On April 14, 2026, the official X account of the Iranian Embassy in Tajikistan posted an AI-generated video depicting Jesus Christ punching President Donald Trump in the face, with Trump bloodied and falling into a fiery pit. The 10-second video incorporated imagery from Trump’s own deleted Truth Social post and quickly accumulated millions of views on the platform. The Tajikistan embassy’s provocative content represents an escalation in Iran’s broader digital influence campaign targeting Western leaders and audiences.

Share

Graphic Depiction of Violence Against President Trump

The Iranian Embassy took the image posted by Trump and transformed it into graphic propaganda depicting violent assault on the sitting U.S. president. An automated voice declares “Your reckoning has come” as a Christ figure descends from the sky. Trump is shown screaming “no” before impact, with audio effects simulating blood spattering as his body plummets downward into flames.

The Tajikistan post was not isolated. Other Iranian diplomatic accounts, including ones linked to South Africa and Zimbabwe, also posted mocking or satirical content targeting Trump during the same period.

The Epstein Conspiracy Push

On the same day, the same Iranian Embassy account posted an AI-generated video depicting the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein communicating with Trump and allegedly instructing him to take specific actions, including criticizing Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones on Truth Social. The video depicted Epstein’s ghost speaking to Trump and implying a directive relationship between them

The embassy accompanied the Epstein video with the caption: “Trump is one of the reasons that proves the existence of the Satan in the world.”

Historical Pattern: Soleimani Commemoration

The Tajikistan embassy’s engagement in propaganda is not new. In 2024, the account made a post honoring Qasem Soleimani, the former IRGC Quds Force commander who was eliminated in a U.S. strike in January 2020.

The commemoration indicates the diplomatic account has long served as a propaganda vehicle for Tehran rather than functioning in a traditional diplomatic capacity.

Implications

The most serious aspect of the episode is that an official Iranian embassy account appeared to glorify violence against a sitting U.S. president. Whatever its propagandistic or satirical framing, that is an extraordinary use of a diplomatic platform. It illustrates the extent to which Tehran’s official channels are being used not merely to message or mock, but to circulate inflammatory content that erodes the boundary between diplomacy, propaganda, and incitement.

Deni Avdija scored 41 points and converted a three-point play with 16.1 seconds remaining to send the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA playoffs on Tuesday night, becoming the first Israeli player to reach the postseason in league history. Portland secured the seventh seed in the Western Conference and will face San Antonio in the first round. Deni Avdija became the second Israeli player to reach the NBA playoffs, following T.J. Leaf, who made it with the Indiana Pacers in 2018

Subscribe now

The Numbers

Avdija’s 41 points rank among the standout performances of this year’s play-in round. He shot efficiently while distributing 12 assists, orchestrating Portland’s offense during a fourth-quarter comeback from an 11-point deficit. With 32 seconds left and Phoenix holding a 110-109 lead, Avdija drove to the basket, finished through contact, and made the free throw for a 112-110 advantage. Phoenix missed its final shot attempt. The Blazers advanced while Phoenix dropped to a Friday elimination game against the Clippers-Warriors winner.

Background

Born in Beit Zera, a kibbutz in northern Israel, Avdija is the son of Zufer Avdija, a former Yugoslavia national team player of Gorani background born in Pristina, and Sharon Artzi, an Israeli Jewish mother. He joined Maccabi Tel Aviv’s youth ranks in 2013 and led the club to three straight Israeli youth state championships from 2017 to 2019. At 19, he became Israeli League MVP in 2020 before Washington drafted him ninth overall in the 2020 NBA Draft. Portland acquired him in July 2024 in a trade involving Malcolm Brogdon and multiple draft picks. He earned his first All-Star selection in February 2026.

Representation Context

Israeli athletes have rarely carved out a lasting presence in major American professional sports, giving Avdija’s postseason breakthrough added resonance. He entered the playoffs averaging 24.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 6.7 assists, establishing himself not as a symbolic figure but as a central force behind Portland’s rise. In that sense, his playoff appearance carries significance beyond one season: it strengthens Israeli representation in the NBA and may help expand the horizon for future Israeli and Jewish prospects imagining a path to basketball’s highest stage.

As the Global Sumud Flotilla launched its latest mission from Barcelona on April 15, 2026, sexual misconduct allegations surfaced involving a member of the organization’s steering committee. The steering committee member allegedly engaged in sexual relations with three different volunteers while aboard boats headed to Gaza on a previous voyage

. The allegations, posted by Palestinian activist group Heart of Falastin, describe what they call a “clear violation of ethics and power” aboard what was supposed to be a disciplined humanitarian mission.

The controversy has exposed internal dysfunction within an organization that Jewish Onliner previously investigated. Jewish Onliner previously reported that several steering committee figures had documented contacts with Hamas, PIJ, and PFLP-linked figures. Later Israeli government material, and subsequently a U.S. Treasury designation of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), added public support for claims of Hamas-linked involvement in the flotilla network

Sexual Misconduct Allegations

According to Heart of Falastin’s Instagram posts, a Steering Committee member identified only as “B.L.” engaged in sexual relations with multiple activists during a prior voyage to Gaza. “Not one person. Not two. Three different individuals. All volunteers on a humanitarian mission,” the post stated.

The allegations distinguish between private conduct and abuse of authority. “We do not care what anyone does in their private time. At a hotel. In their own home,” the post clarified. “But to do it on the boat - while heading to a nation undergoing genocide, with volunteers who are under your authority, in a space where activists are sleeping, eating, and working together - is a clear violation of ethics and power.”

Heart of Falastin described the behavior as creating a “toxic environment” that “compromises the integrity of the entire mission,” calling it “a red line” when it occurs “on a boat heading to Gaza - a space that should be sacred, focused, and disciplined.”

Organization’s Response Criticized

The allegations claim that despite being notified over a month ago with detailed testimonies, the Steering Committee failed to remove the individual, launch an investigation, or issue a public statement. “The first incident occurred over six months ago,” the post stated. “We gave them time. We gave them every opportunity to do the right thing. They refused.”

Heart of Falastin also accused the Steering Committee of threatening people who “dared to speak” about the allegations.

The Global Sumud Flotilla told the New York Sun that it is “fundamentally opposed to the abuse of power” and created an “arms-length, independent Ethics Committee” made up of “trained legal professionals.” However, the organization said it cannot “trigger an investigation or hold individuals accountable based on public rumors” and had “not received any related complaints” via the “reporting pathway.”

Additional Allegations of Abuse

Beyond the sexual misconduct claims, Heart of Falastin accused the organization’s leadership of verbal abuse. According to the posts, a leadership member identified as “L.F.” allegedly said that the leadership “shouts at everyone. That’s okay. They don’t mean it. Take it with an open heart.”

The activist group promised to release more testimonies in coming posts, including allegations of “financial theft” and the “silencing of Palestinian voices.” As of April 14, 2026, the original Instagram post was reportedly taken down without explanation.

Terror Ties Previously Documented

The misconduct allegations compound existing concerns about the flotilla’s leadership. In August 2025, Jewish Onliner published an investigation revealing that several Steering Committee members had met with officials from U.S.-designated terror groups and funded Hamas-linked bodies in Gaza.

The investigation identified Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, who, according to prior reporting and later Israeli summaries, funded projects for Hamas-run or Hamas-linked bodies in Gaza and was photographed with Hamas official Ghazi Hamad. It also identified Wael Nawar, who has been documented in meetings with Hamas, PIJ, and PFLP-linked figures. In Saif Abu Keshk’s case, later Israeli and U.S. government material focused more specifically on alleged Hamas-linked activity through the PCPA.

About two months later, Israel’s Foreign Ministry published documents that were recovered in Gaza and revealed Hamas links to flotilla leadership through the PCPA. The U.S. Treasury later designated PCPA in January 2026, under Executive Order 13224 for acting on behalf of Hamas.

Latest Mission Launches

Despite the allegations, dozens of boats departed Barcelona on April 15, 2026. Organizers said the broader mission would involve more than 70 boats and over 1,000 activists globally, marking what they claim is the largest mobilization of its kind. Previous flotilla attempts have been intercepted by Israeli authorities, with participants in last year’s mission, including Greta Thunberg, arrested and deported.

On 1 April 2026, a joint student slate bringing together Union Étudiante, the Fédération syndicale étudiante, and Étudiants musulmans de France (EMF) won three of the eight elected student seats on the board of the Cnous, France’s national student welfare body. The outcome drew wider scrutiny because a French government report links EMF’s origins to the network that became Musulmans de France, which the report identifies as the country’s principal branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Official results show the coalition took 32.1 percent of the vote, matching the three seats won by the FAGE-backed “Bouge tes Crous” list, which finished first with 36.9 percent.

Share

The Muslim Brotherhood Angle

That same report identifies Musulmans de France as the principal French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and presents EMF as part of a broader ecosystem of religious, educational, and civic structures built over time around that movement. It says EMF is active in major university cities and specifically cites Orléans and Strasbourg as places where it is represented in CROUS governance.

The report goes further than campus organizing alone. It says 139 places of worship are affiliated with Musulmans de France, with 68 more considered close to the federation, and describes a wider institutional presence spanning preaching, education, charity, youth activity, and local association life. The report argues that this influence is often exercised through local “ecosystems” rather than through overt confrontation.

It also states that, as of September 2023, 21 Muslim confessional schools educating roughly 4,200 pupils were identified as linked to the movement. That broader finding helps explain why an election result inside the student welfare system has been read by some French officials and commentators as part of a larger long-term contest over institutional influence.

