Mosque Foundation

The Mosque Foundation, also home of the Bridgeview Mosque, was the focus of a  2004 Chicago Tribune investigation which revealed that as much as $1 million a year had been raised from mosque members which was then sent to overseas Muslim charities-,  three of which involved in financing terrorism—the Holy Land Foundation, Benevolence International, and the Global Relief Foundation. The Foundation’s last known Director was Sheikh Jamial Said whose salary, according to the Tribune, was partially paid by Saudi Arabia and who was characterized as inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, educated at a Saudi Arabian University, and noted for his sermons espousing strict Islamic fundamentalist views and critical of America as “a land of disbelievers.”   One of the mosque’s  executive committee was Muhammad Salah, a Muslim Brotherhood member who was arrested in Israel in 1993 and a known Hamas military commander. Mosque leaders were also leaders of the Quranic Literacy Institute and the Islamic Association for Palestine, the predecessor of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).