US Muslim Brotherhood Holds Muslim Advocacy Day at US Capitol, Pushes for Establishing Islamophobia Envoy

On 15 June 2022, the US Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO) pub­lished a state­ment say­ing more than 300 del­e­gates from 20 states had met with 200 elect­ed offi­cials and con­gres­sion­al staffers dur­ing the sev­enth annu­al “Nation­al Mus­lim Advo­ca­cy Day” on Capi­tol Hill in Wash­ing­ton, DC. Accord­ing to the state­ment:

Orga­nized by the U.S. Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO), the nation’s largest Amer­i­can Mus­lim civ­il soci­ety umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion, the Mus­lim advo­ca­cy day resumed for the first time in per­son after being con­duct­ed vir­tu­al­ly last year and can­celed the year before due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The event fea­tured dis­cus­sions of reg­is­tered Mus­lim del­e­gates with con­gres­sion­al staffers and law­mak­ers about issues affect­ing Amer­i­can Mus­lims and oth­er minorities.

Accord­ing to the USCMO, del­e­gates called for the adop­tion of the Com­bat­ing Inter­na­tion­al Islam­o­pho­bia Act, which was passed in the House in Decem­ber 2021. The bill had near-unan­i­mous sup­port from Democ­rats but now appears stalled in the Sen­ate. It promis­es to es­tablish a spe­cial envoy office at the US State Depart­ment to mon­i­tor and com­bat inter­na­tion­al Islam­o­pho­bia but has been crit­i­cized for its lack of lin­guis­tic pre­ci­sion and poten­tial­ly under­min­ing free­dom of expres­sion. In May 2021, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that the USCMO had called on the Biden Admin­is­tra­tion to cre­ate the spe­cial envoy office.

The USCMO del­e­gates also called for back­ing the Afghan Allies Pro­tec­tion Act of 2021, which would allow Afghan evac­uees to apply to become law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dents one year after arrival in the Unit­ed States.

The event’s clos­ing remarks were deliv­ered by Con­gress­woman Rashi­da Tlaib, who serves as the US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Michigan’s 13th con­gres­sion­al dis­trict. Tlaib, who rose to promi­nence as part of the “Squad” of pro­gres­sive fresh­man law­mak­ers, has a his­to­ry of par­tic­i­pat­ing in events held by the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) and the Hamas sup­port net­work in the US.

The Unit­ed States Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions was estab­lished in 2014 by eight orga­ni­za­tions, sev­en of which are part of the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. Since its found­ing, the USCMO has grown to include 35 mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions, almost half known as part of the USMB and includ­ing near­ly every impor­tant com­po­nent of the GMB in the US.

Groups tied to the GMB in the US have repeat­ed­ly host­ed civic engage­ment events, pro­vid­ing Mus­lim cit­i­zens an oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in meet­ings with leg­isla­tive offices and state sen­a­tors. Pri­or GIOR report­ing on the top­ic has included:

• In July 2021, the GIOR report­ed about the 2021 “Nation­al Mus­lim Advo­ca­cy Day,” which fea­tured an appear­ance by US Con­gress­woman Ilhan Omar (D‑MI).

• In March 2021, the GIOR report­ed that the Okla­homa chap­ter of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR) had host­ed a vir­tu­al edi­tion of its annu­al “Mus­lim Day” at the Okla­homa State Capitol.

• In Jan­u­ary 2021, the GIOR report­ed that a coali­tion of US Mus­lim advo­ca­cy groups tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and head­ed by CAIR – Texas had host­ed the bi-annu­al “Texas Mus­lim Capi­tol Day.”