With Tunisia’s presidential and parliamentary elections fast approaching, Ennahda, a dangerous Islamist political party in the North African republic, has been making quite a few campaign stops in the United States.
Two prominent Tunisian-American activists, in particular — Radwan Masmoudi and Mongi Dhaouadi — have long supported the Ennahda cause and now appear to serve as coordinators for Ennahda’s activities inside the United States.
Most recently, in September 2019, Masmoudi organized an event <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-and-greet-rabeb-ben-letaief-tickets-73911514329">featuring</a> Rabeb Ben Letaief, Ennahda’s selected parliamentary candidate to represent the Tunisian diaspora in America. And earlier this year, In January, Dhaouadi <a href="https://imgur.com/a/tx6vfhL">organized</a> an event with Ennahda politician Mehrzia Labidi, inviting Tunisians of the area to join them for a “great conversation.” During her visit, Labidi <a href="https://imgur.com/a/s5JZJwZ">met</a> Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), with Dhaouadi enthusiastically <a href="https://imgur.com/a/s5JZJwZ">commenting</a> that they were both “two amazing political leaders.”
Dhaouadi, former executive director of the Connecticut branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), is a “<a href="https://imgur.com/a/kOcxwK8">proud</a>” Ennahda member. He <a href="https://imgur.com/a/kOcxwK8">attended</a> the party’s tenth congress in 2016 and <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/6412/richard-blumenthal-cair-ally-posts-al-qaida">escorted</a> Ennahda founder and international Islamist luminary Rachid Ghannouchi during his 2015 visit to Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, Masmoudi, also a card-carrying Ennahda <a href="https://twitter.com/radwan_masmoudi?lang=en">member</a>, heads the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) in Washington — for which Dhaouadi now also <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mongi-dhaouadi-814701ba/">works</a>. Masmoudi and Dhaouadi have spent years strengthening Ennahda’s image in the U.S. and <a href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06TUNIS2155_a.html">introducing</a> Ennahda to American officials.
Through CSID, Masmoudi has organized many events that feature high-ranking Ennahda officials. In 2014, Ali Larayedh, Ennahda’s former prime minister, <a href="https://www.csidonline.org/post/csid-fifteenth-annual-conference-final-report">delivered </a>the keynote address at CSID’s 15th annual conference. Others <a href="https://www.csidonline.org/post/csid-fifteenth-annual-conference-final-report">present</a> included Phillip Gordon, then the Special Assistant to President Obama; as well as then-Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) (who has his <a href="https://www.meforum.org/6547/keith-ellison-questionable-ties">own Islamist ties</a>). During this same event, CSID <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/csid-awards-2014-muslim-democrat-prize-to-tunisias-nahdha-bloc-263990381.html">awarded</a> the 2014 Muslim Democrat of the Year Award to the Ennahda bloc of Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly.
In 2015, CSID <a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/CSID-Report--Lessons-from-Tunisia-Dinner-with-Rached-Ghannouchi.html?soid=1102084408196&amp;aid=JAfkRjreSB0">held</a> a dinner in honor of Ghannouchi. This time, those in <a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/CSID-Report--Lessons-from-Tunisia-Dinner-with-Rached-Ghannouchi.html?soid=1102084408196&amp;aid=JAfkRjreSB0">attendance</a> included John Desrocher, then the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Egypt and Maghreb Affairs at the U.S. State Department, as well as the former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, Gordon Gray.
