[R-G] Juan Cole on Obama's Muslim Outreach Coordinator Mazen Asbahi's Resignation and Islamophobia

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.juancole.com/2008/08/asbahi-resignation-and-islamophobia.html>
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Asbahi Resignation and Islamophobia

Kudos to Jake Tapper for pointing out that Mazen Asbahi, the
coordinator for Muslim affairs of the Obama campaign until he stepped
down after 10 days, did nothing that Karen Hughes did not do.

This resignation is in some ways a fallout of the witch hunt against
American Muslims conducted by the Department of Justice under Ashcroft
and Gonzales (those paragons of probity). Especially egregious was the
naming of the Islamic Association of North America and the Muslim
Brotherhood, among other perfectly peaceful organizations as
'unindicted co-conspirators' in the case against the charity, Holy
Land Foundation-- a case the government did not win and which was
always a waste of time.

So a trumped up and failed case against Muslims generates
unsubstantiated allegations that in turn can be cited by Rupert
Murdoch's Wall Street Journal to smear Muslims. You wonder if in
Rupert's mind, Muslim = a kind of Aborigine.

Basically the Right has it set up so that Muslims who have connections
to *gasp* Muslim organizations can be smeared at will.

In the meantime, rightwing Jewish-Americans with connections to
settler extremists on the West Bank are supported by the GOP.

Steve Clemons said it best.

Truth in advertising: Mazen studied with me.

<http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/help-wanted-mus.html>
Help Wanted: Muslim Outreach Adviser For Obama Campaign

August 06, 2008 3:55 PM

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has been taking some heat for not doing
enough to reach out to the Muslim community. (At the very least!)

In an attempt to rectify that, a new volunteer national coordinator
for Muslim American affairs for the Obama campaign -- Chicago attorney
Mazen Asbahi -- was appointed on July 25.

Asbahi lasted all of ten days.

The problem, reports today's Wall Street Journal, started last Friday
when the "Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report" -- an internet
newsletter that monitors the fundamentalist Islamic group the Muslim
Brotherhood -- noted that: "Democratic Presidential candidate Barrack
Obama has named Mazen Asbahi, a Chicago lawyer with ties to a
financial organization close to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, as
National Coordinator for Muslim American Affairs for his campaign."

The newsletter noted that Asbahi was listed as one of six trustees of
Allied Asset Advisors Funds in a May 4, 2000 SEC filing.

And according to Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, that group
was a "subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) and
adviser to the Dow Jones Islamic Fund, both affiliated with the
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)," referring to its own
February 2007 report "EXTREMISM AND THE ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH
AMERICA (ISNA)."

Part of that report details the role NAIT played in an ideological
struggle in a Bridgeview, Illinois, mosque, and the fundamentalist
imam, Jamal Said, who ultimately won that battle. Said served along
with Asbahi as a trustee of Allied Asset Advisors Funds.

In 2004, the Chicago Tribune had an interesting story on Said's
internal struggle to control this mosque. Read it HERE.

Said was also one of the many listed as an "unindicted co-conspirator
or joint venturer" named in the US government's ultimately
unsuccessful racketeering trial The United States of America vs. the
Holy Land Foundation, formerly the largest Muslim charity in the U.S.,
which the US government accused of being a front-group to fundraise
for Hamas.

Note that Obama had no apparent ties to Said -- the charge is that
Obama named Asbahi to do Muslim outreach for his campaign, and Asbahi
had ties to Said -- and to the Islamic Society of North America, which
was also named as an "unindicted co-conspirator or joint venturer" in
the Holy Land Foundation case.

That case, it should be noted, ended in a mistrial.

The newsletter also asserted that Asbahi has been listed as a speaker
for ISNA and has spoken at ISNA conferences.

(As long as we're playing the guilt by association game, we should
note that Karen Hughes, back when she worked for the State Department,
spoke before an ISNA conference and was honored with an ISNA dinner,
and both former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice have met with ISNA leadership.)

By Monday Asbahi had tendered his resignation letter to the Obama
campaign, saying: "I served on that board for only a few weeks before
resigning as soon as I became aware of public allegations against
another member of the board. Since concerns have been raised about
that brief time, I am stepping down...to avoid distracting from Barack
Obama's message of change."

Indeed!