The New York Jets reportedly had issues with some of Tim Tebow “rabid” fans who were drawn to his outspoken Evangelical faith, but the team may offer a roster spot to an anti-Israel extremist who has embraced radical organizations that deny Israel’s right to exist and propagate what one publication has said is “blatantly anti-Semitic and terrorist propaganda.”
The Jets released Tebow in the offseason, but Oday Aboushi, a Palestinian-American player the Jets drafted this year in fifth round out of the University of Virginia, may make the Jets roster as a backup offensive lineman.
In detailed account at FrontPage Mag, Aboushi is described as a “Muslim extremist” who has most recently participated in a “three-day El-Bireh Convention 2013 (“Connect 2013″)” that was held this past June in Arlington, Virginia. Aboushi had posted anti-Israel photos and statements on social media sites. And as FrontPage Mag wrote, “Lest anyone believe this was an honest misunderstanding on Aboushi’s part, Aboushi solidified his extreme anti-Israelism late last month when he was a featured speaker at a conference run by an organization which denies Israel’s existence and associates with those involved in violence against her citizens.”
According to the publication, “El-Bireh Palestine Society’s logo, found atop the organization’s website, contains a graphic of the entire nation of Israel covered in a Palestinian flag is accompanied by horrifically anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and terrorist propaganda.” Furthermore, “on the same El-Bireh Facebook site as the conference, there are contained different images of Hitler and rabid anti-Christian cleric Ahmed Deedat, who authored the infamous work CRUCIFIXION OR CRUCI-FICTION?” The site also reportedly has a picture of four individuals stomping on an American flag in addition to terrorist memorials.
Participants at conference, according to FrontPage Mag, included Nitham Hasan. Hassan is the President of the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF), which is on property owned by “a group named by the U.S. Justice Department as being a party to the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas.”
In the past, Aboushi has posted a photo, on Twitter, of Orthodox Jews evicting an elderly Palestinian woman that has been used by anti-Israel publications to engender hate against Jews. The caption read, “88 year-old Palestinian evicted from home in Jerusalem by Israel authorities to make room 4 Orthodox Jews.” His relatives have reportedly posted similar photos depicting Jews in a bad light.
Aboushi has also “praised a conference sponsored by Islamic Relief (IR), a charity that the Israeli government has labeled a front for Hamas and that has been cited for both receiving and giving huge sums of money to al-Qaeda related groups.” He has also has tweeted, “65th anniversary of the Nakba and palestinians all across the world are still thriving.” As FrontPage Mag notes, “Nakba” is a “derogatory reference to Israel’s May 1948 founding as an independent Jewish state,” which is “used to spread enmity against Israel and to fuel terrorist attacks from groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).”
Despite these associations, Aboushi may well make the Jets roster because some scouts project he may one day be a starter in the NFL.