A who's who of anti-Israel radical leaders in the U.S. Muslim community mourned last week's death of Ishaq al-Farhan, the co-founder of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood political wing, the Islamic Action Front (IAF).
"May God have mercy on the thinker, the Islamic leader, and Jordanian national personality, Professor Dr. Ishaq al-Farhan. He lived for his religion, his Umma and Palestine, from which he descended, and people remember his virtues ... This is a great loss, not only for Jordan, Palestine and the Islamic movement, but also a loss for this whole Umma (Islamic nation)," wrote American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) National Policy Director Osama Abu Irshaid. Sabri Samirah, who worked as chairman of the now-defunct Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), posted video of al-Farhan's funeral from Jordan on Abu Irshaid's Facebook timeline. IAP was the propaganda arm of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee, and Marzook served on its board. The Palestine Committee was created to serve Hamas politically and financially, court records show.
Samirah served as IAF's spokesman during a period of exile in Jordan for due to his pro-Hamas sympathies that began in 2002. He returned to the U.S. in 2014.
Abu Irshaid served as served as editor of Al-Zaitounah, a pro-Hamas Arabic periodical published by the IAP.
Al-Farhan also served as a trustee of the Brotherhood-linked International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) based in Herndon, Va. and as Jordan's education minister. In 1996, he wrote to the Clinton administration protesting efforts to extradite then Hamas Politburo chief Moussa Abu Marzook to Israel. Marzook ultimately was sent to Jordan and remains a top Hamas leader. The effort showed that the administration was "captive to the Zionist will," al-Farhan wrote.
His letter was sent from the same fax line as a Hamas statement also protesting the extradition effort, a U.S. Embassy in Amman cable said.
Hamas also mourned al-Farhan's death with a press release. "Palestine and the nation have lost one of their finest men," Hamas said.
Former Muslim American Society (MAS) President and current Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Society board member Esam Omeish called al-Farhan "the giant, the martyr of the Brotherhood and the Umma."
AMP Chairman and University of California Berkeley Lecturer Hatem Bazian also mourned al-Farhan, saying, "Allah have mercy on him."
This outpouring serves as a reminder of the loyalty that many leading U.S. Muslims have to foreign Muslim Brotherhood leaders.