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Title: August 16, 2025

GRAY ZONE BRIEF 16 AUGUST 2025

The Gathering Storm Community Threat Picture: August 9, 2025

FBI ARRESTS MAN RADICALIZED NY ISIS

• Mark Lorenzo Villanueva, a 28-year-old lawful permanent resident from the Philippines residing in Long Beach, Calif., was arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

• Villanueva allegedly sent 12 payments totaling $1,615 over five months to two intermediaries who accessed the funds overseas, with intentions to support ISIS fighters’ activities, including equipment and weapons.

• Villanueva used social media to communicate with two individuals claiming to be ISIS fighters, expressing his desire to join and fight for ISIS, stating, “It’s an honor to fight and die for our faith. It’s the best way to go to heaven.”

• During the arrest, FBI agents recovered from Villanueva’s bedroom what appeared to be a homemade bomb, loaded with ball bearings and wrapped in cellophane with red and black wires, along with knives.

DHS HAS BEEN FUNDING TERRORISM: NEW REPORT

July 21, 2025

The Middle East Forum just released a report documenting $25 million in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding that went to terror-supporting groups associated with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Executive Summary

This Middle East Forum (MEF) report analyzes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants awarded to terror-linked and extremist organizations. According to this study, DHS authorized (https://meforumm-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/stanley_meforum_org/ETid4hb5EJpFohgde1JZ3O8B8II5JavAEBVO_fkHVsbyTA?rtime=T18Z7JfI3Ug  over $25 million between 2013 and 2023 to radical groups, many with documented links to foreign terrorist organizations.

The funding was distributed through three DHS spending programs, with the majority originating from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). Based on this review, DHS grant beneficiaries seemingly share a common ideological heritage with groups like the Taliban, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Hamas, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The DHS grants that are the focus of this study were intended for nonprofit security, disaster relief, and countering violent extremism programs. These grants were awarded to mosques, Islamic schools, charities, civil rights nonprofits, and political advocacy groups. According to this study, an alarming number of these Islamic institutions display signs of religious extremism, with many linked to international terrorist groups, Islamist regimes, and foreign extremist movements.

Key Findings:

• Between 2013 and 2023, DHS allocated a total of $25,070,511.74 was allocated to organizations identified as having ideological links to Islamist sects and foreign extremist movements.

• Grants were issued to groups connected to the Muslim Brotherhood (https://web.archive.org/web/20240416132455/https:/www.chicagotribune.com/2004/09/19/a-rare-look-at-secretive-brotherhood-in-america/), Hezbollah (https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hezbollah-question-hangs-over-lebanese-voting-us), Jamaat-e-Islami (https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/catalogue-of-icna-links-to-jamaat-e-islami), the Nation of Islam, (https://thenationsmosque.org/about/) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (https://www.state.gov/state-sponsors-of-terrorism/). DHS grants funded organizations whose leaders have expressed antisemitic views, support for terrorist groups, and calls for violence against the West and Israel. Several recipients, such as Dar al-Hijrah and the Islamic Center of San Diego, have documented histories of hosting terrorists (https://www.kpbs.org/news/midday-edition/2011/09/06/retracing-story-911-hijackers-san-diego), including 9/11 hijackers (https://ctc.westpoint.edu/anwar-al-awlaqi-profile-of-a-jihadi-radicalizer/).

• DHS allocated $750,000 to mosques suspected of operating on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran or its proxies, including the Islamic Center of America (https://www.memri.org/jttm/islamic-center-america-held-memorial-service-hizbullah-operative) and the Islamic House of Wisdom (https://www.memri.org/reports/dearborn-heights-michigan-islamic-scholar-hussain-al-nashed-says-irans-islamic-revolution) near Detroit, Michigan, and the Islamic Ahlul Bayt Association (https://www.meforum.org/fwi/fwi-research/texas-state-government-gives-13-million-to-islamist-mosques-and-community-groups#islamic-ahlul-bayt-association-2) in Austin, Texas. Iran faces strict sanctions as a U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism, raising serious concerns over the funding of potential foreign-controlled religious institutions.