Through his other <a href="https://imgur.com/a/1wvxP8e">group</a> “Friends of Ennahda, USA”, Masmoudi has also <a href="https://imgur.com/a/juZJA2e">organized</a> events up and down the East Coast wit Larayedh, high-ranking Ennahda member (and recent presidential candidate) Abdelfattah Mourou, and, most recently, Ennahda parliamentary candidate Rabeb Ben Letaief.
Masmoudi <a href="https://imgur.com/a/jg3y0WB">claims</a> that CSID is independent, is not part of Ennahda, and works only for the success of  Tunisian democracy. But this claim of nonpartisanship is far from convincing.
In 2014, Ennahda hired American public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. <a href="https://www.jeuneafrique.com/mag/250333/politique/limage-dennahdha-a-letranger-confiee-a-une-agence-americaine/?fbclid=IwAR1dAFmfxi5HjbfJdwiWa5peoa5oEfuByQy75h_rnlyQa7eSePsuxAF43Ds">According</a> to Jeune Afrique, Masmoudi personally arranged for Burson-Marsteller Paris to manage Ennahda’s public relations in Europe.
Masmoudi has been rewarded for his unwavering support for the party. In January 2019, Sayida Ounissi, an Ennahda minister in the coalition government who had previously <a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/CSID-Report--Lessons-from-Tunisia-Dinner-with-Rached-Ghannouchi.html?soid=1102084408196&amp;aid=JAfkRjreSB0">attended</a> CSID events, <a href="https://www.businessnews.com.tn/sayida-ounissi-nomme-la-fille-de-radwan-masmoudi-a-son-cabinet,520,85123,3">nominated</a> Masmoudi’s daughter for a high-ranking position in the Tunisian government, despite her scant qualifications.
Ennahda’s roots lies in international Islamism. Its founding members pledged allegiance to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Originally established as a student organization in the 1970s, over the years, Ennahda became increasingly involved in politics and national protest, eventually escalating to violence and a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073WZ9TCF/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1">coup attempt</a> in 1987.
Many prominent party members and allies were imprisoned or exiled around that time. In the West, these exiled Tunisian Islamists became closely involved with leading Islamic community groups. In the United Kingdom, for example, Mohammed Ali Harrath set up the Islam Channel, one of the most watched Islamic television stations in the West. The Islam Channel has long promoted some of the world’s most extreme Islamist clerics, including deceased Al Qaeda operative Anwar Al-Awlaki. The channel has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/nov/08/islam-channel-ofcom">censured</a> several times by British authorities for “advocating violence against women and supporting marital rape.”
Many Tunisians returned home after the 2010 revolution, which would later come to be seen as the precursor to the Arab Spring. Ennahda emerged victorious from subsequent elections. Prominent Islamist figures, such as Harrath, relied on the new Islamist regime to <a href="https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2017/653.html&amp;query=(harrath">nullify</a> their previous terrorism convictions.  Ennahda proceeded to manage the country <a href="http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/HJS-Ennahda-Report.pdf">disastrously</a> for only two years before being forced out of power.
While Ennahda claims to be a moderate movement, its two years in power illustrated otherwise. In 2012, Ennahda founder Rachid Ghannouchi <a href="https://www.france24.com/fr/20121011-tunisie-rached-ghannouchi-islamisme-salafistes-video-laics-polemique-ennahda">asked</a> young Salafi activists to be patient, saying that “secularists” still controlled the media and the economy, and so Islamists had to proceed slowly and carefully in order to “consolidate” their hold on the government. Ghannouchi’s advice, which led to widespread outrage in Tunisia, came to be seen as proof the party’s double discourse.
