Meet Emgage, the pro-Israel Muslims backing Joe Biden | The Electronic ...

 

Biden’s pact with Muslim Brotherhood-linked group Emgage, and his conundrum over Hamas’ war on Israel

Joe Biden, Emgage and the muzzling of Muslim America | Middle East Eye

Joe Biden and the Muslim Brotherhood linked Islamic organization Emgage.

 

October 30, 2023

By

Reprinted from Jihad Watch

 

In early 2020, the organization Emgage launched its Million Muslim Votes campaign in order to galvanize a million Muslim Americans to vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Emgage’s website stated: “The MMV campaign was our celebration and a reflection of our determination to build elections as a vehicle of change for our community’s political will.” The organization was reportedly a spectacular success in uniting Muslims voters, who turned out in unprecedented numbers in key battleground states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. Emgage ultimately boasted that “in 2020 we helped turnout 1,087,086 registered Muslim voters. And we’re just getting started.” Emgage and Biden shook hands in a pact in which each made promises to the other. But in all pacts, there is a cost involved in fulfilling the promises; in this instance, the cost to Biden involved the reputation of Emgage, its network, how extensively it managed to infiltrate the administration, and what it all means now, given the fury by Muslims over Biden’s Israel stance.

As Israel battles Hamas, Frank Gaffney recently wrote that Biden:

engaged in outreach to one of his core constituencies: the Muslim Brotherhood. He met privately with five so-called ‘American Arab and Muslim leaders’ including: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; Wa’el Alzayat of Emgage, a political mobilization operation; and interfaith influence-operator Imam Mohamed Magid.’ Each has personal and/or organizational associations with the Brotherhood, a group whose Palestinian franchise, Hamas, perpetrated the horrific jihadist attack on Israel on October 7th.

Biden was in urgent damage control mode as Muslims become increasingly enraged over Israel. Take, for example, a Reuters headline: Biden’s Israel stance angers Arab, Muslim Americans; could jeopardize 2024 votesThe magnitude of Biden’s quandary is directly tied to the pact he made with Emgage. To appreciate this, a little history about Emgage is illuminating. According to Middle East Eye, one of Emgage’s first fundraising events “involved Keith Ellison, then a Congressional candidate from Minneapolis. That event in 2006 gave birth to the first iteration of Emgage as a PAC, an entity allowed to raise funds for political candidates. It also helped Ellison become the first Muslim in Congress.” In 2006, the Muslim voter advocacy group was not yet known as Emgage. It was filed as “Center for Voter Advocacy” by registered agent Khurrum Wahid, a founding member and currently the National Chair of Emgage Political Action Committee (PAC). Wahid is also an attorney “who has built his name on representing high profile terrorists”, and landed himself on a federal terrorist watch list in 2011.Discover the Networks names him as “one of the country’s most prominent terror lawyers.”

Emgage’s advocacy and hard work paid off as it rose to prominence during the 2020 election cycle, but the organization’s roots and those of its influential partners were already deep in the Democrat Party prior to the Biden win. Biden addressed the Emgage Million Muslim Votes Summit online in July 2020. This event featured the infamous Linda Sarsour; Emgage CEO Wa’el Alzayat, a decorated diplomat during the Obama administration and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University (known for its “Islamophobia” “Fact Sheets”); Nihad Awad, co-founder and Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations; and Khurrum Wahid.

Ahead of the online summit, Emgage Action created an endorsement letter signed by several prominent elected Democrat Muslim officials, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Indiana Rep. Andre Carson. Wa’el Alzayat, whom Discover the Networks reports is “one of the country’s most prominent terror lawyers,” stated:

Joe Biden’s presence serves not only to galvanize Muslim Americans to cast their ballots, but to usher in an era of engaging with Muslim American communities under a Biden administration.

At the online Summit, Khurrum Wahid stated how Muslims felt “scapegoated and marginalized,” which led to the formation of Emgage. In his introduction of Biden, he revealed the Emgage mission and why Biden was the group’s best choice for President:

That is why we have endorsed you Mr. Vice President….that is why we have you here today. This is truly an historic moment for Muslim Americans…where a presidential nominee has engaged us in such a high priority. It shows us that you care about us and our values and the issues we care about. It shows us you believe in us. Mr. Vice President, I want you to know that we believe in you…You have moved forward funding to nations with large Muslim populations… and you’ve championed the inclusion of Muslim American institutions at the policy table. And we want to partner with you to fix the societal harm of this Trump presidency….We are behind you. We have a swing state strategy and we will deliver for you Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida. We will activate large groups of voters in Texas and Arizona…we will have everyone we know to vote Joe.

NPR hailed the event: “Presidential Nominees Rarely Speak to Muslim Audiences. Biden Did Monday.” The story noted that “3,000 people RSVP’d” for Emgage’s livestreamed event with Biden. “Biden focused on Islamophobia…. He didn’t mention terrorism or Islamic extremism.” He then told the audience: “One of the things that I think is important: I wish, I wish we taught more in our schools about the Islamic faith.” It was at this event where Biden promised: “If I have the honor of being president, I will end the Muslim ban on Day 1. Day 1.” Emgage made the pledge to capture more Democrat attention, where Wa’el Alzayat stated:

Emgage made it very clear that as part of our endorsement … we needed a direct engagement with Biden at a visible Muslim-led event. That was one of the clear criteria that we put out there…it’s no longer a question of whether Democrats will engage the Muslim community, but how.  There’s a recognition [in] places like Michigan that went to Trump by just 10,000 votes the importance of all these votes…According to our research, there’s about 150,000 registered Muslim voters in Michigan.

