Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania told the Center for Security Policy’s Frank Gaffney on his “Secure Freedom Radio” program last week that while the Obama administration has turned a “blind eye” to Islamist “influence operations” in the government, he hopes that the incoming Trump administration will put an end to such activities, perhaps by declaring the Council on American Islamic Relations and other groups to be “terrorist organizations” and shutting them down.
Perry claimed that “there has been just a turning of the head by the current administration” to “organizations and individuals tied to those organizations that wish to subvert the United States government and our freedoms” and that “these individuals and organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Council on American Islamic Relations and others operating in and around America, they have a different plan in mind, shall we say, for America.”
Gaffney asked Perry “if, in fact, the Trump administration is going to turn in a different direction on all of these things, would you anticipate that that probably spells the end for the kind of influence operations that we’ve seen on the Brotherhood’s part inside the wire, especially?”
“Well, we certainly, certainly, vehemently, just desperately hope so,” Perry responded. “I mean, how can you sleep well at night thinking that these influence operations are going on unimpeded within the halls of your government and in your community? And it’s just so invigorating and relieving, honestly, to think there’s at least a scintilla of a chance, and hopefully much more, based on the testimony that we’ve heard, that this is going to end.”
While Perry said he didn’t yet know “what actions will be taken” to undo what he said were these Islamist influence operations in the government, one could be “listing and naming some of these organizations as terrorist organizations.”
“ And then you’d say, ‘Well, they have an office down the street,’” he said. “Well, that’s exactly right. And if you’re listed as a terrorist organization, that comes with sanctions and provisions, which means that maybe your office down the street gets closed because we can’t have these kind of organizations.”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has introduced legislation that would require the executive branch to determine whether to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. As the Huffington Post explains, U.S. Muslim groups fear the bill would, rather than its stated goal, “enable the U.S. government to target domestic Muslim groups that Cruz and others earnestly believe are part of a massive, covert conspiracy to destroy the U.S. from within.”
