eager audience. Camera crews from CNN, Kuwait News and other major media outlets were on location to provide coverage and interview Leadership Group members, senior staff and attendees. Footage from the event will be made available on this Web site shortly.
Earlier in the morning, a briefing at the Committee on Foreign Affairs at the U.S. House of Representatives generated much interest among Congress members and staff. Committee Chairman Howard L. Berman (D-CA) welcomed the Leadership Group Report as an "in-depth report that explores one of the central global challenges of our time: developing harmonious relations between Muslim-majority countries and the West. The report, entitled 'Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World,' offers thoughtful, creative, and multi-faceted proposals for meeting that challenge." http://www.usmuslimengagement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=69&Itemid=61
MIM: An excerpt from the U.S. Muslim Engagement Project's mission statement.
The U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project has been producing a new set of strategies that better meet the long-term national security interests of the U.S., by addressing the sources of tension between the U.S. and Muslims in key countries and regions. It has been convened jointly by Search for Common Ground and the Consensus Building Institute. The project's goals are to:
create a coherent, broad-based and bipartisan set of strategies to improve relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world; and
communicate and advocate those strategies in ways that shift U.S. public opinion and contribute to changes in U.S. policies, and public and private action.
MIM: An article from the ISNA website announcing their participation in the U.S. Muslim Engagement Project is below.
ISNA SERVES ON GROUP THAT SEEKS BETTER U.S.-MUSLIM WORLD RELATIONS
WASHINGTON, DC 09/24/2008
Mainstream America needs to carry out a systematic and earnest effort to humanize Muslims, said ISNA president, Dr. Ingrid Mattson. Dr Mattson was addressing the launch of the Report of the Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement in Washington, DC.
The Group includes respected names in public service and business such former secretary of state Madeline Albright, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Paul Brest, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Stephen Heintz, Bishop Denis Madden, Tufts University professor, Dr. Vali Nasr, and U.S. Special Middle East envoy and negotiator, Dennis Ross .
The Report, entitled "Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World" has been prepared after consultations among a group of thirty-four distinguished Americans, including Muslim Americans, who represent both spectrums of the national political setup.The project was borne out of the concern of how America is perceived in the 1.3 billion strong Muslim world, and how the US engages the Muslim world. The participants agreed there is a need to change these perceptions in order to improve relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world.
Earlier, members of the group briefed House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), who welcomed the report, adding: "Congress should give those proposals the fullest possible considerations."
The report also notes a change in Americas' understanding of Islam, but in the wrong direction. The media, in particular, was called upon to play a leading role in correcting negative perceptions about Islam and Muslims, several million of whom are Americans. The Group aims to engage the new occupant in the White House, as well as the transition team to help get its recommendations incorporated into future American policies toward the Muslim world.
The Group plans to engage with the foreign policy community, work with leading governance and democracy organizations, engage leaders in the education, commercial, and investment communities, both in the US and the Muslim world, continue to expand partnerships, and catalyze the work of philanthropic organizations to coordinate and elevate their funding of activities consistent with the report's recommendations. http://www.isna.net/articles/News/ISNA-SERVES-ON-GROUP-THAT-SEEKS-BETTER-US-MUSLIM-WORLD-RELATIONS.aspx
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Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement
The Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement drives the project.
The Leadership Group includes a former Secretary of State and a former Deputy Secretary of State, former members of Congress, a former U.S. envoy on the Middle East peace process, and leaders and experts from business, faith communities, foreign policy, social sciences and related fields. One third of the group is Muslim-American. The participating leaders have been drawn together by their collective recognition of the issue's urgency and the need to create wise, broadly supportable solutions. In four plenary meetings and numerous exchanges since January 2007, they have reached an extraordinary convergence of views and have committed to see the project through to completion.
Leadership Group Members
Organizational affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.
Madeleine Albright, Principal, The Albright Group LLC; former U.S. Secretary of State
Richard Armitage, President, Armitage International; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Ziad Asali, President and Founder, American Task Force on Palestine
Steve Bartlett, President and Chief Executive Officer, Financial Services Roundtable; former U.S. Representative; former Mayor of Dallas, Texas
Paul Brest, President, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Red Cavaney, President and Chief Executive Officer, America Petroleum Institute
Daniel Christman, Lt. General (ret.), U.S. Army; Senior Vice President for International Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Stephen Covey, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman, FranklinCovey; writer, speaker, and academic
Thomas Dine, Principal, The Dine Group; former Executive Director, American Israel Public Affairs Committee
Marc Gopin, James H. Laue Professor of World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution; Director, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
Daisy Khan, Executive Director, American Society for Muslim Advancement
Derek Kirkland, Advisory Director, Investment Banking Division, Morgan Stanley
Richard Land, President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention; Member, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
Robert Jay Lifton, Lecturer on Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; author of Superpower Syndrome
Denis J. Madden, Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore; former Associate Secretary General, Catholic Near East Welfare Association
John Marks, President and Founder, Search for Common Ground
Susan Collin Marks, Senior Vice President, Search for Common Ground; author of Watching the Wind: Conflict Resolution during South Africa's Transition to Democracy
Ingrid Mattson, President, The Islamic Society of North America; Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of Islamic Chaplaincy, and Director, Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Hartford Seminary
Dalia Mogahed, Executive Director, Gallup Center for Muslim Studies; co-author with John Esposito of Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think
Vali Nasr, Professor of International Politics, The Fletcher School, Tufts University; Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
Feisal Abdul Rauf, Imam, Masjid al-Farah in New York City; Founder and Chairman, Cordoba Initiative; author of What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America
Rob Rehg, President, Washington, DC office, Edelman
Dennis Ross, Consultant, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; former U.S. Special Middle East Envoy and Negotiator
S. Abdallah Schleifer, Distinguished Professor of Journalism, American University in Cairo; former Washington Bureau Chief, Al Arabiya news channel; former NBC News Cairo bureau chief
Jessica Stern, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Mustapha Tlili, Director, Center for Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West, New York University
William Ury, Co-Founder, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School; co-author of Getting to Yes
Vin Weber, Managing Partner, Clark and Weinstock; Chairman, National Endowment for Democracy; former U.S. Representative
Staff members from Search for Common Ground-USA, the Consensus Building Institute and the Institute for Resource and Security Studies have been working on this project since January 2007.
Robert Fersh, Project Co-Director and Executive Director, Search for Common Ground-USA
David Fairman, Project Co-Director and Managing Director, Consensus Building Institute
Paula Gutlove, Project Manager and Deputy Director, Institute for Resource and Security Studies
Tom Dunne, Senior Fellow, Search for Common Ground-USA
David Hermann, Project Research Coordinator and International Programs Associate, Consensus Building Institute
Anuradha Herath, Communications Fellow, Search for Common Ground-USA