The Islamist Money in Politics (IMIP) project, a project of Daniel Pipes’s Middle East Forum, released its “Top Ten Recipients of Islamist Money in 2017-2018” Friday — and every single one of the slots is occupied by a candidate from the Democratic Party.
The top ten list was compiled by cross-referencing data on individual campaign contributions from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), on the one hand, with “a list of the most prominent American Islamists” maintained by IMIP, on the other. That list, in turn, is made up of individuals who are leaders within one or more radical Islamic organizations within the U.S. (That does not mean the groups are violent, or necessarily support terror, but rather that they support radical Islamists’ goals.)
One such group is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group widely cited in the mainstream media. In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization . The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).
The top recipient of “Islamist money” was Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim in Congress, who is also deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, and the party’s nominee for attorney general of Minnesota.
In a press statement, IMIP research fellow Oren Litwin said: “It is encouraging that American Muslims are running for office. But Islamist groups are exploiting this for their own purposes, and funding their allies to advance an agenda incompatible with the Constitution.”
One of the candidates on the list, Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib, is so radical that even the far-left J Street organization was compelled to withdraw its endorsement after she called for a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, implying ending Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. (Tlaib is running unopposed in Michigan’s 13th district.)
Another candidate, Ammar Campa-Najjar, is a Christian of Palestinian and Mexican heritage, running in California’s 50th district. Three of the ten candidates on the list are from Michigan, including Sen. Deb Stebenow (D-MI), who is running for re-election against Republican John James, a U.S. Army veteran who flew helicopters in combat during the Iraq War.
The full list is as follows:
Candidates 2017-2018 Keith Ellison* (D-MN) $28,030 Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) $27,944 Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) $10,925 Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) $9,200 Ammar Campa-Najjar (D-CA) $8,950 Dan Kildee (D-MI) $8,100 Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) $7,749 Tahir Javed (D-TX) $7,250 Ilhan Omar (D-MN) $6,877 Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) $5,750
Radical Muslim activists are increasingly prominent within the Democratic Party. They include Linda Sarsour, a leader of the Women’s March, who called last year for a “jihad” against the Trump administration. Sarsour is backing several Democrats — including new Democratic Party sensation, “democratic socialist” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — in the midterm elections.
IMIP indicates on its website that its list is subject to change as new FEC data become available during, and after, the election.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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