Vetting Catastrophe: Another Terror-Tied Jihadi to White House Post

I do not know who is picking these terror tied operatives to the Trump administration butt they must exposed and fired.

Ismail Royer and Hamza Yusuf.and now Rabiul Chowdhury.

How is it that my esteemed colleagues, religious scholars like Robert Spencer, Ibn Warraq Dr. Andrew Bostom or brave activists like Wafa Sultan or Noni Darwish are never considered for these posts? There is no one more qualified. But jihadists are appointed to positions of influence and power whether Democrats or Republicans are in power. And those of us who have been fighting in defense of freedom continue to be smeared, defamed, libeled.

Imagine, jihadis on a board for religious liberty.

Related: Convicted Islamic Terrorists Appointed to White House Advisory Board for “Religious Liberty”

Trump Administration’s Latest Vetting Catastrophe: Islamic Operative Rabiul Chowdhury Infiltrates the White House

By: RAIR Foundation, June 3, 2025:

While Americans were promised “extreme vetting,” the Trump administration has instead allowed radical Islamic operatives like Rabiul Chowdhury – deeply tied to CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood, and pro-Hamas activism – to quietly infiltrate the White House and shape policy from within.

The Trump administration is facing intense scrutiny for allowing individuals tied to radical Islamic movements and terror-linked organizations to infiltrate the highest levels of government. A series of explosive appointments and high-level meetings have exposed what appears to be a complete collapse of vetting protocol.

The latest controversy stems from two appointees to the Religious Liberty Commission: Ismail Royer and Hamza Yusuf.

RAIR Foundation USA previously raised the alarm:

“Ismail Royer’s criminal record and ties to jihadist groups render him wholly unfit for a role advising the White House, particularly in national security matters. His involvement with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organization responsible for deadly attacks like the Mumbai massacre, raises serious concerns about his judgment and loyalty to the United States.”

“Hamza Yusuf, co-founder of Zaytuna College, is known as a leading Islamic scholar but has been linked to controversial figures and accused of downplaying jihadist threats. Yusuf defended Jamil Al-Amin, convicted of murdering a sheriff’s deputy, portraying him as a courageous truth-teller and suggesting he was framed. He also defended Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (the ‘Blind Sheikh’), convicted for plotting to bomb New York landmarks, claiming his trial was unjust.”

But these appointments were just the beginning. A third figure—far more politically active and strategically placed—has quietly emerged within Trump’s orbit: Rabiul Chowdhury.

Another Vetting Failure Has Gone Unnoticed

While Royer and Yusuf’s appointments were alarming, the case of Rabiul Chowdhury is far more consequential. Unlike the others, Chowdhury did not merely receive a quiet title; he gained extensive face time with Trump and key administration officials, despite a background that should have raised immediate red flags.

His public presence at these events was no accident; it was the culmination of years of strategic positioning, influence-building, and ideological camouflage. The full scope of Chowdhury’s affiliations, political activity, and religious ties reveals a long-standing pattern of subversion beneath a surface-level shift toward conservatism.

In September 2024, Richard Grenell introduced Rabiul Chowdhury to President Trump as part of a delegation of “Muslim Arab leaders” organized by Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman and Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, who played a key role in the outreach initiative. Chowdhury later attended Trump’s inaugural Ball on January 20, 2025, and was photographed with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Thomas Massie, and others.

Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and Co-Chair of the Abandon Harris Campaign, then visited the White House for the White House Iftar on March 27, 2025. Investigative journalist Angela Van Der Pluym uncovered photos of him with President Trump, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Senator Lindsay Graham, and Assistant Attorney General Hermeet Dhillon. Chowdhury even showcased the White House’s accommodation of Islamic prayer rituals – posting photos of designated prayer mats inside the Executive Mansion during the controversial Iftar event.

These symbolic concessions, combined with his radical affiliations, reveal the troubling extent of ideological appeasement at the highest levels. Then, on May 16, 2025, President Trump visited the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi; interestingly, the same day, Chowdhury posted an Instagram photo of the same mosque, leaving many to wonder whether he was again with Trump or another senior member of the administration.

Who Is Rabiul Chowdhury?

Rabiul Chowdhury is not simply a political activist, he is a well-connected operator whose affiliations span some of the most ideologically dangerous organizations in the country.

From August 2013 to August 2015, he served as president of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Penn State University. The MSA, an organization named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, has long been associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and accused of promoting Islamist ideology on U.S. campuses. Photos obtained from Chowdhury’s time at Penn State show him proudly wearing his Muslim Student Association (MSA) shirt – visibly displaying pride in an organization tied to radical Islamist networks.

Following his tenure at MSA, Chowdhury served on the board of Emgage PA from 2019 to 2023. Emgage, too, has come under scrutiny for its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its pattern of political activism aligned with Islamic interests.

In parallel, Chowdhury founded the Muslim Aid Initiative (MAI), a group that regularly partnered with the terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). In 2020, MAI and CAIR co-hosted multiple events aimed at boosting Muslim voter turnout, holding discussions on early voting, and organizing forums during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests.

In August 2023, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro appointed Chowdhury to the Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs, a move celebrated by Emgage, further cementing his influence in both Islamic political activism and state-level policy.

He also held a leadership role with CAIR-PA and was publicly affiliated with the group on social media before quietly removing those connections when his political ambitions began to expand into conservative circles.

As his ambitions in Republican circles grew, Chowdhury began scrubbing his online presence – quietly removing his past affiliation with CAIR from social media bios and deleting records from websites now listed as “under maintenance.” These sanitization efforts reveal a calculated image shift, not an ideological transformation.

