An article shared on Facebook claims an FBI raid in Annandale, Virginia, uncovered a plot by the Muslim Brotherhood to “destroy America.”

Facebook/Screenshot

Verdict: False

The Annandale home of a suspected Hamas operative was searched by federal agents in 2004. While materials and documents were taken from the home, the search did not uncover a Muslim Brotherhood plot to “destory America.”

Fact Check:

The Muslim Brotherhood is an international Islamic religious and political group founded in Egypt. While the group officially rejects violence, some countries, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, label it as a terrorist organization, according to The New York Times.

The article, titled “FBI Raid Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Plot to Destroy America,” was published by Conservative Base, a website that describes itself as publishing “information for conservatives, by conservatives.” The article alleges the FBI conducted a raid in Annandale, Virginia, and “discovered what appears to be of a three-decades plan by upper-echelon members of the Muslim Brotherhood to ‘deconstruct’ the United States of America through inside operations.”

While the article does not provide a date for the raid, it appears to be referencing a search warrant carried out by the FBI on the Annandale home of suspected Hamas operative Ismael Elbarasse in 2004. Hamas is a U.S.-designated Palestinain terrorist group, per BBC News. The search occurred after Elbarasse and his wife were caught filming the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and detained by police in Maryland, according to the Washington Post.

Hundreds of items were seized from Elbarasse’s home, including documents related to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Washington Post. However, there is no indication that the raid uncovered a Muslim Brotherhood plot to “destroy America.” Details of what was seized during the raid were made public in court documents, and there is no mention of such a plot by the Washington Post or the Baltimore Sun, the two news outlets that closely covered the case.

The article also at one point states that evidence of the uncovered plot was shared with the National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP), a claim that an NACOP spokesperson denied in a phone call with the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: Viral Image Links Rashida Tlaib’s Scarf To The ‘Islamic Terrorist State’)

The rumors about such a plot are likely based on a document pulled from Elbarasse’s home that appears to be a proposal sent to the Muslim Brotherhood by a man named Mohamed Akram Adlouni. In the document, he stated that he believes Muslims in North America should work to destroy Western civilization. A 2016 report by the Bridge Institute dismissed it as “one man’s utopian vision” that does not appear to have been adopted by the group, and Harvard University professor Tarek Masoud noted during testimony before the House Select Intelligence Committee that the document seemed to be ideas pitched by a single individual.

“It seemed to me upon reading the memorandum that the Muslim Brotherhood member who wrote it believed that his organization was not working with American Muslim organizations and should be,” Masoud told the Huffington Post in 2016.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to properly reflect when an FBI raid was conducted in Annandale, Virginia, and to address a document found during the raid. We regret the error.

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