US Muslim Brotherhood Organizations, Turkish-American Lobby Group Host Virtual Muslim NYC Mayoral Forum

On 10 April 2021, a coali­tion of Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions host­ed a vir­tu­al Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty forum with two Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates for the upcom­ing New York City may­oral elec­tion. Accord­ing to a descrip­tion of the live-streamed Youtube video:

April 10, 2021 This elec­tion is the first may­oral elec­tion that will include ranked choice vot­ing, and with the rise in Mus­lim vot­er turnout, the Mus­lim vote is more impor­tant than ever this year. With that being said, we want­ed to make sure the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty is engaged like any oth­er com­mu­ni­ty by may­oral candidates.

Read the rest here. 

As part of the forum, the two can­di­dates, Brook­lyn Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Eric Adams and for­mer Unit­ed States Sec­re­tary of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment Shaun Dono­van, answered ques­tions regard­ing issues specif­i­cal­ly per­tain­ing to the city’s Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty, includ­ing halal meals and Islam­o­pho­bia. Can­di­date Eric Adams assured view­ers that, if elect­ed, he would back poli­cies that ensure schools in areas with a high Mus­lim pop­u­la­tion only serve halal meals and vowed that his admin­is­tra­tion would con­sult with Mus­lim lead­er­ship orga­ni­za­tions to make sure appoint­ed law enforce­ment agents are “suit­able to rep­re­sent the con­cerns and pro­tect the rights” of the NYC Mus­lim population.

The event was co-mod­er­at­ed by Zead Ramadan, for­mer Pres­i­dent of the New York chap­ter of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Mus­lim Rela­tions (CAIR), and host­ed by the Islam­ic Lead­er­ship Coun­cil of New York, an umbrel­la of NYC Islam­ic cen­ters. The forum was orga­nized in part­ner­ship with sev­er­al groups tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in the Unit­ed States, including:

• Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca – New York

• Mus­lim Amer­i­can Soci­ety – New York

• Mus­lim Ummah of North Amer­i­ca, a rel­a­tive­ly obscure mem­ber of the US Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO) and whose con­ven­tions have fea­tured impor­tant US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leaders.

Anoth­er forum part­ner was the Turk­ish-Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee, a Turk­ish-Amer­i­can influ­ence group close­ly tied to the Turk­ish rul­ing par­ty and co-chaired by Pres­i­dent Erdoğan’s cousin Halil Mut­lu that has repeat­ed­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in meet­ings with US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leaders.

Recent report­ing by the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) on the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and US elec­tions has included:

• An Octo­ber 2020 report that CAIR was part of a coali­tion of Mus­lim and Arab groups tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood that launched a vot­er reg­is­tra­tion dri­ve head­ed by indi­vid­u­als strong­ly opposed to Don­ald Trump.

• A Novem­ber 2020 report that CAIR has issued a state­ment con­grat­u­lat­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden on his vic­to­ry, vow­ing to hold the forth­com­ing admin­is­tra­tion account­able on Mus­lim inclu­sion and civ­il rights issues.

• An April 2021 report that a coali­tion of Amer­i­can Mus­lim advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood has pub­lished a report on Amer­i­can Mus­lims elect­ed or re-elect­ed to pub­lic office dur­ing 2020.

• A May 2021 report that the Unit­ed States Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions has pub­lished an open let­ter call­ing on Pres­i­dent Joe Biden to appoint a State Depart­ment spe­cial envoy to mon­i­tor and com­bat Islamophobia.