Radical Islamist group hands out honors

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 29, 2002 | by Zoli Simon, | Sheila R. Cherry

What do Reps. David Bonior (D-Mich.) Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) have in common? The answer: All four were listed on the official Website of the American Muslim Council (AMC) as "awardees" at its 11th annual convention. Bonior and Paul never showed up to receive the award, but McKinney and Rohrabacher did.

The AMC was described by an FBI spokesman attempting to justify a speech to the group by FBI Director Robert Mueller as the "most mainstream Muslim group" in the country. A Washington Times editorial called this "the latest in a series of missteps that risk undermining public confidence in the bureau."

It is well known that longtime AMC executive director Abdurahman Alamoudi publicly expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah, both officially cited terrorist groups with American blood on their hands. The State Department says that includes the likelihood of Hamas involvement in the truck-bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine barracks there.

The AMC is "not mainstream [and is] part of the Wahhabi lobby," says Islam expert Stephen Schwartz, recently fired from Voice of America for his opposition to equal airtime for radical Islamists. Terrorism expert Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum tells news alert! the AMC "has been quite clever in giving its awards." It is "building a constituency in Congress" for militant Islam, he says, adding that support for militant Islam "has grown rapidly in the past decade," largely thanks to the AMC.

While it should come as no surprise that the far-left McKinney and Bonior were cited by AMC, the libertarian Paul and Reagan Republican Rohrabacher are curious picks. Paul's office tells news alert! he is "pro-American" and "not interested in any Muslim causes," though his noninterventionist position on the Middle East has endeared him to groups such as the AMC. But Bonior was taken off the Website and Paul didn't attend the AMC event to receive the award. The McKinney and Rohrabacher offices confirm their bosses' attendance at the convention, and neither would repudiate the AMC.

Pipes says McKinney and Bonior are both "quite aware" of how radical the AMC is, but he isn't sure about Rohrabacher. Chris Steel, a conservative GOP city councilman in Costa Mesa, Calif., says, "I would give [Rohrabacher] the benefit of the doubt." Others friends note Rohrabacher's long-standing ties to Islamist groups and leaders dating from his support of the mujahideen fighters against the Soviets in Afghanistan. While he keeps in touch with such undisputedly moderate Muslim leaders as Sheikh Hisham Muhammad Kabbani, Rohrabacher has attended AMC events for years. He also has been featured at events held by other Islamist groups, including the Islamic Institute, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Alliance.

Meanwhile, INSIGHT sources say the Justice Department is investigating American Muslim groups funded by foreign Islamists who may be attempting to influence national-security policy through both Congress and the administration.