DHS evaluations grants to Muslim teams with alleged terrorist ties after report

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FIRST ON FOX: The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) is reviewing federal safety grants for Muslim teams with "alleged terrorist ties" after a brand new report linked previous funding to "extremist" organizations.

Based on a DHS doc obtained by Fox Information Digital, 49 tasks "with alleged affiliations to terrorist actions" have already been canceled, a transfer the division estimates will save $8 million.

The assessment primarily targets funding distributed by means of FEMA’s Nonprofit Safety Grant Program (NSGP), which gives assist to church buildings, mosques, synagogues, and different faith-based establishments going through threats of hate-driven violence.

The probe follows a report by the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/mef-reports/homeland-insecurity-unraveling-dhs-funding-of-terror-linked-and-extremist-groups?utm_campaign=6710194-Press%20Releases&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8BOdhy5keZXrXwRqLKbf9X1vJHTPkrjvW-Q4EQXWbo3VpI00IA9trKLOjBH39C3z7VYZnV9vTbASu7gN_WjbM33ZUTxLruBVRU8n4V33JuDsmBXO8&_hsmi=372321859&utm_content=372321859&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Middle East Forum, a pro-Israel conservative suppose tank, which claimed that greater than $25 million in DHS and FEMA grants went to "terror-linked teams" between 2013 and 2023.

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The Division of Homeland Safety, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, is reviewing federal safety grants for Muslim teams with "alleged terrorist ties" after a brand new report linked previous funding to "extremist" organizations. (Al Drago/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures )

A DHS official stated the division is conducting its personal unbiased assessment of funding however added, "We take the outcomes of the MEF report very severely and are grateful for the work of conservative watchdog teams."

The report flagged a $100,000 grant in 2019 to the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia, which Customs and Border Safety as soon as described as a "mosque working as a entrance for Hamas operatives within the U.S.," in response to records obtained by the Investigative Mission by means of the Freedom of Data Act.

In response to the MEF’s findings, DHS is reviewing all present and future contracts to make sure funds aren't awarded to such organizations. Officers stated the division can also be analyzing methods to get well unspent funds.

Funding for fiscal yr 2024 has already been allotted. That features $94 million for 500 Jewish organizations and one other $110 million shared amongst 600 Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jewish establishments.

The report flagged a $100,000 grant in 2019 to the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia. (REUTERS/Amr Alfiky)

For fiscal yr 2025, DHS stated candidates will face harder necessities to make sure a "sturdy" vetting course of.

"We don’t wish to be empowering teams that could possibly be inflicting a menace to our group right here in america," a DHS official stated.

The Center East Discussion board’s report additionally highlighted particular circumstances of funding that it claims went to teams with extremist ties. It stated $10.3 million had gone to the Islamic Circle of North America, which the discussion board alleges is tied to the South Asian Islamist motion Jamaat-e-Islami.

The report additional cited $250,000 awarded to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which DHS has accused of getting "Hamas ties." One other $750,000, in response to the report, went to mosques in Michigan and Texas that DHS described as "outposts for Iran’s revolutionary model of Shi’a Islamism," together with the Islamic Heart of America and the Islamic Home of Knowledge close to Detroit, in addition to the Islamic Ahlul Bayt Affiliation in Austin.

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Practically $100 million in FEMA safety funding went to 500 synagogues this yr amid a rise in anti-Semitic assaults. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press by way of AP)

CAIR instructed Fox Information Digital it has no lively federal contracts with DHS .

"Whereas our civil rights group has no lively federal grants that the Division may get rid of or reduce, and whereas the federal government can't ban American organizations from receiving federal grants primarily based on their spiritual affiliation or their criticism of Israel's genocide in Gaza," a CAIR spokesperson stated, "it’s essential to notice that Kristi Noem’s Division of Homeland Safety is embarrassing President Trump by making selections primarily based on the ravings of the Center East Discussion board, an Israel First hate web site."

FEMA has beforehand labored with CAIR, holding seminars to encourage participation within the NSGP program.

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However final week, CAIR urged organizations to withdraw from making use of for DHS and FEMA grants — together with the NSGP — until DHS drops two new vetting guidelines. These provisions require recipients to cooperate with immigration officers and prohibit them from working packages tied to variety, fairness, inclusion, or assist to undocumented immigrants, in addition to from partaking in sure "discriminatory prohibited boycotts."