Ennahda once promised that it would not impose Islamic law, but Ennahda Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali subsequently <a href="https://www.contrepoints.org/2011/11/14/55531-tunisie-la-democratie-selon-ennahdha">proclaimed</a> that Ennahda “w[ould] not allow the illicit, clearly enacted by God.” He <a href="https://www.contrepoints.org/2011/11/14/55531-tunisie-la-democratie-selon-ennahdha">added </a>that Ennahda would one day call for the introduction of corporal punishments according to Sharia.
Worse still, Ennahda permitted Ansar Al Sharia Tunisia (AST), an Al Qaeda offshoot, to operate freely in Tunisia for several years. Only when AST<a href="https://www.dni.gov/nctc/groups/ansar_al_sharia.html"> was shown to be involved</a> with the violent 2012 attack against the American embassy in Tunis did Ennahda finally distance itself from the group, which was consequently <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20130828-tunisie-classe-jihadistes-ansar-al-charia-parmi-organisations-terroristes-aqmi-larayedh">put</a> on a Tunisian terror list. However, Larayedh nonetheless<a href="https://www.businessnews.com.tn/affaire-abou-iyadh--laarayedh-sort-de-ses-gonds-et-se-dit-victime-du-terrorisme,520,86185,3"> prevented</a> the police from arresting AST leader Abu Iyadh, who was able to give a live-streamed sermon in a mosque encircled by law enforcement before mysteriously evading capture.
Ennahda was forced to relinquish power in 2014. Along with widespread protest against its policies, it was also <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20131003-tunisie-manifestation-opposants-assassinat-belaid-brahmi-irva-autorite-responsabilite">accused </a>by the opposition of bearing responsibility for the murders of two left-wing politicians, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi.
In the wake of its ouster, Ennahda sought to improve its image. In 2016, Ennahda <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2016/05/21/la-tunisie-sceptique-sur-la-mue-du-parti-islamiste-ennahda_4923831_3212.html">declared</a> it was “<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2016/05/19/rached-ghannouchi-il-n-y-a-plus-de-justification-a-l-islam-politique-en-tunisie_4921910_3212.html">leaving</a> political Islam” and would be separating its political and religious wings. This separation, however, was widely <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2016/05/21/la-tunisie-sceptique-sur-la-mue-du-parti-islamiste-ennahda_4923831_3212.html">regarded</a> as “purely technical and not ideological.”
Despite Ennahda’s incontrovertible links to violent Islamism, members of the party have been frequently welcomed as moderates in the United States. Ghannouchi visited the United States several times, <a href="https://www.leaders.com.tn/article/15145-ghannouchi-pourquoi-je-me-rends-aux-etats-unis">giving </a>lectures at Yale University and Columbia University and attending various <a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/CSID-Report--Lessons-from-Tunisia-Dinner-with-Rached-Ghannouchi.html?soid=1102084408196&amp;aid=JAfkRjreSB0">events</a> with leading U.S. government officials.
Tunisians are well aware of Ennahda’s duplicitous rhetoric: Claiming moderation while holding on to its extremist ideology. In the United States, however, Islamists such as Masmoudi and Dhaouadi work to portray the party only as peaceful, democratic and modern. Masmoudi’s events, at which high-ranking Ennahda officials mingle with U.S. diplomats and representatives, afford credibility to a party that enabled an Al Qaeda offshoot and worked towards a theocratic state.
Ennahda’s years in power were at least useful in the sense that they confirmed that party’s underlying extremism. Now, prominent American Islamists are doing all they can to ensure that Ennahda wields power once again.
&nbsp;
Martha Lee is a Research Fellow at <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

