Two officials from a group designated by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to fund the terrorist group Hamas will attend President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday as guests of Democratic lawmakers. The invitations to the Council on American-Islamic Relations leaders came after the nation’s first Muslim congressman, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., challenged House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to bring a Muslim American as one of his guests to the speech, The Hill reported.
Ellison called it “an opportunity to really drive the point home that there are no Americans who are suspect just based on their religious identity, that all Americans are welcome in the people’s house.” CAIR, however, according to evidence entered in the terror-financing case, was founded by figures associated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, the worldwide movement that has stated its intent to transform the U.S. into an Islamic state. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates put CAIR on its list of designated terrorist organizations, along with groups such as ISIS and al-Qaida. More than a dozen CAIR leaders have been charged or convicted of terrorism-related crimes. FULL REPORT
