Alleged Muslim Brotherhood to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award from Islamic Group in California
Islamic Shura Council of Southern California honors Jamal Badawi, listed in Holy Land Foundation case as Hamas fundraiser and Brotherhood member
The Islamic Shura Council of Southern California is planning to honor a man whose name appears on a government list of individuals who fundraised for Hamas. The June 6, 2026 banquet will present its lifetime achievement award to Jamal Badawi, an Egyptian-Canadian scholar who federal prosecutors identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, the largest terrorism-financing prosecution in U.S. history, which resulted in convictions for funneling $12.4 million to Hamas.
Court documents released during the trial indicate Badawi was a member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership structure. The event’s speaker lineup reads like a who’s-who of organizations currently under federal scrutiny: one faces an IRS investigation for allegedly misusing millions in taxpayer funds, another chairs a council that appeared on the Muslim Brotherhood’s own strategic documents, and a third recently boasted that her organization bankrolled a New York mayoral candidate’s campaign.
Badawi’s name appears as number 20 on the prosecution’s Attachment A list under “individuals who participated in fund-raising activities on behalf of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.” The Holy Land Foundation funneled $12.4 million to Hamas through a network of charities in the Palestinian territories, resulting in convictions for all defendants in what prosecutors called a “complex criminal enterprise designed to support Hamas.”
Brotherhood Connections Run Deep
The award recipient isn’t just any Islamic scholar. Badawi sits on the executive boards of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Fiqh Council of North America, and the Muslim American Society (MAS), all three of which appeared on the infamous 1991 Muslim Brotherhood “Explanatory Memorandum” listing “our organizations and the organizations of our friends” in North America.
Badawi’s name appeared on page one of a 1992 telephone directory of Muslim Brotherhood members entered into evidence during the Holy Land Foundation trial. A 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation identified MAS as the Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. arm. Abdurrahman Alamoudi, who once wielded enormous influence in Muslim American political circles before his terrorism-related conviction, testified under oath: “Everyone knows that MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”
That 1991 memorandum described the Brotherhood’s mission in America as “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
CEO of CAIR-CA, Allegedly Under Federal Investigation
One of the banquet’s featured speaker, Hussam Ayloush, leads CAIR California, an organization now facing potential loss of its tax-exempt status. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith referred CAIR-CA to the IRS on January 13, 2026, citing “serious concerns about misuse of taxpayer dollars, possible violations of federal law, and activity incompatible with its tax-exempt status.”
The referral detailed evidence that CAIR-CA received over $7 million in federal refugee legal-aid funding but assisted fewer than 10 percent of proposed Afghan refugees. Instead, the organization allegedly routed approximately $3.7 million through unregistered affiliates operating under CAIR-CA’s own tax identification number what Smith characterized as “a façade to merely obscure the trace of taxpayer funds.”
A report by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Intelligent Advocacy Network found that CAIR-CA spent over $3.8 million on lobbying expenses between 2013 and 2023 while reporting only $672,537 to the IRS leaving $3.13 million undisclosed. Federal law prohibits using federal funds for lobbying.
From Brotherhood Documents to Texas Mega-Project
Yasir Qadhi, another of the banquet’s keynote speakers, chairs the Fiqh Council of North America—an organization that appeared as number 17 on the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum under its previous name, ISNA Fiqh Committee. The memorandum listed it among “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”
Qadhi serves as resident scholar at East Plano Islamic Center, which is developing EPIC City, a controversial 402-acre Muslim-centered development that drew investigations from both the Department of Justice and Texas officials over allegations of discrimination and Sharia law implementation. The DOJ probe closed without charges.
Sarsour: Farrakhan Defender and Women’s March Scandal
Linda Sarsour, billed as the event’s “motivational speaker,” carries significant controversy. She co-founded the Women’s March but stepped down from its board in 2019 amid allegations of antisemitism and her refusal to distance herself from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whom the Anti-Defamation League considers “virtually synonymous with anti-Semitism.”
During the controversy, Sarsour and fellow Women’s March leaders declined for nearly a year to condemn Farrakhan’s statements, including his 2018 Saviours’ Day speech where he denounced “Satanic Jews” and proclaimed “your time is up” to Jews. The Women’s March eventually issued a mild statement calling Farrakhan’s remarks “not aligned” with its principles, but only after sustained public pressure.
More recently, Sarsour made headlines at CAIR’s 2025 Leadership & Policy Conference when she revealed that CAIR controlled the Unity and Justice Fund political action committee and was the largest institutional donor to New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign. “Over 80% of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign funding came from Muslim American donors through CAIR,” Sarsour stated.
CAIR itself was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, appearing on the government’s list of “individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations.”
A Network Operating in Plain Sight
The Islamic Shura Council describes itself as an umbrella organization representing 75 member organizations serving over 750,000 Muslims in Southern California. The organization has operated as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit since 1995, hosting annual banquets that regularly feature speakers from organizations with documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood network.
The June 6 event at an undisclosed Southern California location runs from 5 PM to 10 PM. Tickets are available through the Shura Council’s website. Badawi, now in his late 80s, recently appeared at the Canadian Council of Imams’ 2025 National Retreat, where attendees described meeting him as “a surreal moment.”
The banquet will also present a Service Award to Imam Abu Ishaq Abdul Hafiz, a former Federal Bureau of Prisons Muslim chaplain.