In case you were wondering how it happens that jihadists are in critical positions of power. Things don’t just happen, they are made to happen.
Chuck Ross, WFB -- Muslim Americans in Public Service’s ties to terrorist supporters could raise concerns about its efforts to place employees inside government
Muslim Americans in Public Service is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that coordinates with federal agencies to help Muslims obtain and advance careers in government. To do so, it partners with Islamic organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, that have either condoned terror attacks or have been linked to terrorist organizations.
In addition to CAIR, the nonprofit known as MAPS touts the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations as one of its partners and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Helping Hand for Relief and Development as two of its sponsors. MAPS has worked with CAIR to host events that bring together MAPS members “across all levels and branches of government.”
And while it does not disclose its donors, it says it receives “sizable in-kind donations” from its partners, as well as funding from “federal agencies,” nonprofits, and state commissions.
MAPS’s affiliation with those groups—all of which have praised or been linked to terrorist organizations—could raise concerns about its efforts to place employees inside the federal bureaucracy.
While it’s unlikely MAPS will have success placing political appointees in the Trump administration, which has opposed affinity groups that support DEI initiatives in federal agencies and is staunchly at odds with MAPS’s criticism of Israel, the group’s top members include some career officials entrenched in the federal government.
Formed in 2021, MAPS is led by a board of current and former career federal employees, according to the group’s website and their LinkedIn profiles. Ahmad Maaty, the founding chairman of MAPS, is a senior economist at the Department of Justice.
Other board members include Veterans Affairs official Hasan Shanawani, Office of Management and Budget examiner Farrah Pappa, United Nations mission adviser Mariya Ilyas, and White House policy analyst Ameer Abdulrahman, a former official for Democratic Senate candidate Morgan Harper.
While MAPS largely focuses on job-related issues that impact its members, it has weighed in on some political issues. The group criticized the Biden administration over its support for Israel in the war against Hamas, saying that it “disagrees with many of the policy positions taken by the current Administration.”
It also condemned the 2023 censure of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) over her statements calling for the eradication of Israel and denounced the removal of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over anti-Semitic remarks.