Federal Government Watch 
   - from the Sharia TipSheet

Federal Government Watch -
Biden Funded Jihadi Terrorist Groups; Trump Still Wobbly
by Clare M. Lopez
December 2025

Only now are some of these reports about how the Biden administration provided millions of dollars to jihadi and terror-linked groups around the world coming to light. The good news is that with exposure, such funding can now be ended under the second Trump administration.
 
Concern remains, though, about the new White House team’s belief that jihadis can somehow be wooed with friendly outreach and financial incentives.
 
“U.S. Government Provides Millions to Malaysia’s Muslim Brotherhood” by Sam Westrop at Focus on Western Islamism, November 12, 2025 
  • More U.S. taxpayer funds given to a Malaysian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood—that actually pledged support for the 7 October 2023 HAMAS massacre in Israel
 
“Waste of the Day: Hate-Filled Mamdani Allies Get Public Funding” by Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, November 19, 2025
  • How does this happen?  The Arab American Association of New York (previously led by antisemite Linda Sarsour), received over $4 million between 2017-2024.
  • [Editor’s Note – the article also lists $332,000 in federal taxpayer money sent to the Islamic Society of North America.]
 
“From jailed jihadist to the Oval Office: Syria's president caps unlikely rise with Trump meeting” by  Chantal Da Silva, Ammar Cheikh Omar, Abigail Williams and Monica Alba at NBC News, November 10, 2025   
[Editor’s Note – ICYMI: President Trump ordered a Treasury Department review that could result in the designation of certain Muslim Brotherhood groups in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon as terrorist organizations.  More here.  The order has been criticized for not including troublesome branches in Qatar and Turkey.  Unlike the domestic terror designations in Texas and Florida, the White House apparently does not plan to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group in the U.S.]
Federal Government Watch -
Mostly Clueless In Washington
by Clare M. Lopez
November 2025
 
“FBI thwarts planned Halloween jihad massacre in Michigan” by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, October 31, 2025
  • Averting this planned jihad massacre in Michigan is to the credit of the FBI, certainly. But the point that Robert Spencer makes here is that while the Justice Department said the plot was “tied to international terrorism”, neither the DOJ nor the FBI clearly stated that the plot was an Islamic terror (jihad) operation.
 
“Witkoff’s ‘Palestinian’ adviser claims Hamas only has to give up ‘heavy weapons’” by Daniel Greenfield at Front Page Magazine, October 24, 2025
  • No, President Trump’s 20-point plan states clearly that HAMAS must disarm or be disarmed completely; there is no provision for HAMAS to keep any weapons at all. Of serious concern here is that US envoy Steve Witkoff’s ‘Palestinian’ advisor, Bishara A. Bahbah, who issued this statement, formerly was an advisor to Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
  • UPDATE: "Steve Witkoff: Hamas Promised Me It Would Disarm", by Hugh Fitzgerald at Jihad Watch, November 9, 2025
    • Amazing how naive some of our senior administration people are about HAMAS & Islam!
 
“Bipartisan senators criticize Trump’s nominee for Kuwait over accusations of antisemitism” by Laura Kelly at The Hill, 10/23/25
  • At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on 23 October 2025, both Republican and Democrat members opposed Amer Ghalib, President Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Kuwait, because of his history of antisemitic comments and positions. How President Trump was advised to even nominate such an individual for this important post is not clear but would seem to demonstrate problems within the administration with regard to vetting for personnel nominations.
 
“DHS Revokes Visa for British Journalist Accused of Supporting Terrorism” by Peter Aitken at Newsweek, October 26, 2025
  • Although this case ended appropriately with the revocation of this British journalist’s visa and himself taken into ICE custody for deportation, the fact that he obtained an entry visa in the first place is troublesome.
  • More here: “Sami Hamdi, British Muslim journalist, detained by ICE at SFO after visa revoked” by Cynthia Dizikes at The San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 2025
    • It’s interesting that it took Laura Loomer, an investigative reporter and podcast host, to alert authorities to Hamdi’s problematic profile
 
