Muslim Brotherhood Front Group Trains Airport Screeners

by Connie Hair (more by this author)

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has completed training for 2,200 Transportation Safety Officers (TSOs) at the Los Angeles International Airport according to a press release found on the MPAC website.

The MPAC release notes that the two-month training course informed officers of "the diversity of Muslims around the world from cultural dress to language to tenets. The four trainers taught the TSOs how to properly handle a Quran and discussed the different ways Muslim women and men choose to cover or dress. For example, the TSOs learned if a woman wears hijab and needs a secondary screening she should be screened in a private area by a female TSO officer."

  (The Drudge Report shocked the nation with this photo of a nun being patted down by a Muslim woman in head garb. Apparently Christian women are afforded only public groping sessions.)

In 1986, MPAC was formed as a political action arm of one of the largest Wahhabi mosques in America, the Islamic Center for Southern California.

As the Center for Security Policy's Team B II report entitled "Sharia: The Threat to America" notes, "The founders of the Islamic Center for Southern California are Hassan Hathout and his brother Maher Hathout. The late Hassan Hathout was a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement. The two brothers Maher spent time in an Egyptian prison during the early days of the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities there, led by the Brotherhood’s founder Hassan Al Banna. MPAC’s own publication, The Minaret, has proudly called Hassan a 'companion of' and Maher 'a close disciple of' Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna."

Maher Hathout also founded and is currently a senior advisor for MPAC. He and others at MPAC also currently work for and maintain a close relationship with the Islamic Center of Southern California.

Hathout was also on the board of directors and a member of the American Muslim Council (AMC) from 1993 to 1997. AMC was founded by the al Qaeda financier and Hamas operative Abdurahman Alamoudi who is currently serving 23 years in prison for funding terrorist groups including al Qaeda.

Maher Hathout served on the AMC Board of Directors at the same time Alamoudi was serving as its Executive Director.

"Maher Hathout has publicly voiced his approval of Designated Terrorist Organizations such as Hezbollah; decried many U.S. counterterrorism efforts; called for the destruction of Israel; and, openly supported known terrorists such as Hasan al Turabi, the leader of the National Islamic Front of Sudan. Yet, the organization he founded, MPAC, enjoys a reputation in official U.S. circles as a 'moderate' Muslim organization," the Team B II report states.

"Salam al-Marayati is the current president of MPAC. Al-Marayati was denied a leadership position on the National Commission on Terrorism by then-House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt when it came to light that Al-Marayati claimed that the terrorist group, Hezbollah, was a legitimate organization and has the right to attack the Israeli Army.

"Edina Lekovic is MPAC’s Communications Director. Previously, Lekovic was editor of the magazine Al-Talib when it editorialized that Osama bin Laden was a freedom fighter and warrior for Allah, who should be defended by Muslims. Al-Talib is the magazine published by the UCLA chapter of the Muslim Student’s Association. ... The MSA was the first Muslim Brotherhood organization established in the United States."

MPAC works as a propaganda and misinformation ministry for the Muslim Brotherhood. One example offered in the Team B II Report is its aggressive and successful pursuit of total control of the language used by the United States government in regard to Muslim terrorists.

"MPAC attacked the language used to describe the events of September 11, 2001 detailed in the 9/11 Commission Report. MPAC demanded an end to the use of words such as jihad, ummah, caliphate, shariah and others in relation to terrorist doctrine," the report states.

"In subsequent years, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have all issued strategic counterterrorism documents devoid of these terms. Such conformity to shariah by U.S. government entities such as the FBI and DHS is an extraordinary strategic victory for the enemy in the information battlespace."

The Investigative Project offers another extensive background study of MPAC's links to jihadi terrorist groups.

You can obtain a copy of the Team B II report on the Center for Security Policy website here.