The Senate heard testimony on July 10 warning about the reach of a group called Muslim Brotherhood inside the United States. Muslim Brotherhood’s goal is a world under Islamic rule, known as Shari’a Law.

“The fact that many major American Muslim organizations are derived from the Muslim Brotherhood is rarely discussed on Capitol Hill,” wrote The Investigate Project on Terrorism in its report covering the event.

Testimony from Zeyno Baran, director of the Center for Eurasian Policy think-tank at the Hudson Institute, warned that the U.S. government’s relations with organizations that were born out of Muslim Brotherhood were counter-productive.
Baran, herself a practicing Muslim, specifically criticized the FBI’s use of a group called Council on American-Islamic Relations to give its personnel sensitivity training. She argued that this may lead to the FBI not asking the tough questions during its interrogations. Baran further warned that Muslim Brotherhood-connected organizations do not necessarily use violence in seeking their goals. She mentioned a group called Hizb ut-Tahrir as an example.

“HT will remain non-violent, acting within the legal systems of the countries in which it operates…These groups do not need to become terrorists because winning hearts and minds is far more effective,” Baran said. “But of course they do not rule out the use of force if they cannot establish their caliphate via non-violent means.’

Baran finished by listing various Muslim organizations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Other experts who testified during the hearing disagreed with Baran, such as Dr. Peter P. Mandaville from Georgetown University, who argued that despite some individuals inside organizations like Council on American-Islamic Relations subscribed to Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology, the organization as a whole did not. The Director of the FBI’s National Counterterrorism Center also defended its partnership with such organizations, including the sensitivity training, saying it was part of a much-needed “full-spectrum” outreach.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism’s article about the hearing responded by noting that the FBI and other government agencies have not built similar relationships with American-Muslim groups which oppose Muslim Brotherhood ideology, such as the American-Islamic Congress, American-Islamic Forum for Democracy and Islamic Supreme Council of North America.   

Ryan Mauro