Extremist Networks in Plain Sight: The $315 Million Islamist Infrastructure Operating Across Texas
A new Middle East Forum report alleges taxpayer-funded programs celebrated convicted terrorists, financed Hamas-linked charities, and featured children pledging loyalty to Iran’s Supreme Leader
A new investigation by the Middle East Forum has unveiled a sprawling network of Islamist organizations operating throughout Texas, controlling nearly two-thirds of the state’s Islamic nonprofit assets while receiving over $14 million in state funding—much of it taxpayer money funneled through federal grants. Out of approximately 650 Islamic nonprofit organizations operating in Texas, roughly one-quarter reveal “some degree of Islamist influence or control,” according to the report.
The network spans seven major ideological movements: Qutbists, including Muslim Brotherhood branches, Hamas, and their offshoots; South Asian Deobandis linked to the Taliban; increasingly radicalized Barelvis; modernist Salafis operating major seminaries; Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami network coordinating with regime operatives; Iranian Khomeinists whose imams are appointed directly by Tehran’s Supreme Leader; and Turkish Islamists controlled by Erdoğan’s government.
These organizations annually report $412 million in revenue, $315 million in assets, and $200 million in overseas expenditures—figures the report suggests represent “significant under-reporting” due to church filing exemptions and assets owned by out-of-state organizations.
From Terror Convictions to Celebrity Status
The report’s most disturbing revelations center on North Texas, where a new generation of organizations has emerged from the shadow of the Holy Land Foundation—the Dallas-area charity whose 2008 prosecution exposed a massive Hamas financing operation.
In 2024, the Muslim American Society in Dallas hosted an event featuring Abdulrahman Odeh, one of the five convicted Holy Land Foundation terror financiers. Attending the celebration were Khalil Meek and Mustafaa Carroll, leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ DFW branch—recently designated by Governor Abbott’s office due to founding officials’ ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The New Face of Terror Finance
Replacing the shuttered Holy Land Foundation is Baitulmaal, an Irving-based charity led by Mazen Mokhtar, identified as a “former alleged fundraiser for the Taliban and other jihadist groups.” The organization works closely with Hamas proxies in Gaza, including the Unlimited Friends Association, which has vowed to “free Al-Aqsa Al-Sharif from the filth of the most dirty Jews.”
United Hands Relief, Baitulmaal’s sister organization, maintains convicted terror financier Hatem Fariz as its treasurer while openly funding alleged Hamas-linked charities.
Radicalizing the Next Generation
Perhaps most alarming is the Islamist infiltration of educational institutions shaping young minds across Texas. The Foundation to Advance Islamic Teaching operates several Houston-area schools, founded by Hamdy Radwan, who has explicitly stated that Hamas consists not of terrorists but “freedom fighters.”
At Houston’s Iman Academy, principal Musa Sadek shared Hamas propaganda on the day of the October 7 attacks “documenting the presence of resistance fighters inside the occupied interior after they stormed the settlements,” alongside openly antisemitic material on social media.
Where Extremism Gets Trained
The Qalam Institute in Carrollton stands as “one of the most important Deobandi training institutions in America,” representing a Taliban-linked theological movement. The institute’s leaders have advocated for killing apostates, taking sex slaves, and referring to American society as “filth.” The seminary has trained hundreds of imams now teaching at radical institutions across America.
Meanwhile, prominent Salafi imams Omar Suleiman and Yasir Qadhi operate major Dallas-area mosques. Suleiman has called for a third intifada and expressed support for convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui. Qadhi has advanced Holocaust denial ideas and openly expressed hatred for Jews.
Ankara’s American Ambitions
Turkey’s regime extends its reach into Texas through the Diyanet, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, which Western governments have reported using for espionage, political propaganda, and intimidation of regime dissidents worldwide. The Turkish government directly controls and funds three mosques in Texas: Dallas Diyanet Mosque, Diyanet Houston Camii, and Austin Diyanet Mosque.
The network’s founder, Yusuf Ziya Kavakçi—whose daughters are senior Turkish AKP operatives—has urged the “Islamization of America,” saying, “there’s only one thing America needs, and that’s Islam.”
According to the report, Turkish regime-linked Islamists have also established schools like Good Tree Academy, the Islamic Association of North Texas with its Dallas Central Mosque—once named in a counterterrorism journal as “one of the most active centers of Hamas activity in the United States”—and even a sharia court, the Islamic Tribunal in Dallas. These institutions have operated in close coordination with alleged Muslim Brotherhood-founded organizations.
Tehran’s Texas Footprint
The report details how the Iranian regime allegedly operates through Houston’s Islamic Education Center, where the imam is reportedly “appointed directly by the office of [Iran’s] Supreme Leader.” In 2022, children at the mosque performed a song pledging allegiance to Ayatollah Khamenei with lyrics declaring “In spite of my age, I will be your army’s commander...May my father and mother be sacrificed for you.”
The Islamic Education Center received almost $1 million in coronavirus relief funds from the Texas state government.
Taxpayers Funding Extremism
The most galling aspect: Texas taxpayers are bankrolling this infrastructure. Over $14.4 million in state-distributed grants has flowed to Islamist-controlled organizations, with Qutbist groups (Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and offshoots) receiving over $12 million alone.
The Qalam Education Fund—whose founders defended sex slavery, the killing of apostates, and described American society as “filth”—has received over $72,000 in public funding. The city of Plano has given $219,000 since 2016 to the East Plano Islamic Center, despite its imam’s well-publicized radical activities.
As the report concludes, these documented links between alleged terror affiliates, extremist ideology, and publicly funded institutions are likely to intensify scrutiny of oversight and accountability—questions Texas officials and relevant agencies will be pressed to answer.
Good old Richardson, TX.