• The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Relief received the largest appropriations, totaling $10,346,248 in disaster relief funding despite its ties to Jamaat-e-Islami (https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/catalogue-of-icna-links-to-jamaat-e-islami), a South Asian Islamist movement involved in a 1971 genocide (https://www.aei.org/op-eds/designate-bangladeshs-jamaat-e-islami-as-a-foreign-terrorist-organization/) against secular intellectuals in Bangladesh that killed up to 3 million people. Jamaat-e-Islami’s militant wing, Hizbul Mujahideen (https://uplopen.com/reader/chapters/pdf/10.1515/9783839475478-039), is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization (https://in.usembassy.gov/state-department-terrorist-designation-hizbul-mujahideen/).

• A significant portion of DHS spending is allocated through FEMA under the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/nonprofit-security) (NSGP), which grants money to religious nonprofits for physical security improvements. These funds are not just available to houses of worship, which are historically vulnerable to mass shootings and hate crimes, but to extremist political advocacy groups and charities.

• DHS has allocated $3,375,266 in Countering Violent Extremism (https://meforumm.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/ESxLJcGZmkZGi_KVRsRJgF0BFuJtC3olcIxPXrejBfTJ_w?e=5yTF3s) (CVE) funding to radical organizations. Islamist groups that instigate political violence through dehumanizing or supremacist rhetoric have not only received millions of dollars in DHS funding to help fight extremism; these groups helped establish and shape the government’s deradicalization program (https://meforumm.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/ESxLJcGZmkZGi_KVRsRJgF0BFuJtC3olcIxPXrejBfTJ_w?e=wYNTU5).

This study highlights serious concerns regarding the allocation of federal Homeland Security funds to terror-linked groups and extremists. While these grants were authorized for seemingly benign purposes—security, counter-extremism, and disaster relief—the beneficiaries’ ties to designated terrorist entities and violent Islamist movements raise urgent questions about oversight and accountability in DHS funding programs.

Examples: Al Furqaan Foundation

The Al Furqaan Foundation (https://furqaan.org/) “was established in 2003 with the mission to deliver the message of the Quran to every individual in America.” Based in Illinois, Al Furqaan operates a conglomerate of mosques, education initiatives, bookstores, missionary programs, and even a private K-12 school (https://www.furqaanacademy.org/). In 2022, the foundation was allocated (https://meforumm-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/stanley_meforum_org/ETid4hb5EJpFohgde1JZ3O8B8II5JavAEBVO_fkHVsbyTA?e=kODOMt&wdLOR=c2ED79AD7-F8FE-428D-AE89-2AC36589D3D3)$247,013 in a pair of DHS security grants.

In addition to the federal government, Al Furqaan collects money from at least one foreign government source: Qatar, a gas-rich Gulf emirate known for propagating Islamism (https://www.meforum.org/fwi/fwi-news/qatar-continues-to-support-islamism-abroad-germanys-bungling-response) around the world. In March 2022, a

Focus on Western Islamism report (https://islamism.news/research/investigations/qatar-subsidizing-radicalization-threat-in-u-s-prisons/) from MEF revealed how the RAF Foundation in Doha granted Al Furqaan a shipment of Qurans valued at $1.6 million. These Islamic texts may have been intended for distribution in U.S. prisons, where Al Furqaan runs a sophisticated missionary and chaplaincyprogram (https://islamism.news/research/investigations/qatar-subsidizing-radicalization-threat-in-u-s-prisons/). Al Furqaan’s goal is to distribute “the Message of the Quran” to “every non-Muslim man, woman, and child in America” and “to reach every prison in America.”

Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family runs the RAF Foundation, an Al-Qaeda-linked charity whose “members,” according to the Counter-Extremism Project, are connected to “internationally sanctioned individuals” accused (https://www.counterextremism.com/sites/default/files/2021-06/Qatar%2520Money%2520and%2520Terror_060421.pdf) of funneling money to U.S.-designated terrorist groups in Somalia and Syria, despite the Qatari government denying such aid.

Sheikh Omar Baloch, once listed as a scholar-in-residence (https://web.archive.org/web/20210227035221/https:/www.mehdi-institute.com/) at Al Furqaan Foundation, has a history of promoting conspiratorial and inflammatory rhetoric. He has falsely claimed (https://www.jns.org/israel-created-and-controls-isis-says-chicago-islamic-scholar/) that ISIS operates in regions “running a Zionist agenda for Greater Israel,” echoing antisemitic conspiracy theories that blame Jews for global instability. Baloch has also suggested t (https://www.meforum.org/islamist-warns-muslims-to-arm-themselves)hat Jews were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a claim frequently used by extremists to deflect blame from Islamist terrorists. Delivering a Friday sermon (https://www.memri.org/tv/american-islamic-scholar-omar-baloch-israel-disorder-world-behest-bankers-world-war-iii) in 2024 at the affiliated Masjid Al Furqaan in Chicago, Baloch said that “whatever Israel is doing today must also involve the bankers.”

