Questions about Virginia Lieutenant Governor candidate’s Islamist donors leads to outrage

In a recent debate between potential Democrat party candidates for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, moderator and WJLA anchor David Lucas asked candidate Sam Rasoul about significant campaign funding from “Muslim advocacy” organizations.

Lucas’ question  raised hackles, even though the topic was the subject of a recent Washington Post article. Lucas also noted that there was “nothing wrong with” Rasoul leading his opponents in fundraising due to these donations before posing his question, however, he now faces a significant backlash.

Rasoul’s largest donor is Manal Fakhoury, a Florida-based businesswoman and secretary of the National Board of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR is an Islamist group which a federal investigation conclusively showed was founded by members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood in order to support the terrorist organization Hamas.

Fakhoury provided Rasoul’s 2021 campaign with $75,000 according to one recent media article. Prior to joining CAIR’s national board, Fakhoury was the chairman of United Voices of America, a Florida-based organization founded by former CAIR-Florida leader Ahmed Bedier, known for statements in support of Palestinian terror groups. Many of Fakoury’s family members also contributed to Rasoul’s campaign.

Rasoul’s second largest donor, Mohanndas Malas is a California-based real estate investor and a board member of the Orange County Islamic Foundation, which oversees a Mission Viejo mosque. That mosque’s Imam, Sheikh Tarik Ata, was recently caught on the mosque’s live-stream calling Israelis “child-killers” and urging Muslims to “sacrifice whatever resources we can in defense of that land.”

Malas also has a historic relationship with CAIR, having co-owned the property which made up the group’s Northern California office from 2001 until 2006 according to land records.

Several other known Islamists are regular, if smaller contributors, to Rasoul’s war chest as well. These included CAIR founding executive director and Virginia resident Nihad Awad, who also donated under his alias of Nehad Hammad. CAIR-California leader Hussam Ayloush (who signed the paperwork with Malas for the CAIR California office) also donated.

Support from rich Islamists is by no means new for the Rasoul campaign. Both his recent state delegate campaign and various state-wide runs for office received contributions from multiple individual members of the so-called “Safa Group” a network of Virginia-based Islamists who were investigated in 2003 for ties to the terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

According to Islamist Watch’s Sam Westrop, the network remains active today, moving money to extremists like South Asia’s Jamaat-e-Islami.

Another Virginia-based Islamist contributor to Rasoul is Esam Omeish. Omeish is a long-time leader of the Muslim American Society, a group identified by federal prosecutors as the “overt arm” of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.

Omeish is a controversial figure in Virginia politics, becoming infamous after he was forced to resign from an immigration board appointment he received from then Governor Tim Kaine when he was caught on film openly praising “jihad” against Israel. The Omeish family remains active in Virginia politics however, with his daughter, Abrar Omeish, currently facing a recall petition from her position on the Fairfax County Schoolboard amid growing criticism for anti-Israel remarks made on social media.

Contributions by Islamists to Virginia elected officials has long been a divisive topic in the commonwealth. In 2002 Rep. James Moran returned more than $10,000 from Safa group members. In 2008, Rep. Andre Carson -who like Rasoul is a Muslim elected official- also returned funds received during a CAIR fundraiser, and from Safa Group leader and Virginia resident Yacub Mirza.

Islamist groups around the country are heavily involved in attempts to get their favored candidates – both Muslim and non-Muslim—elected to political office.

While there is nothing inherently illegal about utilizing their powerful lobby in this way so long as all election finance laws are followed, local voters should understand exactly what kinds of special interest these Islamists represent.

Islamists seek a fundamental alteration to America’s structure of government, seeking to undermine the Constitution in deference to Sharia, the Islamic law by which Islamists believe societies should be governed. Many American Islamist groups have historic or current ties to the funding of terrorism or extremism.

The effort underway to target Lucas for merely asking a question is intended to put any investigation or criticism of Islamist groups funding political candidates totally out of the bounds of acceptable discourse. Allowing such a campaign to go unchallenged lets Islamist groups  wield political influence with next to no scrutiny as journalist fear allegations of “islamophobia.”