This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3637

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.

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Report

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.

An eminent Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement has been working since January 2007 to reach consensus on comprehensive recommendations. In September 2008, the project will issue a report titled "Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World" and launch an intensive education campaign to influence the views and actions of national officeholders, candidates for office, the new administration elected in November 2008, private institutions and the public at large. http://www.usmuslimengagement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=42

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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 event also announced the launch of the organization's website, www.USMuslimEngagement.org.

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
  • Stephen Heintz, President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
  • Shamil Idriss , Chairman of the Board, Soliya
  • 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
  • Sayyeda Mirza-Jafri, Strategic Philanthropy Consultant
  • 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
  • Daniel Yankelovich, Founder and Chairman, Public Agenda; author
  • Ahmed Younis, Senior Analyst, Gallup Center for Muslim Studies; former National Director, Muslim Public Affairs Committee
  • Dov S. Zakheim, Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton; former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) http://www.usmuslimengagement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=44

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Staff

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.

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3637