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Islamist
Campaign Donors Overwhelmingly Back Democrats
by David J. Rusin
PJ Media
October 31, 2014
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An analysis of federal campaign contributions finds that key figures
at six of America's most prominent Islamist organizations have favored
Democrats over Republicans by a ratio of 12 to 1 since the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. This trend began with multiple donations to Cynthia McKinney
dated September 11, 2001, reversing a previous pattern that had seen
Islamist officials spend slightly more on Republicans. Their preference
for Democrats has solidified during the past 13 years and shows no signs
of waning. What does this say about the politicians who benefit from
Islamist largesse?
Islamist Watch, a project
of the Middle East Forum, recently
launched Islamist
Money in Politics (IMIP), to
monitor Islamists' influence in the halls of power, inform the public
about which politicians accept their tainted money, and hold accountable
those who do. IMIP's inaugural data
release focuses on the national organizations of six
Islamist entities — the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA),
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA),
Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA),
Muslim American Society (MAS),
and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
— as well as CAIR's many local chapters.
Names of important
personnel, both current and former, were mined from the groups'
Internal Revenue Service filings and/or website listings, some going back
more than a decade. The Federal Election Commission's online
database, which spans the late 1990s to the present, was then
searched for donations to candidates, joint fundraising committees,
relevant political action committees, and parties. IMIP employed
biographical information to select only those contributions that could
reasonably be attributed to the individuals of interest, rejecting ones
likely to have been made by unrelated persons who share their names. See
IMIP's description
of methodology for details and a discussion of the challenges.
As of now, the IMIP database
tabulates nearly $700,000 in donations. Surely many more people and
contributions remain to be added, but the data already constitute a large
and representative sample that is sufficient for an initial pass at
quantifying Islamists' political affinities.
First, who contributes? Major donors tend to be board members rather
than staffers. While many of the biggest contributors maintain relatively
low public profiles, several are quite familiar. With outlays totaling
$56,800, the most generous funder of politicians in IMIP's database is Kenny
Gamble, who goes by Luqman
Abdul Haqq in his position on MANA's governing body. An
Islamist-aligned music
and real estate mogul, Gamble is tied to the "Islamic paramilitary
boys group" known as the Jawala
Scouts and has been accused of working to build a self-contained
"black
Muslim enclave" in South Philadelphia. Also among the top 20
donors are CAIR executive director Nihad Awad,
who has contributed under numerous variants of his name; former MAS
president and current CAIR national board member Esam
Omeish, who resigned
from a Virginia immigration panel in 2007 after a video emerged of
his speech touting the Palestinians' embrace of "the jihad way"
against Israel; and Zead
Ramadan, the CAIR-New York board member who unsuccessfully ran
for New York City Council in 2013.
With regard to recipients, the Democratic
Party dominates. Leading the all-time list by vacuuming up close to
one in every five dollars is Keith
Ellison, the Islamist-leaning
Muslim congressman from Minnesota who has a long history of
collaborating with Islamist groups. Barack
Obama, whose policies have been popular
with Islamists, comes in second when direct contributions are
combined with those sent to joint fundraising committees associated with
his 2008
and 2012
presidential campaigns. Third is Cynthia
McKinney, the far-left
former congresswoman from Georgia who peddled conspiracy theories and
harsh critiques of U.S. foreign policy in the wake of 9/11; that she
ranks so high despite the fact that most donations to her were collected
during a one-year, post-9/11 window testifies to Islamists' endorsement
of her adversarial stance at the outset of America's military response to
Islamic terrorism. Fourth is Indiana's André
Carson, the second
Muslim congressman to be elected; he told
attendees at the 2012 ICNA–MAS convention that educators should model
American schools after Islamic madrassas. The Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee rounds out the top five.
However, Democrats did not always prevail in the battle for Islamist
cash. According to IMIP's current data, Republicans
actually received about 15 percent more Islamist-related contributions
than Democrats
did over the several years prior to 9/11. The Islamists' favorite
Republican of that period was Californian Tom
Campbell, who contested a Senate seat in 2000. Campbell's warm
relationships
with radical Muslims, such as terror operative Sami
al-Arian, are thoroughly documented. Further, although IMIP features
only a handful of entries from the 2000 presidential race, there is more
money for George
W. Bush than for Al Gore.
This is not a surprise because Bush won the
backing of the American Muslim Political Coordination Committee, an
Islamist-heavy coalition.
