Two Islamist organizations have embarked on a campaign to recruit and install the next generation of Muslim bureaucrats and policymakers into positions of influence in the United States. The recruiting base for this initiative is self-defined “anti-genocide protesters,” who have faced disciplinary actions for protesting American support for Israel.
[R]eplace the people in power.
Faizan Syed
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and A Continuous Charity (ACC), a Texas-based charity that helps young Muslims cover the cost of attending college, jointly established the “Educational Pursuit Fund.” Seventy percent of all donations go towards providing interest-free educational loans. Thirty percent goes to support students who had financial difficulties or lost scholarships due to their “advocacy” for Palestine. Specifically, to help students who lost scholarships because of their involvement in anti-Israel protests or activism.
Their goal is to encourage such students to pursue careers as lawyers and bureaucrats in state and federal governments. Faizan Syed, director at ACC and executive director of CAIR’s Texas chapter, is quite explicit in describing the intentions of the fund.
“We can use that money to invest in our students and our kids, who are going to become the changemakers of tomorrow,” he said. “To train those Muslims of our community and our background, who are going to go into these fields, go into these positions of power and break the hold that Zionists hold on this country. It is a systematic approach. It is a long-term approach. But once it has been started there is no way to stop it.”
Syed repeatedly emphasized the campaign’s goal: “Let’s get our kids in political science, government, media, journalism, and other fields, and over time replace the people in power. Replace the people in the news. Replace the people at universities. That is my intention. That is the goal that we are gonna take.”
Coincides With Campus Tensions
The fund’s establishment coincides with CAIR’s attempt to portray Islamists and their allies on the left as victims of targeted harassment on college campuses, even as Jews were forced into hiding by angry protesters at colleges and universities throughout the country in the aftermath of October 7. While reports show a 700 percent increase in antisemitic incidents against students in North America, CAIR alleges universities have created “a thoroughly hostile and dangerous environment for anti-genocide students, faculty, and staff, especially Muslim and Palestinian community members.”
CAIR has designated three universities: Emory University, George Washington University, and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)—as “institutions of particular concern.”
The designations are fitting, given that the organization’s founder, Nihad Awad, once met with Hamas leaders in a hotel room in Philadelphia to discuss how to legitimize their organization’s anti-Israel agenda in American society.
Influencing U.S. Policy
The fund is also aimed at students in law and government education with the explicit goal of influencing U.S. Gaza policy. In an ACC video, Adward Ahmed, national deputy director of CAIR, said “It is so important that we empower the next generation to make positive change in the law, in the government, so we don’t see things like the Gaza genocide or other injustices happen again.”
CAIR recently concluded its 18th annual Muslim Youth Leadership Program (MYLP) at the state capitol in Sacramento. The four-day intensive program brought together school students who are “aspiring leaders participat[ing] in workshops on community organizing, leadership development, and public speaking, gaining essential skills and knowledge to prepare them for future roles in government, law, and media.”
ACC Personnel
While the ACC is not as well-known in counter-Islamist circles, the organization does have some troubling connections to the movement, with its personnel including Shaykh Yaser Birjas, ACC’s religious counsel. On Instagram, Birjas promoted an anti-LGBTQ statement he signed which declared that “It is impermissible for Muslims to take pride in identifying with labels that categorize them by their sins.” In 2015, the organization posted a status on Facebook that legitimized the imposition of Islamic prohibitions on Jews as a consequence of their “transgressions and injustices.”
In 2015, Abdullah Syed, ACC’s executive director, promoted an article on Facebook that declared, “The U.S. must accept that Israel wants Apartheid, not Peace.”
Omar Suleiman, also on ACC’s council, socializes with Islamists such as Zakir Naik who are open supporters of Jihad and others who appear to sanction marital rape.
Implications for the U.S.
By empowering students to pursue careers that can directly impact policy, the fund is explicitly presented as a long-term strategy to shift U.S. policy in a direction that aligns with CAIR’s and ACC’s views.
Educational support should not be used as a tool to advance specific ideological agendas, particularly those that may conflict with broader American values or foreign policy objectives. The EPF is a vehicle for advancing a specific Islamist agenda under the guise of educational support.
While the initiative by CAIR and ACC is presented as a means of supporting student activism and education, its underlying motivations for U.S policy and societal values warrant further scrutiny.
Anna Stanley is a research associate for the Middle East Forum.