Muslim Mafia (33 page)

“These guys talk about murdering Jews like the mob talked about killing—totally casual, like they were ordering pizza.”

—FBI official in Washington
¹

I
NVESTIGATORS ROUTINELY COMPARE
the Muslim Brotherhood to the mafia, the secret Sicilian terrorist society. Like mobsters, the Muslim Brothers operate an underworld of illegal activities conducted under the cover of fronts with legitimate-sounding names.

They launder money through construction companies such as BMI, Inc., and tax-exempt charities such as Happy Hearts Trust.

“They’re all part of the same organized crime family, like the Mob,” says FBI agent Guandolo, who worked several years in the Washington field office’s counterterrorism division and is familiar with the the bureau’s ongoing investigation of the Brotherhood.

“If you’re a capo, I know you’ve killed somebody. I know you’re involved in racketeering and crime. And I know you’re a member of a major crime family,” he says. “If you’re a board member of one of these Brotherhood groups, I know you’re an enemy of the United States.”

For that matter, the Brotherhood is known within Islamist circles as the “Ikhwan mafia,” because of its highly organized structure, centralized control, and covert operations. Like the mob, it has its own internal bylaws, security, and military infrastructure. A network of front groups, cutouts, and shell companies shield its criminal activities from the authorities.

A
shura
council controls the U.S. movement. It’s made up of the heads of the various crime centers—the godfathers—and is led by a supreme don called a general
masul
. The council directs regional underbosses, or
masuls
, who in turn give orders to capo-like figures known as
naquibs
. The
naquibs
control the front groups, and train the field commanders, or
ikhwans
, who are sworn members, according to Brotherhood documents declassified by the government.

The
ikhwans
, in turn, recruit associates—the foot soldiers—at mosques, Islamic conferences, and college campuses to provide the next generation of leadership and keep the organization growing.

They also provide the muscle for the group. At “
Ikhwan
camps,” young soldiers conduct jihadist training activities. Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was drawn to violent jihad in Kuwait after joining the Brotherhood at age sixteen and attending its desert youth camps. Convicted CAIR official Royer, who led a group of young Virginia men in jihadist training, is an example of Brotherhood muscle in America.

The religious crime syndicate basically consists of four power centers, or families:

1.
THE PALESTINE COMMITTEE
is the Hamas wing that operates chiefly out of California, Texas, Illinois, and Washington DC. Prosecutors believe CAIR is its mouthpiece and its lobbying arm in North America. With the federal bust of the Holy Land Foundation, which served as Hamas’s fundraising arm in America, CAIR is now the
marque
front group within this family, and investigators believe CAIR founding chairman Omar Ahmad of Santa Clara, California, is its
masul
. He’s a Palestinian refugee like many CAIR operatives, whom investigators consider his
naquibs
.
²

2.
THE SAFA GROUP
is the Saudi wing made up of more than one hundred business and charitable front groups operating mainly out of Northern Virginia (along the so-called Wahhabi Corridor, just outside DC), as well as Georgia. Before he was sent to prison, Alamoudi controlled the group, along with Jamal Barzinji, who remains at its helm. Safa provides financial and intellectual capital for the cause, while also controlling a vast real estate portfolio. (See Figure 14.1 timeline chronicling Saudi money flows to Safa.)

3.
ISLAMIC CIRCLE OF NORTH AMERICA
is the Pakistani wing based out of New York. ICNA recently merged with the Alexandria, Virginia-based Muslim American Society, setting up shop in a neighboring suburb. MAS organizes prayer and youth camps at Brotherhood mosques across the country. It also conducts ideological training and indoctrination of new recruits, urging jihad, martyrdom, and the creation of Islamic states in the “evil” West. In addition, MAS works with two political fronts based in California to register Muslim voters and groom Muslim candidates for public office.

4.
ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA
is the founding “nucleus” for the movement in North America, declassified Brotherhood documents confirm. Operating out of both Indiana and Washington DC, it controls campus recruitment, evangelism, banking and investments, and the dispensing of
fatwahs
for the Brotherhood. Through a subsidiary trust, it also owns and controls the lion’s share of the major mosques in America. Sayyid Syeed, Muzzamil Siddiqi, Jamal Badawi, and Bassem Osman are said to act as the main bosses of this family.
³

The heads of the various families galvanize around five fundamental goals:

It is no coincidence, investigators say, that Brotherhood leaders have avoided identifying their institutions with the governmental system of the United States, opting instead for territorial recognition. This speaks volumes about not only the respect they hold for their adopted country, but also their broader ambitions.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ‘NORTH AMERICA’

You’d be hard-pressed to find the words “United States” or “USA” or even “U.S.” in the names of their organizations. You commonly find, instead, the geographic term “North America,” as in: the Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Assembly of North America, Fiqh Council of North America, Islamic Medical Association of North America, and so on. Other Brotherhood groups contain the phrase “North American,” as in: the North American Islamic Trust and North American Imams Federation.

That’s because the Muslim Brotherhood’s ultimate goal is to conquer the entire continent of North America for Allah, and fold its nations into a global Islamic nation, or
caliphate
.

The Brothers believe Islam is a territorial religion. According to their creed, the whole earth belongs to Allah and he has given it to Muslims. As their writings indicate, they believe this land is theirs, and does not belong to you or the United States government. And as slaves of Allah, they are conscripted to conquer it in his name—by hook or by crook.

