RUTHFULLY YOURS

When visiting Khurrum Wahid’s Facebook page, you see photos of what appears to be a clean-cut politician attending different events, posing with important politicos, standing with young people, and smiling broadly for the camera. Wahid is running for the position of City Commissioner of Coral Springs, Florida, and his Facebook page has been manufactured to show the perfect candidate for the public’s view. What is hidden behind this façade, though, is Wahid’s history – and present – of his involvement in radical Islam. It is this other side of Wahid that the voters need to recognize, so that they do not make a huge mistake come Election Day.

On June 18th, a ‘Special Election’ will be held for Coral Springs City Commission, Seat 2. The former Commissioner, Dan Daley, has left the seat vacant – following his win in a State House Special Election – and is heading to the Florida State Legislature, in Tallahassee. One of the individuals vying for his Commission seat is Khurrum Wahid. A February photo of Wahid, on his Facebook candidate page, has him posing with Daley and another recent candidate for Florida State House, Imtiaz Mohammad, who in December, slammed America and her citizens, saying “America [is] run on hate” and “American people are the most uneducated nation in the world.” Mohammad was part of a ‘host committee’ for a February fundraising event for Wahid.

Khurrum Basir Wahid is a Pakistani-born South Florida attorney, who has built his name on representing high profile terrorists. His past clients include: Rafiq Sabir, who received a 25-year prison sentence for conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda; al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who received a life sentence for plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush; Sami al-Arian, who sought to create a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) infrastructure within the Tampa, Florida-area; and Miami imam Hafiz Khan, who was convicted of sending $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban with the intent to murder American troops overseas.

According to the Miami New Times, Wahid himself was placed on a federal terrorist watch list in 2011. The publication states, “[S]ometimes, a clash between his work and personal life is inescapable. Last year, he landed on a federal ‘selectee’ list – a terrorist watch list. Now he gets a pat down at the airport before flying and can’t print boarding passes at home.”

Besides his controversial law practice, Wahid is the Co-Chairman of Emgage Action (formerly Emerge USA), an Islamist group he founded, in 2006, that attempts to pass its extremist agenda off as political advocacy. The group is part of the South Florida Muslim Federation, a consortium of South Florida’s radical Islamic organizations and terror-related mosques. Ammar Ahmed, the South Florida Director of Emgage, in February 2010, following a debate he participated in at a school, wrote on Facebook, “I hate white people” and joked that he “should have threatened to blow up the school.”

Emgage holds events at terror-linked mosques, like Tampa, Florida-based al-Qassam (a.k.a. Islamic Community of Tampa), which was founded by Sami al-Arian, and Pembroke Pines, Florida-based Darul Uloom, where “Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla was a student; now-deceased al-Qaeda Commander Adnan el-Shukrijumah was a prayer leader; and current imam Shafayat Mohamed has claimed gay sex caused the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. As well, Emgage has sponsored speeches made by Islamic lecturer Sayed Ammar Nakshawani, who is a devotee of the deceased Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and who has called for the destruction of Israel.

Prior to creating Emgage, Wahid served as a legal advisor for the national office of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a director of CAIR’s Florida chapter. Since its founding, in June 1994, CAIR has been associated with Hamas. CAIR was established as part of an umbrella group headed by then-global leader of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook, and CAIR has been cited by the US government for its involvement in the financing of Hamas.

The mosque Wahid attends is the Islamic Foundation of South Florida (IFSF). Wahid, as well, is the Registered Agent for IFSF’s corporation. On IFSF Youth Group leader Abdur Rahman al-Ghani’s Facebook page, al-Ghani labels Jews “demonic,” calls the US the “World’s Number One Terrorist Organization,” and says Muslims “will overtake the World.”

One of the co-founders and current director of IFSF is Mohammed Javed Quereshi. Quereshi, who is also a member of Wahid’s campaign fundraising ‘host committee,’ is credited with giving “Dirty Bomber” Jose Padilla his first Quran and inviting him to mosque, prior to Padilla converting to Islam, joining al-Qaeda, and plotting to set off a radiological bomb in the US.

In June 2013, IFSF hosted a Ramadan Prep Youth Night featuring Masjid Jamaat Al Mumineen (MJAM) imam Izhar Khan, who had just spent 20 months in a Miami federal detention center on charges of terrorism. According to the US Justice Department, “Izhar is a Pakistani Taliban sympathizer who worked with [his father Hafiz] and others to collect and deliver money for the Pakistani Taliban… Izhar… provided and attempted to provide 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.”

Wahid has referred to Izhar Khan as a “rising star” and a “sweet kid.”

In April 2014, IFSF hosted a talk by then-Muslim American Society (MAS) Executive Director Mazen Mokhtar. Mokhtar is a former administrator for the al-Qaeda recruitment site, qoqaz.net (Jihad in Chechnya), and has called Hamas operations “heroic” and suicide bombings “an effective method of attacking the enemy and continuing jihad.”

Khurrum Wahid’s associations and actions present a serious threat to the democratic process, which he aims to exploit to further his Islamist agenda. His candidacy is a danger to society and national security. His terror-tainted associations should have made him completely unelectable. Yet, he has qualified to be on the ballot, along with a number of others.

As of this writing, there are nine candidates for Coral Springs City Commission, Seat 2, and with so many people in the race – a race that few are watching – it is quite possible for Wahid to win with a small number of votes. But even one vote for Wahid would be an injustice.

A vote for Wahid is a vote for radical Islam.

Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.