State Department Website Panders To Radical Islamists

by Steve Emerson

The United States government's stepped-up courting of Islamist groups is on display at the State Department web portal www.america.gov. The site bills itself as a place to "meet the people" and "explore the values and ideas that define the character of the United States." But when it comes to American Muslim organizations, that often means providing a U.S. government stamp of approval to organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) or apologists like the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

A September 4th podcast about President Obama's Community Service

Initiative illustrates how the federal government gives free and favorable publicity to Brotherhood-linked Islamists. America.gov noted the contribution of Dalia Mogahed (a protégé of terror-apologist John Esposito) to the president's initiative. Mogahed and Esposito work together at the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. The two collaborated in writing a book. Read a favorable review here.

The podcast added that Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and a member of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, had launched www.MuslimServe.org, "a Web site that identifies a national goal of 1,000 service projects for Muslim Americans." It quoted at length from a speech Mogahed delivered to ISNA's national convention setting out principles for the president's initiative.

During the Cold War, government bureaus like the United States Information Agency worked to counter disinformation by driving home the point that freedom and democracy are superior to communism and tyranny. But Zuhdi Jasser, head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, says that in today's struggle with radical Islam, the United States government is doing something very different – even perverse.

It is aiding and abetting the efforts of groups like CAIR and ISNA to anoint themselves representatives of all American Muslims – even though many Muslims want nothing to do with the Islamists. ....