The Society of the Muslim Brothers, better known as the Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties.
The Al-Azhar University is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic learning. In addition to higher education, Al-Azhar oversees a national network of schools with approximately two million students. As of 1996, over 4,000 teaching institutes in Egypt were affiliated with the university.
Islam is the dominant religion in Egypt, with approximately 90% of Egyptians identifying as Muslims. The majority of Egyptian Muslims are adherents of Sunni Islam, while a small minority adhere to Shia Islam. Since 1980, Islam has served as Egypt's state religion. Due to the lack of a religious census, owing to the alleged undercounting of non-Muslim minorities in Egyptian censuses, the actual percentage of Muslims is unknown; the percentage of Egyptian Christians, who are the second-largest religious group in the country, is estimated to be between 6% and 11% of the population.
Asra Quratulain Nomani is an Indian American journalist and author. Born in India to Muslim parents, she earned a BA from West Virginia University in liberal arts in 1986 and an MA from the American University in international communications in 1990. She subsequently worked as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal with her colleague Daniel Pearl in Pakistan post-9/11. Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamist terrorists while following an investigative lead. Nomani later became the co-director of the Pearl Project, a faculty-student investigative-reporting project which has looked into Pearl's murder.
Muzammil H. Siddiqi is an Indian-American Muslim writer who has been on the faculty of Chapman University.
The Middle East Institute (MEI) is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank and cultural centre in Washington, D.C., founded in 1946. It seeks to "increase knowledge of the Middle East among the United States citizens and promote a better understanding between the people of these two areas."
Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center is a mosque in Northern Virginia. It is located in the Seven Corners area of unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
The 1977 Hanafi Siege was a terrorist attack, hostage-taking, and standoff in Washington, D.C., lasting from March 9 to March 11, 1977. Three buildings were seized by twelve Hanafi Movement gunmen, who took 149 hostages. During the initial attack and takeover of the buildings, the assailants killed a journalist and mortally wounded a police officer; three others, including a city councilor, were injured. After a 39-hour standoff, the gunmen surrendered and all remaining hostages were released.
Ahmed Subhy Mansour is an Egyptian American activist and Quranist scholar dealing with Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics. He founded a small Egyptian Quranist group that is neither Sunni nor Shia. In 1987, he was fired from Al-Azhar University after expressing his Quranist views. One of his fellow Islamic scholars at Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Jamal Tahir, took up the same Quran alone stance. Mansour was exiled from Egypt, and lives in the United States as a political refugee. In the United States, he established the Ahl-Alquran website.
In July 2001, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika became the first Algerian President to visit the White House since 1985. This visit, followed by a second meeting in November 2001, and President Bouteflika's participation at the June 2004 G8 Sea Island Summit, is indicative of the growing relationship between the United States and Algeria. Since the September 11 attacks in the United States, contacts in key areas of mutual concern, including law enforcement and counter-terrorism cooperation, have intensified. Algeria publicly condemned the terrorist attacks on the United States and has been strongly supportive of the Global War on Terrorism. The United States and Algeria consult closely on key international and regional issues. The pace and scope of senior-level visits has accelerated.
Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee was a Muslim scholar, thinker, author, translator, and the Khalifah (successor) for North America of the Shadhdhuli School for Tranquility of Being and the Illumination of Hearts, Green Mountain Branch. Nooruddeen Durkee became a Muslim in his early thirties in Al-Quds, Jerusalem. He was one of the co-founders of Lama Foundation and founder of Dar al-Islam Foundation.
Shaker Elsayed is an Egyptian American imam who was posted at the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia from 2005 to 2017, when he resigned because of backlash stemming from his comments about female genital mutilation. He was born in Cairo, Egypt.
Raymond Arthur Hare was a United States diplomat who was Director General of the United States Foreign Service from 1954 to 1956 and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs from 1965 to 1966.
Pamela Geller is an American anti-Muslim, far-right political activist, blogger and commentator. Geller promoted birther conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama, saying that he was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim.
Kamil Abdul Rahim was a career diplomat and a businessman.
The Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB) is a Muslim community center located in Catonsville, Baltimore County, Maryland, consisting of Masjid Al-Rahmah, Al-Rahmah School, and several other services. The society was founded in 1969 by three Muslim physicians and is known for then-President Barack Obama's visit on February 3, 2016. As of 2019, the society serves around 3,000 people.
The Muslim Reform Movement is a U.S.-based organization dedicated to reform in Islam based on values of peace, human rights, and secular governance.
At 1:50 PM EET on 24 November 2017, the al-Rawda mosque was attacked by roughly 40 gunmen during Friday prayers. The mosque is located in the village of Al-Rawda east of the town of Bir al-Abed in Egypt's North Sinai Governorate. It is one of the main mosques associated with the Jaririya Sufi order, one of the largest Sufi orders in North Sinai. The Jaririya order is named for its founder, Sheikh Eid Abu Jarir, who was a member of the Sawarka tribe and the Jarira clan. The Jarira clan resides in the vicinity of Bir al-Abed. The attack killed 311 people and injured at least 128, making it the deadliest attack in Egyptian history. It was the second-deadliest terrorist attack of 2017, after the Mogadishu bombings on 14 October. The attack was universally condemned by many world leaders and organizations.
There are around 70,000 Muslims in Maryland in the United States as of December 1992, according to the American Muslim Council. This is the tenth highest number of Muslims of all U.S. states, representing 1.4% of the Muslim population in the country, as well as 1.4% of the total population of Maryland, at the time of the report.
Islam in Washington, D.C. is the third largest religion, after Christianity and Judaism. As of 2014, Muslims were 2% of Greater Washington's population. Around 50,000 Muslims live in DC. DC's Muslim history dates to the early 1600s, when the first Muslim residents were enslaved and formerly enslaved African Americans. DC is home to seven mosques, including some of the oldest mosques in the United States. A copy of the Quran owned by Thomas Jefferson is held at the Library of Congress.
