President Obama visits terror-linked mosque

Special to WorldTribune.com

The Baltimore mosque that U.S. President Barack Obama visited on Feb. 3 has been linked to Hamas and other terror organizations.

In his first visit to a U.S. mosque, Obama spoke at the Islamic Society of Baltimore (ISB), whose former imam was linked to the financing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque in Catonsville, Md. on Feb. 3. /Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
President Barack Obama speaks at the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque in Catonsville, Md. on Feb. 3. /Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

“It’s disgraceful that this is one of the mosques – or the mosque – that he’s picked to be the first visit,” said Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy.

A Washington Examiner editorial said that two ISB officials in 2014 “President Muhammad Jameel and General Secretary Abid Husain — joined with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a news conference where they denounced Israel for committing ‘genocide in the name of self-defense’ in Gaza, when it was in fact the murderous Hamas terror organization launching rockets at Israel from heavily populated civilian areas.

“CAIR was designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, which resulted in the largest terrorist money-laundering conviction in U.S. history. The FBI terminated its formal relationship with CAIR in 2008 over its ongoing status as a front for Hamas.”

The ISB also hosted U.S.-born Al Qaida terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki soon after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

In 2013, ISB scholar Yaseen Shaikh described homosexuality as a “psychological disorder.”