1751 Second Ave, New York, NY 10128 Tel: 212-828-2424; Fax: 212-828-1717; afsi@rcn.com; www.afsi.org
Contact: Helen Freedman, Executive Director
February 17, 2010
It is of utmost importance that we protest President Barack Obama’s appointment of Rashad Hussain as a U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference. The enclosed information details Hussain’s background of association with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, an offshoot of the organization that originated in Egypt in 1928 to introduce traditional Islamic sharia law. The Muslim Brotherhood was banned in Egypt in 1954, the same year that they attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Nasser.
Following Sadat’s peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the Brotherhood assassinated Sadat in 1981. The Brotherhood supports Hamas as well as the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Their motto is:”…Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
It is our belief that the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood should be banned in this country because of its ties to radical Islam. It is inconceivable that America’s envoy should be someone with a history of support and participation in Brotherhood causes.
Please call President Obama at the White House – 202-456-1111; 202-456-1414 and your Congressional Representative (Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121) to protest this appointment and the message of appeasement and acceptance that it sends.
BREAKING NEWS: New Obama Envoy Has History Of Engagement With U.S. Muslim Brotherhood; Called Al-Arian Case “Politically Motivated Persecution”
Rashad Hussain is presently Deputy Associate Counsel to President Obama. His work at the White House focuses on national security, new media, and science and technology issues. Mr. Hussain has also worked with the National Security Staff in pursuing the New Beginning that President Obama outlined in his June 2009 address in Cairo, Egypt. Mr. Hussain previously served as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. Earlier in his career, Mr. Hussain was a legislative assistant on the House Judiciary Committee, where he focused on national security-related issues. Mr. Hussain received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Upon graduation, he served as a Law Clerk to Damon J. Keith on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Mr. Hussain also earned his Master’s degrees in Public Administration (Kennedy School of Government) and Arabic and Islamic Studies from Harvard University. He attended college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A session on civil rights called “Get up, Stand up; Stand up for your Rights: The State of Contemporary Civil Liberties” was held Sept. 5 at the annual conference for the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada, held alongside the Islamic Society of North America’s 41st annual convention in Chicago. Laila Al-Arian, daughter of civil and political rights activist and Muslim leader Sami Al-Arian, opened the session with her father’s story. She gave a heart-wrenching, emotional account of an innocent man targeted for free-speech activities, whose rights were stripped thanks in part to the PATRIOT Act. Al-Arian, who has not yet been to trial, has been held in a federal penitentiary for over a year and a half. Al-Arian’s situation is one of many “politically motivated persecutions,” claimed Rashad Hussain, a Yale law student. Such persecution, he stated, must be fought through hope, faith, and the Muslim vote.
- “Policymakers should reject the use of language that provides a religious legitimization of terrorism such as ‘Islamic terrorism’ and ‘Islamic extremist.’ They should replace such terminology with more specific and descriptive terms such as “Al-Qaeda terrorism.” Controlling counter-terrorism language has been a long-standing effort of the U.S. Brotherhood.
- “The United States should welcome and encourage the further development of mainstream Muslim organizations and moderate institutions.” As an example, the paper references the work of the Fiqh Council of North America, a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.
- “The primary cause of broad-based anger and anti-Americanism is not a clash of civilizations but the perceived effect of U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim world.” Linking terrorism to U.S. foreign policy and “legitimate grievances” has been another longtime goal of the U.S. Brotherhood.
- BREAKING NEWS: Al-Arian Released On Bail
- BREAKING NEWS: Sami Al-Arian Indicted
- BREAKING NEWS: Sami Al-Arian Freed From Jail Pending Trial
- BREAKING NEWS: Obama Top Muslim Adviser Part Of Two More Organizations Tied to U.S. Muslim Brotherhood
- BREAKING NEWS: Global Muslim Brotherhood Reacts To Obama Victory
GlobalMB @ February 14, 2010