TUNISIA

LEE: Tunisia’s Islamists Seek American Support

Al Qaeda

CAIR

Islam

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Tunisia

The Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) held its 2019 <a href="https://munaconvention.com/">annual convention</a> on July 5-7 in Philadelphia. Just as with <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/55300/south-asian-islamists-gain-ground-in-philadelphia">last year’s conference</a> — also held in the nation’s birthplace — there was no shortage of extremists sharing the podium. But in contrast to 2018, this time the focus was squarely on the Islamist charge into the political sphere. Numerous speakers claimed that Islam itself required believers to gain political power, impose an Islamic doctrine on America, and fundamentally reshape American society.
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Ayman Hammous, executive director of the Muslim American Society (MAS, the American <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/3486/under-oath-alamoudi-ties-mas-to-brotherhood">affiliate</a> of the Muslim Brotherhood), <a href="https://youtu.be/HuW5cJWT6ug">stated</a> that “Islam is needed at the spiritual level, at the social level, at the political level.” Movita Johnson-Harrell, a state representative from Pennsylvania, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLD8YndO83I">called on</a> Muslims to “occupy every space of this world.” Nihad Awad, co-founder of the <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/282/cair-executive-director-placed-at-hamas-meeting">Hamas-linked</a> group Council on American-Islamic Relations, <a href="https://youtu.be/W_R122QPgVc">told</a> convention participants that it is their “duty as Muslims” to engage in civil and political advocacy. “Our faith is based on action,” Awad proclaimed, arguing that Muslims on the political sidelines are not “true believers.” Georgia state senator Sheikh Rahman <a href="https://youtu.be/cFFgBrysnPI">urged</a> Muslims to get involved in local politics, insisting that “they have the responsibility” and should do “what is right for this country.”
And Zahid Bukhari, president of the Islamic Circle of North America, a <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7640/new-details-emerge-on-bangladeshi-islamists">Jamaat-e-Islami</a> (JI) proxy group, recalled a chat he once had with Rached Ghannouchi, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Ennahda movement in Tunisia, on the best way to establish Islam “on the practical level” in the United States. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR__qJlsRYw">According</a> to Bukhari, Ghannouchi said there are two options to Islamize society: If a country has a sitting Muslim majority, the government could “practically establish Islam as a way of life on this planet Earth or at least in their own country.” But, Ghannouchi reportedly continued, if Muslims are in the minority, particularly in the West, Muslim organizations should promulgate Islam across society until their influence has grown large enough.
Ghannouchi’s Ennahda movement is an ominous example of the consequences of electing an Islamist movement to political power. After being involved with coup attempts in the 1980s, Ennahda triumphantly obtained a majority in the first Tunisian democratic elections of 2011. It did not take long for party leaders to reveal their <a href="http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/HJS-Ennahda-Report.pdf">true colors</a>. Ennahda legalized Hizb ut-Tahrir, a violent pan-Islamist party which seeks to re-establish a worldwide caliphate. It <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/rached-ghannouchi">maintained</a> close relations with Ansar Al Sharia Tunisia, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, and allowed the organization to operate freely in Tunisia while <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tunisia-crisis-religion/ambiguous-religion-policy-backfires-on-tunisias-ruling-islamists-idUSBRE9820C920130903">permitting other</a> Salafi extremists to take over mosques and incite Tunisians to wage jihad.
At the 2019 MUNA conference, Johnson-Harrell <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLD8YndO83I">insisted</a> that Muslims “are the example for peace and love.” This pleasant-sounding pronouncement seemed rather incongruous on a stage shared with leading extremist preachers such as <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/55345/el-sayed-to-appear-with-islamist-bigots">Suleiman Hani</a>, who has <a href="https://imgur.com/a/mFmTvPV">promoted</a> 9/11 conspiracy theories and <a href="https://imgur.com/a/mFmTvPV">complained</a> that individuals who bring up the Holocaust and Jews for “objective discussion” are “labeled as antisemites,” and Suhaib Webb, who has <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/55337/the-worst-of-suhaib-webb">declared</a> that adulterers should be stoned to death and has <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/55337/the-worst-of-suhaib-webb">warned</a> Muslim youth that they are being “pounded by the ideology of the Kuffar [a derogatory term for non-Muslims].”
