Civilization Jihad Comes to Florida: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Orlando Invasion

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Behind the glossy façade of interfaith dinners and cultural outreach, the Islamic Center of Orlando is systematically embedding Muslim Brotherhood ideology into Central Florida’s institutions, from churches and schools to universities, as part of a broader campaign of civilization jihad.

Right between the Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios lies Buena Vista — a postcard-perfect stretch of Central Florida filled with planned communities, golf courses, shopping centers, and luxury hotels. But tucked inside this tourist paradise is the Islamic Center of Orlando (ICO) — a mosque that projects an image of “diversity” and “interfaith” unity while quietly advancing a far more ambitious mission: civilization jihad.

For more than a decade, ICO has used its high-profile “interfaith” iftar dinners, public school outreach, political appearances, and university partnerships to expand its influence in Orlando. It has hosted speakers who celebrate terrorist massacres, built ties with Muslim Brotherhood–linked organizations, and worked to embed Islamic influence in local institutions. Beneath the public relations charm is a documented pattern: advancing Islam’s political agenda in Central Florida by any means necessary.

Interfaith Iftar Dinners – The Trojan Horse of Orlando’s DEI Machine 

In Orlando’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) playbook, few events get more fanfare than “interfaith” dinners. These gatherings are presented as warm, welcoming evenings where people of different faiths share food and learn about one another. At the 2019 interfaith iftar, Orlando’s DEI Senior Specialist Tony Rodriguez proudly read a statement from Mayor Dyer celebrating that “the Muslim community has grown tenfold in the last 10 years.”

But “interfaith” only works if respect flows both ways. At the Islamic Center of Orlando (ICO), it doesn’t.

In recent years, the guest list has narrowed to mostly Christians. Jewish representation has quietly disappeared, and Hindus have never been invited to speak. Is it any surprise? India and Israel are both on the front lines fighting Islamic terrorism, and ICO has a history of giving its pulpit to men who cheerlead for it.

Take Sam Hamdi, a radical UK Islamic activist. On October 18, 2023, just eleven days after Hamas slaughtered, raped, and kidnapped civilians in Israel, Hamdi stood in a London mosque telling the crowd to “celebrate the victory.” He asked, “How many of you felt it in your hearts when you got the news? How many of you felt the euphoria?”

Three months later, ICO brought him to Orlando. This is the moral standard behind the “interfaith” mask, a willingness to host and legitimize a man who publicly glorified terrorism.

The disrespect doesn’t stop there. At ICO’s dinners, Christians have been told Islam is “mentioned in the Bible”—a falsehood that distorts Scripture to promote Islam’s supremacy. On its own website, in the “Top 40 Questions About Islam” section, ICO teaches that Muhammad is descended from Ishmael, that Abraham built the Kaaba in Mecca, and that Jesus was never crucified but instead was “raised into Heaven.” Each of these claims directly contradicts the Bible’s historical record and core Christian doctrine.

ICO also misuses Matthew 21:42–43, where Jesus quotes Psalm 118 and applies it to Himself as the “rejected cornerstone.” In Christian teaching, this cornerstone is Jesus Christ, the foundation of God’s kingdom (Acts 4:11–12; 1 Peter 2:6–8). ICO twists the passage into a prophecy about Muhammad and the rise of Islam, something the text itself never supports.

This is not interfaith dialogue; it’s theological subversion. As RAIR Foundation USA has documented, Islamic propagandists often reframe Jesus to fit Islam’s narrative: erasing His crucifixion, denying His divinity, and inserting Muhammad into Christian Scripture to position Islam as the final and superior faith.

And Imam Tariq Rasheed, instead of speaking about shared values, lamented that Muslims hadn’t bought a local church before it went on the market.

This is not bridge-building, it’s conquest dressed up as community engagement. ICO’s plans reflect that ambition: a 24,000-square-foot mosque, a Pre-K through 8th grade school, an 18,000-square-foot sports complex, and a 22,000-square-foot community center. And when churches come up for sale, they’re on the wish list too. Just 12 miles away, ICO’s Windermere Musallah is already lined up for expansion.

ICO & the Muslim Students Association: Embedding Islamic Networks in Academia

The Islamic Center of Orlando’s reach extends well beyond interfaith dinners and mosque expansions. One of its most important fronts is academia. For decades, ICO has worked hand-in-hand with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the University of Central Florida (UCF), giving the mosque direct influence over how Islam is presented to tens of thousands of students.

