Exposing A Radical Jihad Training Network in America: an Interview with Ryan Mauro of The Clarion Project

by Jerry Gordon (February 2015)

Were there any connections between the shadowy Sheik Gilani and the murder of Pearl? Pakistani authorities had Gilani jailed and later put under house arrest. Given the turmoil in that country, we may never know the extent of his involvement, if any.

JF seeks to “purify Islam through violence.”

The extremist anti-Semitic views if Sheik Gilani of JF were the subject of a February 2014 Counter Jihad Report  by Clarion Project national security analyst, Ryan Mauro, “Muslims of America say that “Hitler was no enemy of the US”:

The November 8 article by Sheikh Gilani repeats his normal anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks and Pearl Harbor, but this time he goes so far as to imply moral equivalence between Hitler and Holocaust victims.

“There was no need for America to go to war against Hitler. Hitler was not the enemy of America or the American people. There was a mutual animosity between Hitler and the Jews. So, the American people paid a very heavy price for fighting someone else’s war,” Gilani writes.

He then states that Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated as pretexts for the U.S. to attack other countries.

In one MOA video, it is taught that Allah punishes the Jews for being “stubborn and arrogant,” that a Zionist “hidden hand” had “manufactured the crisis at Pearl Harbor in order to get America to go to war” and Israel was “directly involved” in the 9/11 attacks so it could hijack the U.S. government.

Gilani bizarrely accuses British Intelligence of being the creators of Saudi Wahhabism and Salafist ISIS. He offers up JF as the so-called “moderate” solution.

What is of great concern is that federal and state law enforcement authorities have investigated and monitored JF and its front group (MOA) and delisted the group as a terrorist organization. Nor has the IRS taken away MOA’s charitable tax exempt status.

Look at this response by the State Department to a question about why JF was taken off the official terrorist list.

Question: The group headed by Sheik Gilani used to be designated by the State Department as a terrorist group but it was taken off the list. Why?

Mauro in 2014 reported:

A 2007 FBI file obtained by the Clarion Project this year and a wealth of documentation shows that Jamaat ul-Fuqra/MOA qualifies as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The Clarion Project identified one of its enclaves in Texas earlier this year, prompting a dozen North American Muslim groups to [request] the U.S. government to label it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

reported: “when Muslim prisoners are released they are persuaded to make immediate contact with Islamic communities and mosques on the outside, where they can continue their Islamic jihad training … These training camps have been identified as Muslims of the Americas (MOA) compounds….”  

Watch Ryan Mauro discussing Jamaat ul-Fuqra and other American Islamist groups on the O’Reilly Factor here.

Against this background we interviewed Ryan Mauro, Counterterrorism Fellow at the Clarion Project and frequent contributor on radio and cable TV news program. He is a member of the Advisory Board of The Lisa Benson Show.

 

Jerry Gordon:  Ryan Mauro thank you for consenting to this interview.

 

 

 

 

Ryan Mauro:   Thank you for inviting me.

 

 

 

Gordon:  What are the connections between Jamaat al Fuqra (JF), a sect led by shadowy Pakistani Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, Muslims of the Americas (MOA) and a network of nearly two dozen Islamist paramilitary camps in the US?

Islamberg in Hancock, New York. Most members of Muslims of the Americas will deny that Jamaat ul-Fuqra even exists to begin with as Sheikh Gilani also denies it. It is very possible that his brainwashed followers don’t understand or know that Jamaat ul-Fuqra exists and does have a connection to them but it doesn’t make much of a difference. The bottom line here is that you have this network in America that is devoutly committed to a radical cleric in Pakistan.

Gordon:  When did JF/MOA first come on the scene in the US and what terrorist and criminal activities has the group been involved with that brought it to FBI attention?

Gordon:  JF was once listed as a designated foreign terrorist organization by our State Department. Why was the designation lifted?

Gordon:  What evidence have you encountered that JF/ MOA–sponsored “villages” have been engaged in paramilitary training?        

videotape showing it actually happening in Islamberg. We can prove the intention behind setting up these villages and then we can show that intention being realized.

Gordon:  What in your experience have been the responses of state and local law enforcement regarding investigation of complaints about JF/MOA para-military camps in their vicinities?

Gordon:  JF/MOA has obtained recruits for its villages from prison converts to Islam. How significant is the Muslim population in US prisons?

reports that Muslim Brotherhood texts and Saudi sponsored texts have made their way into the prison system. We know that Wahhabist organizations have printed literature for distribution in the American prison system. They are taking advantage of a perfect situation for radicalization for winning converts to their specific brand of Islam and Jamaat ul-Fuqra is no exception to that. We know that they recruit from the prison system that they recruit from gang members. What they say to these individuals is that we can keep you from a life of crime by isolating you from the evil American society, raise a family that is not corrupted by American sin, by the satanic Zionist conspiracy. They isolate them so that this radicalization process can really take hold in these communities, but at the same time there is also a financial benefit here because if you recruit criminals and they engage in selling counterfeit items or other fraudulent activities that can raise a lot of money.

Gordon:  What is the connection between Muslim Brotherhood front Group ISNA and the appointment of Muslim prison chaplains, some engaged in Islamist activities inside prisons?

infiltration right from the beginning.

Gordon:  There are legislative proposals to ban the JF/MOA para-military camps. What progress have they made at both the state and federal levels?

Mauro:  We have seen efforts by Members of Congress to have the Iranian Revolutionary Guards labeled as a foreign terrorist organization so that Congress can take action. There is precedent here. The Clarion Project has been talking to staffs of future presidential candidates and members of Congress about these JF/MOA paramilitary camps. We received a lot of attention last year when we exposed one of these camps in Texas and Congressman Louie Gohmert said it was “appalling.” We have been talking to other members of Congress about how we go about hand we might handle this problem.

Gordon:  Thank you for this engrossing and timely article about the threat of the radical Jamaat ul-Fuqra Muslim of America para-military Islamic villages.

Mauro:  Thank you for the opportunity.

 

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