Stop Sugarcoating Zionism in Sugar Land

Israeli soldiers assaulting Palestinian children

Muslims are now more than ever energized to be involved in local politics, especially with the recent influx of Muslim candidates running for offices throughout the Greater Houston area. However, with all this excitement, are we actually putting in the effort and vetting who we vote for? Or are we being easily blinded by identity politics? Taking a closer look at one of the runners for District 2 in the City of Sugar Land, Nabila Mansoor, reveals issues that should cause great concern.

First and foremost, let it be stated clearly that the author of this article is in no way connected with Nabila Mansoor’s opponents, nor has had any communication with them directly or indirectly. The sole objective of this piece is to defend the rights of our Palestinian brethren and to stop an institution of injustice against them.

Mrs. Mansoor is a local attorney and community organizer for many groups in Houston and Sugar Land. She is also a member of the Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which includes going on a fully funded trip to Israel and afterwards organizing events for them in the local community. Founded by the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pro-Israel research and educational group, MLI is disguised as an interfaith initiative between Muslims and Jews despite being funded by multiple Zionist and right-wing Islamophobic organizations including the Clarion Project and Campus Watch. Under this program, they recruit local Muslims who are influential in their communities to spread their ideology and normalize the Israeli occupation.

A meeting about the educational approach of MLI including Nabila Mansoor and MLI Co-Director Yossi Klein Halevi at the Turkish Center of Houston

Despite being an active member and affiliate of deceptive and unethical organizations, people in the community, and especially Muslims, continue to support her. Many of us who were troubled by learning this have contacted her and her campaign multiple times, and always received the same answer. In only private conversations does she claim that she supports Palestinians and will stand for them, including the support for the B.D.S. movement, which is a boycotting strategy to put pressure on Israel. Privately, she claims that she regrets ever being part of MLI, but she will not make any public statements on these sentiments. She says it will harm her chance at winning the election by being labelled as anti-Semitic.

Are her concerns valid? Perhaps she was just naïve at the time and didn’t know she was getting involved with such nefarious institutions. However, despite her claims, she is not only fully aware of her affiliations, but is still an active participant in many of these organizations which are all connected to the same Zionist network and initiatives.

To show how far this network goes, we begin with this video where a Jerusalem resident is assaulted by Mohammed Hameeduddin, another MLI member. Also seen here is Amanda Quraishi, an Advisory Board Member and the Chair of Social Media of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, an organization Mrs. Mansoor is also known to be a part of. We will revisit these people again later. Afterwards, he speaks to another MLI member, Khurrum Wahid, where he defends MLI and its objectives. Mr. Wahid is also one of the founding members and current National Co-Chair of the organization Emgage USA, a political advocacy and action committee that supports progressive legislation and helps elect Muslim politicians. The outrageous fact that these MLI participants, none of whom are Palestinian, physically assaulted a Palestinian Muslim resident of Jerusalem, on the very grounds of Masjid al-Aqsa, should not be lost on any person of conscience. It is also indicative of the type of dehumanization of the Palestinians they appear to have adopted as a result of their “education” from being part of MLI.

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Another Co-Chair of Emgage is MLI supporter Afaq ‘AJ’ Duranni. Mr. Duranni is also currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Education Institute of Texas (IEIT) which oversees the Darul Arqam schools, ILM Academy, and other Islamic schools in Houston while also having previously served on the Board of Directors for the Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH). Not only does Mrs. Mansoor have him as her election campaign treasurer, she was also the Executive Director of Emgage while currently being their Census Outreach Director. How can she claim to reject her ties to MLI if she works with its various members and affiliated institutions this closely?

AJ Durrani, Renee Lafair (Regional Director of ADL), and Nabila Mansoor at the ADL meeting in Austin

Actions speak louder than words, and clearly most of her work continues to be involved with Zionist-backed organizations and other MLI members. Mrs. Mansoor and Mr. Duranni both under Emgage met with the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Austin discussing legislation related topics. ADL is notoriously well known to push for racist and Islamophobic efforts including supporting the mass surveillance of Muslims and blocking the building of several mosques such as Park51 and the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. Mrs. Mansoor also gave a talk at South by Southwest (SXSW) with a panel including the Alumni Director for MLI, Maital Friedman, where they talk about the benefits of MLI. Interestingly, Mrs. Mansoor bemoaned the tepid response her MLI participation has received in the Muslim community. She was actually upset that Muslims would not accept this pro-Zionist initiative. Mrs. Mansoor is also the Muslim Regional Coordinator of the Houston Chapter of the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom, which was mentioned earlier affiliated with Mrs. Quraishi from the video. This organization regularly hosts conferences inviting many famous MLI members to speak such as Haroon Moghul, Rabia Chaudry, and the very founding co-director of MLI, Imam Abdullah Antepli.

Nabila Mansoor’s supporters claim she has done much for the Muslim community in Houston, and that her involvement with MLI is just a minor flaw that she will renounce anyway afterwards. However, by going deeper into her history and actions this does not seem likely since she continues to closely work with MLI members and affiliated organizations. Is it worth it to sacrifice our principles to vote for the “lesser of two evils” since she is a Muslim? If she wins, it is a win for MLI and the Zionist and Islamophobic organizations that fund them and her, since it continues their objective to normalize the deaths and suffering of the Palestinian people.

This is a huge effort to put their members in office across the country, including Mr. Hameeduddin who was the assaulter in the previous video, the former mayor and now a current council member of Teaneck, New Jersey. Khurrum Wahid who was also in that video is running for the Coral Springs City Commission seat in Florida. This is a well-coordinated effort that aims to put influential Muslims educated on Zionism to be leaders in our community and to eventually “faithwash” the Israeli occupation and undermine efforts such as B.D.S.. The desperation for Nabila Mansoor to win this election has been apparent. Around 40 of her opponent’s campaign signs were stolen and thrown in the trash. There is no evidence that Nabila Mansoor herself was involved in this, and it is still unknown who the responsible parties were. Nonetheless, there are surveillance videos from which the reader can draw their own conclusions.

MLI entices its participants with their history of promoting their career objectives. An MLI participant travels to Israel, learns the propaganda and arguments to defend the agenda in their local communities, and in exchange for that, there is a rewarding system wherein MLI and its affiliates aggressively –and with quite a track record of success– promote the MLI participant in politics, media, or wherever their career goals are. What sort of precedent does this set for young people with aspirations and all of the Muslims watching? What we as people of conscience who care about the oppressed people of Palestine must do is disrupt this rewarding system. If you remove the carrot, the mule stops walking.

Nabila Mansoor’s active participation in MLI as well as the connections she and her fellow MLI participants have to Zionist groups and their physically abusive behavior towards Palestinians in Palestine must not be ignored. None of this is acceptable. We must make a choice in whether we will allow them to freely pursue MLI’s agenda of softening our communities’ stance against Zionism. If you live in Sugar Land, the run-off election will be June 8th. Even if you aren’t eligible to vote in that district, we are morally obligated to inform others so that we can prevent this from happening in not only our city but elsewhere in the world.

*“If you want Muslim Americans to assimilate into American society and integrate, please don’t use Palestine as the stepping stone,” “…if you want to open up doors of access and influence … please don’t use Palestine and MLI as the key.” -Dr. Hatem Bazian*

Update: A petition was made to demand a statement from Nabila Mansoor; you can find the latest updates on there.