But 9/11 and the subsequent Republican-led war on terror changed
everything, even the destination of Islamist money. IMIP detects the
first hints of a sharp left turn in the form of donations to Cynthia
McKinney from three Islamist figures, including Nihad Awad,
on September 11, 2001 — undoubtedly before the Bush administration had a
chance to do much to upset the self-proclaimed guardians of the Muslim community
in the post-9/11 era. IMIP records no other contribution to any recipient
within two
weeks in either direction, making the date seem less coincidental.
Many more donations would be routed to McKinney from Islamists' wallets
in the months to come. Over the 365 days that followed the 9/11 attacks,
IMIP measures an 8-to-1 ratio of contributions in the Democrats' favor. A
majority of them flowed to McKinney.
This pro-Democratic tilt has continued to the present. Based on
contributions now cataloged by IMIP, Democrats outraised Republicans by a
factor of 4.8 from 2003 to 2006, 29.7 from 2007 to 2010, and 17.5 from
2011 to 2014. The two most recent blocks reflect the impact of Islamist
enthusiasm for Obama's White House runs. As for the last three Republican
presidential
nominees, IMIP has located no contributions to Bush's 2004 campaign, none
to John McCain's in 2008, and just one to Mitt
Romney for $1,000 ahead of the 2012 primaries. Overall, the people in
IMIP's sample have donated 12 times as much to Democrats since September
11, 2001.
Islamist-affiliated individuals presumably support Democrats for the
same reason that other subsets of Americans throw their weight behind
certain politicians and parties: they expect Democrats to support them,
at least at the level of providing the best political landscape in which
to pursue their objectives. But as Daniel Pipes points
out, we are not dealing here with professionals attempting to
"tweak the tax code" to their advantage or even a minority
population striving to secure equal rights. Islamists intend to alter the
fabric of the liberal democratic system, a goal characterized by the Muslim
Brotherhood, in a memorandum
outlining its North American strategy, as "a kind of grand jihad in
eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within,"
culminating in Islamic rule.
Each of the six
groups analyzed by IMIP is connected to the Brotherhood or its dream
of institutionalizing Shari'a. ICNA, ISNA, and the Islamic
Association for Palestine, CAIR's immediate predecessor, appear on
the Brotherhood's 1991 "list
of our organizations and the organizations of our friends." Both
CAIR and ISNA were designated as unindicted
co-conspirators in the trial of the Holy
Land Foundation, a charity convicted
of bankrolling Hamas, the Brotherhood's Palestinian wing. Prosecutors
classified
CAIR among the "individuals/entities who are and/or were members
of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its
organizations"; they named
ISNA as one of the "individuals/entities who are and/or were
members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood." Furthermore, according to a
brief
filed by the government in a separate case, "MAS was founded as the
overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." Two Muslim Brothers
also formed
MPAC. Finally, MANA is helmed by radical cleric Siraj
Wahhaj, who has spoken of
replacing the Constitution with Islamic law.
Because the various board members and staffers researched by IMIP have
participated in defining and executing the ideological agendas of the
above groups, their campaign contributions are a matter of concern. This
is not to suggest that the dollar amounts uncovered thus far — quite
small by American standards — are tipping any elections. But even in
modest quantities, money can purchase political access and open the doors
of influence. When it comes to the agents of radical Islam, these doors
must be barred shut.
No remotely mainstream politician would knowingly accept, let alone
get away with accepting, contributions from a leader of a white
supremacist organization. Why should it be any different for a leader of
an Islamic supremacist organization? Those who represent the American
people or seek to do so, especially in federal offices that oversee
counterterrorism and foreign affairs, need to begin saying no to funds
from these problematic sources. Islamist Money in
Politics is a first step in nudging candidates and parties toward the
right decision — and, where that fails, empowering voters to make
informed choices of their own about politicians who wittingly or
unwittingly legitimize, enable, or embolden America's enemies.
David J. Rusin is a
research fellow at Islamist Watch,
a project of the Middle East Forum.
Related
Topics: Children, Entertainment / Media,
Government, Islamic Law (Shari'a),
Legal, Lobby Groups, Mosques / Imams,
Multiculturalism,
Schools (Islamic),
Schools (Non-Islamic),
Segregation
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