In 2007, in a highly controversial move, Keith Hakim Ellison, the first Muslim congressman, swore his oath of office on a copy of the Koran.  In effect, Ellison rejected the values that unify Americans and instead pledged to follow a religious text that commands Muslims to wage war against secular legal systems.

Today, swearing the oath of office on the Koran and even simultaneously praising Allah have become almost commonplace.  In 2016, Minneapolis Park Board member and Somalian refugee, A.K. Hassan took his oath on a massively oversized Koran and proclaimed his commitment to serve “in the name of Allah.”  In 2015, another Somali refugee, Ilhan Omar, elected to the Minnesota House of Representative, swore on the Koran, as did Carolyn Walker-Diallo, the first Muslim woman judge elected to Brooklyn’s 7th Municipal District, and Abdullah Hammoud, a Michigan state representative.  

In “Muslim Brotherhood Political Infiltration on Steroids,” I described how as early as 1987, FBI information revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood – a Middle East political organization considered a terrorist organization by five Arab countries and Russia – was seeking to “peacefully get inside the United States Government” and accomplish “the ultimate goal of overthrowing all non-Islamic governments.”  Several M.B. front groups, including Project Mobilize; the United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO); and Jetpac, Inc., had been created to politically exploit America’s Muslim community to achieve supremacist goals set forth in the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategic plan, the Explanatory Memorandum.

As if taking a cue from the memorandum, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Nihad Awad, spoke in January 2016, at the 14th annual Muslim American Society-Islamic Circle of North America (MAS-ICNA) conference in Chicago.  He urged Muslims to “[t]urn your centers, Islamic centers, mosques into registration centers for voters, into polling stations during election time.”

Awad intoned that American Muslims can determine “not only the future of you here but the future of America itself.”  In 2014, the United Arab Emirates identified CAIR and MAS as terrorist organizations.  CAIR, referred to as “Hamas doing business as CAIR” by former FBI supervisor and M.B. expert John Guandolo, had been previously identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF-Hamas funding trial.  ICNA was listed in the Explanatory Memorandum as one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s likeminded “organization of our friends” with the shared goal of destroying America and transforming it into a Muslim nation.

In Canada and Europe and to a more limited degree in the U.S., once devout Muslims are installed in political office, they push for anti-hate speech and anti-Islamopobia laws and even prohibitions against verbatim citing of Islamic texts.  In addition, since sharia-adherent Muslims are commanded to reject man-made law such as the U.S. Constitution, they must endeavor to replace secular law with Islamic doctrine under a caliphate or Islamic government.

Muslims in office also take positions against U.S. interests.  For example, Ellison represents “Little Mogadishu,” a neighborhood in Minneapolis with one of the highest concentrations of Somali Muslim refugees.  In 2015, despite active recruiting in his district by the East African terrorist group Al-Shabaab, and the arrest of several Somalis for attempted travel to Syria to join ISIS, Ellison ignored terrorist financing concerns and opposed efforts to curb cash transfers to Somalia.

Meanwhile, new Muslim candidates of questionable motivation and affiliation continue to run for office.  Since my previous article, two are in upcoming races, and one, who was momentarily unsuccessful, is likely to run again.

In Florida’s Broward County, Altaf Ahmed is running for county commissioner in an election to be held later this year.  In 2016, he tweeted his attendance at CAIR Florida’s 16th annual gala and included a photo of himself with Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.  In 1992, Wahhaj said, “If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.”

Ahmed also praised the gala’s organizer, Nezar Hamze, a CAIR leader and Broward County sheriff’s deputy.  Hamze has denied the threat of Islamic terrorism and has conducted active shooter training at an al-Qaeda-associated Florida mosque.  He has been actively involved in Islamic Relief Worldwide, an organization banned by the UAE, Israel, and several Swiss banks for funding al-Qaeda and Hamas.

Another questionable candidate for office, Ammar Campa-Najjar, is running for the 50th Congressional District in eastern San Diego County and Temecula, the seat currently held by Duncan Hunter.  Campa-Najjar’s grandfather headed the intelligence wing of Fatah, the organization responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and other terrorist attacks against Israelis. 

Campa-Najjar attended an Islamic school at the Masjid Abu Bakr in San Diego but claims to have converted to Christianity.  His views on the Middle East are confounding.  He says he appreciates Israel’s need for security but also proclaims that “Israel will have to acknowledge its wrongdoings as the sovereign state” and “Palestinians will have to renounce violence and fanaticism, acknowledge their Jewish neighbors and accept new realities.”

In the most recent presidential election, Campa-Najjar supported Bernie Sanders, who criticized Israel for its offensive war against Gaza following thousands of rocket attacks and questioned America’s level of support for Israeli security.

