One of the common tactics of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood is to construct coalitions of its own front organizations as well as inter-related groups and individuals, giving the appearance that the Brotherhood has more broad-based support than it actually enjoys. A recent example of this tactic is an announcement recently made by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) identifying additional organizations that have become signatories to a statement threatening to suspend outreach to the FBI. According to the announcement :
More Muslim and civil liberties organizations, activists and academics have signed on to a statement by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a coalition of major national Islamic organizations, saying that it is considering suspending outreach relations with the FBI over recent incidents in which American mosques and Muslim groups have been targeted. The new signatories include the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California (ISCSC), the National Lawyers Guild, the Colorado Muslim Council, and the Muslim Consultative Network. The ISCSC represents dozens of Southern California mosques and Muslim organizations. Academics who have signed the AMT statement include Profs. Ali Mazrui, John Esposito, Charles Butterworth, and M. Cherif Bassiouni.”Trust is a cornerstone of human society and is the basis of all relationships. I urge President Obama to preserve it for the good of America and all people,” said Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, Chairman of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. To date, 44 organizations and many community activists and scholars have endorsed AMT’s statement.
As the announcement itself identifies, the AMT is a coalition of almost all the major U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations as documented in a recent Hudson Institute report including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Muslim Student Association, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). The Islamic Shura Council of Southern California (ISCSC) which is one of the new signatories, is closely associated with Muzzamil Siddiqi, a leader in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) while Profs. Ali Mazrui, John Esposito, and Charles Butterworth are all former board members of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood group, as well as having many other ties to the U.S. Brotherhood.
The National Lawyers Guild is a far-left organization which has allied itself with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood in the past including as a partner organization of Solidarity International for Human Rights, a defunct organization established in 1992 which was itself a coalition of U.S. Brotherhood groups.
M. Cherif Bassiouni is an Egyptian immigrant who is a Distinguished Research Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law. According to a U.N. press release, in 1996 Mr. Bassiouni was elected Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly body preparing the ground for the establishment of the criminal court. He had earlier, in 1995, served in a similar position on the Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court. He is known to have spoken at a conference on “Islamaphobia” organized by CAIR in 2005.