A Heritage Foundation senior fellow told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that Islamic extremism is being pushed in the United States by groups and individuals seeking to 'sow chaos.' Mike Gonzalez said the 'red-green alliance' mixes Islamism and Marxism and is aimed at weakening America.
The hearing was titled 'Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America.' Gonzalez said adversaries such as China and Cuba would use any opening to infiltrate U.S. institutions and destabilize the country.
He also focused on the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. Gonzalez said it acts as a civil rights group as a cover and is 'tightly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.' He quoted CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper as saying he 'seeks to make the United States an Islamic country.'
Gonzalez also cited American Muslims for Palestine. He said the group helped lead young voters to see Hamas as 'justified resistance fighters' and played a direct role in campus encampments in 2024. He said the hearing should lead to 'real actions' to protect Americans.
Why it matters: the fight is not just about ideology. It is about whether foreign influence and political activism are being used to shape U.S. institutions from the inside. The big picture: lawmakers are being asked to treat these groups as a national security issue, not just a culture-war dispute.