Muslim group lied about tie to school in jihad video

The Muslim American Society, which was founded by Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the United States, insisted last week it had nothing to do with the Philadelphia school attended by children shown in a video lip-syncing a song and reading poems that called for beheading and torturing Israelis.

The statement described the school as "a separate entity renting space from MAS Philadelphia."

But the school's name is MAS Leaders Academy, as in Muslim American Society, and it was incorporated by the person who also incorporated MAS Philadelphia, the Investigative Project on Terrorism discovered.

In fact, the video that stirred controversy after its contents were translated from Arabic to English by the Middle East Media Research Institute school had been posted by MAS Philadelphia on its official Facebook page.

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WND reported earlier Wednesday that several Muslim leaders in Philadelphia say their mosques have received threatening phone calls in response to the video.

One girl in the Philadelphia video, according to MEMRI's translation, reads, "We will defend the land of divine guidance with our bodies, and we will sacrifice our souls without hesitation.

"We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque. We will lead the army of Allah fulfilling His promise, and we will subject them to eternal torture."

Something to hide?

IPT found that while MAS Philadelphia has existed since at least 2003, it filed new articles of incorporation April 25 under the name Muslim American Society of Phila Inc. The records and the Leaders Academy corporate records were filed by the same person, an accountant named Amro Azazi.

Also, MAS Philadelphia and the Leaders Academy share the same mailing address, and at least two officers, Naser Khatib and Jehad Salem.

IPT said MAS is acting like it has something to hide. Along with the Ummah Day video, it removed from its social media sites all MAS Leaders Academy videos, including a graduation ceremony.

The entire MAS Philadelphia Facebook page was down Wednesday.

Former MAS secretary-general Shaker Elsayed acknowledged in 2004 that his organization was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which aims to see America governed by Islamic law, or Shariah.

At the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial, the FBI presented a personal phonebook that listed the MAS founders as Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the United States.

And like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the United Arab Emirates designated MAS a terrorist organization.

The Egypt-based Brotherhood is devoted to Israel's destruction, and it Palestinian spinoff, Hamas, declares that to be its reason for existence.

IPT observed: "In that light, the songs in the Ummah Day video are not wildly out of step with a Brotherhood-linked group."

A former MAS president, Esam Omeish, IPT noted, once praised "our brothers and sisters" in Palestine, saying for "you have known that the Jihad way is the way to liberate your land."

The 2000 speech came during the height of the second intifada, which was dominated by a wave of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians.

MAS, years later, hosted radical Egyptian cleric Ragheb Elsergany at its annual conference co-organized by the Islamic Circle of North America after Elsergany told a previous conference that it's a duty "for all Muslims to liberate all of Palestine from the North to the South, from Al Quds to the sea, it's a duty for all Muslims to liberate one complete full land of Palestine. It's not just about liberating Al Quds. It's all occupied!"