Turkish Airlines is reportedly one of the major corporate sponsors of the conference, scheduled to take place at the Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort. The official state carrier of Turkey will be contributing as much as $15,000 for the event and, in order to encourage attendance, has announced that the “first 200 registrants will be entered into a raffle to win an international airline ticket from Turkish Airlines.” (Turkish Airlines has since sent a letter to Arutz Sheva denying support.)
The online mission statement of American Muslims for Palestine calls for attention to be brought to "the people of Palestine who have been living under occupation for decades," adding that, "we believe once Americans know the truth that their tax dollars support the longest-lasting and the last military occupation in modern history, they won’t stand for it and will demand that Congress change our foreign policy in the Middle East to one that is more balanced."
Jamal Badawi, a founder of the Muslim American Society, another Muslim Brotherhood front, in February 2009, criticized the West for describing “martyrs” from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as terrorists. In March 2010, he said Islam justifies the “combative jihad” of Palestinians.
Radical leftist Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, a former lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa, will speak at the conference as well. He has proffered the theory that Israel has engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and blames the creation of the Jewish state for the lack of peace in the Middle East, arguing that Zionism is more dangerous than Islamic militancy, and has called for an international boycott of Israeli academics.
Mauro reports that one of the central themes of the conference will be the successful establishment of Islamist interfaith partnerships with such Christian evangelical leaders as the Reverend Donald Wagner of "Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding", who is also slated to address the conference.
A campaign to exert pressure on the Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort to cancel the conference is now underway by the grassroots Jewish community of Chicago. Cheryl Jacobs Lewin, Chicago chapter chairperson of Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI), has said, "Since the AMP has known ties to Hamas, we are asking of the management of the Oak Brook Hills Marriott how they can justify renting their hotel to a group that has been designated by the US State Department as a terrorist organization."
Mauro said, "Can you imagine the outcry if this was an event by Christian extremists like the Westboro Baptist Church or an event about mocking Mohammed? I bet the hotel would cave rather quickly. This conference features speakers who legitimize Islamist violence and terrorist groups. In my article, I identified ten speakers that are closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood or promote it. Ten. At one event. How many would have to be there for the media to notice and for the hotel to think twice?"