Dallas, TX – September 23, 2025 — Federal immigration authorities this week detained Marwan Marouf, a top official of the Muslim American Society (MAS) in Dallas, who AP reporting in 2002 described as a brother-in-law to Bayan Elashi, one of the Dallas businessmen later convicted in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing case. This arrest represents a significant win in the fight against militant Islamic influence in the United States — and a direct strike at the Hamas support networks that once made Dallas ground zero for Islamic financing.
According to immigration records, Marouf first entered the United States more than 30 years ago as an international student. He later married and raised a family in North Texas, and for over a decade, he pursued permanent legal residency through his employer. But those applications repeatedly stalled amid federal scrutiny of his charitable and organizational affiliations. On the very day of his detention, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services formally denied his green card petition — echoing prior findings that flagged his activities more than a decade earlier.
The arrest immediately triggered a coordinated response from the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), which rushed out a statement to its supporters lamenting Marouf’s detention and urging the community to mobilize.
“Our community was momentarily shaken by ICE’s pickup of our beloved brother, Marwan Marouf,” the group declared, framing the arrest as “shocking, disturbing, and unjust.” MLFA vowed to assemble a high-powered legal team, asked for “fierce and vocal support” at the right time, and claimed Marouf was targeted for “speaking truth to power” and “advocating for Palestine.”
The pushback wasn’t limited to MLFA. One of the most radical imams in Texas, Omar Suleiman, founder of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, rushed to defend Marouf, his close friend. Suleiman described him as the “heart of our community,” accused ICE of “abducting” him, and vowed to mobilize support. Suleiman’s involvement highlights the tight alliance between MAS and Texas’s Islamic leadership.
Family Ties to the Holy Land Foundation
But Marouf’s arrest is not just about his MAS role — it is explosive because of his deep family ties to Hamas’s U.S. support network and direct links to the most infamous terrorism-financing prosecution in American history.
According to Associated Press reporting during the 2002 Infocom arrests, Marouf was described as the brother-in-law of Bayan Elashi, one of the Dallas businessmen prosecuted alongside his brothers in the 2002 Infocom case. During those arrests, Marouf was publicly identified as a family spokesman, telling reporters the Elashis were being unfairly targeted and portraying the family as victims of government overreach.
That Infocom prosecution was no minor business case — it was the first major blow to Hamas’s U.S. network. In 2004–2005, all five Elashi brothers were convicted in federal court on charges ranging from illegal computer exports to Libya and Syria, to money laundering. Even more damning, prosecutors proved they conspired with Mousa Abu Marzook — Hamas’s political bureau chief and their own cousin by marriage.
U.S. Attorney Richard Roper warned at sentencing: “Those who knowingly violate the laws prohibiting any transactions with terrorist organizations can expect prosecution and lengthy incarceration.” Bayan received an 84-month prison sentence, Ghassan and Basman each received 80 months, Hazim received 66 months, and Ihsan received 72 months, while Infocom itself was convicted and placed on probation.
That case proved to be the prelude to the far more famous Holy Land Foundation prosecution just a few years later. Ghassan Elashi — already convicted in the Infocom trial — also served as chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). In 2008, he and four others were found guilty on 108 counts of funneling $12.4 million to Hamas under the guise of charity, in what remains the largest terrorism-financing trial in American history.
In other words, Marouf is directly tied by marriage to the Elashis — a family at the center of both the Infocom and Holy Land Foundation prosecutions. Put bluntly: Marouf isn’t just another MAS functionary. His household is connected to the convicted leadership of Hamas’s U.S. support network, and his presence during the Elashi arrests shows he has long been enmeshed in that orbit.
That revelation transforms Marouf’s detention from a routine immigration case into a decisive strike at the same Dallas-based Hamas infrastructure that federal prosecutors fought to dismantle nearly two decades ago.
The Holy Land Foundation convictions were no witch hunt. In 2008, all five leaders were found guilty on 108 counts of funneling $12.4 million to Hamas under the guise of charity. Sentences ranged from 15 to 65 years, and appeals were exhausted. Yet to this day, Islamic leaders and their Marxist allies rewrite history, claiming the HLF was an innocent aid group. From New York politicians like Zohran Mamdani to activist networks such as CAIR and American Muslims for Palestine, the Holy Land Five are celebrated as “humanitarians” and “political prisoners.” Even Omar Suleiman has called their convictions “one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.
That alliance was on full display the very night of Marouf’s detention, when MAS Dallas, which was built in a former Church, convened a rally branded “Grounding – Spiritual Night: Come Together for Marwan Maroof.” Far from a purely spiritual program, the event was carefully staged as a mobilization campaign. Organizers instructed attendees not to speak with the press, to use only approved hashtags, and to direct all inquiries through MAS’s media team — a textbook exercise in narrative control.