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) presents itself (https://www.cair.com/civil_rights/cair-civil-rights/) as a Muslim civil rights organization, but its track record tells a different story. Founded (https://www.investigativeproject.org/621/cair-exposed-part-1-cair-origins) by individuals linked to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a known propaganda arm of Hamas, CAIR has long been dogged by allegations of extremist connections. Federal prosecutors named (https://www.meforum.org/reconsider-cair-status?) CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism financing case in U.S. history. That same year, the FBI severed ties (https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2013/e0707r-summary.pdf) with the group, citing concerns over its relationship with Hamas.

Despite this, CAIR has continued to receive substantial government funding. Records show that the organization was appropriated (https://meforumm-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/stanley_meforum_org/ETid4hb5EJpFohgde1JZ3O8B8II5JavAEBVO_fkHVsbyTA?e=kODOMt&wdLOR=c2ED79AD7-F8FE-428D-AE89-2AC36589D3D3) a total of $245,324 in DHS security grants to its national office in Washington, D.C., as well as CAIR branches in Florida and Los Angeles.

In July 2014, CAIR-Florida co-sponsored (https://imgur.com/2tjT5iX) an anti-Israel protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Miami, where demonstrators repeatedly chanted (https://legalinsurrection.com/2014/07/miami-anti-israel-rally-jews-remember-khaybar-the-army-of-muhammad-is-returning/), “We are Hamas,” “Let’s go Hamas,” and “Hamas kicked your ass.” Hussam Ayloush, the director of CAIR-Los Angeles, is known for his antisemitic screeds, such as comparing (https://www.jns.org/cairs-los-angeles-leader-israel-does-not-have-right-to-defend-itself/) Israel to “Nazi Germany” and claiming that the country “does not have the right to defend itself.”

In recent months, these federally-funded CAIR chapters have found themselves increasingly shut out from government partnerships. In December 2023, the White House publicly disavowed (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/us/politics/white-house-cair-nihad-awad.html) CAIR after the group’s founder and longtime director Nihad Awad was recorded saying that he “was happy to see” the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. Two months later, the Florida House (https://www.meforum.org/florida-house-passes-bill-slamming-hamas-linked)passed a resolution urging all state and local agencies to suspend contact with CAIR, joining legislatures in Arkansas (https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=/Bills/2019R/Public/HR1006.pdf) and Louisiana that passed similar measures. In California, CAIR went unlisted for the first time from an annual resolution (https://www.meforum.org/islamist-organizations-stripped-from-california) commemorating Muslim American achievements, reflecting mounting disillusionment with the group’s extremist rhetoric and terrorism links.

CAIR’s notoriety extends to the international community. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates formally designated (https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-group-cair-named-terrorist-organization-by-united-arab-emirates) CAIR as a terrorist organization, grouping it alongside Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Taliban. At least seven CAIR officials (https://www.meforum.org/is-cair-a-terror-group-4899) have been arrested, convicted, or deported for terrorism-related crimes. Ghassan Elashi, a former CAIR-Texas board member, is serving out a 65-year sentence (https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/federal-judge-hands-downs-sentences-holy-land-foundation-case) for funneling $12 million to Hamas.

Most recently, the nonpartisan Intelligent Advocacy Network filed a complaint (https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/5c6132a7-a4c3-4713-8512-6ffec7715f01/downloads/6929598e-6274-433b-bb6b-fabf938bca29/IAN%2520FINAL%2520COMPLAINT%25203.13.25.pdf?ver=1742197765916) with the Department of Justice alleging that CAIR-California misappropriated $7.2 million in taxpayer funds intended for refugee resettlement. Weeks earlier, CAIR settled a lawsuit (https://nypost.com/2025/02/28/us-news/hamas-linked-organization-cair-inc-wont-reveal-where-their-funding-is-coming-from/) brought by a former employee after a judge ruled that the nonprofit must reveal its sources of foreign funding.

In upcoming briefs, GZB will highlight where the HQs, compounds and mosques of these radical Islamist organizations are located — they are all over the U.S. Americans have a right to know where threats exist.

Pray.

Train.

Stay informed.

Build resilient communities.

—END REPORT