The Day-to-Day Playbook

‘An Explanatory Memorandum’

One of the most important documents recovered in the 2004 Annandale, VA raid—and later entered into evidence in the HLF trial—was the Muslim Brotherhood’s North America strategy paper, “An Explanatory Memorandum: On the General Strategic Goal for the Group.” Written by Mohammed Akram, a member of the MB’s North American board and a senior Hamas figure, and approved by the Brotherhood’s Shura Council and Organizational Conference in 1987, it states the Brotherhood’s mission in the United States plainly:

“The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ in all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is 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.”

In practical terms, this strategy aims to persuade and pressure American leaders—public, private, and cultural—to adopt and enforce a false, sanitized narrative about the Brotherhood and its doctrine. When subordinates (police, agents, service members, analysts) present inconvenient facts, leaders face a choice: admit they were misled or suppress the facts and the people presenting them. Accounts from practitioners suggest this suppression can hamper investigations and countermeasures—exactly what the memorandum calls “sabotaging Western civilization… by their hands.”

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Phased Plan

Documents from the same archive outline a stepwise approach modeled on Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones and the doctrine of incremental advance. An undated paper titled “Phases of the World Underground Movement Plan” describes five stages for North America:

Phase One: Quietly build and seat the leadership.

Phase Two: Emerge publicly and use a wide range of legitimate-seeming activities.
Claimed achievements: infiltration of government sectors; influence over religious institutions and senior scholars; winning public sympathy; establishing a shadow (secret) structure alongside government.

Phase Three: Escalate—especially through media influence—before open confrontation. (Described as underway.)

Phase Four: Open political confrontation and pressure. Prepare for armed conflict “at zero hour,” including training domestically and abroad.

Phase Five: Seize power to establish an Islamic state uniting parties and groups under one banner.

Taken together, these phases provide a road map—from quiet organization to overt pressure to power seizure—framed as lawful, gradual, and community-based until the movement judges itself strong enough to confront.

How the Plan Plays Out in Practice

Archival material and observed behavior point to recurring lines of effort the Brotherhood uses to advance a sharia-first program in the U.S.:

• Demographic expansion (birth rates, immigration) coupled with non-assimilation norms.
• Control of physical space (mosques, centers, schools) and expansion of influence zones.
• Internal discipline: ensuring the “Muslim community” follows Brotherhood guidance.
• Language control: policing how media, officials, and institutions describe the enemy and the doctrine.
• Doctrinal blackout: discouraging serious study of sharia by outsiders.
• Elite capture: co-opting key leaders in government, law enforcement, academia, finance, media, and faith communities.
• Local pressure campaigns to force de facto sharia compliance in enclaves and institutions.
• Obstructing counterterrorism efforts and officials who pursue them.
• Religious subversion: leveraging interfaith and institutional partnerships to neutralize criticism.
• Lawfare: aggressive use of lawsuits and legal threats to punish dissent and shape policy.
• Perpetual grievance: claiming victimization and demanding special accommodations.
• “Slander” alarms: denouncing critical scrutiny as defamation of Islam.
• Education capture: influencing K–12 and dominating Middle East studies programs.
• Parallel legal norms: pushing for sharia practices in segregated enclaves and recognition in broader civic life.
• Narrative confrontation: condemning Western laws and traditions while advocating replacement with sharia.

A common thread runs through these tactics: shape, pressure, and neutralize American decision-makers at every level, so that institutions carry the Brotherhood’s water—often without recognizing who filled the bucket.

Muslim Brotherhood Penetration of the U.S. Government: A Case Study

A clear example of how the Brotherhood’s phased plan can work in practice is the career of Abdurrahman Alamoudi, arguably the most influential Ikhwan figure in America during the 1990s. His story shows how sustained access to both Democratic and Republican power centers can be leveraged to shape policy and personnel.

Building Access in Washington

Alamoudi emigrated from Eritrea in 1979 and became a U.S. citizen in 1996. As founder and executive director of the American Muslim Council (AMC), and through leadership roles in nearly two dozen other Muslim organizations, he gained direct entry to the Clinton White House and senior officials.

• In 1995 he helped the administration and the ACLU draft the presidential guidance on “Religious Expression in Public Schools.”
• That same year he met with President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and later National Security Adviser Anthony Lake.
• In early 1996, Hillary Clinton published an op-ed drawn from AMC talking points, then asked AMC to assemble the guest list for a White House Ramadan reception.

Installing Gatekeepers: The Chaplain Pipeline

Alamoudi used his access to shape the Department of Defense Muslim Chaplain Program and served as a certifying authority through the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AMAFVAC). In 1993, DoD recognized AMAFVAC (and the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences) to endorse Muslim chaplains. From roughly 1993–1998, the Pentagon relied on Alamoudi’s recommendations.

One chaplain he backed, James Yee, was later arrested (2003) on allegations related to supporting jihadist detainees at Guantánamo. While Yee’s case ended without conviction, several uniformed and contractor linguists at Guantánamo were convicted on charges including mishandling classified material and espionage. The broader lesson: when gatekeeping is compromised, sensitive institutions become targets.

Reaching into GOP Circles

In 1998 Alamoudi provided seed funding (at least $20,000) that helped Republican activist Grover Norquist launch the Islamic Free Market Institute (Islamic Institute)—a platform to engage the Bush 2000 campaign. Alamoudi’s longtime deputy Khaled Saffuri became the Institute’s first executive director; Norquist chaired the board.

• On May 1, 2000, Alamoudi joined a group of Muslim leaders meeting Governor George W. Bush in Austin.
• Saffuri ran Muslim outreach for the Bush campaign.
• With Norquist’s help, activist Sami al-Arian secured a campaign pledge to oppose using classified evidence in immigration deportation cases—a priority for al-Arian, whose relative was detained on such grounds.

After the election, Suhail Khan, a board member of the Institute with longstanding ties to Brotherhood-linked organizations, became a key White House Office of Public Liaison contact, giving the network broader influence—especially after 9/11.

Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud

Alamoudi’s cover slipped at an October 2000 rally near the White House when he declared:

“I have been labeled… as being a supporter of Hamas. Anybody supporters of Hamas here? … We are all supporters of Hamas. I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah.”

Arrest, Conviction, and What It Revealed

In 2003, UK authorities arrested Alamoudi at Heathrow with $340,000 in cash from Muammar Qaddafi to help finance a plot (with two UK-based al-Qaeda operatives) to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Extradited to the U.S., Alamoudi pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to terrorism-related offenses, including moving at least $1 million to al-Qaeda. He was recorded praising terrorist groups and expressing the goal of Islamizing America. He is serving a 23-year federal sentence.

Before his fall, Alamoudi had:

• Advised the White House,
• Influenced DoD chaplaincy pipelines,
• Helped build GOP-side access channels.

Rather than prompt a full counterintelligence scrub, federal authorities transferred chaplain-endorsement responsibilities to ISNA—the largest Muslim Brotherhood umbrella in North America—deepening the vulnerability the case had exposed.

Bottom line: Without a candid understanding of sharia-centric influence tradecraft and a robust counterintelligence posture, the “next Alamoudi” is likely to cause greater damage, not less.

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