Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), reportedly hosted a Muslim leader who failed to denounce Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2022, and praised a film honoring former German dictator Adolf Hitler.
Notably, Walz is currently serving his second term as governor of Minnesota. The Democratic vice presidential candidate has even funded the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which extremist Imam Asad Zaman chairs, per the New York Post.
Walz’s office has reportedly sent over $100,000 to the extremist non-profit in past years.
While speaking to the New York Post, the director of the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch project, Sam Westrop, said, “Asad Zaman is one of America’s most prominent Islamist voices and has a long history of extreme rhetoric and ideas.”
Westrop also revealed that Zaman’s organization had spread pro-Hamas beliefs and conspiracy theories shared by Neo-Nazis.
“Along with Neo-Nazi conspiracy theories and sharing Hamas press releases mourning the death of a convicted war criminal, Zaman and his organization justified the October 7th attacks against Israeli civilians, releasing a sickening statement the very same day offering ‘unwavering support’ for the Palestinian ‘struggle,’” he said.
The New York Post reported that Zaman posted a press release about the hanging of Islamic leader Motiur Rahman Nizami in 2016 after the extremist official was convicted of genocide, rape and torture.
Following Hamas’ invasion of Israel in 2022, Zaman said his organization “stands in solidarity with Palestinians.”
“MAS reaffirms its unwavering support for the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli occupation,” Zaman said in a Facebook following the attack in 2022.
“Israel’s recent unprovoked attacks on Palestinian areas have claimed numerous lives…We call on the US government…to exert maximum pressure on Israel to respect Palestinian lives,” he added.
At the time, Zaman also shared an image of the Palestinian flag along with a caption from Islamic leader Yusuf Abdi Abdulle of the St. Paul Muslim community, which claimed that the U.S. government “is on the wrong side of history today as it was always by supporting the extremist Zionist regime and its illegal settlements.”
A day after Hamas’ invasion of the Holy Land, Zaman asked Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) if she would “reaffirm the right of Palestinians to defend themselves.” Such a request came after the California congresswoman denounced the attacks against the Jewish State.
In 2015, Zaman’s group shared a link to a 2013 Neo-Nazi propaganda film that lauded Hiler, called “The Greatest Story Never Told.”
“How could Walz and his staff have failed to conduct the most cursory of checks on the company they keep?” Westrop wondered, saying that his organization had warned Walz of Zaman’s extremism in 2019.
“Under Gov. Walz, hundreds of thousands of Minnesotan taxpayers’ dollars have subsidized this hate and radicalism. Which extremists will he end up funding as vice-president?” Westrop continued.
As the New York Post pointed out, Zaman and his group met with Walz in 2023 at the governor’s office in St. Paul. The meeting reportedly dealt with mosque security.
