Report: Tim Walz Repeatedly Hosted Radical, Pro-Hamas Muslim Cleric

Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has given a platform to a radical, pro-Hamas Muslim cleric on multiple occasions, the Washington Examiner reported.

The imam, Asad Zaman, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society (MAS) of Minnesota, has repeatedly defended Hamas‘s brutal Oct. 7 attack against Israel last year and promoted a pro-Hitler movie that is popular among Neo-Nazis.

MAS is a not-for-profit Islamic organization founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1992 to promote “Islam as a total way of life.” The United Arab Emirates designated MAS as a terrorist group in 2014. Walz’s administration has awarded over $100,000 in state funding to the Islamic group, according to the Examiner.

Walz hosted Zaman, who is from Bangladesh, on at least five occasions as governor of Minnesota, the Examiner reported.

• In May 2023,  Walz’s gubernatorial office held a meeting about mosque security with Zaman and other Muslim leaders.

• The Muslim cleric also appeared with the governor at an official event in May of 2020 calling for peaceful protests during the George Floyd riots in Minnesota.

• Zaman also reportedly attended a May 2019 event that Walz hosted for Ramadan.

• He was chosen to deliver an invocation before Walz’s state address in April of 2019.

• In January of 2019,  Zaman appeared with Walz at a press conference calling for an end to a government shutdown.

Walz’s ties to a radical Muslim cleric could become a thorny issue for the Harris Campaign during an election year in which the Jewish vote is increasingly up for grabs.  

For years, Zaman has reportedly made a habit of equating Hamas committing terrorism against Israel as defending itself.

For instance, in the wake of the unprovoked Oct. 7 massacre of civilians in Israel last year, Zaman said that he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks.”

During the sneak attack, 1,200 people were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists.

That same day, Zaman also “shared an image of a Palestinian flag on Facebook in response to a post by Yusuf Abdi Abdulle, director of the Islamic Association of North America, declaring that ‘Palestine has the right to defend itself.'” the Examiner reported.

After Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Chairman Ken Martin posted on social media that he was “beyond heartbroken” to learn Israelis he knew were “brutally killed or kidnapped” on Oct. 7, Zaman replied that the DFL “cannot be joined at the hip to apartheid Israel and still hope to court the Muslim vote.”

Zaman, meanwhile, has used his Facebook page over the years to share official Hamas press releases, blog posts on antisemitic websites slamming Jews, and, in one 2015 instance, a link to a piece on a website for a pro-Hitler film called The Greatest Story Never Told. The propaganda movie was released in 2013 and is a favorite among antisemites and QAnon conspiracy influencers, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

“Imam Zaman has a troubling history of playing into classic anti-Jewish themes and justifying violence against Israel,” an Anti-Defamation League spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.

“He also has justified violence against Israel, including from terror groups,” the ADL spokesperson said. “Given his hurtful remarks post-Oct. 7, and absent any recognition of the pain he has caused the Jewish community, we urge all public officials and leaders to avoid meeting with him in the future. Those who have met with Imam Zaman should clarify that they don’t agree with his toxic views about Jews and the Jewish state.”

On Oct. 8 of last year, one day after the massacre, Zaman challenged Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) after she condemned the  terrorist attack, asking the congresswoman if she would be willing to “reaffirm the right of Palestinians to defend themselves.”

Sam Westrop, a terrorism researcher and analyst at the Middle East Forum think tank, told the Examiner that Walz’s ties to Zaman indicate that “anti-Israel extremists may be given a platform in a potential Harris-Walz administration.”

Harris now leads former President Donald Trump by 0.5 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.

“It is astounding that with all the available public reporting and information about the iniquities of Imam Asad Zaman and MAS Minnesota that Gov. Walz has repeatedly given public platforms and taxpayer money to this extremist,” Westrop said. “Across the country, Islamists hungry for government support will surely welcome Walz as vice president.”