When Deb Feinen, the mayor of Champaign, Illinois, suddenly and unexpectedly decided to replace one of the members of her city’s Human Relations Commission, she <a href="https://www.news-gazette.com/news/champaign-mayor-human-relations-commission-switch-up-a-great-opportunity/article_d6e50931-3e56-5772-90d0-2efba9146c47.html">cited</a> the importance of “diversity” as the reason. Out went Kenton Elmore, an unquestionably white Commission member; in came Ahmed Taha, an Egyptian immigrant and a prominent figure in the city’s Muslim community.
Elmore appears to have been a popular member of the Human Relations Commission, and his abrupt removal left other members of the Commission a little unsettled. But the mayor said she felt the city was “underrepresenting the Muslim-American community.”
At a cursory glance, the decision to appoint Ahmed Taha made sense. Champaign has a significant Muslim community, and Ahmed Taha is a significant figure in that community. But just a slightly closer look would have found that he is significant for one thing more than anything else: His hatred of Jews.
Taha’s anti-Semitism is no secret, and has been unveiled before — mostly because of his involvement with two prominent Islamist organizations, the Muslim American Society (for which he runs the Champaign branch) and the Islamic Circle of North America. The latter group is a <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7952/ipt-report-exposes-icna-radical-domestic-agenda">proxy</a> for Jamaat-e-Islami, a <a href="https://libertysouthasia.org/2018/03/jamaat-e-islami-conservative-islamic-political-party-or-violent-extremist-group/">violent</a> South Asian extremist movement.
In 2013, Taha republished a photo on his Facebook page, ostensibly of a brutally killed Egyptian teenage boy, which was accompanied by the text: “O Muslim, O servant of God. There is a Jew behind me, come kill him.&#8221;
In March 2014, Taha shared a conspiracy theory by a far-right website claiming that the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, was secretly Jewish. &#8220;Is that true?&#8221; Taha asked, &#8220;If yes, this is a castastroph [sic].&#8221; In October that year, he then posted a video supposedly exposing Joe Biden as a “Zionist” and revealing the &#8220;Rothschild Zionism Secret Regime in America.&#8221;
After we at <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a> <a href="https://www.meforum.org/6439/worst-of-the-2016-mas-icna-speakers">revealed</a> Taha’s extremism in 2017, he quickly deleted his vile posts. We kept screenshots.
Tellingly, Taha only deleted the Facebook posts we mentioned — and none of the extremist posts we didn’t mention. Today, his Facebook account remains replete with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.taha.37051579/posts/10153458764901886">support</a> for Egypt’s leading theocratic movement, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen. The page is also full of various other hateful, mad conspiracy theories — mostly written in Arabic, about such &#8220;topics&#8221; as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.taha.37051579/posts/10152026865941886">Jewish control</a> of the current Egyptian government and how President Sisi <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.taha.37051579/posts/10151575615131886?__tn__=-R">comes</a> from a family of Jews and CIA members.
Given that the role of the Human Relations Commission is to <a href="https://champaignil.gov/boards_inside/human-relations-commission/">promote</a> “equal rights and opportunities” and to serve as a “hearing board for complaints of violation of [the city’s Human Rights] ordinance,” few can doubt that appointing a man infamous for his hatred of one of the city’s minority groups is a thoroughly injudicious choice.
Did the city know about Taha’s hatred of Jews? And now that they know, will they do anything? We asked the Human Relations Commission if they were aware of Taha’s extremism, and whether they now still believe he is a suitable member for the body? We were only told the Commission has “no comment.” We also left a message for the mayor’s office, but have not yet heard back.
However, the city council is not alone in its elevation of Ahmed Taha. A number of pieces published in the media have praised Taha as a moderate. Illinois’ News Gazette ran a <a href="https://www.news-gazette.com/news/newest-champaign-human-relations-commission-member-i-have-to-do/article_9aaa44e1-2dd8-52cf-8d98-1b5ac355a7bb.html">puff piece</a> on Taha on July 16, discussing his recent appointment. Taha is quoted, incongruously pledging “to stand for justice, support social justice causes and investigate against every kind of discrimination.”