From Intelligence Concern to National Politics

The issue has since moved well beyond specialist security circles. Reuters reported that President Emmanuel Macron convened senior ministers in May 2025 to discuss the report’s findings, which warned of gradual ideological infiltration through local proxies and civil-society networks rather than through direct violence.

During a 6 January 2026 Assembly debate, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said “entryism” was not clearly defined in law and argued that the state needed sharper legal tools to address it, including in the intelligence sphere. Two weeks later, the National Assembly adopted a resolution urging the European Union to place the Muslim Brotherhood on the EU list of terrorist organizations.

Hamas issued a direct call this week for “intensified” international mobilization around Palestinian Prisoners’ Day scheduled for April 17, 2026, explicitly framing it as a “national and International Day of Action.” Western activist organizations have begun organizing coordinated protests across North America and Europe, with messaging that mirrors the terror group’s rhetoric. In a Tuesday statement, Hamas urged its followers to “intensify and expand all forms of public mobilization.”

The Palestinian Youth Movement promoted materials demanding: "UNTIL EVERY PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONER IS FREE" and made social media posts for coordinated actions in different major U.S. cities. Jewish Voice for Peace called supporters to "take action" on April 17. Owda, a Gaza-based journalist, was previously identified attending rallies for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Gaza, and wearing terror paraphernalia.

Share

Terror-Linked Groups Coordinating Mobilization

Samidoun, the U.S.-designated terror group, announced it would host an event at Brussels Central Station on April 17. The Palestinian Youth Movement, organizing global actions for the upcoming Palestinian Prisoners Day, has been documented by the ADL as having members and affiliates who “have expressed support for terror.” In August 2025, Sen. Tom Cotton asked the IRS to investigate PYM’s funding sources for possible tax-code violations, citing what he described as alleged ties to terrorism.

The Prisoners Day campaign intersects directly with efforts to free Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader convicted of orchestrating attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five civilians.

Building Capacity Through Coordinated Messaging

Stu Smith, an investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, told Jewish News Syndicate these protests are “part of a longer project of building capacity, shaping public opinion and inching closer to power.”

There appears to be a pattern: terror-designated organizations maintain coordinating infrastructure; Western activist groups operate within or alongside these networks; and messaging circulates rapidly through these channels, achieving remarkable consistency in language and framing

As reported by Nordic Monitor, a promotional video released by Turkey’s state-linked defense contractor Roketsan has sparked widespread attention for opening with footage of Israeli military operations in Gaza before featuring President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reciting nationalist poetry describing Turkey’s army as “the last army of Islam.”

The video, unveiled at a defense industry ceremony attended by Erdogan on April 7, combines conflict imagery from multiple regions with religious-political messaging, which some observers have compared to campaign-style messaging. The Turkish Armed Forces Foundation controls a 55.34 percent stake in Roketsan, with other state entities comprising the remainder of ownership, raising concerns about how Turkey’s government is positioning its defense exports to a global market that includes approximately 50 countries.

Gaza Footage Leads Promotional Content

The Roketsan video opens with scenes from Israeli military operations in Gaza before transitioning to footage from conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar, and Azerbaijan. The company shared the video across its official social media channels following the April 7 ceremony in Ankara’s Lalahan district, where it quickly generated significant engagement. Nordic Monitor argued that the sequencing appeared intentional, using later conflict footage to broaden the frame while keeping Israel as the primary focus.

The video intersperses scenes of civilian suffering and military operations with excerpts from Erdogan’s speeches, including religiously influenced statements such as “Do not fear, do not retreat, do not despair. Allah is with us.”

“Last Army of Islam” Messaging

A central element of the video features Erdogan reciting a nationalist poem commonly associated with the Turkish military. The poem describes Turkey’s army as “a storm rising in Allah’s name” and characterizes it as “the final army of Islam tasked with ensuring the call to prayer endures.” The inclusion of this explicitly religious-nationalist rhetoric in a defense industry promotional video has prompted observers to characterize the material as containing political campaign elements rather than standard corporate or military communications.

Additional remarks attributed to Erdogan reference “rebuilding strength despite global opposition” and assert that “Turkey has not yet spoken its final word on the world stage.” The combination of religious language, nationalist poetry, and presidential imagery at a weapons manufacturer’s event represents a pattern of messaging that extends beyond traditional defense industry marketing.

State-Dominated Ownership Structure

Roketsan’s ownership is dominated by defense-linked and state-affiliated institutions. According to corporate-governance disclosures cited by Nordic Monitor, the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation holds 55.34%, followed by MKE, ASELSAN, Vakıflar Bankası, and HAVELSAN

Despite this state-dominated structure, Roketsan currently exports to approximately 50 countries, with international sales accounting for more than 38 percent of total revenue. The company reports that 90 percent of materials used in production are domestically sourced, supported by a supply chain of more than 2,300 companies.

Pattern of Geopolitically-Charged Marketing

This is not Roketsan’s first promotional video to attract attention for perceived political targeting. In 2022, the company released a simulation video for its CAKIR cruise missile that contained references interpreted as directed at Greece. Military experts noted that while defense contractors worldwide use promotional simulations for international marketing, Turkish companies have increasingly produced content perceived as targeting Greece and neighboring states.

A 2024 curriculum reform introduced by Turkey’s Ministry of Education under the ‘Century of Türkiye Education Model’ added material on domestic defense initiatives and the ‘Blue Homeland’ doctrine, with the ministry framing parts of the model in terms of national values and consciousness.”

Defense Capabilities Gap Beneath Messaging

Turkey’s emphasis on defense industry messaging comes amid ongoing capability gaps in critical areas. Turkey’s October 2025 agreement with the United Kingdom for 20 new Eurofighter Typhoons marked a major procurement step, but Reuters reported the first aircraft from that British-built batch are expected in 2030.

During the recent regional escalation, NATO air-defense systems intercepted four ballistic missiles that Turkey said were launched from Iran toward Turkish airspace. The episode underscored Ankara’s continued reliance on allied missile-defense infrastructure, including additional U.S. Patriot deployments, even as Turkey expands its domestic defense industry.

Share

Broader Implications

The Roketsan video represents the convergence of Turkey’s defense industry expansion with explicitly religious-nationalist political messaging. As a state-linked entity exporting to 50 countries, the company’s choice to lead promotional material with Gaza footage and “last army of Islam” rhetoric raises questions about how Turkey positions itself in global defense markets and whether such messaging influences purchasing decisions among potential clients.

The video’s rapid viral spread—with Roketsan pinning it to official accounts—suggests the messaging was intentional rather than incidental. The promotional material offers a window into how Turkey’s leadership publicly frames the relationship between military capability, religious identity, and geopolitical positioning.

Investigative journalist Ella Kenan has exposed what she characterizes as a media influence operation called Uncivilized. The channel adopts the tone and aesthetics of an organic Western youth-media outlet while targeting Western audiences with anti-Western propaganda and factually false claims about Israel and liberal democracies.

The channel, which operates under the apparent guise of progressive social justice content, has accumulated just under 400,000 subscribers and positions itself as an authentic voice of Western youth critique.

However, Kenan's analysis reveals a different picture: while its YouTube channel lists its location as being in the U.S., its LinkedIn page lists its headquarters in Ramallah.

Share

The False Framing: Manufactured Authenticity

Uncivilized presents videos addressing themes of injustice, inequality, and systemic critique—messaging calibrated to resonate with Western audiences skeptical of institutional authority.

However, beneath this surface lies what Kenan characterizes as a coherent ideological framework designed to condition viewers toward specific conclusions: that the United States is fundamentally evil and should collapse; that Jews control global institutions and media; that liberal democracies are sources of oppression while authoritarian systems offer superior models.

Kenan characterizes this content as ideological conditioning rather than legitimate social critique, noting that the messaging conflates criticism with hatred and systematically selects which injustices merit outrage and which merit silence.

Connections to Qatari Media Institutions

According to Kenan's investigation, potential ties to Qatar become apparent through key personnel and institutional connections. At least one founder previously worked for both Al Jazeera and the Doha Film Institute—both entities with documented track records of amplifying anti-democratic narratives and disinformation targeting Western audiences.

Kenan reports that LinkedIn records she examined indicate the operation’s base of operations is in Ramallah, contradicting the channel’s presentation as an independent American media project. Additionally, Kenan notes that Uncivilized LLC appears to be listed on Media City Qatar, a state-backed media hub in Doha.

Additionally, the X account of co-founder and editor Tala Kaddoura indicates that she is based in Qatar, and the X account of founder and creative director Salem Barahmeh also indicates he is based in Qatar. Barahmeh's online bio lists prior work as a Policy and Public Affairs Advisor at Portland Communications in London. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism previously reported that Portland Communications outsourced Wikipedia editing for high-profile clients, including the state of Qatar.

Deliberate Disinformation

Kenan identifies multiple instances of distortion and falsehood. A video about an alleged "100-year Israeli plan to take over Lebanon" lacks contextual framing about decades of attacks launched from Lebanese territory by terrorist organizations. Another video claims Israel's collapse is imminent, contradicting reality: Israel's economy is projected to grow by 5.2% in 2026, significantly above the OECD average of 1.7%, while its tech sector and quality of life continue to boom.