While MUNA <a href="http://muslimummah.org/muna/">claims</a> to be a benign nonprofit group devoted to “social service” and developing the “personal, moral and social quality of human life,” it is also closely linked to the Bangladeshi branch of JI, a violent South Asian Islamist movement. In 2014, Jane&#8217;s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre named JI&#8217;s student wing in Bangladesh, Islami Chhatra Shibir, as the <a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/shibir-3rd-among-top-non-state-armed-groups-12937">third-most violent</a> non-state armed group in the world. In South Asia, JI is best known for its involvement in the 1971 Bangladeshi war of independence, during which JI operatives helped Pakistani forces murder tens of thousands of Bangladeshis.
One of these war criminals, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, JI’s assistant secretary general, was the guest of honor at a 2010 MUNA <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7640/new-details-emerge-on-bangladeshi-islamists">picnic</a>. Another JI leader, Mir Quasem Ali (<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37268320">hanged</a> by Bangladesh for mass murder in 2016), was the brother of MUNA executive board member <a href="https://www.cair-ny.org/board-of-directors/">Masum Ali</a>. And sessions at MUNA’s 2019 conference were moderated by Nakibur Rahman, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=268399723323047&amp;_rdr">son of executed JI criminal</a> Moitur Nizami. Today, Rahman remains a fervent advocate of his father’s work and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nakibur/posts/10154264071846385">mourns</a> him as a great martyr.
Islamist ideologue Abul A&#8217;la Mawdudi <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&amp;pg=PA34&amp;lpg=PA34&amp;dq=an+integral,+inseparable+part+of+the+Islamic+faith,+and+that+the+Islamic+state+that+Muslim+political+action+seeks+to+build%22+mawdudi&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=vCGAY8RSP-&amp;sig=ACfU3U2ICGgr_HT9KtfXpvTP5-2Q6-dWxA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjsn8iy6N_jAhURm-AKHXoEDOwQ6AEwAXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=an%20integral%2C%20inseparable%20part%20of%20the%20Islamic%20faith%2C%20and%20that%20the%20Islamic%20state%20that%20Muslim%20political%20action%20seeks%20to%20build%22%20mawdudi&amp;f=false">founded JI</a> with the declared belief that politics are “an integral, inseparable part of the Islamic faith,” a necessary step towards “the Islamic state that Muslim political action seeks to build.” As with Mawdudi, many of the MUNA 2019 convention speakers called for establishing Islam as a complete, all-encompassing way of life across the United States.
Last year, a number of elected officials merely <a href="https://imgur.com/3H4JkYd">endorsed</a> MUNA’s convention. This year, multiple elected officials accepted MUNA’s invitation to speak alongside a collection of hardline preachers and activists from America’s Islamist establishment. Did Reps. Johnson-Harrell and Rahman not know about the extremism of their host and fellow speakers? Or did they not mind? Certainly, Johnson-Harrell’s words were not very different from those of the other speakers calling for political involvement as a means to impose Islam.
Lawful Islamists tend to associate religious devotion with political activism. Civic participation as an act of piety is a popular tenet of Mawdudism — one that points to the ideological bonds between JI and MUNA. But Islamists of all stripes tend to have dreams of theocratic domination; and until the 9/11 terror attacks, they were <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/77/the-danger-within-militant-islam-in-america">not shy about saying so</a> in public. Since then, American Islamists abruptly became much more circumspect about revealing their designs. Yet now, MUNA and its Islamist allies are celebrating the Muslim community’s growing political power, and openly declaring their aspiration once again to use that power to reshape America.
Martha Lee is a Research Fellow of <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org/">Middle East Forum</a>. Benjamin Baird is the coordinator for the Middle East Forum’s <a href="https://www.meforum.org/59041/middle-east-forum-launches-islamism-in-politics-project">Islamism in Politics</a> project.