The journalist, Adalberto Toledo, notes Taha’s involvement with the Muslim American Society (MAS), although neatly leaves out widespread accusations by politicians and <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/07/rep-ilhan-omar-supports-group-that-produced-child-beheading-skit/">law enforcement</a> alike about the organization’s links to the designated terrorist group Hamas — and its own <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/4655/uae-designates-cair-mas-as-terrorist-groups">designation</a> as a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates in 2014. Readers may remember that MAS made <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/philadelphia-muslim-american-society-video-children-beheading-torture-disturbing/">national news</a> in May 2019, after its Philadelphia branch hosted an event at which children sang about their violent hatred of Jews: &#8220;We will chop off their heads&#8221; and &#8220;we will subject them to eternal torture.&#8221;
Convinced that a respected local newspaper would undoubtedly want to investigate a decision to appoint a hateful anti-Jewish activist to a Commission tasked with fighting discrimination and hatred, the Middle East Forum contacted Toledo, the journalist, and sent him evidence of Taha’s extremism. Astonishingly, Toledo refused to investigate, claiming the Middle East Forum was “racist,” and that he imagined we were conspiring to “besmirch a man&#8217;s name with false accusations.”
America was once famous for local journalists dogged pursuing the truth. Now it seems there are too many examples of local journalists doggedly avoiding it. At the very least, Toledo decided on a political agenda over a factual one. Some might conclude, though, that Toledo must have a degree of tolerance for Taha’s hateful rhetoric; why else, truly, would he refuse to investigate, even if he objects to the politics of the messenger?
It is also difficult to believe that no one in the mayor’s office, the Human Relations Commission, or at the News Gazette thought to carry out a quick Google search of a man appointed to a public role — a man tasked with the well-being of Champaign’s residents.
There are thousands of Muslims in Champaign who would undoubtedly make excellent members of the city’s Human Relations Commission. Very few have published calls for the killing of Jews. And yet the city and its puff piece writers managed to find and promote the one resident who did exactly that.
Sam Westrop is director of <a href="http://islamist-watch.org/">Islamist Watch</a>, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>.

WESTROP: City Of Champaign, Illinois Appoints Anti-Jewish Extremist To Anti-Discrimination Commission

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Research by the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a> has found that since 2007, federal government agencies have handed over $47 million to 61 Islamic institutions in the forms of 411 various grants and contracts.
On the face of it, this need not be of any particular concern. The government has long relied on contractors and charities from all faiths to implement its programs. Alarmingly, however, radical Islamic movements completely control 36% of the Muslim institutions that received government monies, taking 42% of the total funding. A further 36% of the grantees, which received 44% of the funds, operate under varying degrees of radical influence. A mere 14% of identified government funds given to Muslim organizations were directed toward institutions free of Islamist influence.
In total, if the government&#8217;s own data is accurate, at least $41 million was given to institutions either controlled or under the partial influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-e-Islami (a violent South Asian Islamist movement), Salafis, Deobandis (a hardline South Asian Sunni sect from which the Taliban was created) and the Iranian regime, among others.
Some of the largest amounts involve grants to aid charities. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/15/islamists-and-their-charities">Long favored</a> by Islamist movements as a means to spread ideology through welfare, charities also provide extremists with plentiful funding and the occasional accompanying credibility of government partnership.
The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), for instance, received over $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster relief work in 2016 and 2018. <a href="https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/57929/catalogue-of-icna-links-to-jamaat-e-islami">ICNA is the U.S. representative body</a> of Jamaat-e-Islami, which was recently <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/india-bans-jamaat-islami-kashmir-conflict-pakistan-190228200217590.html">banned</a> by the Indian government in the Kashmir region because of its involvement with &#8220;extremism and militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere.&#8221;
ICNA and its subsidiaries openly <a href="https://morningconsult.com/opinions/a-south-asian-threat-in-america/">partner</a> with official Jamaat-e-Islami organizations in Pakistan, such as Al Khidmat Foundation, a funder of the designated terrorist organization Hamas. The Investigative Project on Terrorism has <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/7011/ipt-investigation-reveals-icna-partner-close-ties">noted</a> that Al Khidmat&#8217;s President, Naeem ur-Rehman, is <a href="https://www.jasarat.com/2016/08/07/karachi-sayed-salahuddin-and-hafiz-naeem-ur-rehman-press-conference/">closely involved</a> with the designated Kashmiri jihadist group Hizbul Mujahideen.
In addition, ICNA runs an international aid branch, Helping Hand for Relief and Development, which has <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/01/pakistani-terror-groups-charitable-guises-us-funds/">openly partnered</a> in Pakistan with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a designated terrorist organization responsible for the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Another Jamaat-e-Islami charity, Muslim Aid, received over $1.5 million from the American taxpayer in 2013 for a &#8220;Food for Peace&#8221; program. Muslim Aid is based in Britain, but <a href="https://www.muslimaidusa.org/">operates</a> a fundraising office in America.
In 2010, three years before the U.S. government handed over taxpayers&#8217; money to the charity, Muslim Aid <a href="https://andrewgilliganblog.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/muslim-aid-hopeless-charity-commission-whitewashes-yet-another-islamist-group/">admitted</a> to funding organizations controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas, including a grant of over $18,000 to the al-Ihsan Charitable Society &#8212; which is designated by the U.S. government as a sponsor of terrorism. In 2013, the same year as the U.S. government grant, a war crimes tribunal <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/uk-muslim-leader-chowdhury-mueen-uddin-sentenced-to-death-in-bangladesh-8919895.html">sentenced to death</a> in absentia the founder of Muslim Aid, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, for his part in the mass murder of teachers and intellectuals by Jamaat-e-Islami killing squads during Bangladesh&#8217;s 1971 Liberation War.
Other Islamist strains, meanwhile, also found generous taxpayer backing. For example, <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/obama-administration-al-qaeda-affiliate-knowingly-funded/">$115,000 of taxpayers&#8217; money</a> was handed to a Bin Laden-linked Sudanese charity, the Islamic Relief Agency, a decade after the U.S. Treasury designated it as a terrorist-financing organization. Lawmakers are now <a href="https://www.meforum.org/7282/mef-uncovers-obama-era-scandal-congress">investigating</a> the decision to award the grant.
Three organizations named by the United Arab Emirates as terrorist groups were approved for U.S. government funding. Islamic Relief, a global charitable franchise established by supporters and officials of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, received over $1.6 million, despite its <a href="https://www.meforum.org/7403/islamic-relief-charity-extremism-terror">extensively documented links</a> to Hamas and other designated terrorist organizations.
These enormous sums to aid charities somewhat inflate the total figures. But the hundreds of remaining grants are not insignificant. Branches of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society (MAS) collectively received over $310,000 from the taxpayer. Officials of both organizations (as well as CAIR itself) were <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/472/introducing-the-muslim-american-society">named</a> by federal prosecutors as unindicted coconspirators during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial.
Funds for CAIR and MAS were provided under a diverse range of government initiatives: Counter-terrorism security measures, disaster relief, chaplaincy programs, and school lunch vouchers. In fact, if large grants to aid charities are disregarded, chaplaincy contracts and schooling subsidies make up a significant proportion of government funding.
The Islamic Institute of Knowledge (IIOK), for example, is a Shiite institution in Dearborn, Michigan, which has received over $851,000 under the National School Lunch Program. IIOK does not hide its ideological links. It was established by Abdel Latif Berry, a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UlI3BAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PT288&amp;dq=%22islamic%20institute%20of%20knowledge%22%20khomeini&amp;pg=PT288#v=onepage&amp;q=islamic%20institute%20of%20knowledge&amp;f=false">disciple</a> of Lebanon&#8217;s late Ayatollah Fadlallah, who served as a &#8220;spiritual advisor&#8221; to the designated terrorist group Hezbollah. In 2009, IIOK held a commemoration for Ayatollah Khomeini &#8212; the architect of the Iranian Revolution and its theocratic regime &#8212; at which Latif Berry <a href="https://www.shiatv.net/view_video.php?viewkey=9f7f0857260404eab4d4%20">spoke</a> and praised Khomeini effusively.
Other lunch money recipients include over $38,000 to the Tarbiyah Islamic School of Delaware. In 2015 the Muslim journalist Asra Nomani <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-us-muslim-honor-brigade-strikes-again">revealed</a> that the school was established by radical adherents of the hardline Deobandi sect. And another $31,000 was given to the Islamic Center of Passaic County, whose imam, Mohammad Qatanani, is <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/5723/dhs-hamas-tied-nj-imam-must-prove-why-he-shouldnt">accused</a> by his mosque&#8217;s same governmental patrons of involvement with the terror group Hamas.
In other instances, the federal government has simply been in business with extremists. Between 2008 and 2010, the General Services Administration paid Dar Al Hijrah, a prominent mosque in Virginia, over half a million dollars for the lease of office buildings. A number of government agencies, however, have <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/mosques/417/dar-al-hijrah-mosque">long</a> <a href="https://clarionproject.org/dar-al-hijrah-islamic-center/">considered</a> Dar Al Hijrah a key terror hub. Its current imam, Shaker Elsayed, is an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4divrTSOnwM&amp;feature=youtu.be">avowed supporter</a> of Hamas.
The list goes on. In some instances, the data (which was gleaned from the government&#8217;s <a href="http://usaspending.gov/">USASpending</a> website) counts totals for some programs far below the amounts cited in a number of media reports, and so it is possible that the government&#8217;s data is incomplete, and that the real amounts are even larger. In addition, the figures do not include direct grants to Islamist institutions from state governments, a <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/05/new-york-grant-islamic-extremism/">common occurrence</a> in some parts of the country.
There are a number of possible, worrying conclusions to be drawn from these collated figures. First, it seems clear that government officials do not consider the ideological agendas of organizations to which they hand out taxpayers&#8217; money, or the effect that such subsidies may have on ideologically fragmented Muslim communities. Second, as the generous grants to Islamic Relief and the ICNA network show, established funding or partnership with terrorist and extremist organizations has not precluded Islamist organizations from government patronage.
Third, funding to Islamist organizations has not been reduced under the Trump administration. In fact, it has increased: In 2018, 40 grants and contracts worth over $13 million were distributed to organizations controlled or influenced by radical movements; two years earlier, under Obama, only 35 grants worth a mere $3.6 million were handed out to radical-linked institutions.
Distressingly, one could be forgiven for glancing at these figures and concluding that Islamists control far too high a proportion of high-profile American Muslim institutions. Or, these figures could show that Islamists have become the preferred partner of government simply because Islamists are better organized, more savvy about the processes for acquiring government funding, and &#8212; in their perpetual efforts to acquire legitimacy &#8212; simply more motivated.
A bill currently before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, <a href="https://banks.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bangladesh.v2.pdf">H. Res 160</a>, seeks to end government funding to American proxies for the Jamaat-e-Islami Islamist network &#8212; including the Islamic Circle of North America and its subsidiary organizations. That is a welcome step, but there are many more Islamist strains to be tackled, and many more grants and contracts to be canceled.
In the fight against extremism and terror, the government could strike an immediate, enormous blow by urgently reviewing all this funding &#8212; curtailing taxpayers&#8217; subsidization of international Islamist movements and identifying other moderate Muslim organizations with which to partner instead.

Sam Westrop is the Director of Islamist Watch, a project of the <a href="http://meforum.org/">Middle East Forum</a>.

WESTROP: Research Has Uncovered $41 Million Of Taxpayer-Subsidized Islamism

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WESTROP: City Of Champaign, Illinois Appoints Anti-Jewish Extremist To Anti-Discrimination Commission

WESTROP: Research Has Uncovered $41 Million Of Taxpayer-Subsidized Islamism