Kenan notes the channel cites "fringe voices" claiming Israelis recognize collapse while omitting that Israel's democratic system actively encourages dissent—unlike authoritarian Middle Eastern environments where political opposition is culturally or politically suppressed.

Targeting Western Youth

Audiences consuming this content remain unaware of potential Qatari geopolitical interests, lack understanding of media influence mechanics, and have not developed habits of source verification for emotionally compelling narratives.

This represents what appears to be a systematic effort to shape worldviews incrementally, one video at a time, among Western audiences vulnerable to narratives framing them as inherently oppressive and their societies as irredeemable.

Editor’s note: This is the inaugural article in a series examining alleged Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the United States—the 29 organizations listed in the infamous 1991 Muslim Brotherhood Explanatory Memorandum outlining a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” to destroy Western civilization from within. With renewed U.S. government focus on Brotherhood networks and recent congressional scrutiny, this series investigates the documented connections between these groups and their historical advancement of Brotherhood strategic objectives in America.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s own internal strategy document, recovered in an FBI search and later listed as a government exhibit in the Holy Land Foundation case, places the “Muslim Businessmen Association” at number 15 on a list of 29 organizations advancing what the memo calls a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” to destroy Western civilization from within.

The 1991 Explanatory Memorandum, authored by Brotherhood operative Mohamed Akram on May 22, 1991, identifies the “MBA” among “organizations of our friends” working toward what the document calls the “settlement” of Islam in America — embedding Islamic organizations into American civic life as part of a long-term Brotherhood strategy.

According to Discover the Networks, the “MBA” referenced in the memorandum corresponds to MÜSİAD (Müstakil Sanayici ve İşadamları Derneği), also known as the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association, a transnational Turkish business network founded in 1990. One Arabic-language report in TurkPress says rival Turkish business associations referred to MÜSİAD as the ‘Muslim Businessmen Association,’ citing its overtly Islamic orientation and legal restrictions at the time on religious names

Whether or not MÜSİAD is definitively the organization referenced in the 1991 memo, what investigators have documented is that this Turkish Islamist business network maintains an active American chapter that openly participates in events hosted by other organizations that do appear on the 1991 Brotherhood list — including ISNA and ICNA.

Below is what court records, Turkish-language media, and public documentation reveal about MÜSİAD’s founding-era leadership, its ideological roots, and its documented presence in the American Muslim organizational ecosystem today.

Ties to Organizations on the 1991 Brotherhood Memorandum

MÜSİAD USA’s documented organizational relationships are a matter of public record. The organization’s official announcement states it participated in an ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) conference in 2023, where MÜSİAD USA President Yavuz Orta addressed the hall as a speaker and presented MÜSİAD’s projects and organizational structure.

ISNA appears at number 1 on the 1991 Brotherhood memorandum list. Federal prosecutors named ISNA an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial — the largest terrorism-financing prosecution in U.S. history.

MÜSİAD USA also documented its participation in the MAS-ICNA Convention 2025 in Chicago, describing it as “one of the largest gatherings of the Muslim community.” The organization stated it held “productive meetings with Muslim civil society organizations, visionary business leaders, and professionals.”

ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) appears at number 26 on the 1991 Brotherhood list. Young MÜSİAD USA separately posted that its delegation was “honored that the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) received our delegation” at the same convention.

USCMO’s founding members include MAS, ICNA, and CAIR. The convention where MÜSİAD participated featured Siraj Wahhaj — identified by federal prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Turkish Roots

Arabic-language Turkish coverage explicitly traces MÜSİAD’s origins to the conservative-Islamic business milieu of the Necmettin Erbakan era. The report states that businessman Erol Yarar presented the idea to Erbakan, and that rivals referred to MÜSİAD as the “Muslim Businessmen Association” because of its strict Islamic orientation - noting that Turkish law at the time did not allow overtly religious names.

MÜSİAD’s founding-era prominence also drew state scrutiny. Scholarly and contemporary reporting state that in 1998 a prosecutor sought MÜSİAD’s closure and that chairman Erol Yarar was charged with “inciting hatred.”

Erbakan founded the Milli Görüş (National Vision) movement, widely recognized as the ideological vehicle for Turkish Islamist politics. Scholars have described MÜSİAD as part of Turkey’s Islamically oriented business milieu associated with the Erbakan / Milli Görüş tradition.

Institutional Contact with IHH

MÜSİAD has an official relationship with IHH (İnsani Yardım Vakfı, or Humanitarian Relief Foundation). The IHH website documented that on January 24, 2018, IHH president Bülent Yıldırım and secretary-general Yavuz Dede visited the newly elected MÜSİAD president Abdurrahman Kaan in a congratulatory visit. According to the IHH announcement, "Views were exchanged on current issues and information was shared about the work being done."

IHH has been accused of alleged ties to terrorism. The Christian Science Monitor reported that Israel accused IHH of funneling support to militant organizations and that analysts had linked it to jihadist fundraising in the 1990s. Reuters reported in 2014 that Turkish anti-terror police raided IHH offices in an operation targeting suspects with alleged links to al Qaeda.

MÜSİAD’s documented contact with IHH does not prove the business association shared those alleged activities, but it places MÜSİAD in a relationship footprint with a Turkish NGO surrounded by terrorism-related scrutiny.

An Islamist Business Network with Alleged Brotherhood Ties

Even if MÜSİAD cannot be definitively identified as the “MBA” in the 1991 memorandum, it remains relevant in the Brotherhood context because it arose from Turkey’s Islamist business milieu, its founding-period chairman was convicted of incitement, it faced closure proceedings in the 1990s, and its U.S. branch today has public ties to ISNA and ICNA—both named in the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood Explanatory Memorandum.

Pakistan’s left-wing Haqooq-e-Khalq Party published “The Tehran Resolution,” an extensive statement calling Western nations and Israel to stand down against Iran, framing the Iranian regime’s leadership and military apparatus as defenders of “regional liberation.” The signatory list includes Samidoun, which the U.S. Treasury designated in October 2024 under counterterrorism authorities and which Canada listed as a terrorist entity that same month. Several other groups closely aligned with Samidoun are also listed on the same resolution, including Masar Badil, Tariq el Tahrir Youth and Student Network, and Nidal Seattle.

The signatory list includes several more U.S.-based advocacy organizations and foreign political parties from Egypt and Lebanon.

Share

The Signatory Network: A U.S.-Designated Terror Group, U.S.-Based Organizations, and Foreign Parties

In addition to Samidoun and several other closely aligned groups listed on the resolution, the statement drew endorsements from a range of U.S.-based organizations. These include National Students for Justice in Palestine, which operates under the fiscal sponsorship of the WESPAC Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, as well as the United States Peace Council and the International Action Center, which describes itself as a grassroots anti-war organization.

Other foreign political parties listed as signatories included the Communist Party of Egypt and the Popular Democratic Party of Lebanon—state-level political organizations with no U.S. tax designation.

A Reported HKP Link to New York City Electoral Politics

The Haqooq-e-Khalq Party was founded by Cambridge-educated historian Ammar Ali Jan and veteran leftist Farooq Tariq. The party calls for a synthesis of “nationalist movements of oppressed nationalities” and “the socialist movement.”

The party’s influence extends into U.S. electoral politics. A November 2025 New York Post report highlighted ties between HKP-linked organizers and DRUM activists who later worked on Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. In January 2023, HKP general secretary Ammar Ali Jan announced plans to build “a solidarity network for Pakistani activists in the US”—naming three DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) organizers: Raza Gillani, Mohiba Ahmed, and Zahid Ali. All three were later identified by the New York Post as active participants in DRUM’s pro-Mamdani effort.

Platforms With Members of Designated Terrorist Groups

Haqooq-e-Khalq Party general secretary Ammar Ali Jan spoke at the Ecosocialism 2024 conference in Australia alongside Leila Khaled, a representative of the U.S.-designated terror organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and member of the Palestine National Council.

Khaled is known for her role in the 1969 hijacking of TWA Flight 840 and the 1970 attempted hijacking of El Al Flight 219.

Lack of Transparency

The most striking feature of the resolution is not just who signed it, but the unexplained convergence it reflects. A U.S.-designated terror group, U.S.-based advocacy networks, and foreign political parties from multiple countries all appeared on the same statement backing the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Yet the public resolution provides no explanation of how this initiative was organized, circulated, or endorsed across such different legal and political contexts. That lack of disclosure leaves unanswered basic questions about how these groups came to align behind a single manifesto.

Israeli singer Noga Erez became the first Israeli artist to perform at Coachella on Saturday, April 11, taking the stage at one of the world’s most prestigious music festivals before a crowd of thousands in Indio, California. The historic performance came despite boycott threats from pro-Palestinian activists and logistical challenges getting her crew out of Israel amid ongoing conflict.

Erez, known for her genre-blending electro-pop sound, appeared alongside headliners Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter at the festival, which features 100 acts across eight stages over two weekends. The milestone represents a significant breakthrough for Israeli cultural representation in mainstream global entertainment, particularly as the music industry has become increasingly hostile terrain for Israeli artists.

Subscribe now

“Forces I Didn’t Know I Had”

During her 45-minute set on the Gobi Stage, Erez addressed what she called “the elephant in the room,” her Israeli identity. “I come from a very complex part of this planet,” she told the crowd. “To get us all here took forces I didn’t know I had.” The singer expressed gratitude for the opportunity while acknowledging the weight of performing while her country remains at war. “I’m so f***ing grateful to be here,” she said to cheers from the audience. “But at the same time, I’m just heartbroken and sad because of things that are happening at home and around it.”

