Former Reagan Security Official Warns of “Red-Green Alliance” Between Islamists and Leftists

Frank Gaffney, a former assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration, has raised concerns about what he describes as a “red-green alliance”—a coalition between radical Islamist organizations and far-left socialist movements that he argues share a fundamental anti-American objective. Speaking with Fox News Digital, Gaffney outlined his assessment that these ideologically disparate groups are willing to cooperate on a common agenda centered on undermining the United States.

Gaffney characterized the alliance as rooted in a shared totalitarian worldview, despite differing ultimate goals. He suggested that Islamist movements and communist organizations, though pursuing distinct visions, view the American constitutional system as an obstacle to their respective ambitions and are therefore aligning their efforts to weaken it. “What they have in common is much more important than their differences,” Gaffney stated during the interview.

The concept was recently examined during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America.” At that hearing, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz questioned Kyle Shideler, a counterterrorism analyst at the Center for Security Policy, about potential collaboration between the Muslim Brotherhood and groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America, framing such cooperation as the “Red-Green Alliance.”

Shideler testified that evidence supports the existence of a coordinated relationship between these movements, united by what he characterized as a “revolutionary objective” to dismantle American constitutional governance. Cruz subsequently posted on X that the testimony demonstrated how “the Muslim Brotherhood and the DSA are united by a shared hatred of America.”

Gaffney, who founded the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., in 1988 and currently leads the Institute for the American Future, holds a Master of Arts in international studies from Johns Hopkins University. He earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

The assessment has also drawn support from Muslim scholars critical of radical Islamism. In May, Fox News Digital interviewed Dalia Ziada, a Muslim scholar who fled Egypt following her criticism of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Ziada described the partnership between radical leftist and radical Islamist organizations as a “sinful marriage” that threatens Western liberal democracies.

According to a Fox News Digital investigation, approximately 425 organizations—encompassing communist groups, Muslim advocacy organizations, and anti-Israel activist coalitions—operate within a coordinated transnational protest network that collectively generates roughly $1 billion in annual revenue.