Major U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Leader Mohammed Al-Hanooti Dies

Mohammad Al-Hanooti, a major leader in the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, has died, according to funeral arrangement announcements released by Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Va. Al-Hanooti was an un-indicted co-conspirator in both the 2008 Holy Land Foundation Hamas Financing Trial and the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing plot. Hanooti was a member of the Palestine Committee, of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, which was established in order to support Hamas. As part of his role on the Palestine Committee, Hanooti was president of the Islamic Association Palestine (IAP). According to a 2001 FBI Memo, Hanooti had helped to raise $6 million for Hamas-linked entities.  Hanooti was also caught on a wiretap discussing raising funds for the defense of Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook. Hanooti was also a member of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and his Virginia office was located next door to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), and Muslim American Society (MAS),which Hanooti was the prayer leader at the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque, until 2000, when he was replaced by the now late Al Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki. Hanooti would come to be described as the Mufti of the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Hanooti was also an attendee of the 1993 Philadelphia Meeting, where Palestine Committee members discussed supporting Hamas, and discussed the establishment of an organization which would eventually become the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The passing of Al-Hanooti is a reminder that a changing of the guard is underway regarding the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. Increasingly the early members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, such as Al-Hanooti, and others like Maher Hathout, are aging and passing away. As we get further away from the generation that produced the Muslim Brotherhood documents submitted in the Holy Land Foundation Trial, it will require increased effort to identify and track younger U.S. Brotherhood members. These younger Brothers will have risen to prominence with newly established organizations during a period where they were accustom to the risk of surveillance of their radical activities that the earlier generation had not experienced. As a result open source researchers into the Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. networks will need to redouble their own efforts.