Excerpt:
Marilyn Stern, a Masters candidate at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, has written an extensive report of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) recent counter-terrorism paper, "Building Bridges to Strengthen America." Her critiques of and response to the MPAC can be found here.
From the abstract:
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is a U.S. Islamic advocacy organization that aims to inform decision makers and shape public opinion. MPAC's political influence upon U.S. government agencies has given MPAC access to the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and the Treasury Department, as well as members of Congress. Recently, MPAC addressed law enforcement representatives at a counterterrorism conference in Southern California on "Muslim American Perspective on Radicalization." Although MPAC professes support for U.S. counterterrorism initiatives, it has a consistent history of putting law enforcement on the defensive by claiming civil rights violations in the Muslim community. MPAC's critique of law enforcement initiatives, as well as its defense of Islamist organizations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, should motivate decision makers to examine MPAC's objectives with a greater degree of scrutiny.