Overcoming Boycott Pressure

The performance came after pro-Palestinian activists threatened to force a cancellation of her show in the days leading up to the festival. Activists urged attendees to boycott her set and called on her to “go back to Israel” because of her nationality. The hostility toward Israeli artists at Coachella was previously on display when Irish rap group Kneecap incorporated anti-Israel messaging into their 2025 set, including “F**k Israel, free Palestine” rhetoric. Erez’s successful performance, met with enthusiastic crowd support, stands in sharp contrast to those boycott efforts.

Music as Bridge

Erez articulated a vision of music as a unifying force despite geopolitical divides. “I just love this music thing so much, and right now doing this thing is exactly what I’m doing it for — to put a bunch of strangers together and make them feel like a family, united around something,” she told the crowd. She performed fan favorites including “End of the Road,” “The Vandalist,” and “Dumb,” opening with her new track “Duck Season.” At the end of the show, Erez and her partner Ori Rousso, along with their band, dancers, and crew, stood onstage to thank the audience.

Breaking Through on the Global Stage

Erez’s Coachella debut represents a rare win for Israeli cultural diplomacy at a time when Eurovision controversies and BDS pressure have created obstacles for Israeli artists on international stages. Her appearance alongside some of the biggest names in music demonstrates that Israeli artists can achieve mainstream cultural acceptance despite organized opposition. The Tel Aviv-based artist, who has been touring the United States and Europe since the October 7, 2023 attacks, continues to bring her distinctive electro-pop sound to growing audiences worldwide.

A social media account claiming to be Somalia’s premier research institute on China-Africa relations accused “Israel-First backstabbing Jewish envoys” of sabotaging U.S.-Iran peace talks in April 2026, citing a phone call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Vice President JD Vance that supposedly derailed negotiations.

The claim, attributed to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, never appeared on Araghchi’s verified X account. It appears to be the latest in a documented pattern of false or misleading claims from SICS, including assertions previously debunked by Dan Smith and Radio Free Asia’s Asia Fact Check Lab.

Independent analysis found no evidence that SICS is registered as an organization, while its posting patterns appear more consistent with daytime hours in China than in Somalia. The account has also served as a conduit for Chinese state narratives, at times laced with antisemitic rhetoric. At least 29 Chinese government officials have followed it, including China’s ambassador to Somalia.

A Think Tank That Doesn’t Exist

Despite claiming to be “Somalia’s only Research Institute & Think Tank covering China’s impact on Somalia & Africa,” the Somali Institute of Chinese Studies has no publicly listed physical address, no registered business presence in Somalia’s Ministry of Commerce registry, and no website beyond its social media accounts.

Independent researcher Dan Smith analyzed SICS’s posting patterns using Twitter analytics tools and found the account’s activity peaks between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. East Africa Time — the middle of the night in Somalia, but daytime business hours in China. “While not proving that someone inside China is running the account, this is wildly inconsistent with what posting would look like if they were based in Somalia,” Smith wrote in an August 2023 exposé.

Despite heavy posting, Smith reported finding no independent institutional footprint comparable to what one would usually expect from an established think tank, such as a dedicated website, verifiable organizational records, or identifiable research programming.

Chinese State Media Platforming

The account’s founder, Ali Hoosoow, has been featured prominently in Chinese state media. In a September 2024 Global Times interview, Hoosoow praised China’s approach to Africa while characterizing Western engagement as “modernized exploitation” and claiming “Westernization” includes “democratization, polarization, depopulation, and media indoctrination.”

When asked about Chinese modernization, Hoosoow effusively described it as “built upon unwavering balance, shared societal values, peaceful advancements of Chinese culture” and stated that China’s fisheries cooperation with Somalia differs from “Western practices that often exploit our maritime resources.”

In a follower-list snapshot Smith downloaded on April 8, 2023, SICS was followed by at least 29 Chinese officials, and 106 follower accounts listed locations inside China

Fabricating Claims About Jewish Officials

On April 12, 2026, SICS posted that “Iran-America negotiations in Pakistan collapsed given Israel-First backstabbing Jewish envoys — Witkoff and Kushner, who pushed Netanyahu’s terms as US demands for a ceasefire.”

The post specifically identified the negotiators as “Jewish envoys” and accused them of placing Israeli interests above American ones — a classic antisemitic dual loyalty trope. The account later claimed that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had stated Netanyahu called Vance during negotiations, shifting focus to “Israel’s interests.”

No such post appeared on Araghchi’s verified X account. While Araghchi did post about the failed talks on April 12, stating Iran “encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade,” he made no mention of Netanyahu, a phone call, or Israeli interference.

The Hindustan Times confirmed that while speculation about a Netanyahu-Vance call circulated on social media, “no such [X] post was found” from Araghchi making this claim.

A Pattern of Provocative Content

Beyond fabricated diplomatic claims, SICS has promoted inflammatory content targeting American Jewish communities. In December 2025, the account shared a map depicting a fictional “Two State Solution” carving Minnesota into “Minnesomalia” with the “Carmel Mall as the Capital,” echoing “From the River to the Lake” rhetoric in a post captioned “Minnesota is ours.”

Smith’s analysis found SICS consistently denies documented human rights abuses in Xinjiang, claiming “Chinese Muslims of the Uyghur ethnicity are full of patriotism and love for country” and characterizing reports of forced labor camps as “forced misinformation.”

The account has also amplified conspiracy theories framing U.S. diplomatic efforts as deliberately targeting Iranian and resistance leaders. In an April 2026 post titled “This the unhinged behavior of the ‘Great Satan,’” SICS claimed that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “was assassinated during a ceasefire,” Ayatollah Khamenei’s aide “was assassinated during ongoing negotiations,” and “Hamas negotiators in Qatar were bombed discussing US proposal,” concluding with “US negotiation = tactical operation.”

The post featured a photo of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei alongside Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and former Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

This framing echoes a consistent narrative across SICS content: portraying U.S. and Israeli actions as coordinated deception while positioning Iranian-backed militant groups as legitimate diplomatic actors betrayed during good-faith negotiations.

How Influence Operations Exploit Authority Bias

By positioning itself as an academic research institution, SICS leverages what psychologists call authority bias — the tendency to trust sources perceived as expert. “Audiences who have already bought into views supporting the content’s messaging can justify their belief in disinformation by attributing it to supposed ‘expert analysis,’ even without proof,” Smith wrote.

The account’s Medium page lists numerous articles on Somalia-China relations, African geopolitics, and regional infrastructure projects. While written in an analytical style, the pieces uniformly promote Chinese state interests while attacking Western influence.

Dan Smith noted that SICS is followed by several prominent anti-Western influencers, including Ben Norton, a journalist known for pro-authoritarian positions, and Jerry’s China, a Western influencer who has attempted to “debunk” reports of Uyghur persecution.

The Broader Chinese Disinformation Ecosystem

SICS isn’t alone. Smith identified at least four other similar accounts targeting English-speaking African audiences with Chinese state narratives, the largest having around 980 followers as of August 2023.

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies documented that “The Chinese Communist Party is the second most prolific Africa-wide sponsor of disinformation with five known multi-regional campaigns.”

These operations exploit regional grievances about colonialism and Western policy to position China as a benevolent alternative, while systematically undermining trust in democratic institutions, independent media, and documented human rights reporting.

Documented Impact

SICS gained 275 followers between April 7-19, 2023, during heavy posting about Sudan’s civil conflict, demonstrating its ability to reach new audiences during geopolitical crises. As of April 2026, the fabricated Netanyahu-Vance claim received over 61,400 views.

The account’s follower network includes officials, influencers, and ordinary users across Africa and the diaspora, creating pathways for Chinese state narratives — and antisemitic disinformation — to reach communities already navigating complex relationships with Western institutions.

University of Arkansas System President Jay Silveria terminated tenured associate professor Shirin Saeidi on March 30, overruling a unanimous faculty committee recommendation to reinstate her. The decision came four months after Saeidi was initially suspended for social media posts praising Iranian former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and defending the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as allegations she improperly used university letterhead to support a convicted Iranian war criminal.

Subscribe now

From IRGC Defense to Suspension

The controversy erupted in November 2025 when Saeidi, then director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies, posted statements defending the IRGC and offering prayers for Khamenei’s protection. In one post, she wrote: “The leader who kept Iran intact during the Israeli attack, May god protect you.”

Earlier that year, university officials discovered Saeidi had used university letterhead to campaign for the release of Hamid Nouri, who was convicted by a Swedish court in 2022 of war crimes and murder for his role in the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners in Iran.

President Overrules Unanimous Faculty Decision

Despite the committee’s recommendation to reinstate Saeidi, Silveria rejected the findings and moved forward with termination. In his written response, he expressed concern that the university could “suffer a reduction or elimination of funding under Ark. Code Ann. 6-16-2004 if its responses to antisemitism are determined to be inadequate.”

Act 721 of 2025 requires Arkansas public institutions to investigate complaints and comply with monitoring and reporting requirements. It also says the General Assembly is encouraged to consider reducing or eliminating state funding for institutions found to have responded inadequately to discrimination and harassment complaints.

Accountability for Faculty Conduct

The case follows other instances of Arkansas universities taking action against faculty for statements supporting violence or designated terrorist organizations. In 2025, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock dismissed a law professor for posts comparing Kirk mourners to the KKK and calling him an "evil person."

