The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) has reported that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State of Public Affairs Philip Crowley met local Islamic groups at the ISNA headquarters. to discuss US foreign policy. According to the report:
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State of Public Affairs Philip Crowley met with representatives from all seven of the Indianapolis area masjids and Islamic community centers at ISNA Headquarters on the evening of Thursday October 7th. The Assistant Secretary attended a discussion on the Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus earlier that day and met later in the evening with the Muslim community. A retired Air Force Colonel who held senior positions in the White House and Pentagon during the Clinton administration, Philip Crowley was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for public affairs of the Obama Administration on May 26, 2009. Crowley’s main responsibility as Assistant Secretary is to ensure that public affairs informs public policy. From 7:30 to 10:30 PM, just under 30 local Muslim community leaders from the greater Indianapolis area met with Assistant Secretary Crowley at ISNA, where he discussed and answered questions on U.S. foreign policy. He focused on current strategies in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and current U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan.
It appears now that the Obama administration is actively courting ISNA. As a previous post reported, ISNA officials have recently met with Hillary Clinton and the National Security Advisor
As documented in a Hudson Institute report, ISNA grew directly out of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The organization has a long history of fundamentalism, anti-semitism, and support for terrorism and during the recent Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial, ISNA was named as an unindicted co-conspirator as a result of what the government called “ISNA’s and NAIT’s intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine Committee, and the defendants in this case.” Although it is true that recently ISNA has issued condemnations of terrorism which for the first time identify Hamas and Hezbollah by name, there is no indication that the organization has ever addressed or acknowledged its history of support for terrorism. Also, as the Hudson Institute report observes, almost all of the ISNA founders remain active in the organization and ISNA maintains close relations with all other components of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.
A previous post discussed the ties between the ISNA Secretary-General, a former leader of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Chicago chapter, and an Illinois school with close links to the Mosque Foundation, itself tied to fundraising for Hamas.