Counterterrorism Blog

As Jeffrey Imm points out, Audrey Hudson of the Washington Times has reported that "[t]he Justice Department is co-sponsoring a convention held by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) -- an unindicted co-conspirator in an ongoing federal terrorist funding case." Unfortunately, this article overstates the DOJ's involvement in the ISNA conference and offers objections to DOJ participation that seem inaccurate.

Both the headline and opening paragraph of the article state that the Justice Department is co-sponsoring the 2007 ISNA convention, which begins on Aug. 31. I spoke with a senior DOJ official who informs me that this is inaccurate. The Justice Department will in fact have a booth at the convention, but is not a co-sponsor. There will be about 500 booths at the bazaar-style event, including military recruiters, the FBI, and others who want to reach the Muslim community. The DOJ's civil rights division and community relations service attended the ISNA convention in years past, and are doing so again this year -- but are not in fact a "co-sponsor," as the Times suggests.

The article goes on to assert that "Justice lawyers have objected to the affiliation with ISNA, fearing it will undermine the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Dallas." The DOJ official with whom I spoke reports that the national security division was in fact consulted before arrangements for the booth were made: "This was cleared with the national security division to make sure nothing would interfere with an ongoing prosecution. They were fully supportive of this." He believes that the source who voiced this concern to the Washington Times was not a prosecutor, but rather someone in the voting rights section who is functioning as an "armchair prosecutor." He says that "the benefits and the concerns" were carefully considered before DOJ decided to get a booth at the convention. The consultation with the national security division coupled with the lack of a scenario in the Washington Times for any actual interference with the prosecution makes me dubious of the claim that the HLF prosecution might be harmed.

But even so, why attend the ISNA convention -- given that ISNA has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in an ongoing terrorist financing prosecution? The official I spoke with emphasized ISNA's role as an "umbrella organization" that encompasses a large number of mosques and other Islamic organizations. There will be 30,000 attendees at the convention, including the kind of moderates whom the DOJ wants to reach. I know this for a fact, as several moderate publications that I have praised in the past (also in the pages of the Washington Times, as it turns out) are making a point of attending. The official told me: "For us not to deal with a convention where you'll have more than 30,000 civically engaged American Muslims is a lost opportunity to reach out to these communities and fight radicalization. . . . It's the largest gathering of American Muslims every year. There's nothing close. The ISNA convention has become the annual gathering of groups and individuals from around the country. It's the big tent event of the year for the American Muslim community."

Past mistakes have been made in Muslim outreach. The government has reached out to Islamic organizations and individuals that it should have avoided. And I am certain that similar mistakes will be made in the future. But the present attacks against DOJ's attendance of ISNA's convention are based on a factual premise that is simply inaccurate, overstate the dangers of attendance, and do not fairly represent the DOJ's reasons for attending.