Fight on the Right: 'Muslim outreach' and a feud between activists

National Review, April 7, 2003 by Byron York

And that, in turn, brought criticism of the Islamic Institute, because Norquist and Saffuri had been the most prominent advocates of closer relations between the White House and the Muslim community. A significant part of that criticism has come from Gaffney, who points to a number of troubling associations involving the Islamic Institute. Among them:

--In early 1999, the Institute accepted a $10,000 contribution and a $10,000 loan from Abdurahman Alamoudi, a founder of the American Muslim Council (and Khaled Saffuri's former boss). The next year, in a demonstration in front of the White House, Alamoudi yelled to the crowd, "Anybody who is in support of Hamas here?" When the demonstrators cheered, Alamoudi said, "Bill Clinton, we are all supporters of Hamas. I wish to add that I am also in support of Hezbollah. Anybody supports Hezbollah here?" The crowd cheered again. Alamoudi's words caused a near panic among some of his less radical friends and associates, including those at the Islamic Institute, who say they have dissociated themselves from him. "I think what Alamoudi said was wrong, and I personally asked him to retract it," says Saffuri. "Since he made that statement, we have not had anything to do with him."

-- The Institute maintained contact with Sami al-Arian as late as last summer, when the professor visited their offices in Washington. As with the Alamoudi connection, the al-Arian indictment left Saffuri distancing himself from a former associate. "If the charges are true, I feel deceived by him," Saffuri says. "But look, we didn't do work with Sami. He came by our office two or three times in the last four years." Norquist says he did not have a relationship with al-Arian and dismisses questions about an August 2001 letter -- copied to Norquist - - that the professor wrote to the Wall Street Journal objecting to an article on terrorism. "Many people 'cc' me on letters as a way to impress somebody," Norquist says.

-- In August 2000, the Institute accepted a $10,000 contribution from a Virginia-based charity called the Safa Trust. In March 2002, the Safa Trust was one of several organizations raided by U.S. Customs agents as part of Operation Green Quest, a program designed to cut off terrorist funding. Investigators suspect the trust was part of a complex, interlinked network of organizations that have, among other things, funneled Saudi money into terrorist activities. No one from Safa has been indicted, but Saffuri found himself once again explaining away his association with a group linked to terrorism.

The connections call into question the Islamic Institute's role in supporting the White House Muslim outreach effort. But as Norquist points out, the White House has contacts in the Muslim world quite apart from the Islamic Institute, and it would be inaccurate to view Norquist or the Institute as somehow dictating White House policy. Even Gaffney agrees with that. "I think the role that [Norquist] has played personally in this effort on behalf of Wahhabi-sympathetic and - supported institutions is an important one, but it's a bit role," Gaffney says. "It's a sideshow." The main show, he says, is the Bush administration's policy on which Muslim groups will be granted access to the White House.