Despite claiming to align with the “America First” agenda, Chowdhury openly criticized several of Trump’s picks, such as Senator Marco Rubio, and instead endorsed Richard Grenell, citing his work with Arab and Muslim communities.

His political activism was not limited to Republican spaces. In 2021, Chowdhury took part in pro-Palestine marches and continued to espouse causes consistent with broader Islamic political agendas.

Despite claiming to represent “America First” interests, Chowdhury eagerly aligned himself with establishment figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci, hosting a vaccine event during the COVID-19 pandemic. His record reflects opportunistic positioning rather than principled conservatism.

Publicly devout, Chowdhury made the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) and stated he looks forward to returning, showcasing not only his deep commitment to Islamic doctrine but also to advancing its influence through political channels.

This raises urgent questions about ideological compatibility, because Sharia is not just a religious code—it is a total legal system that directly conflicts with the U.S. Constitution. It demands the supremacy of Islamic rule over secular law, denying the foundational American principles of free speech, equal protection, and religious liberty. These are not cultural differences—they are irreconcilable legal systems. By doctrine, Islam seeks to override the Constitution, replacing individual rights with religious supremacy.

What Was the Abandon Harris Campaign?

In the days leading up to his introduction to President Trump in September 2024, Chowdhury appeared on Newsmax to amplify his Abandon Harris Campaign—urging Muslim voters to reject Kamala Harris and support Republican candidates instead. He tweeted bluntly: “Kamala is losing the Muslim vote,” signaling his aggressive push to reposition Muslim political influence during the election.

The Abandon Harris Campaign officially launched on September 12, 2024, as a targeted effort to peel Muslim voters away from then–Vice President Kamala Harris. Co-chaired by Rabiul Chowdhury, the initiative positioned itself as a response to what it called betrayal by the Democratic Party. Yet far from being an organic political shift, the campaign was deeply entangled with CAIR and its long-standing Islamist political agenda.

The campaign’s leadership structure included high-ranking CAIR operatives. Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of CAIR-Minnesota, played a founding role in the national effort. Junaid Noormohamed, another senior figure linked to CAIR-Texas, was also actively involved. These connections effectively tied the campaign to a group that had been designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case.

Though the campaign’s website is now listed as “under maintenance,” its rhetoric and activities were well-documented. Chowdhury and his co-leaders criticized Harris for maintaining a pro-Israel foreign policy stance and for ignoring demands from pro-Palestinian activists. According to USC Annenberg Media, Chowdhury stated:

“Muslims were taken for granted… the Democratic Party had the gangster mindset when they were talking to the Muslim community.”

The campaign’s ideological tone was unmistakable. It mirrored the objectives laid out in the Muslim Brotherhood’s infamous “Explanatory Memorandum”, a document seized by U.S. authorities that outlines the Brotherhood’s goal of “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” through political subversion and influence operations masked as community advocacy.

What Is Muslims for Trump?

In August 2023, Rabiul Chowdhury co-founded Muslims for Trump, an organization that publicly claimed to represent conservative Muslim voices but was fundamentally rooted in grievance politics. Its stated purpose was not to advance Republican values, but to punish Democrats for perceived slights against the Muslim community.

Speaking to USC Annenberg Media, Chowdhury plainly stated:

“To ensure that Democrats, who have betrayed our community, lose this critical election.”

According to India West, Chowdhury asserted that Muslims for Trump became a decisive force in key battleground states:

“Muslim-Americans were shifting significantly toward Trump in key swing states. We became a deciding factor in this win.”

The group focused its campaign efforts in politically sensitive areas like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin—states where even minor shifts in the Muslim vote can alter national outcomes. Chowdhury framed the movement as a political reckoning, insisting that Muslim voters would no longer be taken for granted.

That messaging paid off. During the March 2025 White House Iftar dinner, President Trump publicly acknowledged the support he received from Muslim voters:

“The Muslim community was there for us in November, and while I’m president, I will be there for you.”

Among the invited guests were high-profile Muslim mayors Amer Ghalib of Hamtramck and Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights, both of whom had endorsed Trump and were later appointed as U.S. ambassadors to Kuwait and Tunisia, respectively. The optics were striking: under the pretense of outreach, operatives with deeply troubling ideological roots were being elevated to positions of influence within a Republican administration.

What This Means

This infiltration is not accidental. It is calculated.

Radical actors aligned with Hamas-linked, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups like CAIR, Emgage, and MSA are embedding themselves into Republican politics. They are reshaping policy, influencing outreach, and leveraging political theater to normalize their presence.

In 2016, Trump promised “extreme vetting.” In 2025, extremists are inside the White House.

This is not outreach. It is ideological subversion.

In the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, CAIR and MSA were named unindicted co-conspirators in a Hamas terror finance network. The trial exposed the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy to infiltrate and dominate U.S. institutions under the guise of civil rights.

CAIR long vowed to “mobilize the Muslim vote.” Now, it’s mobilized its own operatives into power.

Time for Accountability

The Trump administration must act. Rabiul Chowdhury, Ismail Royer, and Hamza Yusuf must be removed from all advisory roles and public trust platforms.

Congress must demand a full audit of all Islamic outreach, appointments, and event participants affiliated with the terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Emgage, or MSA.

This is no longer about oversight. It’s about infiltration. The question isn’t who got in – it’s how many more are already inside.

This article has been cross-posted with permission from the RAIR Foundation.