Two congressmen, Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and André Carson (D-Ind.), attended a conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in 2008, it was revealed in congressional testimony this week.
Declassified FBI memos reveal that ISNA was identified as a Brotherhood front as early as 1987.
The testimony was heard at a Senate hearing of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts. ISNA was co-founded by Muslim Brotherhood members.
Documents submitted in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism financing trial in American history, show that ISNA sent money to senior Hamas officials during the 1980s and 1990s.
Hamas has been listed by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1995. Hamas has openly declared that it is "a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – Palestine," and in fact was created as a Brotherhood offshoot.
In an official document from a 1991 meeting, which outlines the Muslim Brotherhood's strategic goals for North America, ISNA is named as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”
“I attended a convention in Columbus, Ohio, in 2008, organized by Muslim Brotherhood group, ISNA, and both the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons had recruitment and outreach booths,” Christopher Gaubatz, a national security consultant, said in his testimony. “Both Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN) spoke at the Muslim Brotherhood event.”
ISNA denies being a Muslim Brotherhood front group.
“I can definitely tell you we are not Muslim Brotherhood," Faryal Khatri, an official with ISNA told the Huffington Post. "We are not affiliated with them at all and never were. That much I can reassure you.”
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