A third Muslim would-be politician, Dilara Sayeed, ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for the Illinois House’s 5th District and was endorsed by M.B. operative Ellison.  Sayeed recently spoke at a Muslim religious festival (Eid) dinner at the Loyola University Chicago Muslim Student Association and was honored by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) at an event that featured M.B. and sharia-advocate, Dalia Mogahed, as the keynote speaker.

The Muslim Student Association, a rabidly anti-U.S., anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel group, is the first national Islamic organization established by the Muslim Brotherhood to indoctrinate and recruit Muslim students for terrorist organizations.  Meanwhile, CIOGC members include many M.B. front organizations, such as the Mosque Foundation (M.F.), which has held fundraisers for individuals and groups associated with the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas; Islamic Relief USA, which has funded al-Qaeda; and the Muslim American Society, which has propagated materials that degrade women, curse Christians, and call for the murder of Jews and homosexuals.

With endorsements from the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune and as a fellow of JetPac, an organization established as an “open call for American Muslims to immerse themselves in local politics,” Sayeed is likely to seek political office again and succeed. 

Given the new Muslim candidates and their affiliations, and the likely emergence of even more such office-seekers, Ellison’s address at a 2010 MAS fundraiser, hosted by jihad supporter Esam Omeish, now seems an ominous warning.  Said Ellison, “And I am telling you, that with your help, we are able to take the Muslim presence on Capitol Hill from zero to a real player.  And this is what we’re trying to do and we got to do it in every state house in America … positioning Muslims in general to help steer the ship of state in America.”

Surely, the ongoing attempt to penetrate American society through political office so clearly documented in Muslim Brotherhood strategic documents published decades ago is proceeding apace.  Despite a stated objective to destroy the United States from within and replace its system of laws and values with Islamic doctrine or sharia, ignorance or willful blindness on the part of Americans insures that their goal is dangerously within reach.

Image: Rudy Herman via Flickr.

Amy Walter of the respected Cook Political Report asks the question: “If Democrats Are Doing so Great, Why Don’t They Have a Bigger Lead on Generic Ballot?”

Indeed, the Democrat’s lead in the generic ballot has gone from double digits last year to less than 7 points, according to several polls. And the reason may surprise you:

Here’s my best guess. First, we tend to spend too much time looking at the margin instead of the vote itself. For example, the Quinnipiac poll in March had Democrats up 10 points. In April, that lead was down to just 3 points. The headline: Democrats lose their lead! But, let’s take a closer look at what actually changed between March and April. In March, 48 percent said they’d like to see Democrats win control of Congress to just 38 percent who said they’d want Republicans in control. In April, 46 percent wanted to see Democrats in control (a slight 2 point drop), while 43 percent picked the GOP (a more impressive 8-point improvement).

What does this mean? It means that Republicans are “coming home.” Even in a terrible year for the GOP, they are not going to perform much worse in the national vote than 43-44 percent. In 2006, for example, Republicans took 44 percent of the national House vote, even as many polls leading up to Election Day showed Republicans in the high-30’s. In 2008, an even more politically horrific year for the GOP, Republicans garnered 43 percent of the national House vote. In both cases, Republican voters, many reluctantly, “came home” to the GOP in the end. What’s happening now is that these voters are coming home sooner. Given our intense polarization, and a president and a news media that fans those partisan flames, this shouldn’t be all that surprising.

As disgusted as many GOP voters have been with the party, their voters are still far more likely to pull the lever for Republicans rather than the Democrats.

And the Democrats are making it ridiculously easy for them.

In some of the most competitive races around the country, Democrats are insisting on nominating “pure” progressives – clones of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Younger party members may be cheering the radicals on, but given that young voters historically don’t vote in off year elections, unless there are some huge surprises, most of the far left radicals will lose.

This gives Republicans a chance to hang on to the House. But other factors must break their way for that to happen.

The question for the fall, of course, is where those who currently put themselves in the “undecided” category break. We know these voters are much less engaged in politics. They are less attached to party and partisanship. We lump this group into the category called “independents.” And, here’s what we know about them: they don’t like Trump. Overall, about one-third to 40 percent of self-described independent voters approve of the job Trump is doing as president. And, as we know, how you feel about the president is correlated very closely to how you vote in a mid-term election.

In the latest Marist/NPR/PBS poll (April 10-13), for example, Trump’s job approval rating among independents is 38 percent. On the generic ballot question in that same poll, the congressional Republican gets 32 percent of the independent vote. A late April Quinnipiac poll showed Trump with a 33 percent job approval among independents, and 36 percent of independents say they will vote for a Republican in the fall.

In the end, the fate of the GOP in the mid terms will be determined as it always has been; turnout and approval of the president. Democrats know this which is why they are trying to shape the narrative that makes a Democratic victory inevitable. A lot will depend on the Republican get out of the vote effort. Perhaps even more will depend on Democrat’s ability to sideline their radicals and nominate more moderate candidates. The fact is, any talk of a “blue wave” is bogus at this point.