The Democratic National Convention lineup includes a Muslim imam who called for the release of a convicted cop killer.
New York City-based Imam Dr. Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid on Thursday is scheduled to deliver the final benediction of the “virtual” convention.
Talib was among eight chaplains of different faiths who were selected by the Democratic convention organizers to either give an invocation or benediction this week. He has been the chief imam of the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood in New York City since 1989.
The mosque, located in Harlem, New York City, was founded by the late El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) in 1964. Imam Abdur-Rashid is also a former ameer (president) of the Majlis Ash-Shura (Islamic Leadership Council) of New York.
Currently, he is the Majlis Ash-Shura’s special assistant for restorative justice, civil, and human rights. Nationally, the imam serves as the deputy amir (vice president) of The Muslim Alliance in North America.
Talib is also known among New York City law enforcement and counterterrorism experts as a Muslim activist who excoriated the New York Police Department, the federal government, and Muslims working with law enforcement for engaging in anti-terrorism related work.
In 2012, Talib called for the release of convicted cop killer Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. Al-Amin was convicted of murdering Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Kinchen and wounding Kinchen’s partner, Deputy Aldranon English in 2002, and Al-Amin was given a life sentence.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, lamented the Democrats’ decision to give Talib any stage time this year.
“The DNC has dug its heels in on embracing the most radical of the Islamic establishment, and Talib has a prolific history of radical ideologies that are separatists,” Jasser said.
“And it’s not only him, but there’s an Imam Noman Hussain from Brookfield, Wisconsin, who also spoke at the DNC,” Jasser continued, referencing the convention’s Interfaith Welcome Service. ” [Hussain] has a ton of sermons out there that are homophobic and anti-Semitic, but Talib himself has a number of examples.”
Jasser recalled a rally his organization had outside NYPD headquarters in 2010.
“We were supporting the NYPD when they were being attacked by the Islamist organizations at the same time that Muslims that worked with the NYPD were called collaborationists,” Jasser said. “Basically, these guys made anti-police rhetoric. They were espousing anti-police rhetoric a decade before the Democrats embraced it this year.”
The director and senior analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, Kyle Shideler, told the Washington Examiner, “It’s really sort of unsurprising but disturbing that the Democrats would choose to have this guy participate in their big event.”
Shideler added, “You’re talking about somebody that’s very aggressively anti-police and that is pro-terrorist, who supported a number of convicted terrorists. If that’s a reflection of their law enforcement and their counterterrorism agenda, then Americans should be concerned.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Democratic National Convention for a response and has not received a reply.
