Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for US vice president, has praised and hosted several times a controversial Muslim cleric who promoted a pro-Adolf Hitler film and later expressed support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, according to new reports.

Walz hosted Asad Zaman, the imam of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, on at least five occasions as governor of Minnesota, the Washington Examiner reported. Zaman has a lengthy history of issuing public support for violence against Jews and Israel, leading to questions about the extent of Walz’s relationship with him.

The Minnesota governor invited Zaman, alongside other leaders in the Muslim community, to attend a May 2023 meeting about mosque security, according to the Examiner. In May 2020, Zaman spoke at an event to call for non-violent protests in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. One year earlier, the Muslim cleric attended a Ramadan event hosted by Walz’s office. 

The revelations of Walz’s ties to Zaman come as the campaign of US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has insisted that her running mate has no “personal relationship” with the imam. However, according to footage unearthed by the Examiner, Walz called Zaman a “master teacher” at an event hosted by Minnesota’s Muslim American Society on Feb. 16, 2018, at the South Metro Islamic Center in Rosemount, Minnesota.

“I would like to first of all say thank you to the imam,” Walz said at the 2018 event. “I am a teacher, so when I see a master teacher, I know it. Over the time we’ve spent together, one of the things I’ve had the privilege of is seeing the things in life through the eye of a master teacher, to try and get the understanding.”

In 2015, Zaman encouraged his social media followers to watch an infamously pro-Hitler film titled “The Greatest Story Never Told.” The 2013 film is popular with neo-Nazis and considered to be revisionist history which depicts Hitler as a hero.

Years later, Zaman signaled support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ murder of 1,200 people and kidnapping of some 250 hostages during its rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7 of last year. The onslaught was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

On the day of the surprise invasion, Zaman posted on Facebook that he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks.” That same day, he shared a social media post that stated, “Palestine has every right to have its freedom from the Zionists who [invaded] its land from many countries mostly Eastern Europe.”

Zaman has also shared links to Hamas press releases “mourning” the death of terrorists.

On Oct. 8, 2023, the cleric lambasted US Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) on X/Twitter for condemning the Hamas atrocities, asking the lawmaker if she will “also condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians and children?”

“Do you also stand with the Palestinian people? Do you also reaffirm the right of Palestinians to defend themselves?” Zaman asked Porter. 

Two days later, Zaman targeted Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin on X/Twitter, writing that Martin’s group “cannot be joined at the hip to apartheid Israel and still hope to court the Muslim vote” after the political leader said he was “beyond heartbroken” to learn Israelis he knew were “brutally killed or kidnapped” on Oct. 7.

Zaman also criticized Martin for expressing sympathy toward civilians killed in the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. The Muslim cleric chastised Martin for not condemning the Jewish state.

“So Ken. You can easily condemn Hamas for killing civilians, but you can’t muster the courage to condemn Israel for killing civilians? Shame on you,” Zaman posted on X/Twitter. 

Independent studies and Western intelligence agencies have found that the explosion at Al Ahli hospital was caused by a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza, not Israel.

Zaman previously attempted to equate the Hamas terrorist group to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, questioning why Israeli civilians are not “punished” for installing a so-called “genocidal” leader. 

“If Palestinians are punished for electing Hamas, why is Israel not punished for electing this genocidal maniac as its leader?” Zaman posted to X/Twitter in May 2021. 

An investigation by US federal prosecutors described the Muslim American Society of Minnesota as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” The Muslim Brotherhood is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.

The post Tim Walz Praised, Met With Muslim Cleric Who Promoted ‘Pro-Hitler’ Film, Defended Hamas’ Oct. 7 Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday approved the possible sale to Israel of fighter jets and other military equipment worth over $20 billion, the Pentagon said.

In a statement, the Pentagon said Blinken approved the possible sale of F-15 jets and equipment worth nearly $19 billion. He also approved the possible sale of tank cartridges worth around $774 million and army vehicles worth $583 million, the Pentagon said.

The tank rounds would be almost immediately available for delivery. The Boeing Co F-15 fighter jets would take years to produce and deliver.

The US has supported Israel as its top Middle East ally prosecutes a war in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The war was set off by the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel.

While approving weapons to Israel, Washington has also tried to arrange a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would potentially stave off a wider Middle East war.

Fears of a broader war have increased since the recent killings of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. Both drew threats of retaliation against Israel.

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Former Cornell University student Patrick Dai, who threatened to perpetrate heinous crimes against members of the school’s Jewish community after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on Monday, the US Department of Justice announced.

Last October, Dai raised the possibility of antisemitic violence at Cornell when he posted several statements calling for murdering Jews and raping Jewish women on a popular social media forum. In addition to threatening the lives of Cornell’s 3,500 Jewish students, who are 22 percent of the school’s student population, the posts threatened an attack on a campus kosher dining hall — named 104West  — affiliated with the Steven K. And Winifred A. Grinspoon Hillel Center.

“Gonna shoot up 104 west… Allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, palestine will be free! glory to hamas! liberation by any means necessary!” one of his posts said. Another read, “If I see a pig male jew i will stab you and slit your throat. if i see another pig female jew i will drag you away and rape you and throw you off a cliff. if i see another pig baby jew i will behead you in front of your parents [sic].”

The Justice Department said Dai also vowed to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews.”

The actions, for which Dai was promptly expelled from campus, were investigated by a terrorism task force and charged as federal hate crimes involving “threats to kill using interstate communications.” Declining to contest the government’s case at trial, he pled guilty. In addition to serving nearly two years in federal prison, he will, upon completing his sentence, be subject to three years of supervised release and levied a $100 fine.

“The defendant’s threats terrorized the Cornell campus community for days and shattered the community’s sense of safety,” Carla Freedman, US attorney for the Northern District of New York, said in a statement on Monday. “My office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute threats and acts of violence motivated by antisemitism and hatred of any kind.”

Students have the right “to pursue their education without fear of violence based on who they are, how they look, where they are from or how they worship,” added Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “Antisemitic threats of violence, like the defendant’s vicious and graphic threats here, violate that right. Today’s sentencing reaffirms that we will hold accountable those who violently threaten and intimidate others based on their religious practice or background. The Justice Department will continue to protect all Americans against bias motivated crimes wherever they occur, including college campuses.”

Dai’s crimes occurred amid a wave of antisemitic hate incidents which struck college campuses during the 2023-2024 academic year after the events of Oct. 7.

Cornell also saw extreme rhetoric uttered by faculty members when history professor Russell Rickford called the Hamas terror group’s invasion of Israel “exhilarating” and “energizing” at a pro-Palestinian rally. Afterward, he was granted leave of absence for the remainder of the semester and has since returned to campus.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ‘Pig Male Jew’: Ex-Cornell Student Who Threatened to Kill and Rape Jews Heading to Federal Prison first appeared on Algemeiner.com.