Cook County Candidate Embraces ‘Unrepentant Anti-Semite’ Rashida Tlaib in Bid for Local Office
What motivated freshman Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to come all the way to Chicago to support Abdelnasser Rashid, a candidate for a local office at the Cook County Board of Review?
A member of an ultra-progressive clique of junior lawmakers known as “the Squad,” Tlaib traveled to Illinois on March 1 to be the “special guest” at a “reception and dinner event” held to raise money for Rashid, a fellow Palestinian-American.
Rashid is a former chief policy officer for Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. He previously ran for the Cook County Commissioner’s office in 2018, losing by a narrow margin. Thanks in large part to donations from Chicago-area Muslims, Rashid amassed over $850,000 for the commissioner’s race.
Unfortunately for Rashid, Muslim assistance in the form of hefty donations and big-name endorsements wouldn’t be enough to win the primary in his second statewide election. On March 17, he lost by nearly 10 points to his Democratic opponent, Tammy Wendt. Nevertheless, Rashid’s failed Board of Review campaign is a sign of growing trend in Chicago that sees nationally prominent lawmakers cross state lines to engage with local Palestinian and Arab voters.
Tlaib relied on Islamist money to outraise her opponents in the 2018 Democratic primary, hauling in over $1.3 million in donations. Indeed, part of Tlaib’s strategy in that race included reaching out to Chicago Islamists, who mobilized the city’s robust Arab and Palestinian communities and held multiple fundraisers for the out-of-state candidate.
In politics, a favor received is a favor owed, and Tlaib appears to be repaying an outstanding debt by endorsing Rashid in the same city which contributed to her own political ascent. Yet outside of Chicago’s minority Arab community, Tlaib was a brazen choice to host Rashid’s dinner party, especially given the candidate’s controversial ties to Muslim extremists.
“Embracing an unrepentant anti-Semite shows Abdelnasser Rashid is hopelessly unqualified for any position of public trust,” said Chris Robling, a political strategist from Chicago. “He’s ignorant and profoundly offensive.”
In January 2019, both conservative and progressive Jewish groups condemned Tlaib for hosting a private celebratory dinner featuring pro-Palestinian activist Abbas Hamideh and other anti-Israel activists. Tlaib’s dinner guests have openly praised terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and called for the destruction of Israel.
In a post-election social media post, Tlaib personally thanked anti-Israel activist Ahlam Jbara for being among her Chicago “family and friends” to hold campaign fundraising drives in the Windy City. Later, Tlaib was criticized for her connection to Jbara, who reportedly appeared in selfie images with Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian immigrant deported in 2017 for failing to inform U.S. authorities about her 1970 conviction for a deadly Jerusalem supermarket bombing.
Jbara also happened to be Rashid’s former campaign manager in his failed bid for the Cook County commissioner’s office, and the pair subsequently founded Empower Southwest, a political action committee established to preserve the rich donor pool Rashid developed during his 2018 campaign.
Rounding out her Islamist credentials, Jbara sits on the board of directors of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), a Muslim civil advocacy organization accused in federal court of being part of a U.S. support network for Hamas, a specially designated terrorist group active in Palestine. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in the nation’s largest terrorism finance trial, and the United Arab Emirates considers CAIR to be a terrorist organization because of its support for jihadists.
In 2019, CAIR-Chicago was sure to “honor” Rashid with a Trailblazer Award at its 15th annual banquet, despite his electoral defeat. Nurturing her connections to Chicago Islamists, Tlaib was also present at CAIR’s banquet fundraiser, where she told a captive audience: “We always said the Muslims are coming. Well, guess what? I think we’re here.”
On March 1, Tlaib and Rashid would meet again, this time to solicit donations for the Chicago candidate’s Board of Review campaign. Individual tickets to this dinner party cost $250, and co-chair seats were peddled for $5,000 apiece. The celebrity congresswoman’s appearance was no doubt a draw to local donors, 13 of whom appeared to shell out the maximum donation.
Safaa Zarzour, the vice president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), was one of several Islamists to sponsor Rashid by purchasing these costly seats. ISNA has a long history of extremism, anti-Semitism, and support for terrorism, and the Muslim civil society group was named as an unindicted co-conspirator during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial.
In addition, Zarzour is a member of the board of directors of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, Illinois. In 1992, six members of this mosque were arrested in Israel for financially supporting Hamas. In 2005, Family Bank and Trust Co. shut down the Mosque Foundation’s accounts after it donated $10,000 to the Islamic American Relief Agency, an international charity which the U.S. Treasury Department alleged was a front for Al Qaeda.
Ahmed Aduib, who has fundraised for Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), was another co-chair at Rashid’s dinner party. According to a Middle East Forum report, IRUSA has long been accused of funding terrorism. “Both Israel and the United Arab Emirates have designated it as a terror-financing organization,” the report explained, adding that “in 2005, Russian authorities accused IRUSA of supporting terrorism in Chechnya.”
In 2012, the Swiss banking giant UBS shut down IRUSA accounts over terror financing fears, and four years later, the British investment bank HSBC did the same.
Malek Odetallah, executive director of the Muslim American Society’s (MAS) Chicago branch, also indulged in the extravagant dinner party seats. MAS was founded in 1993 as part of the American wing of the Muslim Brotherhood network, an Islamist movement which has influenced many Sunni terrorist organizations around the world, including Hamas and Al Qaeda.
Odetallah’s social media includes pictures with several Islamist luminaries, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an unapologetic state sponsor of Hamas and other jihadist movements; Sheik Youssef Al-Qaradawi, a chief instigator of terrorist attacks in Iraq and Israel; and Imam Said of the aforementioned Mosque Foundation.
Tlaib’s visit to the Illinois capital to stump for a relatively minor local candidate is demonstrative of an Islamist grand strategy which transcends state and district lines. In an effort to normalize political Islam and elevate the Arab-Israeli conflict above domestic concerns, Islamists are organizing in unprecedented ways. However, under these conditions, local concerns will always take a back seat to an Islamist platform that is counter to American interests.
Hesham Shehab is a Chicago Fellow at the Counter-Islamist Grid, an initiative of the Middle East Forum.
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