A Freedom Center report exposes the threat and shows how we can fight back.
[Editor’s note: “Election Jihad” is a new report from the David Horowitz Freedom Center that exposes how Islamic political machines are transforming American legislatures state by state. And what we can do about it. ORDER IT: HERE.]
by
A New Generation of Islamist Political Power
The response in state legislatures to the Hamas Islamic terror attacks of Oct 7 showed how thoroughly Islamists have infiltrated our political system and the threat that they pose.
In Delaware, Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, the first Muslim elected in Delaware, heckled Vice President Kamala Harris at a Christmas party, demanding that Israel stop attacking Hamas.
After Oct 7, Wilson-Anton posted, “I do not stand with Israel” and warned that, “so long as a government refuses to respect the existence of a people it should expect resistance.”
A new generation of Islamist state legislators like her showed its true colors after Oct 7.
In Ohio, Rep. Munira Abdullahi, newly elected, promoted claims that Israel is “the biggest child-killer in the world”.
In Texas, Rep. Salman Bhojani, the first Muslim elected to the State House, accused Israel of engaging in the “mass killing of Palestinian civilians” during its fight against Hamas and claimed that the Oct 7 Hamas massacres “did not occur in a vacuum”
In Illinois, Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, the State House’s first Muslim ‘Palestinian’ elected official, accused Israel of “genocidal language” and signed a letter after Oct 7 claiming that “inequality” was at the “root cause of the violence”.
Michigan’s State House of Representatives did not condemn the Hamas atrocities of Oct 7 after opposition from House Majority Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash from Hamtramck, the first all-Muslim governed city in the country, who has accused Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid” and held a hunger strike to oppose Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
In Georgia, Rep. Ruwa Romman, a former communications director for CAIR, and the first Muslim ‘Palestinian’ in the George State House, described the Oct 7 attacks as an “escalation” caused by “settler violence and terror aimed at Palestinian business owners”
Rep. Romman argued that a resolution condemning the Hamas atrocities was creating “division” and claimed that Israel’s campaign was “not self defense” “not about hostages” and “not about Hamas”, but about “causing as much damage as possible.”
In the Georgia State Senate, Sen. Sheikh Rahman and Sen. Nabilah Islam, two newly elected members, abstained from a resolution condemning the Hamas atrocities. Sen. Islam had accused Israel of bombing “innocent Palestinians”.
In Minnesota, Sen. Omar Fateh responded to the Oct 7 attacks by accusing Israel of “horrifying acts of violence” while falsely claiming that it was engaged in a “genocidal war”. Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, a newly elected state senator and the first Muslim woman in the state senate, spread false claims that Israel had bombed a hospital and demanded an end to the attacks on Hamas.
A National Islamist Political Transformation
After the 2022 midterms, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding trial, boasted that a record number of Islamic candidates had taken power. Of the 153 who ran for office, a majority, 89, won their races.
In 2020, CAIR released a “Strategic Election Plan” for mobilizing 1 million Muslim voters that included “providing small grants to mosques planning to get out the vote” and that would “encourage and train 200 Muslim candidates to run for office”. The plan included town halls for Republican and Democrat candidates, a Muslim voter database and “boot camps” in 25 states.
These ambitious plans reflect the growing election presence of CAIR and other Islamist groups.
In Georgia, Muslims now have two members or 10% of the 22 member Georgia Senate Democrat delegation even though they represent only 1% of the state’s population.
This was due in part to the Georgia Muslim Voter Project which received $100,000 from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Other Islamist groups also continue to be active in electing candidates at every level.
Emgage claimed that its Million Muslim Votes campaign had led to 71% or over one million Muslim voters casting ballots. It boasted that it increased the number of Muslim votes by 27% in Michigan, 13% in Georgia, 5% in Texas and 4% in Virginia through “1.8 million calls, sending over 3.6 million text messages and over 400,000 mailers” and “knocking on over 20,000 doors”.
Emgage CEO Wa’el Alzayat responded to the Hamas attacks of Oct 7 by promoting a claim blaming “Jewish supremacists”. He later wrote that “white supremacists” allegedly “waving Israeli flags were blocking the entrance to my daughter’s Islamic school today.”
Emgage has various state branches in New York, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida. Emgage Florida urged Muslims to use their votes to affect American policy toward Israel and Emgage PAC in Texas endorsed two dozen candidates in the state alone.
Funding for Emgage has come through, among others, the Pillars Fund. The Pillars Fund is a “national nonprofit” that “amplifies the leadership, narratives, and talents of Muslims” and has a board of directors that includes a chief of staff for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Pillars Fund’s institutional funders include George Soros’ Open Society Network.
The Pillars Fund provided funding for the Georgia Muslim Voter Project and MPower Change
MPower Change, which has accused Israel of “genocide” for attacking Hamas, was founded by Linda Sarsour, promotes voter registration, and has received funding from the Ford Foundation.
The rate of change can be rapid.
When Rep. Ilhan Omar won her first election to the Minnesota State House in 2016, she was the first Somali Muslim elected official in the state and the country. There are now five including two in the Minnesota State Senate and three more in the Minnesota State House.
In 2019, Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell became the first Muslim in Pennsylvania’s state House. While she resigned after stealing from a charity meant to help children, there are now three: Rep. Tarik Khan, Rep. Jason Dawkins and Rep. Carol Kazeem. Khan was backed by Emgage PAC.
Connecticut has a Muslim House member and a state senator who also serves as Deputy President Pro Tempore. In Maine, despite a Muslim population estimated at 16,000 or less than 0.5%. three Muslim women were elected to the state legislature.
The midterms showed that even states with small or limited Muslim populations can elect a surprising number of Islamic legislators when they benefit from effective national and state organizations, and backing from Democrats and leftist groups searching for diversity.
Exposing the Machine
Islamist networks in America have built a parallel political structure of nonprofits, action groups and PACs which tapped into funds from non-Muslim leftist and Democrat donors. This parallel Islamic election machine has solicited government grants and funds from foundations, but as the aftermath of Oct 7 shows, it has remained focused on its overriding goals.
And those goals are not only hostile to Israel, but to America and the free world.
The rise of Islamist political power was made possible by outside funding from federal and local governments, from Democrat and left-wing foundations. Muslim voter turnout initiatives at mosques feed into some of the billions flowing from Democratic Party allied organizations to boost minority voter turnout, and from local social welfare and health grants.
CAIR’s integration within the Democratic Party’s electoral machine has been so total that the Democratic operatives and donors of the Movement Voter Project are fundraising for it even though CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad was caught on video celebrating the Oct 7 attack..
Islamist political power is not an independent achievement, but a dependent one.
Cutting off public, political and private funding for the Election Jihad is crucial for national security and for reversing America’s drift away from resisting Islamic terrorism.
Why is islam legal in the united states?