Thread: Chris Christie Dodges Criticism on His Support of Islamists

Chris Christie Dodges Criticism on His Support of Islamists

When asked at a Republican coalition event of potential donors to a presidential bid, Christie brushed off the criticism as 'Internet BS.'

BY RYAN MAURO
Tue, April 1, 2014

NJ Governor Chris Christie speaking at a Republican Jewish Coalition event



Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie said that criticism of his record on sharia is “Internet blog B.S” when asked about it on March 29 at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Las Vegas. His office then uploaded the video to its YouTube page, presumably proud of his answer and the applause that followed.

Christie’s comment was part of a passionate five-minute answer to a question about his alleged support for sharia. He disingenuously claimed that the criticism is all about Sohail Mohammed, an Indian Muslim and naturalized citizen who he appointed as a Superior Court Judge in 2011.

“This is really perplexing to me, I have to tell you. This all came from me appointing a Muslim man to the state court bench in N.J.,” he began.

He then defended Mohammed for a few minutes, before condemning how Mohammed was asked about jihad before the N.J. State Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Sohail Mohammed knows about just as much about jihad as I do…Sohail Mohammed knows just about as much about sharia Law as I do,” Christie said, inferring his own ignorance on the issue.

Christie did not mention that Mohammed was an attorney for Imam Mohammed Qatanani, a radical cleric linked to Hamas that the Department of Homeland Security wants to deport from the country. Mohammed was also the General Counsel for the American Muslim Union, a group closely tied to Qatanani’s mosque, the Islamic Center of Passaic County. The mosque continues to be an outreach partnerof the Christie Administration.

Christie is definitely aware of the negative attention he’s receiving because of his own defense of Qatanani because he furiously blastedcritics of Qatanani as anti-Muslim “bigots” that are part of a “gaze of intolerance that’s going around our country that’s disturbing.” Of course, he decided not to mention that part of the issue.

Christie finished:

“It is ridiculous and insulting that because I nominated Sohail Mohammed that people somehow think that means I am for sharialaw. It’s crap. It’s the only way I can describe It … sharia law will not come to New Jersey because of Sohail Mohammed and as long as I’m governor, it won’t come into our state for any other reason and to suggest otherwise is nothing more than Internet blog B.S.”

If that’s true, then the Department of Homeland Security is full of anti-Muslim bigots who rely on “Internet blog B.S.” Here’s what DHS had to say about Qatanani in a 2008 court filing:

“It is certainly suspicious when a person who has been convicted of being a member of, and providing services, to Hamas, who has personal ties to a Hamas militant leader, and a Hamas fundraiser also sends undisclosed cash to the West Bank.”
A report by the N.J. Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness described the existence of a network of Hamas sympathizers in the state and only mentioned one name: Imam Mohammed Qatanani, who Christie has staunchly defended from deportation and praises as a friend.

In November 2012, the Clarion Project discovered that four Islamists with extremist track records, including Qatanani, were members of the Muslim Outreach Committee formed by the N.J. Attorney General, Jeffrey Chiesa. Months after our report was published, Christie appointed Chiesa as an interim Senator following the death of Senator Lautenberg.

In September 2013, Clarion discovered that the same four Islamists, including Qatanani, remained on the Muslim outreach committee even after we reported on their backgrounds. An additional Islamist with a criminal background was identified, raising the number to five. Shockingly, one of the committee’s meetings was with top-tier law enforcement officials who briefed them on how to get homeland security grants for non-profit organizations.

The Council on American-Islamic Challenge (CAIR) honored Christie in September as one of the heroes making “outstanding contributions to pushing back against Islamophobic trends in 2011 and 2012.” CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-financing trial and the Justice Department labeled it as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity.

The Christie Administration included the N.J. chapter of CAIR in its Muslim outreach in May 2012, even though FBI policy prohibits its operatives from using CAIR as an outreach partner. In February, CAIR-NJ selected the executive director of Qatanani’s mosque to be its new leader.

What is more unsettling than Christie’s denigration of his critics on this issue is how the audience applauded him. The event he spoke at was widely seen as a part of the 2016 presidential campaign, with numerous potential GOP candidates speaking and trying to win over donors.

His answer was a calculated dodge designed to make it seem like the criticism is all about Sohail Mohammed. It’s not, and Christie knows that. Unfortunately, the audience didn’t.



Related Stories

• New Jersey Gov. Christie Defends Praise of Hamas-Linked Imam
• CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood Front, Praises Chris Christie
• Chris Christie Bent on Including Islamists in Security Forums
• Gov. Christie Appoints Islamist-Friendly AG to Be New Senator

http://www.clarionproject.org/analys...port-islamistshttp://www.clarionproject.org/analys...port-islamists

CHRIS CHRISTIE INDUCTED INTO CAIR'S 'BEST LIST' FOR FIGHTING 'ISLAMOPHOBIA'


by KERRY PICKET
20 Sep 2013

The Council on the American Islamic Relations (CAIR) excoriated many of its critics in their “Islamophobia” report, but the group also had a “Best List Inductees” which included New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

CAIR says the list was compiled as a way to recognize those who “deserve recognition for their outstanding contributions to pushing back against Islamophobic trends in 2011 and 2012.” The report says Christie is receiving the accolade primarily for his nomination of a Muslim judge and statements in the ensuing controversy:

Following Islamophobic criticism of his nomination of Sohail Mohammed as a New Jersey Superior Court judge, Christie pushed back. Commenting on the baseless fear some were spreading about Islamic religious principlesChristie bluntly stated, “This Sharia law business is just crap. It’s just crazy,and I’m tired of dealing with the crazies.” Of the nominee, Christie stated,an integral role in the post-September 11th period in building bridges betweenthe Muslim American community in this state and law enforcement.”106At the height of the Park 51 controversy during the summer of 2010,Christie spoke admirably about the Muslim community in the United States,stating, “We cannot paint all of Islam with that brush. We can’t paint all ofIslam with the Muhammad Atta brush. We have to bring people together.”

Christie has long been criticized by the base of his party for his actions regarding Islamists. In one instance, the Republican Governor allowed an appointee to pick four Islamists for an advisory panel meant to ease relations between the government and the Garden state’s Muslim population.

Other inductees on the “best list” are Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Rais Bhulyan, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) , Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rep. Yvette Clark (D-NY), Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) , Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA),Wired magazine’s Spencer Ackerman, and former Congressman Hansen Clarke (D-MI).

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...-islamophobia/

Chris Christie’s Islam Problem

by DANIEL PIPES & STEVE EMERSON May 1, 2012 12:00 AM

He has repeatedly sided with some nasty characters. AQuinnipiac poll in April showed Chris Christie as the most popular potential Republican vice-presidential candidate, thanks to his budget cuts and standing up to government employees’ unions. But the governor of New Jersey has a problem, specifically an Islam problem, that can and should get in the way of his possible ascent to higher office. Time and again he has sided with Islamist forces against those who worry about safeguarding American security and civilization. Some examples:

2008: When serving as U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Christie embraced and kissed Mohammed Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, and praised him as “a man of great goodwill.” He did this after Qatanani had publicly ranted against Jews and in support of funding Hamas, a U.S. government–designated terror organization, and on the eve of his deportation hearing for not hiding an Israeli conviction for membership in Hamas. In addition, Christie designated a top aide, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna, to testify as a character witness for Qatanani.

2010: After Derek Fenton burned three pages of a Koran at a 9/11 memorial ceremony, his employer, New Jersey Transit, got Christie’s approval to fire him. Protecting Islam at the expense of the constitutional right to free speech, Christie endorsed Fenton’s termination: “That kind of intolerance is something I think is unacceptable. So I don’t have any problem with him being fired.” The American Civil Liberties Union successfully represented Fenton to get his job back. 2011: Christie appointed an Islamist, Sohail Mohammed, to the New Jersey state superior court. Mohammed’s record includes serving as general counsel to the American Muslim Union (which has stated that a “Zionist Commando Orchestrated The 9-11 Terrorist Attacks”), acting as spokesman for Muslim prisoners who went on a hunger strike after being jailed during Ramadan, defending Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian (his indictment, Mohammed said, was “nothing but a witch-hunt”), and helping Qatanani’s legal defense. Mohammed established himself not just as the Islamists’ lawyer but as one of them.

When members of New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee asked Mohammed appropriately tough questions about his enthusiasm for Islam’s archaic law code, the Shari’a, Christie ridiculed the lawmakers: “Shari’a law has nothing to do with this [appointment of Mohammed] at all. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. . . . So, this Shari’a law business is crap. It’s just crazy. And I’m tired of dealing with the crazies. I mean, you know, it’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background.” For this outburst, unsurprisingly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) thanked and applauded Christie.

2012: The revelation that the New York Police Department had conducted surveillance of Islamists in the New Jersey towns of Newark and New Brunswick prompted not gratitude but outrage from Christie, who termed the action arrogant and paranoid while mocking NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly as “all knowing, all seeing.”

In short, Christie has hugged a terrorist-organization member, abridged free-speech rights, scorned concern over Islamization, and opposed law-enforcement counterterrorism efforts. Whenever an issue touching on Islam arises, Christie takes the Islamist side against those — the DHS, state senators, the NYPD, even the ACLU — who worry about lawful Islamism eroding the fabric of American life.

Two factors render this pattern especially curious: First, soft-on-Islamism policies are common among Democrats but rare among Republicans (Grover Norquist being the major exception). Second, Christie takes an ostentatiously pro-Israel stance, as reflected by his speeches and his recent “Jersey to Jerusalem” trip; this makes him unusual, for a pro-Israel stance typically goes hand-in-hand with concern about Shari’a. How does one reconcile the Christie contradiction?

It could be ego: The governor is more brilliant than we are. It could be that, other than fiscally, he is not a conservative. Or, as several analysts suggest, it could be cynical double pandering: Muslims get what they want most and Zionists get what they want most, with each side ignoring what Christie does for the other. Indeed, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut pursued this double-track policy (soft on Islamism, staunch on Israel) and he became the Democrats’ vice-presidential candidate in 2000, when practically no one noticed the contradiction.

Whatever his reasons, we conclude that Chris Christie lacks the moral compass and integrity needed to serve as vice president of the United States.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...-steve-emerson

Stick a fork in him. Thank you posting these articles, Newmexican. People need to know. Oh wait, maybe the people of New Jersey know which is why Trump is leading in New Jersey?!

Originally Posted by Judy

Stick a fork in him. Thank you posting these articles, Newmexican. People need to know. Oh wait, maybe the people of New Jersey know which is why Trump is leading in New Jersey?!

Governor Christie seems to be furiously trying to clinch last place in the Republican primary.