This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/7980
SoFlo Muslims First Annual Conference Should Be Their Last
February 15, 2022
Federation's upcoming First Annual Conference feat - Khalid Griggs will headline a first rate hatefest.
Mon Feb 14, 2022
Joe Kaufman is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative. He was the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
On March 18th, the South Florida Muslim Federation (SoFloMuslims), an umbrella group for the vast majority of South Florida's radical Muslim institutions, will begin its two-day First Annual Conference, titled 'Our Collective Strength.' The group has been advertising the event's featured speakers, since early November. One of these speakers is Khalid Griggs, an anti-Semite who has used his social media to glorify Hitler and someone who believes the United States is "owned and controlled" by Jews. Having Griggs on its roster shines a light on the motives of the Muslim Federation and all who agree to participate in this month's conference.
Khalid Fattah Griggs is the imam of the Community Mosque of Winston-Salem (CMWS) in North Carolina. He is also the Vice President of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and the Chairman of ICNA's Council for Social Justice (CSJ). Unlike ICNA that has its roots in South Asian Islamism, Griggs, a black Muslim convert, took his main influences from the black power movement. In December 2019, Griggs wrote of the "honor" he had in meeting Kwame Ture, a rabid anti-Semite who claimed European-born Jews were not Jews but "Cossacoids" and said, "The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist." Griggs called Ture a "courageous political visionary."
Griggs has his own anti-Semitism problem. In May 2021, he posted on social media a news clipping from the All-African People's Revolutionary Party calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. The post accused Israel of "committing mass murder" and stated that "ZIONISM… MUST BE DESTROYED!" In May 2018, Griggs affirmed his belief in the wildly anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that the US is run by Jewish interests. When someone wrote on his Facebook page, "America has long been an Israeli colony" and "America from coast to coast is owned and controlled by pro-Zionist, Israeli fanatics," Griggs clicked 'like,' declaring his agreement.
Griggs, too, has a Hitler problem. In October 2018, he posted on Facebook a doctored photo of track star Jesse Owens, at the 1936 Olympics, posing with Adolf Hitler, who is depicted in the photo with his arm around Owens, both men flashing big smiles. The graphic attempts to paint Hitler as a person of virtue, instead of the cold-hearted murderer that he was. In truth, as told in PBS's Jesse Owens in Hitler's Germany, "Tradition called for the leader of the host country to congratulate the gold medal winner, but Hitler refused to greet Owens. 'Do you really think,' the German leader said, 'I will allow myself to be photographed shaking hands with a Negro.'"
Also said to be speaking at the Muslim Federation conference, during the youth portion of the event, is Izhar Khan, a member of the Federation's Council of Imams. In May 2011, Khan was arrested and spent 20 months in a Miami federal detention center for his alleged participation in a scheme to ship $50 thousand to the Taliban. According to the indictment, "Izhar… worked with… others to collect and deliver money for the Pakistani Taliban… Izhar… provided… material support and resources… knowing and intending that they be used in preparation for and in carrying out… a conspiracy to murder, kidnap, and maim persons in a foreign country."
Khan, who will be teaching the kids about Jannah (Paradise in the afterlife), is imam of Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen (MJAM), a mosque that promotes on its website texts endorsing female genital mutilation, death punishments for gays, domestic violence against women, and hatred of Jews, Christians and Hindus. One MJAM text, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, states, "[B]eware of the Jews, your enemies… [D]o not be deceived by them, for they are liars… Allah forbids His believing servants from having Jews and Christians as friends, because they are the enemies of Islam and its people, may Allah curse them."MJAM, like Khan, is part of the Muslim Federation.
Sponsoring the Federation conference is Islamic Relief (IR), a group that has been banned by a number of nations. In 2017, Bangladesh's NGO Affairs Bureau banned IR in fear the group would conduct terrorist recruitment of Myanmar refugees. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) designated IR a terrorist group; Israel banned IR, claiming that the group had funneled money to Hamas; and Britain's HSBC bank cut ties with IR over concerns about "terrorist financing." In 2005, Russia accused IRof supporting terrorism in Chechnya. Additionally, the US, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland have all recently cut funding to IR.
The upcoming Muslim Federation conference – billed as a "Conference & Grand Bazaar" – is less a conference and more an extremist hatefest. From (alleged) Taliban sympathizers and radical mosques to banned organizations and anti-Semitic conspiracy nuts who are Hitler admirers, the people and groups represented at this event are anathema to American values and dangers to national security. Exposing vulnerable youth to such entities and teachings is a further matter of concern, as it deals with children's welfare and safety. Both the Federation and its March conference should be investigated and, if deemed necessary, shut down.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/muslim-federation-event-speaker-glorifies-hitler-joe-kaufman/
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/7980