ANALYSIS: Holy Land Document May Resolve Mystery Of Jamal Badawi Affiliation

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The release of documents in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) terrorism financing trial may have solved a long-standing mystery about the affiliation of Jamal Badawi, one of the most important leaders of the U.S. and North American Muslim Brotherhood. Many of Dr. Badawi’s online biographies have stated that he is a member of something called the “Consultative Council of North America”, an previously unknown organization. However, one of the HLF documents is a phonebook dated 1992 which appears to be a complete listing of the Muslim Brotherhood leadership in the U.S. Dr. Badawi’s name appears in this phonebook under an Arabic heading which is translated as “members of the Managing Committee / Directorate” which may in fact be the same organization referred to in his resume. Both “Consultative Council” and “Managing Committee” are both reasonable surrogates for the so-called “Shura Council” or consultative body which is an important institution within the Muslim Brotherhood world-view. Dr. Badawi is a leader in many of the most important organizations of the global Muslim Brotherhood including the Islamic Society of North America, the Council on American Islamic Relations (Canada), the Fiqh Council of North America, the Muslim American Society, and the European Council for Fatwa and Research. He recently retired from an academic position at St. Mary’s University in Halifax and continues to be one of the most widely traveled North American Muslim Brotherhood leaders. That he is also a member of the leadership council of the North American Muslim Brotherhood is no surprise. While further analysis of the HLF documents is necessary, it appears that the North American Brotherhood was far more structured than previously thought.

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