Chicago, IL – The Illinois State Police has revoked the appointment of the agency’s first Muslim chaplain, citing only information revealed during a background check. A national Muslim advocacy group Wednesday blamed the move on Islamophobia.
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Kifah Mustapha, a Chicago-area imam, was appointed the agency’s first Muslim chaplain in December. Community groups had praised Mustapha’s appointment as a nod to the growing diversity among the agency’s nearly 2,000 officers.
But within days, the appointment came under criticism from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a Washington-based think tank.
The group alleged that Mustapha was linked to the Palestine Committee of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, a popular movement in the Muslim world that advocates the formation of Islamic governments in the Middle East. It also alleged he raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, a now-defunct Islamic charity whose founders were sentenced last year for funneling money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The group cited internal documents and a list of unindicted co-conspirators.
Mustapha hasn’t been charged with any crimes. Messages left Wednesday for Mustapha weren’t immediately returned.
According to a statement from the Illinois State Police, after Mustapha underwent training in December and was issued state identification and a bulletproof vest, it was discovered that he had not undergone background checks required to serve in the volunteer position.
Mustapha’s appointment was rescinded Friday, but that action wasn’t publicly disclosed until late Tuesday after media inquiries.
“Due to information revealed during the background investigation, Sheikh Kifah Mustapha’s appointment as a volunteer ISP Chaplain has been denied,” ISP spokesman Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega said in an e-mail. “Specific details of background investigations are confidential and cannot be discussed.”
Vega declined to say whether there was a connection between the think tank’s allegations and Mustapha’s dismissal.
But the Council of American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, which is representing Mustapha, said the imam was told that was why his appointment was put on hold.
Ahmed Rehab, CAIR’s executive director in Chicago, called it discrimination against Muslims, especially since Mustapha hasn’t been formally accused of wrongdoing.
“The ISP is kowtowing to the run-of-the-mill fear-mongering that Islamophobes have devoted their careers in order to avoid a public relations controversy,” he said.
Steve Emerson, executive directr of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, on Wednesday defended the group’s original report, saying it merely published content linking Mustapha to fundraising for terrorists.
He said his group was prompted to investigate after news of the appointment was published on the website of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, one of the Chicago area’s oldest and largest mosques. Mustapha is an imam and director there.
Emerson dismissed charges of Islamophobia as “empty diversions and without merit” in an e-mail.
CAIR planned to file a lawsuit and a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Mustapha’s behalf.
“He knows that he’s a good man and he’s a good leader and that he really wanted to serve in this capacity to help,” Rehab said. “He feels he was unfairly denied.”
He is a criminal and a terrorist.
yeah yeah, always with this smokescreen ‘islampobia’. yes, WW2 we had natzi phobia. cold war ‘communist phobia, civil war confederate phobia etc etc
Ahmed Rehab, CAIR’s executive director in Chicago, called it discrimination against Muslims, especially since Mustapha hasn’t been formally accused of wrongdoing.
Wow , so the army have to take him, & allow him to preech soldiers to kill other soldiers, and we need another Fort Hood disaster.
In the name of discrimination seeing he hasn’t been formally accused of any wrong doing, so let him do the wrong.
What are we comming to, & then human rights will let him in the army.
I hope they got the ID and bullet proof vest back!
Obama a failure on all fronts the economy is in the dumps unemployment high every thing is broke the oil is gushing out the war in Afghanistan is going south. The guy who thought he can walk on water and fix everything can’t do anything he’s pathetic.
First off a “think tank” came to this conclusion. Think tanks are worse than terrorists. Secondly it says he belongs to a committee that “supports Islamic governments in the Middle East”. Isn’t most of the middle east already Muslims Republics?
“CAIR planned to file a lawsuit and a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Mustapha’s behalf.”
I’m not exactly sure what the equal employment opportunity Commision can do about a guy that was refused a volunteer position? Award him a year’s back pay? Like exactly what are they supposed to do?
It is time to do with Muslim enemy aliens that which was improperly done with perfectly loyal Japanese during WW2 – interment camps for those born here and deportation for those born abroad.