IPT: ISNA’s Mattson to Speak at Inaugural Prayer Service
Another tradition from the Bush administration that apparently will be continued by Barack Obama: pandering to radical Islam’s US front groups.
As part of the inaugural festivities for President Barack Obama, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) President Ingrid Mattson is scheduled to participate Wednesday in a prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral.
Given her organization’s historic connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to establish Islamic law, or Shari’ah, as the basis controlling society, Mattson’s invitation is generating some criticism.
Her organization was founded in 1981[1] by Muslim Brotherhood members who had been part of the Muslim Students Association.[2] ISNA was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), which ended in the conviction of five former HLF officials on 108 counts. Federal prosecutors identified ISNA as a “member organization” of the “U.S. Muslim Brotherhood” on its list of “Unindicted Co-conspirators and/or Joint Venturers.”[3]
It is important to note that none of the activity related to ISNA’s involvement in the HLF case occurred under Mattson’s leadership. However, she has an established pattern that should be known in advance of her inaugural participation of making statements which minimize the nature of extremist forms of Islam and rationalize the actions of Islamist terrorist movements.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism has assembled this report on Mattson.