LEE & BAIRD: Recent Conference Highlights Emboldened Islamism In America

Muslims

Religion

California imam Ahmed Billoo recently <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">called</a> for the mass extermination of Jews. Apparently impatient at the border security protocols at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, he posted a prayer to Twitter with the hashtag &#8220;Zionists&#8221;: &#8220;Oh God, reduce their numbers, exterminate them, and don&#8217;t leave a single one alive.&#8221;
Ahmed Billoo&#8217;s sister is Zahra Billoo, director of the San Francisco branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). She is also an important figure in the Women&#8217;s March movement, and has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IslamicSocietyOfSantaBarbara/photos/a.395510290553801/1756659207772229/?type=3&amp;theater">appeared</a> alongside her brother at Women&#8217;s March events. Billoo’s own colleagues at CAIR <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/58905/prominent-california-islamists-praise-imam-call">&#8220;liked&#8221;</a> Ahmed’s post. When asked, CAIR and Zahra Billoo herself refused to comment on Ahmed Billoo’s genocidal call.
Publicly, Zahra Billoo prides herself on her commitment to progressive causes. When explaining her involvement in the Women’s March, she <a href="https://ca.cair.com/sfba/updates/cair-sfba-director-zahra-billoo-to-speak-at-womens-march-on-washington/">said</a> that &#8220;what we need right now is to send a clear message&#8221; and &#8220;that we will work together across communities to defend and protect each other.&#8221;
Despite these warm words, she was curiously unwilling to offer any criticism when it came to her brother advocating mass murder. On the contrary, Zahra Billoo made a heartfelt <a href="https://www.facebook.com/billoozahra/posts/10102964029972277">post</a> to her brother on Facebook a mere few hours after he prayed for the extermination of Jews, apparently in relation to another public stand he had taken: &#8220;My brother makes me proud often, but there’s a special kind of appreciation I have when he does this — puts his privilege to good use, asserting his rights, speaking out against border harassment, and thereby making it at least somewhat easier for those who are afraid or unable.&#8221;
While Zahra Billoo&#8217;s refusal to repudiate her brother’s endorsement of violence may appear to contradict her own camera-friendly activism, her silence is less surprising when one examines Billoo&#8217;s own social media history.
Billoo regularly <a href="https://twitter.com/search?l=&amp;q=hamas%20from%3AZahraBilloo&amp;src=typd&amp;lang=en">expresses</a> support for the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, at times justifying Hamas&#8217;s attacks against Israeli civilians. In one <a href="https://twitter.com/ZahraBilloo/status/488606959785218049">tweet</a>, she writes, &#8220;Blaming Hamas for firing rockets at (Apartheid) Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist.&#8221;
Over the past few years, Billoo has also consistently <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Hamas&amp;src=typd">supported</a> Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) official Sami Al Arian, describing him as an &#8220;incredible and law abiding Muslim leader.&#8221; (PIJ was <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/palestinian-islamic-jihad">designated</a> a terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997.) In 2006, Al Arian <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/70.pdf">pleaded</a> guilty to conspiring &#8220;to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Specially Designated Terrorist.&#8221; Al Arian was later deported to Turkey. In 2018, in a speech at a conference sponsored by Turkey&#8217;s Directorate of Religious Affairs, Al Arian <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7335/al-arian-calls-us-our-enemy-at-turkish-conference">said</a> that &#8220;the United States, which gives Israel so much confidence, is our enemy.&#8221; Billoo twice confided that she draws <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Al-Arian&amp;src=typd">inspiration</a> from Al Arian and has <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3AZahraBilloo%20Al-Arian&amp;src=typd">quoted</a> him on several occasions.
In 2018, Billoo stated, &#8220;The Israeli Defense Forces, or the IDF, are no better than ISIS. They are both genocidal terrorist organizations.&#8221; Billoo’s anti-Semitic obsession with Israel is pervasive enough that the interfaith organization PACT briefly <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/14/interfaith-group-pact-rescinds-award-for-bay-area-muslim-leader-after-pressure-from-jewish-members/">rescinded</a> an award to Billoo last year.
While Billoo indulges her true opinions on social media, she also works to present a very different picture of herself to the public. After the massacre of Jews at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, Billoo signed &#8220;An Open Letter to America About Anti-Semitism.” In the conclusion, the letter refers to the dangers of “white nationalist anti-Semitic hate.&#8221; But Billoo’s own hatred, while not inspired by white nationalist hatred, is not any less dangerous.
What is truly surprising is not that Zahra Billoo stayed silent as her brother called for the massacre of Jews, nor even that she subsequently claimed to be &#8220;proud of him,&#8221; but rather that she is still regarded by some as a leading progressivist figure. Zahra Billoo&#8217;s actual views have been in plain view for many years on social media and the subject of media reports many times. Yet Billoo continues to be praised for her activism and was even once <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/06/27/interfaith-group-pact-reinstates-award-to-muslim-leader-zahra-billoo-after-community-outrage/">honored</a> for &#8220;actually [speaking] out against anti-Semitism.&#8221;
Islamists such as Billoo enjoy protection from criticism using the thinnest of veils. Their duplicity is clear and without doubt. These self-proclaimed Islamic leaders must be judged on all their words and actions, and not merely on the progressive personas they project.
Martha Lee is a research fellow of <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

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Martha Lee

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