Archive for the 'Sami al-Arian' Category

Ed. Whitfield’s Donors!

Jim Pence July 22nd, 2008

(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report )

For those that might think I’m a Muslim basher, click here and here and see what I have to say about those claiming to be Christians.
Let me begin by saying I don’t believe Ed. Whitfield is involved with terrorism or supports terrorist, but I’m questioning Mr. Whitfield’s judgment for accepting campaign contributions from the following:

  • Khaled Saffuri : Made a $1000 contribution to Ed. Whitfield . (FRONTPAGEMAG.COM ) The founding director of Grover Norquist’s Islamic Institute , Khaled Saffuri, is a Muslim Palestinian by birth. Prior to joining Alamoudi’s group (where he served for almost three years), Saffuri was active in Muslim-support operations in Bosnia, a hot-bed for Islamic radicals from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere anxious to establish a beachhead on the continent of Europe. In recent years, he has acknowledged personally supporting the families of suicide bombers – even though, in public settings, he strenuously denies having done so. He denounced President Bush for shutting down the Holy Land Foundation, a Saudi charity that the U.S. government determined was funneling American Muslims’ donations to terrorist organizations overseas.
    Saffuri had also arranged for the Bush campaign to enlist Sami al-Arian , a well-known Florida-based activist – despite the fact that the professor made little secret of his radical Islamist sympathies – to help engender Muslim support in his state. A photograph of Mr. Bush taken with al-Arian in March 2000 subsequently received considerable attention after the professor was arrested 40 terrorism-related counts. Of particular concern are those alleging his functional direction over the past 19 years of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, one of the most murderous terrorist organizations in the Middle East.
  • Grover Norquist : Made a $250 contribution to Ed. Whitfield . (FRONTPAGEMAG.COM ) Grover Norquist has formed alliances with prominent Islamic radicals who have ties to the Saudis and to Libya and to Palestine Islamic Jihad, and who are now under indictment by U.S. authorities. Equally troubling is that the arrests of these individuals and their exposure as agents of terrorism have not resulted in noticeable second thoughts on Grover’s part or any meaningful effort to dissociate himself from his unsavory friends.
    The association between Grover Norquist and Islamists appears to have started in 1998, when he became the founding chairman of an organization called the Islamic Free Market Institute, better known as the Islamic Institute. The Institute’s stated purpose was to cultivate Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans whose attachment to conservative family values and capitalism made them potential allies for the Republican Party in advance of the 2000 presidential election.
    It seems unlikely that even in Alamoudi’s wildest dreams he could have imagined the extent of the access, influence and legitimacy the American Muslim Council and allied Islamist organizations would be able to secure in Republican circles, thanks to the investment they began in 1998 in a relationship with Norquist.
    Alamoudi and Norquist
    The investment began when Alamoudi wrote two personal checks (a $10,000 loan and what appears to be a $10,000 gift) to help found Norquist’s Islamic Institute . In addition, Alamoudi made payments in 2000 and 2001 totaling $50,000 to Janus-Merritt Strategies, a lobbying firm with which Norquist was associated at the time.

Click here to view a short video of Abdulrahman Alamoudi speaking at Lafayette Park, in Washington D.C. October 28, 2000.
Ed. Whitfield has also taken two trips to Qatar, in 2002 sponsored by the Islamic Institute and 2005 also sponsored by the Islamic Institute . Good judgment? You decide.