Baltimore Convention Features Speakers With Alleged Terror and Extremist Links
The 51st Annual ICNA-MAS Convention in Baltimore features speakers and sponsors that have drawn scrutiny over alleged terror-linked ties, including an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombing
This Memorial Day weekend, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Muslim American Society (MAS) will host their 51st annual convention at the Baltimore Convention Center, expected to draw more than 25,000 attendees to one of the largest Muslim gatherings in North America. The three-day event, running May 23-25, 2026, will feature over 100 speakers—including individuals with alleged ties to terrorism and extremism—alongside sponsors currently under federal investigation for terror financing.
The convention’s reach extends from main-stage programming to targeted youth initiatives, creating what critics describe as a comprehensive ecosystem linking Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations, speakers who have called for violence, and charities designated as terrorist entities by foreign governments. As Baltimore promotes the convention’s economic impact, federal investigators and watchdog organizations have raised alarm about the networks convening under the guise of a community gathering.
The Organizers and Their Alleged Muslim Brotherhood Links
ICNA, founded in 1968 as a “domestic affiliate” of Jamaat-e-Islami, explicitly states its goal is “to achieve the pleasure of Allah through the establishment of the Islamic system in this land.” The organization’s ideological foundation traces to Jamaat-e-Islami founder Maulana Syed Abdul A’la Maududi, who preached that followers “must strive to change the wrong basis of government, and seize all powers.”
Co-organizing the event is the Muslim American Society (MAS), which the Investigative Project on Terrorism describes as an organization with “strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.” In 2019, the MAS Philadelphia chapter uploaded a video to Facebook showing children at an event held in their building singing about “chopping off heads” and violence, prompting an investigation and public condemnation from MAS leadership.
The Speakers: A Roster of Extremism
The convention’s speaker lineup reads like a catalog of individuals who have alongside sponsors and partner organizations that have faced official scrutiny, state-level designations, or allegations concerning terrorism-linked networks
Mehdi Hasan, the British-American journalist and former MSNBC host who has made remarks in which he compared non-Muslims to “cattle” and “animals,” and disparaged LGBTQ individuals, calling homosexuals “pedophiles” and “sexual deviants.”
Siraj Wahhaj Federal prosecutors named Wahhaj as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing investigation, and he served as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman—the “Blind Sheikh” who masterminded the attack that killed six people. Wahhaj has stated that “if only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate,” and expressed support for implementation of Sharia law including stoning for adultery and hand amputation for theft.
In a separate 2018 New Mexico case, his son Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was convicted of terrorism-related charges after prosecutors alleged firearms and tactical training to prepare for attacks against the government. Wahhaj’s brother-in-law was also convicted of terrorism charges, while Wahhaj’s sisters were convicted on kidnapping charges.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is another listed speaker whose record has drawn scrutiny from watchdog groups. The Anti-Defamation League has reported that Awad met with Muslim Brotherhood members as recently as 2022 and, in 2024, eulogized Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, whom the U.S. Treasury designated in 2004 as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for his support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, including alleged recruiting for al-Qaeda training camps
The Money: Sponsors Under Federal Scrutiny
The convention’s funding sources reveal a network of organizations facing scrutiny from U.S. and international authorities. Several major sponsors are not independent charities but divisions of ICNA itself—an organizational structure that allows the parent organization to fund its own convention while maintaining the appearance of broad-based support.
According to ICNA’s own organizational chart, multiple convention sponsors are in-house divisions: ICNA Relief (Diamond sponsor), Young Muslims (youth wing), ICNA Dawah (outreach), Islamic Learning Foundation, ICNA Council for Social Justice, and MCNA (Muslim Children of North America). Additionally, Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD)—also a Diamond sponsor—appears on ICNA’s organizational chart as part of the broader network.
Silver sponsor Islamic Relief USA is part of the broader Islamic Relief network, which has faced terrorism-financing allegations and foreign terror designations. In 2016, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into Islamic Relief, with the Office of Personnel Management confirming the case “could reasonably be expected to interfere with ongoing enforcement proceedings.”
HHRD, listed both as a Diamond sponsor and as part of ICNA’s organizational structure, is currently under investigation by USAID after the Middle East Forum reported the organization’s Islamist ties. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul demanded answers about a “$110K grant to terrorist-linked nonprofit.”
CAIR, listed as a Silver sponsor, was designated by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2025 as a foreign terrorist organization and transnational criminal organization under state authority. Separately, H.R. 4097 was introduced in Congress to direct the Secretary of State to review whether CAIR meets federal FTO criteria
The Youth Pipeline
The convention features extensive youth programming, including the 31st Annual Young Muslims Conference, Muslim Youth Debate Tournament, and separate tracks for children through Muslim Children of North America (MCNA)—both of which appear as ICNA divisions on the organization’s chart.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism has documented concerns about ICNA’s youth initiatives in a report titled “ICNA’s Radicalization Continues,” which examines the organization’s pro-Sharia public relations campaigns targeting young people.
Big Picture
As Baltimore promotes the convention’s economic benefits from 30,000 visitors filling hotels and restaurants, federal investigators continue examining the financial networks connecting the event’s sponsors. The convergence of speakers with documented extremism ties, charities that have been under federal scrutiny for terror financing, and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizers raises questions about the oversight of large-scale gatherings that blend community programming with speakers and sponsors linked to violent extremism.
The revelation that multiple “sponsors” are actually ICNA’s own divisions further illustrates how the organization has constructed a self-reinforcing ecosystem where funding, ideology, and recruitment flow through interconnected entities. The convention represents not merely an annual religious gathering, but a nexus where ideology, funding, and recruitment intersect under the protection of First Amendment freedoms—while taxpayer dollars and charitable donations flow to organizations that multiple governments have connected to terrorist networks.