The pact between Biden and Emgage was now sealed with a tit-for-tat agreement: Biden serves the Muslim community, while Muslims deliver votes. According to the Washington Free Beacon:

Emgage has collaborated with a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group on events that in recent years attracted speakers who openly opposed LGBT rights and supported terror groups. Last year, Emgage became an official cohost of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) conferences. ISNA was previously revealed to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood network.

ISNA and CAIR were both listed as unindicted co-conspirators during the Holy Land Foundation Trial. Both were deemed to be, or to have been, “part of the HAMAS social infrastructure in Israel and the Palestinian territories.”

Fast forward to March 2021, when NPR interviewed the Deputy Director of Emgage, Iman Awad, about Biden’s immediate repeal of the Trump travel ban and “what advocates want the Biden administration to do.” The mere question invoked an expectation that the incoming administration would be at the service of Emgage. This was not unreasonable, as it was exactly what Biden had established with Emgage during its summit. So Emgage was now poised to direct the new administration. As expected, the Left took up the cause. Politico reported after the fact that “nearly 1.1 million Muslim voters cast a ballot in the 2020 election, turning out in numbers large enough to swing the presidential race in key battleground states, according to a new report.” The report cited by Politico was that of Emgage itself; it describes its own political action committee (PAC)  as “the nation’s largest Muslim American bi-partisan political action committee that supports local, state, and federal candidates who share our vision of an inclusive and pluralistic America.” The group not only aims to dominate Muslim life in America, but also to represent the broader minority community under the banner of intercultural-interfaith dialogue.

On April 9, 2021, further damage to America’s security was becoming apparent, while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ignored the real threat of jihad. He announced in a memorandum “the establishment of a Countering Extremism Working Group (CEWG) to spearhead the military’s continued effort to locate and stamp out ‘extremism’ in its ranks.” Austin consistently fails upward. During the Obama administration, he was in charge at US Central Command of the fight against ISIS in Iraq, “when that nation quickly fell to the terrorist group.” See more about his background HERE.

Under Austin, “no fewer than 6 of the CEWG’s 18 members were radical Islamists who viewed the United States as a racist cesspool.” Emgage CEO Alzayat was one of them.

By now, it should be clear to anyone what the ambitions of Emgage are to unite Islamic supremacists everywhere in America, while presenting patriotic Americans as “Islamophobes”; and influencing White House policy, both domestically and abroad. Emgage diligently aims to do nothing less than steer America’s direction as it works with its most powerful ally, the President of the United States. Working as a fifth column from the highest office, the group also has global ambitions, focusing (of course) upon Palestinian interests. Hamas is, after all, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which a long list of unindicted co-conspirators with Hamas has enabled to operate through an expansive network throughout America. According to a recent news story, “Muslim American leaders, in private meeting, he needs to show more empathy toward Palestinians,” Joe Biden just hosted a core group of Muslim leaders in the White House. According to Frank Gaffney, former Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan and founder of the Center for Security Policy, Biden engaged “in outreach to one of his core constituencies: the Muslim Brotherhood.” The meeting included demands for an end to Israel’s defensive war on Hamas, although the participants called it a “ceasefire.”

Biden has now found himself between a rock and a hard place. He pledged to support the interests of Emgage and its network in exchange for votes. Yet America was shocked awake by Hamas’ ISIS-like attack on innocent civilians in Israel. Biden’s default mode now is remain as non-committal as possible, and even to engage in stalling tactics as he tries to keep his shaky coalition together. He appeals to humanitarian principles as he tries to keep his support base together: Muslims on the one hand, Jews on the other, and everyone in between, all while being forced to live up to expectations that the long history of American support for its ally, Israel, will continue.

The truth is becoming more apparent to mainstream America. The Democrats helped create the current crisis in the Middle East, as well as threats beyond that region). They emboldened Iran and helped fill its coffers through an outrageous deal that was based on lies and backroom deals. Consider more recent activity under Joe Biden:

  • It was discovered that Iranian spies have infiltrated the Biden administration.
  • The Biden administration’s Iran envoy Robert Malley helped “fund, support, and direct an Iranian intelligence operation designed to influence the United States and allied governments.”
  • Right before the Hamas attack on Israel, Iran seized upon a chance to get even more money from Joe Biden.
  • In an extreme act of insensitivity and even provocation to patriotic Americans, Biden announced the deal to send $6,000,000,000 to Iran in exchange for hostages on September 11, of all dates.
  • The Biden regime sent $148 million to Palestinian areas weeks before the attack on Israel.
  • The main goal of Biden’s Israel trip was to secure entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, not to help fortify Israel against its worst enemies.

And at the private meeting at the White House, Muslim leaders appealed to Biden for “more empathy toward Palestinians.” Among the guests was Emgage CEO Alzayat; the chief of staff of Muslim Brotherhood-linked Congressman Keith Ellison, who recently promoted a pro-Hamas “March for Palestine” rally in Minneapolis, at which demonstrators “called for Israel’s eradication” and used vulgar expletives to condemn Israeli “settlers”; and Imam Mohamed Magid, Executive Imam of All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center in Sterling, Virginia, former President of the Islamic Society of North America, and a big player in the “interfaith dialogue” network, serving as Chairman of International Interfaith Peace Corps. He was also recipient for the Washingtonian of the Year 2009 and the Human Rights Award 2005 from Fairfax County.

Biden now stands at a crossroads. He has pledged his support for Emgage in exchange for votes, and now the Emgage network has arrived to collect.  His public relations with Muslim Brotherhood players can only go so far now that Hamas is fully exposed. So far, Biden hasn’t been backed enough into a corner to pull a stunt that his neighbor Justin Trudeau favors in times of crises: conveniently disappear.

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