A group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, to sound the alarm about an alleged network of mosques and Islamic schools in major metropolitan centers around the nation with significant ties to the Iranian government.

This network includes one of the largest Islamic hubs in Texas, according to the letter.

The letter, signed by nine members of Congress and published by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), identified several institutions that are allegedly controlled by the Alavi Foundation. The Alavi Foundation is an entity with properties worth an estimated $1 billion that a federal court has determined serves as a front to illegally fund Iran, as reported by KPRC Houston.

The letter named the Islamic Education Center (IEC) in Houston as one of the institutions with substantial ties to the Alavi Foundation.

“While IEC claims to merely be tenants of a building owned by the Alavi Foundation, the facts suggest the relationship goes far deeper. According to the Alavi Foundation’s website, IEC distributes books for the Alavi Foundation, and has received grants from the Alavi Foundation to do so,” the letter alleged.

It pointed to a music video made by the IEC depicting children singing an anthem in praise of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as proof that the institution is a foreign influence operation that threatens U.S. security. Khomeini led the Iranian Revolution in 1979 that ushered in the Islamic Republic.

“[T]he Islamic Education Center [IEC] in Houston, had dozens of young children perform an anthem titled, ‘Salam Farmande,’ [‘Hello Commander’], a new propaganda song that has been widely promoted by the Iranian regime inside Iran to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death,” the letter read.

It went on to highlight that Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps who was killed in 2020 by an American airstrike ordered by President Trump, is praised in some versions of the song.

“This song is sung by children, and in some iterations, not only pledges children to be soldiers, but praises Qassem Soleimani, the terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, and others,” the congressmen wrote.

“Under the First Amendment, freedom of speech and freedom of religion is sacrosanct, and for good reason. However, a state sponsor of terrorism such as Iran providing support for those who celebrate murderous terrorists such as Qassem Soleimani is unacceptable. Iran’s use of institutions of religious worship for illegitimate foreign influence operations threatens our national security, and intentionally threatens our Constitutional order.”

The letter said another allegedly Alavi Foundation-controlled mosque, the IEC in Potomac, Maryland, has even received public funds through the Maryland Legislature. According to the congressmen, members of the Iranian community in the U.S. who have cautioned against this IEC have also provided images of young children at the mosque praising Ayatollah Khomeini.

Two other mosques allegedly under Iranian governmental influence were identified, including the Islamic House of Wisdom (IHW) in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.

“The Imam of IHW, Mohammad Ali Elahi, served as the head of ‘political ideology’ for the Iranian Navy in the 1980s, according to a publicly available Central Intelligence Agency report,” the congressmen noted. “He personally claims to be ‘friends’ with three former Iranian Presidents, and since moving to the US, he has had seemingly non-stop contact with senior regime officials.

“In March 2017, he met with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who he called a friend of ‘almost 30 years.’ According to investigative journalists, IHW has been a significant purveyor of extremist propaganda, in line with the Iranian regime’s views.”

Another mosque the congressmen identified as being under Iranian governmental influence was located in Manassas, Virginia.

According to the letter, a video of the mosque interior “showed it is adorned with pictures of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] ‘martyrs’ who were killed in Syria, a life-sized cutout of Khomeini, as well as Iranian flags and slogans. In 2019, it openly celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.”

This mosque also received $200,000 from the Alavi Foundation, the congressmen stated.

The letter concluded by requesting that the addressed officials respond to several questions posed by the lawmakers, who aim to determine what the Justice Department and intelligence community know about the Iranian government’s influence in the U.S. and what strategies they intend to employ to deal with such threats.