CLOAKED IN SECRECY

Like the
Cosa Nostra
, members have been sworn to secrecy and speak in code, referring to the Brotherhood generically as the “Group” or the “Movement.” Also, “special work” is code for “military work,” or jihad, which the West knows as terrorism.

“We resort to secrecy,” al-Noman stresses, but only among
kaffirs
, not internally. Sworn members know the identities of the General
Masul
and the
masuls
.

They follow a similar
omerta
as the Sicilians when it comes to law enforcement: keep silent about subversive activities and crimes, and never cooperate with the police. Many wives are left in the dark. Those who know things are ordered to keep quiet about them.

New members take an oath of loyalty to the Brotherhood, reciting its
credo
: “Allah is our goal; the Prophet is our guide; the Quran is our constitution; jihad is our way; and death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition.” They also swear to “sacrifice all that one has for the sake of raising the banner of Islam.”
⁴

Members are required to pay 3 percent of their income per year, with the money going to travel, propaganda materials, conferences, and of course, the jihad.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

To ensure secrecy and compartmentalization, the Brotherhood uses family members to hold important, interlocking positions within different fronts. These family members, in turn, often are related to Hamas or Brotherhood figures overseas.

Take the leadership of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation.

Founder Mousa Abu Marzook is related by marriage to convicted Holy Land officer Elashi and is a cousin of convicted Holy Land co-founder el-Mezain. Marzook is deputy political chief for Hamas and wanted by U.S. authorities. Before leaving the country, he was a
masul
in the U.S. Brotherhood and sat on its
shura
council.

The incestuousness runs deeper. Holy Land officer Akram Mishal, also a fugitive, is a cousin of Hamas leader Khalid Mishal. And Mufid Abdulgader, a top Holy Land fundraiser now serving twenty years in prison, is Khalid Mishal’s half-brother.
⁵

The children and other close relatives of Brotherhood leaders also serve in leadership roles at ISNA, the Muslim Students Association, and the Fiqh Council, among other front groups. Some leaders’ children intermarry. For example, the oldest daughter of Sayyid Syeed, an ISNA founder and its current DC chief, is married to a relative of Brotherhood boss Jamal Barzinji.
⁶

Barzinji’s brother, meanwhile, heads Amana Publishing, which prints copies of the Quran and other texts the Brotherhood uses for evangelizing. Another Barzinji family member runs a charitable front in Herndon whose bank accounts recently were closed by Wachovia due to suspicious activity.

The firstborn of founding Muslim Brotherhood members are typically groomed to replace them. “Like father, like son,” Sadler says.

The pioneer of the U.S. movement is sixty-nine-year-old Ahmed Elkadi. Both his father and father-in-law were early Brotherhood leaders in Egypt.

The firstborn son of the late Mahboob Khan, another founding father of the Brotherhood movement in America, has been a consultant to CAIR and served on committees at ISNA.
⁷
Suhail Khan infiltrated the U.S. government as a White House staffer, and most recently, the Transportation Department as a senior official.

It’s worth noting that CAIR founder and key Brotherhood boss Ahmad has three sons.

‘SECURING THE GROUP’

The Brotherhood has devised strict security measures to keep its illicit activities outside the scrutiny of law enforcement, while at the same time monitoring what it calls “outside dangers” such as “the CIA, FBI, etc., so that we find out if they are monitoring us [and] how can we get rid of them,” according to Brotherhood boss Zeid al-Noman.
⁸

As documented in earlier chapters, CAIR as well as ISNA have accomplished this through their outreach meetings with law enforcement.

“This is what is meant by securing the group,” al-Noman is recorded as saying.

Investigators say Brotherhood bosses have hired security firms to sweep their offices for bugs, and have ordered foot soldiers to take advanced training in wiretap detection. They also are known to shred documents after board meetings and maintain incriminating documents in off-site locations.

They’ve also targeted critics for countersurveillance.

A Brotherhood charter seized from al-Arian’s home calls for establishing a unit “to watch the individuals who oppose the Movement and the Islamic actions—to watch them, monitor them, and make files on them.”
⁹

As detailed earlier, making files on enemies and critics is something CAIR does all too well.

CUL-DE-SACS AND PIPE STEMS

Investigators have taken note that, like mob bosses, suspected Muslim Brotherhood leaders go to great lengths to thwart law enforcement surveillance.

For example, most of them live or have lived on
cul-de-sacs
, including Ahmad, Nihad Awad, Alamoudi, Irfan Totonji, Abdullah bin Laden (Osama’s nephew), Hamza Yusuf, Ihsan Bagby, Mohamed Nimer, Mousa Abu Marzook, Esam Omeish, Abbas Ebrahim (bookkeeper of felonious Brotherhood investor Soliman Biheiri), as well as Elbarasse, whose home eventually was searched by FBI agents, yielding the trove of Muslim Brotherhood documents.

Many have built their homes on pipe stems spoking off from
cul-de-sacs
. Pipe stems are narrow, secluded roads that often slope down away from
cul-de-sacs
, making it difficult for law enforcement to conduct stakeouts since homes typically cannot be seen from the street.

Brotherhood leaders al-Alwani, Jamal Barzinji, Yaqub Mirza, Fakhri Barzinji, and Hisham Altalib have all listed addresses on or near the same pipe stem off of Safa Court in Herndon, Virginia.

“They make it harder for us to do trash covers,” a method of surveillance where investigators search garbage for evidence, veteran FBI agent Guandolo says. “They don’t put cans on the street, but on the long driveway back off the street.”