Mark Deli Siljander (born June 11, 1951) is an American author and politician who served as a Republican

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from the state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. He authored the book'' A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide''. In 2008, Siljander was indicted on charges of

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

and

obstruction of justice In United States jurisdictions, obstruction of justice refers to a number of offenses that involve unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investiga ...

. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. In 2020, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

pardoned Siljander.

Early life, education, and early career

Siljander was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, and graduated from

Oak Park and River Forest High School Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF) is a public four-year high school located in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. It is the only school in Oak Park and River Forest District 200. Founded in 1871, the current school building ope ...

in 1969. He received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

from

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. B ...

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

Career

He served as a

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

on Fabius Township Board in St. Joseph County, Michigan, from 1972 to 1976 and also worked as a real estate broker.

U.S. House of Representatives

Siljander served as a U.S. Representative from the

Michigan's 4th congressional district Michigan's 4th congressional district is a United States congressional district located in the state of Michigan. The current 4th district contains much of Michigan's 2nd congressional district, Michigan's old 2nd district, and includes all of A ...

from April 21, 1981 to January 3, 1987. He served on the

House Foreign Affairs Committee The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, also known as the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a standing committee of the U.S. House of Representatives with jurisdiction over bills and investigations concerning the foreign affairs ...

. At the time of Siljander's election,

covered southwestern Michigan and included Three Rivers and

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

. ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine noted that the district was predominantly conservative, having elected only one Democrat in he twentiethcentury, in 1932. Siljander was known as a dogmatic

social conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional social structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institu ...

. He criticized

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

's appointment of

Sandra Day O'Connor Sandra Day O'Connor (March 26, 1930 – December 1, 2023) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, O' ...

to the Supreme Court, viewing her track record as insufficiently conservative. ''

'' described him as a

fundamentalist Christian Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British an ...

. During his race, Siljander expressed opposition to the

Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It is not currently a part of the Constitution, though its Ratifi ...

pornography Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

, school busing and "big spending," as well as support for the

neutron bomb A neutron bomb, officially defined as a type of enhanced radiation weapon (ERW), is a low-yield thermonuclear weapon designed to maximize lethal neutron radiation in the immediate vicinity of the blast while minimizing the physical power of the b ...

, the

MX missile The LGM-118 Peacekeeper, originally known as the MX for "Missile, Experimental", was a MIRV-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) produced and deployed by the United States from 1986 to 2005. The missile could carry up to eleven Mar ...

and prayer in public schools. In Congress, Siljander's voting record was generally consistent with most other Republicans, although he became known for his firebrand conservative rhetoric; for example, he denounced "secular humanists" as having a "perverted" philosophy.Christine C. Lawrence, ''Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America: 2008, the 105th Congress'' (Congressional Quarertly: 1997), p. 729. ;1981 On January 27, 1981, incumbent Congressman

David Stockman David Alan Stockman (born November 10, 1946) is an American politician and former businessman who was a Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan (1977–1981) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1981–1985 ...

resigned to serve as the director of the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

in the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...

. In the following special Republican primary, Siljander ranked first in a seven-candidate field with a plurality of 37%. He defeated Stockman-endorsed tax attorney John Globensky (36%) and State Senator John Mowat (22%). In the April 1981 special general election, he defeated Democratic Cass County Commissioner Johnie Rodebush 69%-29%. In 1981, Congress enacted an amendment, named after Representative Mark Siljander, to the FY1982 Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriations Act specifying that no U.S. funds may be used to lobby for abortion. Congress subsequently modified the amendment to state that funds may not be used to "lobby for or against abortion" ;1982 Siljander was challenged in the next Republican primary by attorney Harold Schuitmaker and defeated him 56%-44%. In the general election, he won re-election to a full term with 60% of the vote. ;1984 Siljander was challenged again in the Republican primary, and defeated Tim Horan 58%-42%. In the general election, he won re-election to a second full term with 67% of the vote. In 1984, Siljander sponsored a single-sentence amendment which read, "For the purposes of this Act, the term 'person' shall include unborn children from the moment of conception."

Alexander Cockburn Alexander Claud Cockburn ( ; 6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012) was a Scottish-born Irish-American political journalist and writer. Cockburn was brought up by British parents in Ireland, but lived and worked in the United States from 1972. Together ...

referred to the Siljander Amendment as "the most far-reaching of all the measures dreamed up by the conservative right to undercut ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...

''." It failed 186-219. Siljander travelled with Christian Watch International to Romania in response to the growing concerns over religious minority persecution. 1985 Siljander proposed legislation which would deny

most favored nation In international economic relations and international politics, most favoured nation (MFN) is a status or level of treatment accorded by one state to another in international trade. The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatme ...

status to countries that discriminate on cultural, ethnic or religious grounds. ;1986 Once again Siljander was challenged in the Republican primary, this time by

Fred Upton Frederick Stephen Upton (born April 23, 1953) is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1987 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he represented Kalamazoo, Michigan, ...

, a staffer to Stockman. Upton defeated Siljander 55%-45%, becoming the only Republican to unseat an incumbent in a primary that year. A key to his defeat was believed to be a tape sent to fundamentalist Christians in his district asking them to "break the back of Satan" by defeating Upton.