In Saeidi’s case, Iranian-American activists, including the group AAIRIA, had previously called for her dismissal over her defense of the IRGC and support for regime officials.

Jewish Onliner conducted a social media analysis tracking the keywords “genocide” and “genocidal” paired with “Lebanon” across the X platform from February 28 through April 12, 2026. The analysis identified approximately 1.1 million posts using these keywords during the six-week period, generating 5.4 million total engagements and tens of billions of potential views.

The investigation found that several of the top amplifiers of these narratives were non-U.S.-based individuals linked to Iran’s state apparatus and Russian state media. Taken together, the pattern suggests a coordinated foreign effort to shape Western social media discourse around Israel’s military operations, likely aimed at provoking the same overwhelming outrage Israel faced during the height of its campaign to destroy Hamas and secure the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Share

The Iranian Regime’s Academic Envoy

Among the most prominent amplifiers was Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran with extensive ties to Iran’s power structure. Marandi served as an advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiating team and maintains close proximity to the regime’s decision-making apparatus. His father, Alireza Marandi, served as former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s personal physician.

Russia Today’s Bureau Chief in Lebanon

Steve Sweeney, based in Lebanon and serving as Russia's state media outlet RT's Lebanon bureau chief, also ranked among the top amplifiers. Sweeney previously worked as international editor for the socialist newspaper The Morning Star and currently serves as a regular contributor to Al Mayadeen, a Hezbollah-affiliated media outlet. In July 2025, Sweeney was detained at Heathrow by UK counterterrorism police and questioned about his alleged links to Russian officials and Hezbollah.

Pro-Hamas Digital Propagandist

Zei Squirrel, an anonymous account operator with hundreds of thousands of followers across multiple platforms, ranked among the top amplifiers of genocide narratives related to Israel’s military response to Hezbollah. According to investigative reporting from Pirate Wires, Zei Squirrel operates as one of the most prolific pro-Hamas propaganda accounts online.

Other Top Viral Amplifiers

Other prominent amplifiers in the network included Nick Fuentes, who according to analysis from watchdog groups has received notable foreign amplification of his content; Philip Proudfoot, a U.K.-based activist whose X account indicates that he is partially based in Beirut; and AnnaChetConcreteisland, based in England.

Foreign Actors Shaping the Narrative

By leveraging academic credentials, state media infrastructure, and algorithmic advantage, foreign actors appear to have transformed localized content into a billions-view phenomenon. The network's reach into Western discourse during active military operations raises questions about whether hostile state actors have developed sophisticated playbooks for narrative capture—and whether existing platform safeguards may be insufficient against coordinated campaigns by multiple foreign adversaries operating in concert.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1471 into law on April 6, 2026, creating a Florida process for designating certain organizations as domestic terrorist organizations and, in some cases, foreign terrorist organizations. The law takes effect July 1 and bars certain public funding and contracts, creates criminal penalties for certain material-support and membership conduct, and adds education-related restrictions tied to designated organizations.

The law follows a December 8, 2025 executive order in which DeSantis designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations for purposes of Florida executive-branch action, a move advocates say addressed what they viewed as federal inaction toward groups alleged to have ties to extremism and terror networks in the United States.

Share

Creating Accountability: How the Process Works

HB 1471 authorizes Florida’s Chief of Domestic Security to propose designations of domestic terrorist organizations and certain foreign terrorist organizations. For domestic designations, the official must find that the organization is based or operates in Florida or the United States, is engaging in terrorist activity as defined by Florida law, and poses an ongoing threat. For foreign designations, the organization must already be designated by the U.S. Secretary of State and pose an ongoing threat.

The recommendation then requires approval from Florida’s top elected officials: the governor, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, and chief financial officer. Within seven days of approval, the designation is published in the Florida Administrative Register, and organizations have 30 days to challenge the designation in Leon County Circuit Court.

Cutting Off Resources to Extremist Groups

Once designated, organizations lose access to state resources that could fuel their activities. The law bars state agencies, political subdivisions, and public school districts from using certain public funds to support designated groups, contracting with them, or accepting funds from them.

The legislation creates felony charges for individuals who provide “material support” to designated organizations, including financial donations, weapons, or training. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins said the law makes it a felony to provide material support to designated organizations, including money, weapons, or military training, and also criminalizes joining such groups with intent to commit violence.

DeSantis stated the law would “help the state of Florida protect you” and “help us protect your tax dollars.” At the signing ceremony, he added: “Never one red cent for jihad.”

Protecting Students and Universities

The legislation includes education-related provisions aimed at restricting support for designated terrorist organizations in public postsecondary institutions. The law requires public postsecondary institutions to report status information for a student on a student visa if the student is determined to have promoted a designated domestic or foreign terrorist organization, and it mandates expulsion after such a determination. The statute defines ‘promote’ in narrower terms tied to support for extralegal violence, threats, material disruption, disorder, or material support/recruitment.

Blocking Foreign Legal Systems

HB 1471 also prohibits Florida courts from applying or enforcing “foreign or religious law if doing so would violate constitutional rights,” including Sharia law. The law blocks enforcement of foreign judgments, contracts, or legal provisions that attempt to bypass constitutional protections.

Lt. Gov. Collins explained the rationale: “Let’s talk about Sharia law. It is not some personal spiritual guide. Simply put, it is not consistent with our values of our Constitution. Rather, it is a complete legal and political code drawn straight from the Quran and the words of Muhammed himself.”

Addressing Federal Inaction on Brotherhood Network

The legislation follows DeSantis's December 2025 executive order designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations—groups with a history of alleged links to terror financing and extremist ideology.

As Jewish Onliner previously reported, the Muslim Brotherhood’s own 1991 Explanatory Memorandum—seized by the FBI and entered as evidence in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial—outlines a strategy of “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.” The document lists 29 organizations the Brotherhood identified as part of its American network, including the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Students Association (MSA), and North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).

According to NAIT, the trust has grown into “a comprehensive solution provider with 400+ waqf institutions in USA and Canada.” According to MSA National’s 2024 annual report, 162 affiliated MSAs were benefiting from its resources, mentorship, and programs.

Bipartisan Passage, Expected Legal Challenge

HB 1471, sponsored by Rep. Hillary Cassel (R-Dania Beach), passed the Florida House 80-25 in early March. The Senate approved the companion bill 25-11 the week before. DeSantis signed the legislation at a ceremony on the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus.

DeSantis acknowledged the law will likely face legal challenges but expressed confidence the state would prevail. The law takes effect July 1, 2026.

A fabricated video showed Iranian missiles striking Tel Aviv. Another depicted panicked crowds fleeing a fictional attack on an airport in Tel Aviv. A third claimed to show captured U.S. special forces held at gunpoint by Iranian troops. None of it was real — but the videos collectively reached tens of millions of viewers across social media platforms in March 2026, as Iran waged what researchers describe as “a sophisticated information war” against Israel and the United States during Operation Epic Fury.

Share

This isn’t traditional propaganda. It’s Fifth-Generation Warfare (5GW) — a systematic campaign to manipulate truth itself, creating what a new academic paper published in April 2026 calls “cognitive paralysis,” a state where populations become unable to distinguish credible information from manipulation. And according to researchers tracking Iran’s operations, the Islamic Republic has emerged as a master of this new form of conflict — one where the battlefield is the human mind, and Israel is a primary target.

The Three-Stage Disinformation Cycle

The research paper, “The Weaponization of Truth: Analyzing Misinformation as a Pillar of Fifth-Generation Warfare,” was published by Malaysian researchers Mehran Hayat and Nazni Noordin in the International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science. The study examined how modern adversaries use disinformation not as a byproduct of conflict, but as a core strategic weapon targeting perception itself.

The researchers identified a strategic cycle that enables disinformation to achieve cognitive paralysis: creation (where information is selectively distorted while preserving elements of truth to enhance credibility), dissemination (content distributed through digital platforms targeting specific audiences), and amplification (where algorithmic systems prioritize engagement-driven content, enabling rapid viral spread).

Critically, the study demonstrates that misleading information consistently achieves greater reach than verified content across digital platforms — a pattern driven by algorithms that reward emotionally charged material regardless of accuracy, reinforcing echo chambers and amplifying psychological impact.

Using the Iran-Israel conflict as a case study, the paper documented how “digitally mediated narratives are deliberately constructed and amplified to influence both domestic and international audiences.” The researchers concluded that governments should “prioritize digital literacy initiatives to strengthen the public’s ability to critically evaluate information” — enhancing analytical awareness to reduce susceptibility to manipulated narratives.

This framework isn’t theoretical. During the February-March 2026 conflict, Iranian state media and proxies launched what NewsGuard described as an unprecedented offensive, identifying 18 false war-related claims by Iranian sources in just two weeks.

AI-Generated Lies at Industrial Scale

Iranian state outlets and covert operatives produced “a steady torrent of propaganda, overstated narratives and outright disinformation,” increasingly wielding generative AI tools to create realistic imagery. Tehran Times published a manipulated satellite image purporting to show destruction at Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base. Military-aligned outlet Tasnim claimed 650 U.S. troops were killed or wounded in two days — U.S. Central Command confirmed six fatalities. Semi-official outlet Mehr reported Iranian missiles hit the USS Abraham Lincoln, which CENTCOM stated was neither hit nor targeted.

