Cruz sounds alarm on Muslim Brotherhood network as Democrats boycott hearing

Cruz said the post-Oct. 7 encampments reflected years of organized activism rather than spontaneous protest and accused CAIR-linked groups of providing legal and strategic support to campus organizers.

By Corey Walker, The Algemeiner

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) used a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday to argue that the United States has failed to confront what he and three witnesses described as an enduring Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure inside the country.

The hearing, titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America,” reflected a broader Republican push to revisit questions about domestic organizations accused of supporting or advancing Hamas’ agenda following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks against Israel.

Cruz was the only senator present; all five Democratic members boycotted the proceeding, and no other Republicans attended.

“The American people should ask themselves why not a single member of the minority decided that a hearing on terrorism was worth their time,” Cruz said.

The witnesses were retired FBI Special Agent Lara Burns, who led the Holy Land Foundation investigation from 2001 to 2008; Arielle F. Klepach, senior litigation counsel at the National Jewish Advocacy Center; and Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy.

They argued that the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy has evolved beyond terrorism financing into building influence through advocacy groups, educational initiatives, litigation, political activism, and nonprofit institutions.

Much of the hearing centered on the 2008 Holy Land Foundation prosecution, in which the Texas-based charity and five officials were convicted of providing material support to Hamas.

Burns testified that evidence collected during the investigation revealed what she described as a long-term infrastructure supporting Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

“The history of this network is not in question,” Burns said. “It was made public decades ago, but few paid attention.”

Cruz and the witnesses repeatedly focused on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which federal prosecutors named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case.

Burns testified that CAIR’s founders attended a secretly recorded 1993 Philadelphia meeting of Hamas supporters.

CAIR has drawn scrutiny over alleged historical ties to Hamas-linked organizations. In 2009, US District Judge Jorge Solis said the government had presented “ample evidence” establishing CAIR’s association with the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and Hamas.

However, CAIR was never charged, and Solis also ruled that the government violated its due-process rights by publicly filing the unindicted co-conspirator list.

CAIR has consistently denied supporting Hamas or acting on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood and says it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism,” including those carried out by Hamas.

Klepach argued that organizations associated with the Brotherhood have reorganized under new corporate structures following legal setbacks. She urged Congress to close what she called a “successor organization loophole.”

She cited litigation stemming from the 1996 murder of 17-year-old David Boim by Hamas terrorists in Israel.

Boim’s parents sued several US nonprofit organizations and secured a $156 million judgment under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The organizations then shut down, leaving the family largely unable to collect. Less than a year after the 2004 judgment, American Muslims for Palestine was formed; the Boims have alleged in continuing litigation that it is a successor to one of the judgment debtors.

“An entity found liable for material support should not escape by renaming itself, forcing both terror victims and the courts to play whack-a-mole for decades before achieving accountability,” Klepach said.

The witnesses also argued that rhetoric portraying Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement has increasingly entered mainstream political activism, particularly on college campuses since Oct. 7.

Cruz said the post-Oct. 7 encampments reflected years of organized activism rather than spontaneous protest and accused CAIR-linked groups of providing legal and strategic support to campus organizers.

Shideler testified that Brotherhood-linked organizations operate on “nearly every college campus” and have sometimes recruited young American Muslims who later committed terrorist violence.

The hearing also intersected with electoral politics. Cruz questioned witnesses about Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, citing family relationships and organizational associations that he said warranted scrutiny.

No evidence was presented that El-Sayed himself engaged in criminal conduct or provided material support to terrorism.

Cruz also cited El-Sayed’s response to the March attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and leaked campaign calls in which El-Sayed described his public response as a “risk” and said he wanted to avoid commenting on the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad.”

The Democratic members — Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Alex Padilla, and Peter Welch — accused Cruz of attempting to “scapegoat” Muslims.

“Democrats have no intention of indulging this political creepshow, particularly after the recent violence targeting places of faith,” they said.

Blumenthal said the hearing “could well be used as an anti-Muslim, Islamophobia kind of show trial.”

The witnesses urged the Trump administration to reopen investigations into organizations they believe remain connected to Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood and called for additional sanctions, IRS scrutiny of nonprofits, and more aggressive enforcement of material-support statutes.