The Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va. will host an imam Monday who is accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups.
In 2015, Egypt’s Minister of Religious Endowments banned Sheikh Mohammad Jebril after Jebril gave a Ramadan prayer asking Allah to “punish those who have shed our blood and orphaned our children.” He also prayed that manipulative members of the media and corrupt politicians would be punished. Jebril led Ramadan prayers in Cairo’s oldest mosque, the 7th century Amr Bin al-Aas Mosque, since 1988.
Religious Endowments Minister Mohammed Mukhtar Jumaa also barred Jebril from leaving Egypt at the time and asked Egypt’s television stations to keep him off the air.
A subsequent investigation connected some of Jebril’s assets to terrorist acts allegedly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Other money allegedly supported imprisoned Brotherhood members’ families.
Dar al-Hijrah promoted Monday’s event by describing Jebril as “one of the world’s most prominent reciters of the Quran.”
Dar al-Hijrah has a history of supporting Brotherhood causes. After the Egyptian military ousted President Mohamed Morsi – who led the Muslim Brotherhood’s party – in June 2013, mosque members played a central role in creating Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (EADHR). The group held rallies in New York, Washington and other U.S. cities demanding Morsi’s reinstatement.
Dar al-Hijrah imam Sheikh Shaker Elsayed and board member Akram Elzend announced EADHR’s existence three days after Morsi’s ouster. EADHR’s NY-NJ chapter later described the group as part of an umbrella group created by the London-based International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood. An open letter from the umbrella group, International Coalition for Egyptians Abroad, to then-U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in March 2015 also lists EADHR as a subsidiary.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood website, Egypt Window, noted that ICEA came into existence the same week as EADHR to coordinate the European and American lobbying campaign for Morsi’s return.
Jebril and Elsayed previously appeared together at a 2008 fundraiser for the Islamic Society of Central Virginia. Jebril also recited from the Quran at a September 2009 prayer rally outside the U.S. Capitol.
