In this, the final segment in the Center’s series on the USCMO (United States Council of Muslim Organizations), the first U.S. political party openly associated with the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, the rise of the UMMA (not an acronym but the full name of the group) follows shortly on the return of Sabri Samirah, member of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, to the U.S. following eleven years of exile. Once Samirah’s travel ban was lifted by the Obama administration in early 2014, he returned quickly to the U.S. and launched into a busy schedule of appearances and speeches to galvanize the U.S. Muslim community to political activism.
By 23 September 2014, Samirah’s new organization, Our UMMA, which succeeded UMAA (United Muslim Americans Association) to promote the political ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood formally had been established with the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. The following picture is a screenshot from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office with the corporation file detail report for UMMA where Sabri Samirah is named as the registered agent.
While Samirah had publicly announced the news through Twitter and Facebook that the new community grassroots organization was to be tentatively named the United Muslim & Arab Americans Association (UMAAA), the official announcement dated 3 October 2014 declared the name as UMMA, which was to be associated with a forthcoming website at www.OurUMMA.org.
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Conclusion
Samirah’s newly established UMMA demonstrates through its political activism that it functions as an operational arm of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), designed to help further USCMO goals and objectives. Three months prior to the midterm November 2014 elections, Samirah led a meeting on 5 August 2014 in Bridgeview, Illinois with Muslim Brotherhood leadership to discuss a new organization to mobilize the Muslim community to become actively engaged in the political process. His description then of the main goal for the group’s agenda was “to be as much as inclusive, unifying, open, and fair in order for us to achieve the highest level of grassroots participation, unity, representation and legitimacy in serving, representing, and leading our community, publicly and politically.” This is broadly congruent with the mission of the first U.S. Muslim Brotherhood political party. In the short time since Samirah has been back in the U.S., he has worked proactively with the leadership of USCMO member organizations, assisted with fundraising, appointed new leadership in the community, and mobilized Muslim voters. Looking ahead to the 2016 presidential campaign, it seems certain that the USCMO, UMMA, and Samirah will be at the forefront of efforts to energize the U.S. Muslim electorate on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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