Iran’s campaign included “flooding platforms such as X, Instagram and Bluesky with targeted postings” featuring AI-generated videos and fabricated footage of strikes on Israeli targets. Clemson researchers discovered that Iranian troll accounts previously posting about Scottish independence or Irish politics were “immediately redirected” after strikes began February 28, suddenly posting “unabashed Iranian propaganda.”

Cyber Operations and Antisemitic Targeting

Iran’s information warfare operates alongside cyber operations. Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 documented an escalation of Iranian-linked activity in March 2026, identifying 7,381 conflict-related phishing URLs across 1,881 unique domains. Iranian-linked groups claimed responsibility for compromising Israeli energy companies, healthcare networks, and payment infrastructure, plus critical infrastructure in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE.

The campaign extends to ideological subversion. A March 2026 briefing by the Simon Wiesenthal Center exposed how Iran uses “propaganda and disinformation to promote antisemitic narratives as part of an effort to undermine the West.”

For Israel and the U.S., facing an adversary that has spent half a century preparing for precisely this form of conflict, the battlefield of the mind may prove more challenging to defend than any physical border.

On April 8, 2026, an Israeli drone strike eliminated Muhammad Samir Muhammad Washah, a Hamas operative operating under the false identity of an Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent in Gaza. The IDF had previously documented extensive evidence establishing Washah’s role as a key commander in Hamas’ military infrastructure, including his involvement in rocket and weapons production, drone manufacturing, and planning attacks against Israeli forces.

Yet across mainstream media outlets and international organizations, his death was reported as that of a “journalist,” with coverage omitting his documented terrorist affiliation and operational role within Hamas’ military wing.

The sanitization of Washah’s identity began with Al Jazeera itself, which immediately issued a statement calling his death “a deliberate and targeted crime intended to intimidate journalists” and condemning the strike as an attack on press freedom. The network made no mention of the IDF’s documented evidence establishing Washah’s position as a Hamas weapons officer.

The IDF’s Public Evidence

Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s official spokesperson for Arab media, had publicly confirmed Washah’s Hamas affiliation on February 11, 2024, sharing detailed documentation from a seized laptop computer.

According to the IDF’s 2024 statement, documents recovered from Washah’s computer indicated that he was a ‘prominent commander’ in Hamas’ anti-tank missile unit and later worked in research and development for Hamas’ air unit. In a separate statement issued on April 9, 2026, the IDF said Washah had been involved in the production of drones, rockets, and other weapons, the transfer of arms through Gaza, and the planning of attacks on Israeli troops.

Social media photos showed Washah meeting with Hamas leadership including former leader Yahya Sinwar. Furthermore, posts from Washah's personal X account included photos praising Hamas' militarization of children and their terror activity in Gaza.

Press Freedom Organizations Obscure His Combatant Status

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international press freedom organization, issued a statement on April 8 that condemned "the killing of at least three journalists" in Lebanon and Gaza by Israel.

The CPJ statement identified Washah as "a correspondent for Qatari-based Al Jazeera Mubasher" whose car "was targeted by an Israeli drone attack in Gaza City." The organization made no mention of the IDF's public evidence establishing Washah's role as a Hamas military combatant involved in weapons production and military command operations.

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate similarly contextualized Washah's death as an attack on journalism and truth-telling, obscuring his terrorist combatant status. In a statement released April 8, the organization declared that the targeting of Washah constituted "an extrajudicial execution of journalism and truth" and characterized it as part of "a systematic campaign by the occupation to silence the Palestinian voice and target journalists."

International News Reporting Pattern

Drop Site News reported on Washah’s death via social media with the headline “BREAKING: Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Mohammed Samir Washah has been killed in Gaza following an Israeli drone strike on his car.” The outlet provided no context regarding the IDF’s public evidence of Washah’s Hamas military combatant status, command role, or weapons operations.

International news outlets such as Middle East Eye, Le Monde, TRT World, and Anadolu Agency all reported Washah's death as that of a killed journalist, systematically omitting any reference to the IDF's public evidence of his Hamas military combatant status and operational role in Hamas' armed infrastructure.

Al Jazeera’s framing was further amplified by social media influencers including Mario Nawfal. Jewish Onliner previously reported that Nawfal was among the top amplifiers of anti-Operation Epic Fury content on X and later changed his X location label from the UAE to North America

The Narrative Framework

The cumulative effect of this reporting created a false equivalency. By reporting Washah’s elimination exclusively through the lens of “journalist killed in conflict,” outlets enabled audiences to place his death into existing narratives about press freedom, civilian casualties, and international humanitarian law — narratives that fundamentally change when an individual holds combatant status through operational involvement in a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

In a coordinated information campaign that began immediately after the launch of Operation Epic Fury, Iranian embassy accounts across at least four countries have weaponized Epstein conspiracy theories to frame the U.S.-Israeli military operation as a calculated distraction from the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The effort represents a notable shift in Iranian state messaging — moving from traditional anti-American rhetoric to co-opting Western conspiracy narratives with explicitly antisemitic undertones.

Share

Operation Epic Fury, the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, launched on February 28, 2026. Within days, official Iranian diplomatic channels began circulating content suggesting the operation was designed to divert attention from the Epstein scandal.

Embassy Accounts Amplify “Epsteinian” Framing

Iranian embassy accounts in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, among others, have all deployed variations of the conspiracy theory, often using the hashtag #Epstein or coining terms like “Epsteinian” to link U.S. policy to the disgraced financier.

On March 16, Iran’s embassy in the UK posted: “#Epstein’s criminals are never satiated by children’s blood” — quote-tweeting Press TV footage of civilian casualties from U.S.-Israeli strikes. The post explicitly framed American military action as driven by the same figures implicated in Epstein’s network. Days later, the same account responded to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with: “Medieval rhetoric from a member of the Epstein class. It’s a shame for American society that someone like this has become their voice.”

Iran’s embassy in Zimbabwe characterized the military strikes using newly coined terminology: “The ‘Epsteinian’ logic of the unlawful attack on Iran: speaking of prosperity while pursuing destruction, bombing a nation toward the ‘Stone Age’ in acts tantamount to war crime and crime against humanity.”

The embassy in South Africa made the antisemitic subtext explicit, referring to “a cowardly assault by the Epstein gang (the criminal Zionist-American alliance)” in a post about a protester’s death during an International Quds Day rally. The parenthetical equation of “Epstein gang” with “Zionist-American alliance” directly links the conspiracy theory to antisemitic narratives about Jewish control of U.S. policy.

Iran's embassy in Sweden posted an image on April 3 with the text: "Iranian missiles advocate women's rights more than political claimants and feminist movements do." The accompanying photo showed a note reading "In revenge for Virginia Giuffre whose voice was silenced by Epstein's network" alongside an image of Giuffre, one of Epstein's most prominent accusers. The post garnered over 1 million views, demonstrating the conspiracy content's viral potential.

Broader Disinformation Ecosystem

The embassy messaging aligns with a wider pro-Iranian propaganda network that has found viral success by merging Epstein conspiracy content with opposition to Operation Epic Fury. The Washington Post documented in March that accounts pushing Tehran’s talking points circulated AI-generated deepfake videos purporting to show Trump with Epstein, accompanied by captions claiming: “These pedophile perverts started a war so that this wouldn’t be talked about.”

One such post from an account called HDX News was viewed more than 6.8 million times, demonstrating the conspiracy theory’s reach beyond official Iranian channels.

Antisemitic Undertones

While Iranian embassy posts avoid explicitly naming Jewish figures or institutions, the campaign’s structure follows familiar antisemitic conspiracy patterns: framing U.S. military action as controlled by hidden forces connected to sexual exploitation and suggesting American leaders act “at the behest” of outside influences. The repeated invocation of Epstein — whose crimes have been co-opted by antisemitic narratives linking powerful Jewish figures to global manipulation — serves as coded language within these networks.

Strategic Disinformation Deployment

The campaign reflects Iran’s adaptation of information warfare tactics. Rather than defending against U.S. military strikes through traditional diplomatic channels, Tehran’s embassies are attempting to delegitimize the operation by linking it to one of the most inflammatory conspiracy theories in contemporary Western discourse.

Disinformation researchers have identified Iran’s use of conspiracy theories and fake news as a longstanding tactic, but the Epstein campaign marks one of the most direct deployments by official diplomatic accounts on a Western social media platform.

As Operation Epic Fury continues, Iranian embassies show no signs of abandoning the messaging strategy — continuing to post content that blends geopolitical commentary with conspiratorial framing, demonstrating how state actors can weaponize Western disinformation ecosystems for strategic communication objectives.

Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two-decade rule, Turkey has transformed from a secular, Western-aligned democracy into a sanctuary for the Muslim Brotherhood’s most dangerous elements — including Hamas leaders, al-Qaeda operatives, and international terror financiers, according to a new report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). The shift represents one of the most significant geopolitical realignments in the modern Middle East, with Ankara now functioning as what the late Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi called “the capital of the Islamic caliphate.”

Share

The report documents how Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), rooted in the Brotherhood-aligned Milli Gorus movement, has systematically dismantled Turkey’s secular institutions since 2003. But the transformation accelerated dramatically after 2011, when Erdogan abandoned democratic pretenses and began aggressively backing Islamist governments and militias across the region — from Egypt’s short-lived Muslim Brotherhood regime to jihadist groups in Syria.

