The Brotherhood on Campus: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Ryan Mauro

The National Endowment for the Humanities says it “strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities.” Apparently, the federal agency believes that funding student outreach by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity, fits this description.

On October 24, IIIT held an outreach event at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA with the school’s Muslim Students Association, another group founded by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The IIIT summary states that the program “is offered in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities” and the event is supported by Student Life’s Intercultural Programs, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Alson H. Smith Jr. Library.

The FBI had informants inside the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network that warned about IIIT’s plan to “institute the Islamic Revolution in the United States” as far back as 1988. A declassified FBI document shows that a spy recalled the leadership “stated that the Muslims in the United States have to be prepared for martyrdom.”

The spy said that IIIT was currently focused on “peacefully get[ting] inside the United States government and also American universities.” Therefore, in this case, IIIT is using a taxpayer-funded federal agency to pursue the objective it has pursued for decades.


A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo, later seized by the authorities, substantiated the FBI informant’s reporting. The secret document listed IIIT as one of the Brotherhood’s secret fronts as part of its “work in America as a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”
Skeptics will point out that 1988 and 1991 were a long time ago, but 2002 isn’t. That’s the year when IIIT’s offices were raided as part of a terrorism-financing investigation. The probe continued until at least 2007 when the U.S. government was pressuring Sami al-Arian, a convicted terrorist, to testify about his strong links to IIIT.

In 1992, the President of IIIT wrote a letter to Sami al-Arian that said, “For us, we deem all of your institutions our own…” The letter discussed IIIT’s financial support of al-Arian’s group.

As recently as 2011, an IIIT official in London was writing articles characterizing the U.S. government and military as terrorists. He accused the U.S. of “killing literally millions of people and setting a dozen of countries on fire” since 2001. That IIIT official, Dr. Jasser Auda, also has links to Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, the terrorism-supporting spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The IIIT website proudly hosts a photo of two of its leaders meeting with then-President Morsi on September 27, 2012 in New York. At that time, Morsi was moving the Brotherhood’s Sharia agenda in Egypt full speed ahead. And, according to the caption beneath the photo, he “welcomed the participation of IIIT in the rerform [sic] of higher education in Egypt.”

To sum it up: The same organization that the Muslim Brotherhood wanted to “reform” education in Egypt is now educating American students with the help of a taxpayer-supported federal agency.

Despite IIIT’s record, it has relationships with American schools around the country. Politicians and professors attend IIIT Iftar dinners and some teachers took part in a recent IIIT summer education program for selected students. One even teaches at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Shenandoah University is just a case study in what IIIT is accomplishing. Dr. Calvin Allen, Dean of its College of Arts and Sciences, signed a Memorandum of Agreement with IIIT so the Brotherhood front could “designate an instructor to co-teach with Dr. Allen a course on Islamic civilization.”

Allen signed the agreement with Jamal Barzinji, IIIT’s Vice President and one of the founding fathers of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network. In 2003, the authorities searched Barzinji’s residence because he “is not only closely associated with PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]…but also with Hamas.” Allen also spoke at a IIIT fundraiser on August 24, 2011.

IIIT is just one Islamist group that is building relationships with academia. The Alavi Foundation in New York is a front for the Iranian regime and it has donated to 30 schools in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, it financed over 60 Islamic sites in America and many other non-profit organizations. The Blaze is the only television program to cover the Alavi Foundation’s donations (watch my segment here).

Readers are encouraged to send this article and the Clarion Project’s full profile of IIIT to Shenandoah University. The listed contact for the event is Dean Cal Allen (callen@su.edu). The school can also be contacted at shenuniv@su.edu and 540-665-4500.

The National Endowment for the Humanities can be contacted at info@neh.gov and 202-606-8400. You can also write the agency at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C., 20506.

Every cent given to a Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization is a cent wasted. American taxpayers need to make their voices heard.
This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy.