Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro recently announced his state is giving $5 million to a mosque where an imam had previously declared that "Jews are the vilest people."
Shapiro, who is Jewish, announced the gift to the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia while attending an iftar dinner, where people gathered to break their Ramadan fast.
It was the largest grant ever awarded to a Muslim organization, WHYY reported.
Five years earlier, the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society was forced to apologize for posting hateful Islamic sermons by an imam delivered at its mosque declaring that the Arabs were superior to all races, that Jews were the "enemies of Allah" and the "vilest of all people," Front Page Magazine reported. The imam also appeared to call on Muslims to take over the world.
"By Allah, if faith had taken root in our hearts, things would have been different. We would have imposed the word of Islam upon the world, like those before us did," Imam Abdelmohsen Abouhatab told the congregation at Al Aqsa, the magazine reported.
Newsmax left a message with Shapiro's press office requesting comment.
Shapiro, who had been considered a Democratic Party vice presidential contender last year, told mosque members he "had their back."
"This is a moment where I think communities are fearful of the federal government and that's deeply concerning to me and I want the Muslim community to know that they're welcome here in Pennsylvania," Shapiro said at the mosque on March 25.
"I've got their back and I'm going to protect them and I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure that their rights are protected here in the commonwealth."
The Al Aqsa Society previously was in the news in 2007, when six Muslim terrorists were found to have plotted an attack on Fort Dix in Burlington County, New Jersey. The terrorists had prayed at the mosque and even done free roofing there.
Earlier this year, the Al Aqsa Society promoted a "Gala for Gaza" featuring Holocaust denier Norman Finkelstein and Sheikh Mohammad Elshinawy, whom the New York Police Department described as an "acolyte" of the Blind Sheikh linked to the World Trade Center bombing.
The mosque also had featured a video from Imam Omar Suleiman, who justified sex slavery and called for the destruction of Israel during an earlier conflict with Hamas, Front Page Magazine reported.
Mosque spokesman Marwan Kreidie, director of the Arab American Development Corp, came to Shapiro's defense when Vice President Kamala Harris was trying to decide on a running mate last year.
Kreidie wrote an opinion column claiming Shapiro had phoned to check on him following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, hates Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is angry over the deaths of Muslims in Gaza.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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