Muslim Terrorism Advocate Publicly Awarded

A U.S. Government entity not only awarded an Islamic terrorism proponent and renowned America-hater a prestigious humanitarian award, it turns out that state open meeting laws were violated when the Muslim leader was selected.

Apparently fearful of the controversy its radical candidate for the annual award would stir, the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission evidently violated California open meeting laws – The Brown Act – when members decided to honor Maher Hathout with the “outstanding human relations work” award, which will be distributed at a ceremony next month.

Hathout, the president of the Islamic Center of California, is well-known for his anti-Semitic speeches that endorse Palestinian Hamas, known chiefly for its brutal suicide bombings, and the radical Lebanese Hezbollah. In fact, at an October 2000 rally across from the White House, Hathout screamed intifada – an Arabic term for uprising–and told the assembled crowd that Israel is a racist, apartheid state of butchers.

Little Green Footballs has posted the video of that hateful speech and calls Hathout’s humanitarian award a travesty. The Jewish Defense League is equally outraged at the award’s recipient, saying that it represents an outrageous insult to all Americans and all Jews and that Hathout should instead be condemned.

Hathout has repeatedly accused the United States of committing state terrorism and he has come to the defense of several Muslims convicted in the U.S. of financing or aiding foreign Islamic terrorist groups. In the late 90s he said that America was committing an act of terrorism by striking terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan in response to al Qaida’s bombing of American embassies in Africa.

Apparently, the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations , a county government body appointed by the board of supervisors, believes this outrageous terrorist and anti-Semitic propaganda is deserving of a prestigious award named after the former director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (John Allen Buggs). The commission actually refers to Hathout as the international spokesperson for the American Muslim community for encouraging interfaith understanding and alliances. After all, the commission strives to eliminate racism, religious prejudice and inter-cultural tension.