Va. GOP blasts Herring for visiting ‘terror-linked’ Falls Church mosque
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Version 0 of 1. RICHMOND — The Republican Party of Virginia is demanding that Attorney General Mark R. Herring apologize for holding a town hall meeting at a “terror-linked” mosque in Northern Virginia. Herring (D), who is running for reelection, made an appearance Friday at Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church along with immigration attorneys and experts to discuss the Trump administration’s travel ban. Herring is one of several attorneys general challenging the ban, which would block travel to the United States by citizens of several Muslim-majority countries. Dar Al-Hijrah’s 20,000 congregants hail from more than two dozen countries, including Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Iran. “As attorney general, I’m here to defend and protect the rights and civil liberties of all Virginians, including minority communities, no matter what you look like, what your background is,” Herring said at the meeting, according to his spokesman, Michael Kelly. “While Attorney General Herring is actively working to reassure Virginia Muslims and other minority communities that they are safe and welcome, the RPV is sending dangerous messages that only embolden those who want to harm or harass religious minorities,” Kelly said. The Falls Church mosque, one of the largest in the country, has been the target of several threats, including one last month. Republican officials, who have made appearances at other mosques, said they objected to this specific house of worship because of its controversial past. A former imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, went on to become an al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, where he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers attended the mosque, as did Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, who killed 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Tex. “The Republican Party of Virginia does not object to politicians visiting mosques, in fact our own Chairman visited a Muslim house of worship quite recently,” John Findlay, executive director of the state GOP, said in a statement. “However, the Party does object to Mark Herring holding an event at a center with an extensive and well-documented history with anti-American terrorists.” [Anwar al-Aulaqui’s death reopens wounds for Dal al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church] Colin Christopher, the mosque’s deputy director of government affairs, accused party officials of extremism of another sort. “The extremists within the Republican Party in Virginia seem to have taken over and more moderate minds have receded in the current political climate,” he said. Christopher said the two hijackers worshiped there only a few times. He also said that Awlaki did not become radicalized until he left Virginia for Yemen. FBI officials have spoken several times with the congregation, including recently. “If we were some terrorist mosque, I doubt the FBI would be coming and standing with us,” he said. “There has been no Muslim community that has been scrutinized more than Dar Al-Hijrah, so if there’s any dirt on us, it’s going to come out.” Findlay questioned whether the mosque’s ties to radicals were truly in the past. He pointed to a comment that Imam Shaker Elsayed made at a prayer service in October 2011, when he acknowledged Awlaki’s death and said that he would face Allah’s judgment. He said that those who killed Awlaki “need to equally prepare for that moment” when they also will be judged by Allah, The Washington Post reported at the time. “Mark Herring needs to state whether he agrees or disagrees with the current Imam who said, “[US forces that kill terrorists] need to equally prepare for that moment when they also will be judged by Allah,’ ” the party’s statement said. The Virginia GOP also criticized the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which took part in the town hall event. The party’s statement described CAIR as “a Hamas-linked group.” CAIR, an Islamic civil liberties advocacy group, has never been charged with criminal activity. Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s national communications director, called the allegation a “scurrilous smear campaign.” “It’s part of being the nation’s most prominent, active American Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization,” he said. “We get it every day, particularly from the right wing of the political spectrum.” |