The MSA: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Student Army

The MSA is not simply a student club. Founded in 1963 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, it was the Brotherhood’s first organization in North America. From the beginning, its stated mission has been to spread Islam on campus, recruit young Muslims into the Brotherhood’s orbit, and prepare them for leadership roles in America’s political, cultural, and religious institutions.

Over the decades, the MSA has produced generations of Islamist leaders, including the founders of major Brotherhood fronts such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). FBI documents introduced at the Holy Land Foundation trial confirmed MSA’s direct connection to the Brotherhood’s “civilization jihad” strategy in the United States. In other words, the MSA is the Brotherhood’s pipeline — and ICO is its local partner in Orlando.

At UCF, MSA members are fixtures at ICO’s interfaith iftar dinners and public events. But their reach goes far deeper. The MSA is directly tied to the Islamic Studies program at UCF, a program ICO has carefully cultivated for over twenty years.

IIIT: Funding and Indoctrination Through Academia

In 2005, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) — a Muslim Brotherhood think tank based in Virginia — pledged to match donations to fund an Islamic Studies chair at UCF. The project was spearheaded by ICO’s Imam Tariq Rasheed, Safia Ansari, and Professor Husain Kassim through the Al-Ghazali Educational Foundation.

On paper, the goal was to promote the academic study of Islam. In reality, IIIT’s agenda has nothing to do with scholarship and everything to do with indoctrination. IIIT has been repeatedly identified as a Brotherhood front with ties to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). PIJ leader Dr. Bashir Nafi himself worked for IIIT until his deportation in 1996.

IIIT’s own writings make its mission explicit. In its programmatic document, “Islamization of Knowledge, General Principles and Work Plan,”

They can subvert his mind, convert him to their worldview, neutralize and contain him as a puppet, whether he is aware of it or not. … It is the decision of Muslims today whether Islam will be the victor tomorrow, whether Muslims will be the makers of history or merely the objects.

This is not religious education; it is weaponized ideology. Through UCF, ICO, and IIIT have built a beachhead inside Florida’s largest university, using the language of scholarship to advance the Brotherhood’s political project.

Taxpayer Funded Expansion 

The strategy does not end at UCF. ICO and the MSA have extended their reach to other local colleges, including Valencia College, where ICO’s Imam Sykes was invited to speak at an “Islamic Awareness Week.” That event, like many others, was publicly funded through student development fees. Once again, taxpayer dollars were used to platform Brotherhood-linked ideology under the guise of cultural education..

Why This Matters

When parents send their children to college, they expect academic rigor, not Islamic propaganda bankrolled by Muslim Brotherhood fronts. Yet through the MSA, IIIT, and the ICO, Central Florida’s universities are being quietly repurposed as vehicles for civilization jihad. What begins as an “interfaith dinner” or a “student awareness week” is in fact part of a much larger strategy: reshaping American institutions from within.

Orlando’s MSA & the Muslim Brotherhood

Central Florida has long been a center for the Muslim Brotherhood (and even moreso, south Florida). In 2009, Masjid Al-Rahman in Orlando, a mosque with direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood via the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), was found to have provided financial support to terrorist organizations through George Galloway, a known Hamas fundraiser. In fact, Galloway appears directly on video at the Al-Rahman mosque with Imam Mahdi Bray. In the same video, Galloway is seen just three months prior to the event with Hamas leader, Ahmed al-Kurd.

Imam Mahdi Bray is also seen with a terrorist in the same video. In Washington DC on October 28, 2000, he’s seen alongside convicted terrorist Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi. Al-Amoudi was the former head of the American Muslim Council, who was convicted of financial fraud as well as various illegal financial activities with the government of Libya. As part of his plea deal, he also admitted to participating in the Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

Given Florida’s long-standing ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, it’s no wonder that in 2010, the MSA at the University of Central Florida invited Jamal Badawi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, and co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial:

Radical & Terrorist-Linked Imams Invited by ICO & MSA

Last year’s event featuring Sami Hamdi wasn’t the only time the Islamic Center of Orlando has been involved in inviting radical, and sometimes downright criminal, speakers to their sponsored events. In 2019, ICO invited Sheikh Wisam Sharieff from Texas:

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because he was one of two people charged in a child pornography case in November of 2024. One of his students was charged with 10 counts of production of pornography with minors, 10 counts of dissemination of child pornography, and 3 counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12.

