US: DHS reviews security funding to Muslim organisations, places of worship

The US's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reviewing security grants to Muslim organisations and places of worship that have been accused by a pro-Israel think tank of having ties to "radical" groups.

The department has already cut an estimated $8m across 49 projects for alleged affiliations to terrorist activities, according to a DHS document obtained by Fox News.

The DHS is said to be basing its decision on a report from the Middle East Forum (MEF), which claims that the DHS gave $25m in grants to "radical nonprofit organisations", many of which it accuses of having "links" to terrorist groups, from 2013 to 2023.

The grants come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to help state, local, tribal and nonprofit organisations to prevent, protect against, prepare for and respond to hate-based terrorist or extremist attacks.

Mosques and other faith-based groups have received funding from Fema to help enhance their security.

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes MEF as "an anti-Muslim think tank" and its president Daniel Pipes as someone who has promoted rabidly "anti-Muslim views" for decades. Pipes founded MEF in 1994.

MEF's report does not substantiate the allegations it makes against mosques, Muslim community centres and groups such as the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Islamic Center of San Diego, the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia and the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the US, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair).

In its report, it smeared pro-Palestine organisation Cair as "Hamas-aligned" without citing any evidence.

Cair was a former Fema grant recipient and received funds to enhance security at their headquarters, which had come under threat from extremists. 

'Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security is letting the inmates run the asylum by issuing politically motivated statements based on the ravings of the MEF'

- Cair spokesperson

Cair told Middle East Eye that it had no active federal grants that the department could eliminate, review or cut, and accused MEF of being a "hate website".

"Mosques have the same legal right as churches, synagogues and other religious nonprofit organisations to apply for federal grants, including funding that helps houses of worship vulnerable to attack increase their security," a Cair spokesperson said.

"Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security is letting the inmates run the asylum by issuing politically motivated statements based on the ravings of the MEF, an Israel First hate website whose founder Daniel Pipes has condemned the president as 'selfish', 'repulsive', and 'unsuited for the presidency'.

Pipes has derided Muslims as "brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene".

Cair said it is an independent organisation that has condemned all forms of bigotry, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, and all forms of unjust violence, including hate crimes, terrorism, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

"In fact, Cair has condemned terrorism so often that ISIS [the Islamic State group] once put a target on our national executive director," the spokesperson added.

Middle East Eye reached out to the DHS for comment but received no comment by the time of publication.

However, a DHS spokesperson told Fox News that the department takes "the results of the MEF report very seriously and are thankful for the work of conservative watchdog groups".

It said it was undertaking its own independent review of funding.