Hamas’s Turkish Safe Haven

Turkey now hosts between 15,000 and 30,000 Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members and relatives, along with senior Hamas operatives who relocated there after the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap. Among them: Jihad Yaghmour, Hamas’s representative to Turkey, who was convicted by Israel in 1994 for kidnapping and murdering an Israeli soldier. Released in the Shalit exchange, Yaghmour now operates an Istanbul-based NGO that hosts senior Hamas figures and serves as a conduit to Turkish intelligence services.

The financial infrastructure supporting Hamas on Turkish soil is vast. A 2023 New York Times investigation explored how Hamas exploits Turkey’s tax loopholes and uses Turkish front companies to preserve its financing network. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Turkish construction firm Trend GYO in 2022 for funneling proceeds to Hamas.

After Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacre, Erdogan hosted then-Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, with reports suggesting they discussed relocating Hamas’s political bureau from Qatar to Turkey.

Al-Qaeda Connections and Syrian Jihadists

Turkey’s extremist connections extend beyond Hamas. The country sheltered Mohammed Shawqi al-Islambouli, a co-leader of Gamaa Islamiya and longtime bin Laden associate whose brother assassinated Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat. Turkish authorities placed Islambouli under house arrest in 2016 — preventing extradition while allowing him to live comfortably in Istanbul.

Yemen’s Muslim Brotherhood chapter has also established deep roots in Turkey. The late Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, a U.S.-designated global terrorist who ran a university serving as a Taliban and al-Qaeda recruitment pipeline, resided in Turkey under state security protection until his 2024 death.

Share

In Syria, Turkey helped establish a covert operations center in 2012 to coordinate jihadist attacks on the Assad regime. Ankara’s border policies allowed militants, weapons, and supplies to flow freely. The U.S. Treasury later sanctioned two Turkish-backed Syrian militias in 2024 for abduction, torture, and sexual violence.

Policy Recommendations

FDD recommends the U.S. impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on Turkish officials involved in corruption and human rights violations, designate Turkish entities supporting the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, and classify Turkey’s financial sector as a jurisdiction of money laundering concern. The report also calls for returning Turkey to the Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list” for inadequate terrorism financing controls.

As Erdogan’s Brotherhood sponsorship becomes “a heavily institutionalized network radiating out from Ankara,” the FDD warns that Washington must not exempt Turkey from consequences for “harboring, funding, and defending terrorists.”

A major new report from the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has concluded that Russia, Iran, and China are running sophisticated, government-funded disinformation campaigns targeting Jewish communities, Israeli audiences, and democratic institutions across the Western world — and that Britain is dangerously underprepared to fight back.

The report, titled Disinformation Diplomacy: How Malign Actors Are Seeking to Undermine Democracy, was published on March 27, 2026. It draws on seven oral evidence sessions, 55 written submissions, and visits by committee members to countries including France, Belgium, the United States, Romania, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Germany.

Share

Russia Built a Hebrew-Language Disinformation Network

Russia’s Doppelgänger operation — the most documented state disinformation network in the world — operates in nine languages. One of them is Hebrew.

The network, which the report traces to Russian state-funded agencies including the Social Design Agency and Structura National Technologies, works by cloning the websites of trusted news outlets like The Guardian, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel, then publishing fabricated stories under those mastheads. These fake articles are designed to advance Kremlin narratives, undermine support for Ukraine, and sow division inside Western democracies.

Subscribe now

The fact that Hebrew is among the nine target languages is not incidental. It means Russian intelligence has assessed Jewish and Israeli audiences as a strategic target worth investing in — and has built an infrastructure specifically to reach them with manipulated content.

The network consists of more than 228 domains and 25,000 coordinated fake accounts. It has already been used to spread disinformation about the Princess of Wales’s cancer diagnosis, to interfere in German elections, and to generate thousands of fake articles claiming the UK and France were planning to supply nuclear weapons to Ukraine.

Iran Ran a Fake Scottish Independence Operation to Build Pro-Khamenei Audiences

The report includes one of the most remarkable domestic examples of Iranian influence operations seen in Britain. More than 1,300 X accounts presented themselves to British users as young, pro-Scottish independence activists. They had been viewed over 224 million times. Then, after the United States and Israel conducted joint strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, the accounts suddenly switched from posting Scottish independence content to endorsing Khamenei — before switching back.

The implication is significant. Iran was not simply spreading propaganda about the Middle East. It was building credible-seeming Western identities with loyal audiences that could be activated for pro-Iran, anti-Israel messaging at moments of crisis. X took action only after media reporting, including from Jewish Onliner, drew attention to the network.

Russian Disinformation Is Being Used to Smear Ukraine’s Jewish President

The report documents a sustained Russian campaign to portray Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, as secretly Nazi-aligned. Russian state media and affiliated networks have repeatedly circulated false claims that Zelenskyy purchased Hitler's tearoom, the Eagle's Nest in Bavaria, as well as other Nazi artefacts.

This is a deliberate strategy, according to the report. By associating Ukraine’s Jewish head of state with Nazism, Russia attempts to justify its invasion and hollow out Western sympathy for Ukraine. The committee notes this as one of the clearest examples of how disinformation exploits and corrupts history for geopolitical ends — in this case, using antisemitic tropes as a weapon against the very people they target.

Iran Has Been Spreading Holocaust Denial Across British Social Media

Evidence submitted by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate confirmed that Iranian state-controlled outlet Press TV has been spreading content that includes outright Holocaust denial, attacks on minority rights, and what the report calls “hateful conspiracy theories involving Jewish people.”

Although Iran’s broadcast licence was revoked in the UK years ago, Press TV continues operating freely across social media. The Antisemitism Policy Trust submitted formal evidence to the inquiry flagging this specific threat. The committee concluded that banning a state propaganda outlet from the airwaves means little when its content lives on unchecked across platforms like X, YouTube, and Facebook.

The committee explains that Iran views disinformation as a central pillar of what it calls its “Forward Defence” strategy, aimed at projecting pressure beyond its borders. The late Supreme Leader Khamenei personally directed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and state media to conduct psychological warfare against Iran’s “ideological enemies” — a category that explicitly and repeatedly includes Israel and Jewish communities worldwide.

British Law Is Not Equipped to Deal With These Threats

The committee is direct about the inadequacy of existing UK legislation. The Online Safety Act 2023 has no specific provisions against disinformation unless it crosses into directly illegal content. Social media platforms are allowed to set their own moderation standards at whatever level they choose, and can lower or change those standards at any time without consequence.

The foreign interference offence in the National Security Act 2023 is described by the committee as “unworkable in practice” because prosecuting it requires proving that content was posted at the behest of a foreign government — a near-impossible standard given how deliberately these operations are concealed. The chief executive of Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, told the committee that the legal threshold for requiring platforms to act was, as a result, extremely high.

The committee is calling for an urgent government review of both pieces of legislation, mandatory algorithmic transparency from social media companies, and the creation of a new National Counter Disinformation Centre modelled on France’s VIGINUM and Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency.

The Bigger Picture

The report paints a picture of a coordinated, well-funded assault on democratic norms, with Jewish communities and Israel among the identified targets. Russia alone plans to spend approximately 1.5 billion euros on state propaganda this year. Iran, for its part, built a global disinformation infrastructure that operated across dozens of countries. China’s Spamouflage network generates hundreds of posts daily across multiple platforms.

Against this, the British government’s response is fragmented across seven departments with no single body in charge. The BBC World Service, which reaches 13.5 million Iranians and nearly 5 million Russians despite active blocking in both countries, is being underfunded at precisely the moment it matters most.

For Jewish communities watching the online environment grow darker and more hostile, this report is important reading, and ostensibly confirms what many have long suspected: These are not random trolls or fringe activists. They are governments, with budgets and strategies and country-specific plans, targeting Jewish audiences with content designed to manipulate, divide, and deceive.

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series examining organizations in the United States named in the infamous 1991 Muslim Brotherhood Explanatory Memorandum, outlining a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” to destroy Western civilization from within. With renewed U.S. government focus on Brotherhood networks and recent congressional scrutiny, this series investigates the documented connections between these groups and their historical advancement of Brotherhood strategic objectives in America.

The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), listed as organization #4 in the Muslim Brotherhood’s 1991 “Explanatory Memorandum,” has successfully rebranded itself as the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS) and cultivated partnerships with America’s most prestigious universities.

Several AMSS founders or close associates later held roles in the SAAR/IIIT network, which federal investigators searched in 2002 as part of a terrorism-financing probe. Despite this, the organization has co-sponsored academic conferences at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Georgetown.

The 2013 name change came years after the Holy Land Foundation trial exposed the Muslim Brotherhood’s American network and made public the 1991 memo describing the Brotherhood’s work as “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.” AMSS was explicitly listed among 29 “organizations of our friends” working toward this objective.

Share

Today, NAAIMS presents itself as an independent academic organization promoting “reflective and analytical studies about Islam and Muslim societies.” Its 2024 conference, co-sponsored by Michigan State University, focused on “Palestine, Israel, and Questions of Free Speech and Inter-religious Relations”—featuring panels on topics including “Palestine Solidarity and Islamophobia” and “Religious Responses and the Question of Genocide.”

Yet the organization’s documented history reveals founders with alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood’s American infrastructure, several of whom held leadership positions in the SAAR Foundation network—raided by the FBI in March 2002 on allegations of facilitating terrorism financing.

The Founding: Alleged Muslim Brotherhood Academics Establish AMSS

AMSS was founded in 1972 by Temple University professor Ismail Raji al-Faruqi and University of Pennsylvania graduate student Abdulhamid AbuSulayman. Both men would go on to co-found the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981—another organization listed in the 1991 Brotherhood memorandum and described in academic studies as central to the Brotherhood’s American operations.

