Under Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the state of Minnesota awarded over $2 million to an Islamic group that fundraises for a charity linked to an al Qaeda affiliate, according to funding records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
The Islamic Association of North America, the recipient of the state grants from 2019 to 2024, is fundraising after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year for Rahma Worldwide, a Michigan-based charity that says it is shipping humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to flyers. In a since-deleted Facebook post in October 2023, Rahma Worldwide President Shadi Zaza revealed his charity was collaborating on an aid initiative with the Islamic Heritage Revival Society of Kuwait, a terrorist group sanctioned by the U.S. government for funding al Qaeda.
News of the Walz administration’s grants to the IANA comes as the Democratic vice presidential candidate faces backlash after a series of Washington Examiner reports revealed his ties to Muslim cleric Asad Zaman. As Minnesota’s governor, Walz has repeatedly hosted Zaman, who shared a pro-Adolf Hitler movie on social media and defended the Oct. 7 attack. Moreover, according to unearthed footage, Walz referred to Zaman as a “master teacher” at a 2018 event held by the Zaman-led Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which partners with the IANA.
The presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris has continued to claim Walz has no personal relationship with Zaman. Harris and Walz officials did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
“Embracing and funding an imam that sympathizes with neo-Nazis was apparently only the start,” said Sam Westrop, a terrorism analyst at the Middle East Forum think tank.
Formed in 2001, the same year the Treasury Department’s terrorist designation of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation sent shockwaves throughout the philanthropy world, the IANA is “a nationwide umbrella organization with over 35 centers” and offshoots — over a dozen of which are in Minnesota. The IANA is representing “Muslim communities on national levels and speaking on behalf of member organizations on all matters concerning Muslims,” according to its website, which notes that members, including mosques, pay membership dues.
Minnesota’s Health Department awarded over $238,600 to the IANA in 2024, according to state records. In 2023, the agency gave $191,900 to the IANA, which received over a million dollars from the agency in 2022 and over $612,200 from 2019 to 2021. The funding appears to have been for public health-related initiatives, including community vaccinations and outreach to the Somali community. --->READ MORE HERE
Under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota awarded millions to an American Islamic association which later fundraised for a Muslim charity that collaborated with an al-Qaeda-linked organization.
The Minnesota Department of Health committed to giving the Islamic Association of North America well over $2 million in public health-related grants between 2020 and 2026, coinciding with Walz’s term as Minnesota governor, according to state spending records first reported by the Washington Examiner. The Islamic Association of North America, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, held a fundraiser for Rahma Worldwide, a Muslim charity that has collaborated on a Gaza aid program with the Islamic Heritage Revival Society of Kuwait, an organization the U.S. government sanctioned for funding al-Qaeda and which U.S. intelligence officials believed to be part of a Hamas fundraising operation.
The governor is responsible for appointing the Minnesota Department of Health’s commissioner, according to MinnPost.
“Determined to choose the worst possible partners at every turn, we now know that Walz oversaw $2.1 million of grants to yet another terror-aligned organization, with whose officials the governor seems to have close relations,” Sam Westrop, a terrorism analyst at the Middle East Forum, told the Examiner. “It’s not just a reprehensible use of Minnesota taxpayers’ money, it’s also a complete betrayal of all those moderate Muslim and Somali activists working to fight this extremism in their communities every day.”
Walz, now the presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee, is under fire for his ties to Asad Zaman, an Islamic cleric who shared a pro-Hitler video to social media, defended the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks and posted a link to a Hamas press release on his Facebook page. “The Governor and he do not have a personal relationship. Governor Walz strongly condemns Hamas terrorism,” a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign told CNN. --->READ MORE HERE
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment