Birds of a Feather? Democrat Socialist Andrew Gillum’s links to Florida’s Islamic Socialists

Some see Socialism and Islam as strange bedfellows but they are not. Rather they are kindred spirits when it comes to Marxist/Leninist ideals. Islamic socialism predates Communism by 1300 years. Wikipedia describes Islamic socialism:

Islamic socialism is a term coined by various Muslim leaders to describe a more spiritual form of socialism. Muslim socialists believe that the teachings of the Quran and Muhammad—especially the zakat—are compatible with principles of economic and social equality. They draw inspiration from the early Medinan welfare state established by Muhammad. Muslim socialists found their roots in anti-imperialism. Muslim socialist leaders believe in the derivation of legitimacy from the public.

Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī, a companion of Muhammad, is credited by some scholars, like Muhammad Sharqawi and Sami Ayad Hanna, as a principal antecedent of Islamic socialism. He protested against the accumulation of wealth by the ruling class during Uthman’s caliphate and urged the equitable redistribution of wealth. The first Muslim Caliph Abu Bakr introduced a guaranteed minimum standard of income, granting each man, woman and child ten dirhams annually—this was later increased to twenty dirhams.

What is the connection between Islamic socialism and Democrat Socialist Andrew Gillum?

Connecting the Dots

In a Federalist column titled “U.S. Socialists Back Islamist-Linked Muslim Candidates In Michigan Primaries” Kyle Shideler notes:

Emgage was originally co-founded by CAIR alum and Florida lawyer Khurrim Wahid, under the name EmergeUSA. EmergeUSA got its political start raising campaign funds for former Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, a long time CAIR favorite. Even before then, Wahid has a history of associating with Islamists.

Wahid served as a consultant in the case of convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad organizer Sami Al-Arian, according to an interview with Wahhid published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Wahid was once reportedly placed on a terrorism watchlist.

Emgage’s Michigan chapter is led by Nada Al-Hanooti, who was field coordinator for Tlaib’s 2012 Michigan state House campaign. Al-Hanooti comes from a family of active Islamists. She is the daughter of former CAIR-Michigan executive director Muthanna Al-Hanooti, who was sentenced to a year in prison after being convicted of sanctions violations amid accusations of serving as an agent of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Muthanna’s father, the late Mohammad Al-Hanooti, was an early co-founder of multiple Islamist organizations, and was suspected by the FBI of providing more than $6 million to the terrorist group Hamas.

Shideler concludes, “Despite these [Michigan] candidates’ less than stellar polling results, there’s reason for concern that [Democratic Socialist] efforts to legitimize Islamist politicians will continue.”

Gillum’s Connection to Florida Islamic Supremacist Organizations

According to Discover the Networks the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR),

[W]as co-founded in 1994 by Nihad AwadOmar Ahmad, and Rafeeq Jaber, all of whom had close ties to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was established by senior Hamas operative Mousa Abu Marzook and functioned as Hamas’ public relations and recruitment arm in the United States. Awad and Ahmad previously had served, respectively, as IAP’s Public Relations Director and President. Thus it can be said that CAIR was an outgrowth of IAP.

[ … ]

Writes Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz: “CAIR should be considered a foreign-based subversive organization, comparable in the Islamist field to the Soviet-controlled Communist Party USA, and the Cuban-controlled front groups that infiltrated ‘Latin American solidarity’ organizations in the U.S. during the 1980s. It has organized numerous community branches and has had immense success in gaining position as an ‘official’ representative of Islam in the U.S.”

Mayor Andrew Gillum appeared at the February, 2016 Muslim Capital Day hosted by the Florida chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and EMERGE USA. According to the CAIR website:

More than 200 Florida Muslim community leaders, businessmen and women, and students participated in the eighth Florida Muslim Capitol Day event this past Thursday [February 11, 2016] at the State Capitol. This year’s event was co-sponsored and prepared in close collaboration with EMERGE USA, another key American Muslim organization.

Attendees of the event were honored by a personal welcome from Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum on the Wednesday evening before the event at the Islamic Center of Tallahassee. The mayor’s words were inspiring as he applauded the Muslim community’s participation in this civic engagement event that stressed the importance of political involvement in a political climate that is, unfortunately, filled with xenophobic rhetoric.

What is Florida based EMERGE USA?

According to Discover the Networks:

Over the years, EMERGE has held a number of events at terror-linked mosques, like: (a) Masjid Al-Qassam (a.k.a. Islamic Community of Tampa), which was founded by Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian, and (b) Masjid Darul Uloom (based in Pembroke Pines, Florida), where “Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla was a student and the late al-Qaeda Global Operations Chief Adnan el-Shukrijumah was a prayer leader. EMERGE has also sponsored speeches made by various Muslim extremists, such as Sayed Ammar Nakshawani, who has called for the destruction of Israel.

EMERGE’s executive director, Nauman Sabit Abbasi, is the president of public relations for the Islamic Foundation of South Florida (IFSF), a radical mosque that seeks to “establish a powerful base for the growth of Islam in North America,” and whose youth leader once wrote on the Internet: “[Y]es, Allah … has Decreed that we will over-take the World in numbers…” Abbasi’s Facebook page urged to people to “support the true leadership of the world who are at war with Zoinists.”

Is Andrew Gillum Florida’s version of the nation’s first “Islamic Socialist Candidate?” We report, you decide.

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EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is by Unsplash/Matthew Cabret@majinmdub

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