According to multiple sources, the idea for IIIT emerged at a 1977 Islamic conference in Lugano, Switzerland, sponsored by AMSS. The conference was reportedly held at the house of Youssef Nada—a prominent Muslim Brotherhood member whom the U.S. Treasury Department designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2001.

AbuSulayman, who died in 2021, served as Secretary General of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) from 1973 to 1979—an organization that Congressional testimony linked to terrorism support networks.

The “Iraqi Kurd Trio”: AMSS’s Strongest Backers

Supporting AMSS’s founding were three Iraqi-born Muslim Brotherhood members: Jamal Barzinji, Ahmad Totonji, and Hisham al-Talib. All three had arrived in the United States via engineering studies in the United Kingdom and would play founding roles in virtually every major alleged Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization in America.

Jamal Barzinji (1939-2015) exemplified the overlapping leadership structure that connected AMSS to the broader Brotherhood network. The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences—co-published by AMSS and IIIT—proudly identified Barzinji as “one of its strongest supporters.”

Beyond his AMSS involvement, Barzinji was a founding member of the Muslim Students Association (1963), served as MSA president (1972), became the founding general manager of the North American Islamic Trust (1973), and sat on ISNA’s governing board.

Most significantly for understanding AMSS’s origins, FBI documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request listed Barzinji among “members and leaders of the IKHWAN”—the Arabic term for Muslim Brotherhood. When Barzinji died in 2015, Islamic media outlets openly described him as a “founding father of the US Muslim Brotherhood.”

In 1983, Barzinji served on the initial board of trustees of the SAAR Foundation in Herndon, Virginia, alongside fellow AMSS co-founder Abdulhamid AbuSulayman and supporters Totonji and al-Talib. Federal investigators would later allege that SAAR was a network of approximately 100 organizations “interrelated through corporate officers...to facilitate the funding of terrorist operations” with alleged ties to Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and al-Qaeda. All four AMSS figures held leadership positions across multiple SAAR entities.

March 2002: The FBI Raids Target AMSS Founders’ Network

On March 20, 2002, federal agents raided 14 homes and offices in Northern Virginia, including 555 Grove Street in Herndon—the headquarters of IIIT, the think tank co-founded by AMSS founders al-Faruqi and AbuSulayman. The raids targeted what investigators called the SAAR Network, examining potential terrorism financing connections involving the same individuals who had established AMSS three decades earlier.

An FBI affidavit stated that the network consisted of “interrelated” nonprofit and for-profit organizations operating through shared leadership to potentially facilitate funding for terrorist operations. The document specifically named AMSS’s key supporter Barzinji as holding director positions in multiple SAAR entities, including IIIT, Safa Trust, and Mar-Jac Poultry.

While no criminal charges resulted from the 2002 raids, the investigation revealed that AMSS’s founders and primary supporters—the men who had established the organization as an academic association in 1972—were simultaneously operating a complex web of organizations under federal scrutiny for potential terrorism financing.

Alleged Ties with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)

Allegations of ties between AMSS’s founding circle and PIJ emerged from the prosecution of Sami al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor convicted in 2006 of conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

A November 6, 1992 letter from Taha Jabir al-Alwani, president of IIIT, the think tank co-founded by AMSS founders, to al-Arian was entered as trial evidence. In it, al-Alwani explicitly stated that he and his colleagues considered themselves “indistinguishable” from al-Arian, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah (who would become Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad), and other PIJ founders.

Crucially, al-Alwani named all the key AMSS figures in his statement of solidarity with PIJ operatives: “I would like to affirm these feelings to you directly on my behalf, and on the behalf of all my brothers, Drs. Abdel-Hamid [AbuSulayman], Jamal [Barzinji], Ahmad [Totonji], and Hisham [Al-Talib]“—the very men who had founded or supported AMSS and continued to shape its direction.

The letter also discussed a $45,000-50,000 payment from the SAFA Group (another name for the SAAR Network) to al-Arian’s organizations, stating: “when we make a commitment to you, or we try to offer, we do it for you as a group, regardless of the party or the facade you use the donation for.”

The al-Arian case placed parts of the IIIT/SAAR orbit under additional scrutiny and raised questions about overlaps between some of those figures and al-Arian’s organizations

AMSS Founders’ Alleged Terror Ties

AMSS supporter Barzinji, as founding general manager of NAIT, established the financial infrastructure for hundreds of mosques, some of which were alleged to have links to terror activity.

Two 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, had close ties with members of the NAIT-funded Islamic Center of San Diego, according to Newsweek reporting. In 2001, al-Hazmi visited the NAIT-affiliated Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, during the period when Anwar al-Awlaki—who later became a top al-Qaeda operative, served as imam.

Treasury Department records alleged that Dar al-Hijrah “operates as a front for Hamas operatives in U.S.” and “is associated with Islamic extremists.” The mosque also hosted other convicted terrorists, including Ahmed Omar Abu Ali and Abdurahman Alamoudi.

The 2013 Rebrand: From AMSS to NAAIMS

In 2013, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists formally changed its name to the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies. The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved the change on April 17, 2013.

The organization’s official explanation emphasized expansion: “Although the former name AMSS highlighted only the social sciences and Muslim scholars, the topics and themes examined in its conferences and lectures went beyond the social sciences, and its membership, conference participants, and board of directors included non-Muslims.”

The timing is notable. The Holy Land Foundation trial concluded in 2008 with guilty verdicts on 108 counts. The trial’s evidence, including the 1991 Explanatory Memorandum listing AMSS, became public record. Five years later, AMSS adopted a new name that eliminated the explicit reference to “Muslim Social Scientists” that appeared in the Brotherhood document.

The rebrand allowed the organization to distance itself from its alleged Muslim Brotherhood origins while maintaining the same leadership structure, mission, and operational approach. As NAAIMS, the organization could present itself as a purely academic association rather than an advocacy group founded by Muslim Brotherhood members under investigation for terrorism financing.

The Academic Legitimacy Strategy

NAAIMS states that AMSS “created a unique niche in academia” through events “cosponsored solely by universities,” which it describes as “unrivaled by other Muslim organizations.” According to the organization’s introduction page, its annual conferences since 2000 were cosponsored or hosted by institutions including Georgetown University, Indiana University, Temple University, the University of Maryland, Harvard Divinity School, the University of Virginia, Yale Divinity School, and Princeton University.

Controversial Speakers and Conferences

NAAIMS’s 33rd annual conference in September 2004 featured Tariq Ramadan as keynote speaker, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna. The U.S. State Department revoked his visa that same year, preventing him from taking a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame.

A December 2006 conference at the Brookings Institution, co-sponsored by AMSS and the Institute for Social Policy, focused on defining “Islamophobia.” The event featured Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations)—an organization also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial. Awad claimed hate crimes against Muslims had risen 29 percent and argued that Islamophobia was a new word but not a new phenomenon.

Another featured speaker, Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society, blamed “Westerners’ overriding ignorance about Islamic tenets” for Islamophobia and claimed U.S. government anti-terror efforts had “undermined the civil rights of Muslims nationwide.” The conference framed concerns about terrorism as primarily an issue of Western prejudice rather than legitimate security concerns stemming from documented terror financing networks—networks in which AMSS founders themselves had been implicated.

At AMSS’s Canadian Regional Conference in November 2007, keynote speaker Regina Lewis of the London College of Fashion defended the niqab (face veil), questioning whether requiring its removal “hampers communication” more than having a blind politician. Board member Jasmin Zine stated: “Following the tragic events of 9/11, Muslim identities and the religion of Islam have been under siege.”

2024: The Palestine Conference

NAAIMS’s 53rd annual conference in October 2024, co-sponsored by Michigan State University’s Muslim Studies Program, focused on “Palestine, Israel, and Questions of Free Speech and Inter-religious Relations.”

The conference call for papers invited submissions on topics including:

• “Palestine Solidarity and Islamophobia”

• “Religious Responses and the Question of Genocide”

• “Gaza and the Limits of Inter-religious Relations”

• “Palestine, Israel, Islamophobia, and Antisemitism”

• “Use and Abuse of Scripture in War (in relation to Palestine and Israel)”

The conference background statement noted that following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks, “the Israeli government launched a devastating bombardment on Gaza” and described “heated protests and debates about the limits of free speech and the line between justifiable criticisms and bigotry.”

The conference background statement referenced the October 7 Hamas-led attacks, but it did not describe them as terrorism or cite the widely reported figures of about 1,200 people killed in Israel and 251 hostages taken.

NAAIMS president Mohammad Hassan Khalil, who also directs Michigan State’s Muslim Studies Program, chaired the conference program.

The Legitimacy Questions

The transformation from AMSS to NAAIMS represents a case study in organizational rebranding and legitimacy-building. By emphasizing academic conferences, peer-reviewed publications, and university partnerships, the organization has successfully repositioned itself as a scholarly association rather than an advocacy group with alleged Muslim Brotherhood origins.

A 2007 analysis by defense analyst Stephen Coughlin, written as the Explanatory Memorandum was entered into evidence at the Holy Land Foundation trial, specifically identified AMSS among the organizations listed in the Brotherhood memo’s Attachment 1. Coughlin noted that “outreach strategies must be adjusted in the face of credible information that seeming Islamic humanitarian or professional non-governmental organizations may be part of the global jihad.”