Later career

Siljander was appointed by President Reagan as an alternate representative to the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

, serving from September 1987 to September 1988. He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1992 for nomination to the 103rd Congress from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. He stated then his message was, "not religious values as much as it's common-sense American traditional values." He campaigned on a budget freeze, a ten percent

flat tax A flat tax (short for flat-rate tax) is a tax with a single rate on the taxable amount, after accounting for any deductions or exemptions from the tax base. It is not necessarily a fully proportional tax. Implementations are often progressi ...

and a

line-item veto The line-item veto, also called the partial veto, is a special form of veto power that authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. Many countries have differen ...

. In the Republican primary, Siljander came in second to Henry N. Butler, a

law professor A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a legal practition ...

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

. Siljander co-founded the

Alliance Defending Freedom The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious practices within public schools and in government. ADF is most known ...

(ADF); ADF lawyers later wrote the model for Mississippi's anti-abortion legislation, leading to the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to overrule

in 2022. Siljander is the president of Bridges to Common Ground. He also founded Trac5, with the stated goal to implement faith-based diplomacy in real-world conflicts Siljander's book, ''A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide'' was a 2009 Nautilus Silver Award Winner, and has a foreword written by

UN Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

Ban Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon (born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was the South Korean minister ...

, with whom Siljander worked closely to resolve the humanitarian disaster in Darfur. In Ban Ki-moon's book published in 2021 in a chapter titled "The Breakthrough", Moon recounts Siljander's involvement in resolving the Darfur crisis stating, "...Siljander prayed aloud, passionately for peace in Sudan. That night Siljander convinced President Omar al-Bashir to work closely with the United Nations." Siljander was featured in the 2019

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

miniseries ''The Family'', which details the history and activities of The Fellowship, a secretive Christian organization with ties to politicians and world leaders. In the series, Siljander recounts his efforts to engage Muammar Gaddafi and help bring the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie bombing terror suspects to justice. In 2020,

Pro-life Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in response to the lega ...

Members of Congress led by Senator Lankford used the Siljander Amendment to Prevent US from Funding Abortions, Abortion Advocacy Abroad. In 2025, Mark Siljander was featured on the

Jordan Peterson Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator. He received widespread attention in the late 2010s for his views on cultural and political issues. Often described as Conservatism, conservativ ...

podcast which covered topics ranging from Islam, linguistic studies of the

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

language of Jesus, and its application in international peacemaking. Same year, he appeared on the Danny Li Podcast, sharing his story and perspective on how to unite people despite their differences.

Criminal conviction and pardon

On January 16, 2008, Siljander was

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indi ...

in the federal district court in the Western District of Missouri on five counts including

and

. Siljander initially pleaded not guilty, but on July 7, 2010, as part of a

plea agreement A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include ...

, Siljander pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. On January 12, 2012, he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. The group for which Siljander worked as an unregistered foreign agent was the Islamic American Relief Agency, a Columbus, Missouri-based charity, which hired Siljander in early 2004 to lobby to get IARA removed from a

Senate Finance Committee The United States Senate Committee on Finance (or, less formally, Senate Finance Committee) is a standing committee of the United States Senate. The committee concerns itself with matters relating to taxation and other revenue measures generall ...

list of charities suspected of funding international terrorism. IARA closed in October 2004 after it was added to the Treasury Department's list of global terrorist organizations. During Siljander's sentencing, U.S. District Judge Nanette Kay Laughrey stated that: ..." der the circumstances of this case there was no specific harm by the lobbying efforts that you undertook... The truth is, when you look at this objectively, this is not a case about somebody aiding a terrorist, it just isn't, and it would be wrong of me to, in fact, try to make it out to be that." In December 2020, President

pardoned Siljander, praising his pro-life record while a congressman and his post-prison work abroad. Trump's decision to pardon Siljander was criticized by Republican Congressman

, who succeeded Siljander after defeating him in the 1986 Republican primary. His pardon was supported by

Edwin Meese Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974), the Reagan presidential transition team (1980� ...

Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...

Mike Huckabee Michael Dale Huckabee (, born August 24, 1955) is an American diplomat, political commentator, Baptist minister, and politician serving as the 29th United States Ambassador to Israel, United States ambassador to Israel since 2025. A member of ...

Robert Aderholt Robert Brown Aderholt ( ; born July 22, 1965) is an American politician and attorney serving as the U.S. representative for since 1997. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes most of Tuscaloosa County north of the Blac ...

, and Andrew Brunson.

References

External links

Siljander at the Biographical Directory of the United States CongressAuthor's page on Amazon

Global Strategies, Inc.Trac5Bridges to Common GroundA Deadly Misunderstanding
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Siljander, Mark D. 1951 births 20th-century American diplomats American Christian writers American officials of the United Nations American people convicted of obstruction of justice American people of Finnish descent George Wythe University alumni Living people Michigan politicians convicted of crimes Politicians from Fairfax County, Virginia People from St. Joseph County, Michigan Politicians from Chicago Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government People pardoned by Donald Trump Republican Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Michigan United Nations General Assembly officials Virginia Republicans Western Michigan University alumni 20th-century members of the Michigan Legislature 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives