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Tim Walz Praised, Met With Muslim Cleric Who Promoted ‘Pro-Hitler’ Film, Defended Hamas’ Oct. 7 Massacre
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US, Aug. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
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.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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