The Muslim American Society (MAS) is an Islamic activist group with at least 40 chapters and organizing centers across the United States. MAS works to increase the influence of Muslim populations on their local communities through service projects, youth programs, political mobilization, and collaboration with other religious organizations. The group was founded in 1993 and claims to serve more than 20,000 Muslims a week through prayer and Quran study groups, workshops and seminars, and other activities in “thousands of communities across the United States.” The MAS also claims that its work benefits “the greater society by imparting Islamic knowledge.” ¹

MAS says that their chapters elect their own presidents and MAS’s Board of Trustees and Executive Council “enact the policies and procedures that ensure all chapters are aligned with the overall mission and vision of MAS.” All or almost all of the MAS chapters are their own 501(c)(3) non-profit entities. ²

Prominent national news sources including the Chicago Tribune and CBS News have identified the MAS as the United States chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that is the parent of Hamas. ³ Federal prosecutors alleged in a 2008 court filing that MAS “was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.” ⁴

The Brotherhood is dedicated to establishing Islamic theocratic rule and has been accused of supporting terrorism. While the Brotherhood’s representatives in the United States claim to respect American law, numerous former members have indicated that the organization is in fact working towards establishing Islamic rule by electing Muslims and proselytizing Americans. In the 2000s, the Brotherhood came under investigation by federal law enforcement. ^{5 6}

Following the October 7, 2023 attack by the terrorist group Hamas on Israel and the subsequent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, MAS condemned Israel but never condemned Hamas or even mentioned the group by name in its official statement. ⁷ MAS claimed that Israel is responsible for the conflict due to its “military occupation,” “ethnic cleansing,” “colonial violence” and “apartheid.” ^{8 9}

The statement recommended reading a statement from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) to “fully make sense “to fully make sense of the root causes of the current violence in the region.” AMP has a lengthy history of arguing in favor of Hamas and terrorist attacks against Israel and is alleged to have extensive ties to Hamas-linked organizations. The statement blames the conflict entirely on Israel, demands that the U.S. stop Israel’s campaign in Gaza against Hamas and never mentions Hamas by name or its massacring and kidnapping of over 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023 that precipitated the Israel-Hamas War. ¹⁰

Background

The Muslim Brotherhood is an international activist and militant organization which primarily operates in the Middle East and North Africa. Originally founded in 1928, it pushes for the adoption of Islamic law as the basis for temporal governance. The organization has engaged in both violent and procedural opposition against Muslim leaders it perceives to be more secular, and while it has been legally suppressed at various times in countries such as Egypt, it has nonetheless secured footholds in legislative bodies and in popular protest movements. ¹¹

In the early 2000s, reports emerged alleging that the Muslim American Society is a de facto chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, with members intent on increasing the power of Islamic religious law and social conventions in the United States. A Chicago Tribune investigation in 2004 discovered that internal MAS documents instructed members to avoid openly stating that the group is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and provided guidance on how to condemn terrorism generically without condemning violent jihad against Israel. ¹²

The MAS claims to have “no affiliation” with the Brotherhood while also acknowledging that “many” of its activists migrated to America and were involved in founding numerous new Islamic groups. The MAS also states that its supporters must not “demonize” the Muslim Brotherhood, which it describes as “a very broad, diverse movement.” ¹³

Initiatives

The Qur’an Institute is a program which the MAS offers to students of all ages, but with a particular focus on young people. The program provides instruction on correct recitation and memorization of Islamic scripture, which Muslims generally believe can only be read and understood “in its purest form in the Arabic language.” The MAS identifies the inculcation of young people with knowledge of the Qur’an as a priority which “cannot be overemphasized.” ¹⁴

The MAS runs an annual convention in Chicago, Illinois which includes organizing training for different Muslim demographics, promotion of Muslim businesses, matchmaking events for Muslims seeking to marry, and legal services. The MAS co-hosts the convention with the Islamic Circle of North America, a group that has been accused of promoting extremism and of having ties to Jamaat-e-Islami, which has been described as the South Asian cousin to the Muslim Brotherhood. ¹⁵

The Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation (MASFF) is a now-defunct subsidiary of MAS. The organization was identified by critics as the United States chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, a highly influential worldwide Islamist fundamentalist organization. ¹⁶ According to former members, the organization worked towards establishing Islamic rule by electing Muslims and proselytizing Americans. MASFF was investigated by federal law enforcement in the 2000s, and in 2011, the organization ceased its activities, claiming a lack of resources. ¹⁷

Leadership

Ayman Hammous is the executive director of the Muslim American Society. ¹⁸ He has called for the proliferation of Islam in America, claiming that it is “needed at the spiritual level, at the social level, at the political level.” ¹⁹ He has also previously met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of that country. ²⁰

Ismahan Abdullahi is the national director for public affairs and civic engagement at MAS. She previously held several different senior positions at the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, a left-wing activist group based in San Diego, California which pushes for looser immigration laws and expanded intake of refugees into the United States. Abdullahi is also a district delegate to the California Democratic Party assembly, a board member of the Muslim Leadership Council of San Diego, and a board member at the San Diego County Water Authority. ²¹ Abdullahi is of Somali descent. ²²

Controversies

In May 2019, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Islamic center affiliated with the Muslim American Society published a video on social media in which children at the center recited chants calling for the conquest of Jerusalem and other territories claimed by Islamist irredentists. These included a “revolutionaries’ anthem” promising to “crush the treacherous ones” used by Islamist militant groups as well as verses stating that “we will chop off their heads” and “we will subject them to eternal torture.” The Philadelphia chapter of MAS initially dismissed the video, claiming that it had been translated incorrectly. However, several sources, including the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Philadelphia chapter and a professor from Drexel University, went on to confirm that the lyrics were genuine. MAS’s national headquarters then released a statement in which it claimed that the group which had put on the performance was only renting the MAS facility and that the chapter had posted the video without reviewing its content. MAS’s national statement condemned the chanting. The incident also drew attention from prominent left-of-center group the Anti-Defamation League. ²³  

Within days of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack against Israel, the MAS Staten Island chapter hosted 80 women and girls for a “Palestine Speaks” event that featured Nerdeen Kiswani, an anti-Israel activist and founder of “Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine,” a radical New York-based organization that has regularly called for violence against Israel. ^{24 25}

Financials

The Muslim American Society last filed tax forms in 2017; it is exempt from filing a tax return as a religious organization as of 2024. ²⁶

In 2017, it received approximately $975,000 in revenue and spent just over $1 million, concluding the year with net assets of less than $700,000. ²⁷

A 2023 investigation by the New York Post found that the MAS New York branch received over $260,000 in city contracts and funding from the City Council. ²⁸

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