The U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent more than $25 million to extremist groups with ties to Islamist terror groups between 2013 and 2023, according to a new report from the Middle East Forum.
Gregg Roman, executive director of the think tank, told JNS that the forum pored over publicly accessible government spending data.
“We matched these grants with extremist groups found in our research archives to identify the misuse of taxpayer dollars on a grand scale,” he said.
“Americans should know that their hard-earned money was allocated to build up security around a luxurious mosque compound in Maryland owned by Turkey’s Islamist government and that mosques in Michigan and Texas that serve as outposts for Iran’s regime were also recipients of DHS funds,” he told JNS.
Some $750,000 in federal grants went “to mosques suspected of operating on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran or its proxies,” according to the report. The report acknowledges that it is not known if the U.S. government ultimately paid the grants, only that it earmarked them in a specific year. (JNS sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security.)
The report, which the forum published on Monday, examines three federal grant programs—the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, Countering Violent Extremism and the Disaster Relief Fund—from which the extremist groups received funding.
The Nonprofit Security Grant Program is “the greatest source of DHS funding to extremist groups,” as support for the program surged from $10 million in 2012 to $454 million in 2024, per the report.
The Islamic Center of San Diego received more than $370,000 in grants between 2015 and 2023, according to the report. Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers frequented the center and “received assistance from fellow worshippers in obtaining Social Security cards and drivers’ licenses, purchasing a car and finding local housing,” according to the report.
“The pair even accessed funds from the nephew of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed through a bank account belonging to an administrator at ICSD,” the report adds. (JNS sought comment from the center.)
The center’s head imam stated the day after Oct. 7 in a since-deleted social media post that “resistance is the only option for a people under occupation,” the report states.
A $150,000 Nonprofit Security Grant Program grant also went to the Turkish American Community Center in Maryland, which the report calls “a branch of the Turkish directorate of religious affairs” that “serves as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s high court in North America.” (JNS sought comment from the center.)
The report lists one of the recipients of grant monies from the federal Countering Violent Extremism program as Leaders Advancing and Helping Communities, a Lebanese organization in Michigan, which the report says has pro-Hezbollah leaders and board members. (JNS sought comment from the organization.)
Disaster Relief Fund recipients include the Muslim American Society Katy Center, an organization in Texas tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, and ICNA Relief, the Islamic Circle of North America’s humanitarian wing, which has “institutional and ideological links” to the U.S.-designated terror group Jamaat-e-Islami, according to the report. (JNS sought comment from the center and ICNA Relief.)
ICNA Relief’s websites have featured links to Hamas and Hezbollah, per the report.
The Katy Center received more than $90,000 in federal grants and ICNA received $10.3 million in federal grants, both for Hurricane Harvey relief, per the report.
The report calls for better vetting and transparency from the Department of Homeland Security, and for various agencies in the department to stop partnering with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, “the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history,” per the report.
CAIR also blamed Israel for being attacked on Oct. 7 shortly after the terror attacks.
Roman told JNS that the forum “shared our findings with both executive branch agencies and congressional oversight committees, and we continue to encourage recissions that cut funding to radical groups.”
The think tank also recommends “vetting and transparency reforms to ensure that future administrations do not repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said.
