PHILADELPHIA – July 21, 2025 – The Middle East Forum (MEF) has published a landmark study of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant programs, uncovering over $25 million in appropriations to radical nonprofit organizations, many with documented links to foreign terrorist groups, between 2013 and 2024.
Written by Benjamin Baird and Anna Stanley, “Homeland Insecurity: Unraveling DHS Funding of Terror-Linked and Extremist Groups,” profiles DHS grant recipients with ties to Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Jamaat-e-Islami, the Nation of Islam, and Islamist dictatorships such as Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Taxpayer dollars went to Dar al-Hijrah in Virginia and the Islamic Center of San Diego, which have documented histories of hosting terrorists, including 9/11 hijackers.
Abuses of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Nonprofit Security Grant Program shed light on current efforts to dramatically reform the agency’s operations. MEF’s study found that Islamists traditionally use social welfare and public services to recruit and radicalize new followers, and FEMA grants could subsidize similar indoctrination programs.
Misused FEMA grants intended by Congress to supply houses of worship with security alarms, cameras, and even armed guards include:
- $750,000 to radical mosques in Michigan and Texas that are outposts for Iran’s revolutionary brand of Shi’a Islamism
- $250,000 to the Hamas-aligned Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
- $375,000 to the Islamic Society of Baltimore, a mosque and community center previously under FBI surveillance
Other examples of DHS’s radicalism:
- $10.3 million in disaster relief following Hurricane Harvey in 2017 went to the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), accused of operating as the American wing of the violent South Asian Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami.
- $1.2 million from the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program went to groups like Muflehun, a counter-extremism nonprofit tied to Muslim Brotherhood legacy organizations. Established under Obama to deradicalize extremists and prevent terrorist attacks, CVE instead funded Islamists.
Homeland Insecurity, the latest MEF audit of government spending programs, comes amid steep federal spending cuts and efficiency reforms targeting politically-charged bureaucratic agencies. MEF’s February study of foreign aid at the U.S. Agency for International Development resulted in congressional oversight hearings and a recissions package that is set to cut $9 billion in international assistance funds.
“Taxpayer dollars intended to fight extremism and protect vulnerable communities were allocated to the very extremists such programs were intended to stop,” said Baird, director of MEF Action.
“The Middle East Forum will keep exposing government waste, fraud, and abuse, ensuring that taxpayer dollars meant for safety don’t end up funding intolerance or worse,” said MEF executive director Gregg Roman. “We will continue investigating federal grantmaking and urging government reforms until every last dollar is stripped from radical and terror-linked organizations.”
The Middle East Forum, a non-profit organization founded in 1994 by Daniel Pipes, promotes American interests and Western values in the Middle East. MEF accomplishes its mission through intellectual and activist efforts. For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