“Dozens of Muslim groups blocked from receiving federal security grants: Report” by  Syma Mohammed at the Middle East Eye, 10 October 2025
  • The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seems finally to be on the right track in identifying Muslim Brotherhood front groups such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and others and cutting them off from receiving USG grants.
  • More here: “FEMA Funding Controversy: Security Concerns and Discrimination Claims Against Islamic Organizations” at Mezha.net on 11 October 2025
 
“Republicans Launch New Front in Immigration Fight: Banning Immigrants Who Follow Sharia Law” by Dmitri Bolt at Townhall, October 13, 2025
  • The intentions here may be good ones, but the fact is that Rep. Chip Roy’s proposed ‘Preserving A Sharia-Free America Act’ is already unnecessary, given that Article VI of the US Constitution states that the ‘Supreme Law of the Land shall be the Constitution of the U.S. and the laws derived from it’. It is also unclear how an intending immigrant’s adherence to Islamic Law (sharia) would be determined, especially given that under sharia, faithful Muslims are obligated to lie to infidels when the issue at hand itself is obligatory (like jihad).
Federal Government Watch -
Trump Administration Still a Mixed Bag on Islamic Issues
by Clare M. Lopez
October 2025

“Qatar Tried to Bribe Trump Negotiator on Hamas-Israel Deal” by Daniel Greenfield at Jihad Watch, September 30, 2025 
  • It’s long been known that the fabulously wealthy Gulf Emirate of Qatar has backed, funded, and supported Islamic terror groups such as HAMAS.
  • (For example, see this January 2013 piece by Clare M. Lopez at RadicalIslam.org, entitled “Qatar: Banker to the Global Jihad”:
       https://lopez.pundicity.com/12885/qatar-jihad-finance)
  • Here, Daniel Greenfield looks askance at Qatar’s financial discussions with a member of Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff’s family.
 
“The Courtship of Ahmad al-Sharaa” at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), September 26, 2025 
  • This is an audio discussion among FDD scholars Cliff May (Founder/President), David Adesnik (Vice President of Research), and Ahmad Sharawi (Research Analyst) that urges caution for the Trump administration in dealing with the new jihadi ruler of Damascus, Ahmad al-Sharaa. 
 
“’Material Support’ and an Ohio Chaplain: How 9/11-Era Terror Rules Could Empower Trump’s Immigration Crackdown” by Hannah Allam at Pro Publica, September 9, 2025 
  • This is about Ayman Soliman, an immigrant from Egypt, who initially was granted political asylum in the U.S. When his name was flagged on the FBI’s terror watch list (over membership in the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Al-Gam’iyya al Shar’iyya terror group in Egypt), however, he had that asylum revoked by the Biden administration. He was arrested by ICE on July 9, 2025.
  • More here: “ICE arrests former Children's hospital chaplain who was flagged on FBI terror watchlist” by Misty Severi at Just the News, July 9, 2025
 
“Retired FBI agent exposes Hamas’ long game in America” by Maayan Hoffman at Y Net Global, 09/14/2025
  • Although HAMAS, the Gaza branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, doesn’t have a real presence in the U.S., other Muslim Brotherhood front groups, such as CAIR, ICNA, ISNA, MAS, MPAC, NAIT and many others named as ‘unindicted co-conspirators’ in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial (which was about material support to terrorism), do. In the U.S., while neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor any of these groups has ever committed an act of kinetic violence (terrorism) against the U.S. or Americans, what they do engage in is far more dangerous to our Republic, simply because we’re not well prepared to recognize or counter it—and that is Islamic subversion.
 
ICYMI: “DHS pulls funding from groups with ‘alleged terrorist ties’ after watchdog report” by Morgan Phillips at FOX News, August 20, 2025 
  • Question has to be, ‘Why was FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) funding groups identified as Muslim Brotherhood front groups—such as CAIR, ICNA and the Dar al-Hijrah 9/11 mosque in Falls Church, VA—with U.S. taxpayer dollars in the first place” ?
  • [Editor’s Note: we reported on this in our August 2025 issue.]