Charlie Crist’s Ally Hosted Hamas Fundraiser

Charlie Crist’s Ally Hosted Hamas Fundraiser

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/09/01/key-charlie-crist-ally-hosted-hamas-fundraiser/

Posted by Patrick Poole on Sep 1st, 2010 and filed under FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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A key Muslim ally of Florida Governor and US Senate candidate Charlie Crist, Imam Muhammad Musri, hosted a fundraiser in Orlando for the terrorist group Hamas in June 2009, and a camera crew from ACT for America infiltrated the event held at Masjid Al-Rahman, Musri’s mosque, to record the proceedings. Imam Musri, head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, serves on Crist’s Faith-Based and Community Advisory Council and was appointed by Crist to his 2010 Sunshine Census Committee.

The Orlando Hamas fundraiser featured as its keynote speakers former UK parliamentarian George Galloway and Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society-Freedom, and was intended to raise money for Galloway’s Viva Palestina organization.

That Galloway and Viva Palestina have provided material support for Hamas through the funds they have raised across the U.S. and elsewhere is hardly a secret. In March 2009, Galloway was videotaped by Al-Jazeera giving a duffel bag full of cash to Hamas social minister Ahmad Kurd, who called Galloway “a hero.” Kurd was designated a global terrorist by the U.S. government in August 2007.

In presenting Kurd with the cash, Galloway flaunted his violations of US and UK sanctions:

We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of the contents, and we make no apology for what I am about to say: We are giving them to the elected government of Palestine. Just in case the British government or the European Union want to face me in any court, let me tell them live on television: I personally am about to break the sanctions on the elected government of Palestine… But I, now, here, on behalf of myself, my sister Yvonne Ridley, and the two Respect councilors – Muhammad Ishtiaq and Naim Khan – are giving three cars and 25,000 pounds in cash to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. Here is the money. This is not charity. This is politics.

As a result of Galloway’s open funding of the terrorist group, he was banned from entering Canada later that month. So Galloway turned to his Florida friend Muhammad Musri to help take up the fundraising slack.

As the video taken by ACT for America shows, Galloway and Bray raised $55,000 at Musri’s fundraiser. During the event, Bray promised that the cash and materials collected from the Orlando event would be sent straight to Gaza:

Well we’ve got the equipment. We’re going to send it Insha’Allah. We’re going to go with your movement Viva Palestina… We’ll ship it here from Florida to New York, and from New York to Egypt, and from Egypt we will put it into Gaza.

According to a July 26, 2009 article posted on the Muslim American Society website authored by Aishah Schwartz (now since scrubbed from their site), documents how Bray was true to his word, with the supplies shipped by container from Orlando.

According to press accounts, more than $1 million in aid for Hamas, including the cash and supplies raised in Orlando at Musri’s mosque, along with funds raised in Kansas, New York and Illinois, was provided on Galloway’s July 2009. There to greet them and take possession of the cash was Hamas economic minister Ziad al-Zaza and Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, another designated global terrorist.

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