Suleiman headlined the gathering, calling Marouf a “pillar” and “the heart of our community.” He reminded the audience of their friendship, which had spanned more than thirty years, describing Marouf as one of the closest people in his life. That confession reveals just how personal this case is for Suleiman and underscores that Marouf was not a peripheral figure but a trusted confidant and ally. For federal authorities to detain Marouf is therefore more than just the removal of a MAS official — it is a direct strike at Omar Suleiman himself, one of the most radical and politically influential Islamic figures in America.
Suleiman urged the crowd to treat Marouf as a “political prisoner” and demanded that attendees “follow the instructions of the legal team” by showing up for vigils, signing petitions, and applying political pressure. He even invoked past cases such as the Holy Land Foundation and Aafia Siddiqui, known as Al-Qaeda, framing Marouf’s arrest as part of a broader campaign of persecution against Muslim activists.
But Suleiman was hardly alone. The rally became a who’s who of radical Texas Islamic leadership, including Ustadh Mohamad Baajour, senior imam at the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), itself under state investigation. As EPIC’s Director of Tarbiyyah, Baajour delivered a fiery defense, calling Marouf’s arrest a divine “test” and claiming his years in dawah had prepared him for this moment. Quoting Qur’anic verses, he assured the crowd that Marouf’s detention was decreed by Allah and promised he would soon walk back through their doors. His remarks elevated Marouf beyond a defendant, casting him as a martyr-like figure whose suffering was divinely ordained.
Instead of celebrating a long-overdue victory against Islamic extremism, Dallas’s local press bent over backwards to cast Marouf as a “beloved community leader,” playing to Texans’ sympathies while whitewashing his Brotherhood pedigree and family ties to Hamas.
But strip away the spin and excuses, and the reality becomes unavoidable: Marouf’s arrest isn’t about an upstanding neighbor torn from his community — it’s about the exposure of a Brotherhood hub hiding in plain sight.
Yet beneath the emotional rhetoric lies a deeper story. MAS, the organization Marouf leads in Dallas, has been repeatedly and extensively tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, militant Islam, and Islamic jihad.
The Muslim American Society: Brotherhood’s U.S. Arm
Founded in 1992, the Muslim American Society presents itself as a charitable, cultural, and educational nonprofit. But public statements from its own leaders, federal investigations, and testimony in terrorism trials have consistently identified MAS as a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood in America.
- In 2004, MAS Secretary General Shaker Elsayed admitted: “Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] members founded MAS.” He estimated that nearly half of MAS’s active members were members of the Brotherhood.
- A Chicago Tribune investigation (2004) confirmed the Brotherhood origins of MAS, noting that leaders such as Ahmad Elkadi and Mohammed Mahdi Akef (later head of the Egyptian Brotherhood) were instrumental in launching the group.
- During the Holy Land Foundation terror trial, FBI agents introduced evidence tying MAS founders and affiliates directly to Hamas’s U.S. support network.
In 2014, the United Arab Emirates designated MAS a terrorist organization, placing it in the same category as al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Brotherhood itself.
A Pattern of Extremism
Over three decades, MAS has repeatedly been linked to extremist rhetoric and activities:
- Its literature blames American foreign policy for the 9/11 attacks and frames terrorism as the “weapon of the weak.”
- A Minnesota MAS chapter website once hosted openly antisemitic content, urging Muslims not to befriend Jews or Christians and quoting hadiths calling for the killing of Jews at the end of days.
- MAS’s former communications director, Randall Royer, was arrested in 2003 for conspiring with the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
- Former MAS president Esam Omeish was caught on video in 2000 praising jihad as the way to “liberate Palestine,” and again in 2006, accusing Israel of “genocide” and denouncing the “Israeli war machine.”
The organization also runs youth indoctrination programs, Islamic schools, and nationwide imam councils designed to embed Brotherhood ideology into American communities. Even sympathetic Muslim scholars like Al-Husein Madhany have privately warned that MAS halaqas (study circles) pose a national security threat.
This radical echo chamber extends beyond MAS itself. Omar Suleiman — already at the center of Marouf’s defense — exemplifies how Brotherhood-aligned leaders in Texas wield both religious authority and political influence to shield their networks. His reaction to Marouf’s arrest was not an outlier but part of a long pattern: advancing Islamic supremacist narratives, glorifying convicted Hamas financiers like the Holy Land Five, and reframing counterterrorism prosecutions as “Islamophobia.” Together, these tactics have enabled the Brotherhood’s U.S. infrastructure to operate under the guise of charity, scholarship, and civil rights advocacy, while promoting the same ideological currents that animate MAS.
Why This Arrest Matters
By detaining Marwan Marouf, immigration officials have disrupted one of the Brotherhood’s key organizing hubs in Texas. Dallas has long been a strategic base for Islamic activism, home not only to MAS but also to the Islamic Association of North Texas, the Holy Land Foundation before it was shut down for terror financing, and numerous groups tied to Hamas’s U.S. infrastructure.
His arrest underscores that Dallas remains ground zero for Hamas’s U.S. network — and this time the strike has landed not only on MAS but directly within the personal circle of Omar Suleiman, one of the most radical and politically influential imams in America.
Analysts say the arrest sends a clear signal that federal agencies are again willing to act against Islamic terror networks after years of hesitation and political pressure to look the other way.
“This is not about a random community leader being targeted,” one counterterrorism researcher told RAIR Foundation. “This is about dismantling a well-documented arm of the Muslim Brotherhood that has spent decades spreading sharia supremacism under the cover of civil rights and charity.”
MLFA’s Coordinated Defense
The Muslim Legal Fund of America, which has long defended individuals tied to terror-related investigations, is spearheading Marouf’s legal strategy. In its statement, MLFA cast Marouf as a victim of systemic persecution, while calling on supporters to prepare for mobilization:
“We will also ask you to stand with us – strongly, fiercely, and vocally – when the time is right,” MLFA said, adding that “a chorus of support will be needed.”
Such rhetoric, experts note, mirrors past campaigns where Brotherhood-linked groups sought to portray arrests and investigations as “Islamophobic” targeting, rather than responses to documented national security concerns.
MLFA itself has a long history of championing the Holy Land Five, claiming they were imprisoned merely for “feeding orphans and widows in Palestine.” The group even platformed the daughter of convicted Hamas financier Mufid Abdulqader, turning her into a poster child for its legal campaigns. Their defense of Marouf follows the same tired formula — portraying convicted extremists as innocent victims of “Islamophobia.”
It is no coincidence that the same legal ecosystem now rallying around Marouf once mobilized in defense of the Holy Land Foundation defendants — some of whom were his own extended family by marriage.
MLFA has consistently defended high-profile figures linked to Hamas, the Brotherhood, and other militant Islamic entities. Their rapid intervention in Marouf’s case demonstrates how entrenched this legal shield has become — ensuring that terror-linked networks can resist accountability under the cover of civil rights litigation.
MLFA’s Troubling Track Record
But Marouf’s case is no anomaly. MLFA has a long and troubling history of rushing to the defense of extremists, including. The group played a central role in the legal defense of the Holy Land Foundation, the Hamas-linked Dallas charity shut down in the largest terror financing case in U.S. history. It has also intervened on behalf of figures such as Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Beyond individual cases, MLFA’s leadership has overlapped with groups like American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) — an organization accused of carrying Hamas’s ideology into the United States. Its radical antisemitic chairman, Hatem Bazian, openly champions AMP’s work while guiding MLFA’s litigation strategy.
Critics warn that MLFA’s formula is always the same: cast prosecutions as “Islamophobia,” ignore evidence of extremist ties, and build a legal shield that allows Brotherhood-linked networks to regroup and persist. Even watchdog groups like the Middle East Forum have accused MLFA of serving as a “terrorist defender,” while charity rating agencies have flagged the group for lack of transparency.
A Rare Counterterrorism Victory
For years, MAS has operated openly despite its Brotherhood pedigree and UAE terror designation, benefiting from political cover and alliances with left-wing activist groups. The detention of Marwan Marouf represents a rare but meaningful victory in the domestic fight against Islamic extremism. While MAS and MLFA seek to rally support, federal authorities appear determined to confront an organization that has, for decades, advanced the Brotherhood’s global vision: that “Islam is a total way of life” and that governments worldwide must ultimately submit to sharia law.
Bottom Line: Marouf’s detention is not the injustice MLFA claims. It is a decisive strike against a network with deep Brotherhood roots — one that stretches from his family ties to the Elashis of the Holy Land Foundation, to his decades-long alliance with Omar Suleiman, to MAS’s indoctrination projects in Dallas. And it comes at a time when radicals across the country — from CAIR to Omar Suleiman to Marxist Muslim politicians like Zohran Mamdani — are openly glorifying the Holy Land Five. Despite the cries of persecution, federal authorities have finally taken aim at an ideological infrastructure that has embedded itself in America under the guise of charity, faith, and civil rights.
