[PJMedia] What kind of crazy, f***ed up world is this where AIPAC is banned, spurned, and forbidden from participating in politics — yet CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood have a free hand to play kingmaker in U.S. elections?AIPAC is “funded exclusively by Americans,” and 100% of its 6.5 million members are American citizens. Its stated purpose is to “strengthen the U.S.-Israel partnership” by creating a “mutually beneficial relationship with our ally.”
CAIR’s financial status is murkier: In at least one filing, 76% of its annual donations came from two foreign sources, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its mission is to “enhance the understanding of Islam” and “empower American Muslims.”
(The UAE later revoked its support, declaring CAIR a terrorist group, largely due to its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.)
And speaking of the Muslim Brotherhood, multiple Muslim-majority nations — including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Syria, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan — have officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, banning it and jailing its leaders. (As did, interestingly enough, Russia.)
But the Muslim Brotherhood still operates freely in the United States. There is no federal ban; only a few of its foreign branches have been declared terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. And today, CAIR has 35 chapters and offices in 27 states — and counting.
Their influence is rapidly rising.
Yet AIPAC is now forbidden from supporting Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat. Not because Rogers disagrees with AIPAC’s goals, but because the organization has been so thoroughly demonized that he fears its support would do more harm than good.
But oddly enough, supporters of CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood are, apparently, actively participating in U.S. politics:
Sen. Ted Cruz: Does Abdul El-Sayed’s candidacy for Senator in Michigan concern you?
Kyle Shideler: Yes sir. It does.
Sen. Cruz: Why is that?
Shideler: Well, to begin with, I look at the connection that his father-in-law, Jukaku Tayeb, has to [Muslim] Brotherhood-linked groups. This includes being the president at one time of CAIR Michigan. Also his presence on the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA] founders committee, which is only for those most exclusively devoted to ISNA and provide significant amount of funding. There are other known Brotherhood members on that committee. I would also look at El-Sayed’s ties to a group called Emgage, which purports to be a Muslim, sort of “get out the vote” or candidate recruitment organization, but it has close ties to CAIR. It was created by a former CAIR member who at one time was on a terror watch list and was also a consultant to convicted terrorist, Sami Al-Arian.
Plus, as the reporter observed, it all seems to be part and parcel of a financial pipeline:
TV Journalist: And according to a report, El-Sayed has already collected more than $115,000 from donors who worked for or held leadership roles with the Council on American Islamic Relations, better known as CAIR, and that does include the organization’s executive director, who faced massive backlash for his comments, saying he was “happy” to see the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.
It wouldn’t be the first time CAIR crosspollinated with Islamic terrorist groups: Ghassan Elashi, the founding board member of CAIR-Texas, was sentenced to 65 years for funding Hamas. Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer, CAIR’s former communications specialist, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping Al-Qaeda. Bassem Khafagi, CAIR’s former community affairs director, was deported after being convicted of terrorism-related fraud. And CAIR itself was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in “one of the largest successful prosecutions of terrorism financing in United States history, where internal documents plainly identified CAIR as a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood and a federal court eventually found ‘ample evidence to establish’ that CAIR was associated ‘with Hamas.’”
It’s a murky, incestuous relationship, with super PACs and super-wealthy benefactors circumventing U.S. financial restrictions.
From Fox News:
A Fox News Digital review found that El-Sayed, who has made getting "money out of politics" a central campaign rallying cry, has accepted donations from at least 41 individuals who either work for CAIR, formerly worked for CAIR, or have served in leadership positions with the organization.
The donor list includes several of CAIR's highest-ranking officials, including national Board Chair Manal Fakhoury, national Board Treasurer Eyas Abdeen, national Vice Chair Emad Sabbah, and CAIR-Michigan board member Jukaku Tayeb, El-Sayed's father-in-law.
Tayeb has been one of the largest financial backers of the super PAC supporting El-Sayed's campaign and is also part of the founding committee of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a group linked to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood funding, Washington Free Beacon first reported. [emphasis added]
This means El-Sayed now has a financial pipeline that’s completely independent of the Democratic Party bosses.