The woman charged, Blake Barakat, told investigators that Sharieff told her “achieving an orgasm would help her spiritually and allow her to communicate with Allah better.” The tip received by the Alabama Department of Human Resources was made by Sharieff’s own wife, after she found explicit videos on his phone of Barakat and a child she recognized.

Chief Deputy Clay Hammac said it was,

one of the most difficult and egregious cases [The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office] has been forced to investigate in quite some time.

While various other organizations, including AlMaghrib Institute, where Sharieff worked, issued public statements expressing shock and condemnation for the alleged crimes, the Islamic Center of Orlando remained conspicuously quiet. No public statements could be found anywhere on their social media.

Did they forget they invited him? What if he hurt a child while he was a guest of the ICO?

Although you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more horrible guest than Sheikh Wisam Sharieff, the ICO-linked Muslim Students Association at University of Central Florida has certainly had their share of honorable mentions. In 2011, the MSA invited unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Imam Siraj Wahhaj.

Siraj Wahhaj’s involvement supporting terrorism isn’t simply a matter of being a character witness for the Blind Sheikh. He has a long history of supporting terrorists. In fact, later that very year, he attended a fundraiser in Massachusetts for Aafia Siddiqui, also known as “Lady Al-Qaeda,” who was sentenced to 86 years for attempting to kill American officers in Afghanistan. 

During his time speaking at the MSA event, Wahhaj was asked if he would denounce Hamas, Al-Qaeda, and specifically Osama Bin Laden. The question was asked because he has a long-standing history of not condemning Osama Bin Laden. He did not answer the question, and instead began lamenting at his classification as an unindicted co-conspirator of the World Trade Center bombing.

This event, like the event at Valencia College, was paid for by public funding – including his speaking fee and resources such as security. 

ICO & Islamic Relief

On several occasions, the Islamic Center of Orlando has worked directly with Islamic Relief USA for various programs. Despite Islamic Relief Worldwide’s global ties to terrorism and various bans around the world, astonishingly, the American branch continues its work.

Islamic Relief is known for their direct support of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood; it is well-documented over the course of many years. Some of this documentation includes:

However none of that matters to the Islamic Center of Orlando. From seminars to Halal food fests, they happily work with Islamic Relief. After all, they seem to share Sami Hamdi’s sentiment in the “euphoria” of the October 7th attacks.

The Interfaith Abuse

Masjid Al-Rahman, as previously mentioned, was caught financing terrorist groups such as Hamas. But equally as interesting is the hierarchy it is a part of. Masjid Al-Rahman is part of the Islamic Center of Central Florida; the Islamic Center of Central Florida is still run by Imam Muhammad Musri, as it was back in 2009.

Musri was previously the co-chairman of the Interfaith Council of Central Florida, where he still remains as a member. Like the Islamic Center of Orlando, Musri’s interest in interfaith seems to be only for the benefit of Islam. 

In the “inclusive” spirit of interfaith, Musri is seen on video in June of 2024 stating the following about Christians:

They are not impressed anymore by the dogma that someone 2,000 years ago was crucified for their sins. They are searching for something that is more meaningful, that is consistent with science and consistent with the principles that we know today. Islam is the answer for them, and we are jumping on the opportunities.

More meaningful than Jesus Christ dying for our sins? Yes, these are the “respectful” words of an interfaith council member. After boasting over how many churches they have bought, he decided to further show just how much respect he has for Christianity with the following statement:

The people who are part of that community, one day will be Muslims. So we will make it into a mosque and an Islamic school for our children and their children, inshallah. A hundred years ago they invaded the Muslim world, and they built missionary schools and destroyed Islamic schools and mosques. Today, we bring back the favor back and turn their churches into mosques, and their schools into Islamic schools, and bring the light of Islam to here.

This is what the interfaith movement is truly about for Islam. As we’ve seen by statements from the Islamic Center of Orlando and the Islamic Center of Central Florida, what they preach to the public and what they preach to Muslims are two very different things.

From ICO’s deceptive “interfaith” outreach to its academic infiltration, radical guest speakers, terrorist-linked partners, and Brotherhood networks, the pattern is undeniable: this is not about diversity or dialogue. It is about conquest. Orlando’s leaders, churches, and citizens must decide whether they will continue to be props in ICO’s civilization jihad — or whether they will finally confront it for what it is.