BREAKING: Extremist Group Behind White House Riot Tied to Terrorism. Where’s Our Watchdog Media?
The pro-Hamas nonprofit American Muslims for Palestine may be raising funds for terrorist organizations, according to the Virginia AG. It’s also responsible for the Jan. 13 insurrection in our nation’s capitol.
Some 400,000 pro-terrorist activists descended on Washington, D.C., over the weekend to heckle “Genocide Joe” Biden and demand a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on the 100th day since the Oct. 7 terror attacks began.
By Saturday night, the march had devolved into a violent insurrection outside the White House—prompting staffers to relocate under armed guard—as rioters attacked law enforcement with projectiles, battered barricades, and vandalized monuments of U.S. heroes with “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” graffiti. Only 2 people were arrested for assaulting an officer, as of writing.
This was the largest pro-Palestine demonstration in U.S. history, according to the groups responsible. Yet our “watchdog” media gave it zero coverage on Saturday night—even as violent thugs threatened the White House. Perhaps we know why.
Rooted in Terror
Planning and executing the Jan. 13th insurrection was American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), an Arlington-based extremist group currently under investigation by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares for unlawfully soliciting contributions and allegedly misusing funds by “benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”
AMP is closely aligned with the radical Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), inviting CAIR director Nihad Awad to praise Hamas murderers at the AMP convention in Chicago in Nov. 2023:
The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on October 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense [emphasis added].
Other speakers at the demonstration included Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, socialist presidential hopeful Cornel West, actress Susan Sarandon, Muslim Rep. Andre Carson (D–IN), and Colorado Rep. Iman Jodeh (D–CO).
AMP itself is a front for the Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP) Educational Foundation, which the left-wing Anti-Defamation League calls a “platform for anti-Semitism under the guise of educating Americans about ‘the just cause of Palestine.’”
AJP has lobbied for an end to U.S. aid to “apartheid” Israel since 2005. It’s headed by U.C. Berkeley lecturer and self-styled “de-colonial Islamic thinker” Hatem Bazian, who accused the U.S. of stealing “indigenous” land in his speech at San Francisco’s Jan. 14 pro-Hamas rally.
The group reportedly has its origins in the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), Hamas’ mouthpiece and fundraising arm in North America from 1981–2004, when it was shut down by the State Department for funding the terror group. IAP itself was created by Muslim Brotherhood activist Khaled Mishal, Hamas’ founding leader.
Former IAP president Rafeeq Jaber prepared the taxes for AMP from 2010–2015, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. AMP’s board includes Saleh Sarsour, who was convicted for using his Milwaukee furniture store to pass money to Hamas’ armed wing (Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades) in the 1990s, according to the FBI, and spent 8 months in an Israeli jail for “Hamas activity.”
AMP provides “advocacy training” on how to lobby politicians, citing inspiration from Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI). Its campus resources and fact-sheets claim “Palestinian resistance was born out of the [Israeli] occupation and the siege, plain and simple.”
To that end, AMP co-founded and has reportedly funneled large sums of money to the National Students for Justice in Palestine—the biggest organizer of anti-Israel demonstrations in the country. Recall that on Oct. 7, the day of Hamas’ attack, Students for Justice in Palestine called the terrorists “our comrades in arms,” adding: “Glory to Palestine, glory to the resistance, and glory to our martyrs.”
(RELATED: America’s Top Universities Shill for Hamas)
Bad Company
On Nov. 1, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) announced his office was following up on allegations by an Illinois court in May 2022 that AMP is a “disguised continuance” of the dissolved IAP—in other words, that the Hamas arm simply reconstituted itself into a new organization.
That lawsuit was brought by the parents of David Boim, a 17-year-old American student murdered by Hamas during its 1996 attack on the West Bank in Israel. In 2004, a Chicago court ordered IAP to pay the Boims $156 million for providing “material support” to the terror group—only for IAP to close later that year. Or did it?
According to the judge, IAP simply evolved into AMP/AJP. Consider that:
- Three Islamic Association of Palestine board members became board members of AMP/AJP;
- “Close relatives of two other” IAP board members joined the AMP/AJP boards;
- Three individuals who were “actively involved” with IAP joined the AMP/AJP boards;
- Ex-IAP president Rafeeq Jaber is “a central participant in board-level business decisions” for AMP/AJP; and
- IAP executive director Osama Abuirshaid became the AMP/AJP “executive director and/or director of operations.”
Abuirshaid—who calls the U.S. an “apartheid” state—even spoke at a Dec. 2021 conference featuring Hamas co-founder Sami Khater, jihadi activist Sami Al-Arian, Hamas senior official Mohammad Nazzal, and convicted airplane hijacker Leila Khaled.
(READ MORE: Big Philanthropy Demands Pro-Hamas Ceasefire)
