In the 1970s, only four Muslims lived in one Florida city — all foreign students from Kuwait — and just seven mosques existed in the entire United States. Guided by Hamas’s spiritual leader, Tareq Al-Suwaidan turned that small foothold into a model for Islamic infrastructure that now spans the country.
In a revealing interview, Dr. Tareq Al-Suwaidan, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader, Hamas financier, and protégé of the late Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, detailed how he laid the foundations for Islamic infrastructure in the United States during the 1970s — a time when there were virtually no mosques in the country.
The Kuwaiti government sent Al-Suwaidan to Florida to attend Lake Worth High School. At the time, there were only four Muslims in the entire city, all foreign students from Kuwait, and just seven mosques nationwide.
“We didn’t mingle with this corrupt society,” Al-Suwaidan recalled, describing 1970s America as “the sexual revolution” and insisting, “I cannot be part of that society. I had to keep apart.”
Launching a Mission
From those early days, Al-Suwaidan began organizing Arab Muslim students across America. He founded the Arab Muslim Association (AMA) to unite Arab Muslims under an Islamic banner and to oppose secular Arab nationalism.
He says he faced strong resistance from Arab nationalists and even Arab embassies, which “didn’t want any Islamic work among the students.” His response, a strategy learned directly from Al-Qaradawi, was simple: “You just continue… Don’t let the resistance stop you.”
The AMA quickly grew from a handful of students to national reach. Al-Suwaidan began holding Islamic “camps” during Christmas breaks — starting with 34 attendees and swelling to 7,000 at national conferences within five years.
Oklahoma: Building a Base
After moving to Oklahoma to study petroleum engineering, Al-Suwaidan deliberately targeted the university community. He sought property within walking distance of campus, which he called “the center of our activity,” to facilitate student recruitment.
Initially operating from a rented three-bedroom house, he soon pursued a permanent mosque. Facing unanimous neighborhood opposition, he mocked locals as “Trump people… until today” and threatened constitutional lawsuits to force approval.
A wealthy Gulf donor eventually funded the entire project on condition of anonymity. Al-Suwaidan purchased a Protestant church, noting it had “no idols or fixed chairs,” making it ideal for conversion and transformed it into a mosque for 1,000 worshippers.
Later, when the university sought to acquire the land, he negotiated a $2 million property trade for a former school complete with an auditorium and soccer fields, which became the Al-Salam Mosque in Tulsa.
Banned from the United States
In 2013, Al-Suwaidan was dismissed as director of Saudi Al-Risala TV after publicly declaring his Muslim Brotherhood membership. He was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing trial and is banned from entering the United States and Belgium due to his ties to terrorism and antisemitic views.
Despite the ban, the network and institutions he helped establish in the U.S. remain active decades later.
It began with four foreign students and no mosques. Today, there are thousands, because they made it their mission to put them everywhere.
Texas Connection
Al-Suwaidan’s influence continues abroad. He currently runs training programs for Islamic operatives in Turkey alongside Texas-based Imam Yasir Qadhi and Imam Omar Suleiman.
Qadhi is widely regarded as the “spiritual leader” of the East Plano Islamic Center and its proposed EPIC City, a sprawling mosque-centered development in Texas now under state investigation, which critics warn follows the strategic model pioneered by Al-Suwaidan.
Are Americans paying attention?
The post The Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. Expansion: From Four Foreign Students and Seven Mosques to a Nationwide Islamic Network appeared first on RAIR.
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Author: Amy Mek
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