Faisal Gill’s Two Campaigns
By Greg L | 20 April 2007 | 51st HOD District | 6 Comments
One of the five pillars of Islam is alms-giving, or “Zakat”, which is a repayment to God for what you have been blessed with. The proceeds from this charitable requirement can only be used for a certain set of purposes in most sects, including helping the poor, freeing captives, or to help people who are struggling for the cause of Allah. It would seem that in Houston, a group of “Dawoodi Bohras” believe that Faisal Gill is falls into one of these categories and are helping to finance his campaign in the 51st District. Seventy percent of Faisal Gill’s campaign contributions this reporting period have come from people who live in Houston.
Dawoodi Bohras, as I’ve discovered, are a very hierarchical and conservative Islamic community where members take secret oaths of allegiance to clerics who then dictate to their members strict guidelines of behavior. This control extends to matters of personal finance, what clothes to wear, and what activities to engage in. These Syedna clerics collect seven different “Zakats”, or taxes, and exercise total control over how these funds are collected and how they are spent. On Faisal Gill’s list of contributors this reporting period is a Mr. Tyebji Abeezar, who is the founder of Shipcom Wireless, and runs the website for the local Dawoodi Bohra community, houstonjamaat.com. He is a very pious “mumineen”, as we see in this interview, who clearly is the sort of man who would follow the instruction of his local Syedna cleric and would dutifully fulfill his Zakat obligations, along with his fellow Houston residents Diwan Sharfali, Khwaja Faheem, Mohiuddin Imran, Sing Varinder, Tameez Ifikharuddin and Tameez Qamarunnisa, none of whom have previously expressed any interest in 51st District candidates for office.
Perhaps this is just a case of Faisal Gill’s conservative campaign themes resonating strongly in different parts of the country. That wouldn’t be a plausible conclusion in this case however, since Mr. Tyebji Abeezar’s only previous political contributions appear to be a $500 donation to Hillary Clinton and a $1,000 contribution to Al Gore in 1999. Other contributors from the previous reporting cycle have donated to such conservative luminaries as Brian Moran, Hilda Barg, and Hillary Clinton as well. If this campaign is about issues, it sure has a strange way of attracting liberal Democrats as donors, who just incidentally happen to be Muslim. There obviously is some other reason for this largesse that has little to do with issues, policy or political philosophy.
Muslim charities are a common thread that runs through the fabric of Faisal Gill’s political activities. His law partner Asim Ghafoor represented Global Relief Foundation, Committee to Free Rabih Haddad, Care International In Boston, the Friends of Charities Association, and the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. Each one of these entities is designated by the Treasury Department as potential fundraising front organization for foreign terrorist organizations. Twelve members of the Al-Haramrain organization are currently detained in Guantanamo as enemy combatants. His other partner, Todd Gallinger has worked for the International Islamic Relief Organization, which also has this designation and CAIR. As I’ve noted before, Faisal’s political activities have regularly intersected with political activity from the Safa Group, which is also under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for financing terrorism.
There seems to be two separate sides of candidate Faisal Gill. One is the public side, where conservative political themes are meant to appeal to Republican voters. Another side, where his activism for Islamic causes may have put him in a position to finance his campaign through mandatory religious taxes under the guise of “struggling for the cause of Allah”, would seem to show that there’s possibly another campaign agenda at work here. Perhaps the statements of his law partner about what the purpose of such a struggle should be can shed light on what that agenda is:
The Islamic voice is the true voice of Islam. Islam is to call to all of Islam. It’s not just to say, ‘well Islam taught us to obey the law of this land’. No. Islam told us to not obey the creation in disobedience to the Creator. Allah says to rule by what Allah has revealed. Allah says Kafirs are not supposed to have a way over us. We must obey Islam in all aspects of life, including politics. Voting for a person who would not rule by Islam or follow Islam in any way, shape or form, that is going against Islam itself. — Aszim Ghafoor, interview on RadioIslam.
Excuse me if I get the impression that this rather clearly stated witnessing of faith is more consistent with the actual campaign activities of Faisal Gill than the campaign rhetoric he uses to cover it with. Statements like this would garner the interest of the Houston area Syedna clerics of the Dawoodi Bohra, who by religious authority control the campaign contributions of their community. Talking about transportation and low taxes clearly wouldn’t.
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Azim Ghafoor in addition donated $4800 in Redskin box seat tickets to Brian Moran last year: http://vpap.org/donors/results_level3.cfm?fmkey=INP000298665&tokey=COM00090&Year=2006
Clearly this group is seeking to infiltrate the right and the left.
Bad physical condition and diet
Bad history of working for a convicted terrorist
Bad current connections, including Ghafoor
Bad driving
This Faisal Gill has really got it all as a candidate, hasn’t he? No wonder Lingamfelter, Cuccinelli, Stewart and Bolling have endorsed him. Lingamfelter actually roared to the crowd at the Faisal Gill campaign kickoff, what are you going to do to get Faisal elected!
These people disgust me. Faisal is just being what he is, a terrorist sympathizer and, at the terrorist-led American Muslim Council, a terrorist flunky.
Cuccinelli et al are selling out what they claim to believe in for $15K in Safa Group contributions (Cuccinelli) and $14K in Gill contributions, (Bolling.)
Apparently honest men can be bought very cheaply. Unless, of course, they are not that honest to begin with.
I thought Julie did well to raise 21,000, until I noticed that $8500 of that was a transfer from her school board campaign. Still a good amount of money.
Both our candidates have shown that there is good money in this race on our side.
I wasn’t sure at first what you meant by the “70%” number, given that a vast amount of his 50,000+ total was from northern virginia, but then I figured out how to see the “most recent”. He didn’t seem to do any real fundraising in that time period, so while 70% is a large percentage, it’s a small amount of money, a total of $3400, of which the texas part was $2100, or 61%.
I don’t know what the difference is in my numbers and your 70% numbers, I’ll let you figure that out.
His fundraiser on March 31st is not included in these numbers, I imagine that would put the in-state contributions for the cycle a lot higher.
Your speculation about the groups “conservative” leanings are probably all wet. It’s likely this group just sends small amounts of money to Muslim candidates for office, like other religious groups in minorities sometimes seek out and send money to candidates of their religion without regard to political leanings. I doubt a person who supported Clinton and Gore would find anything in Gill’s positions on issues all that appealing, but if those dollars aren’t going to a liberal somewhere it’s a good thing.
Clever is not the word I’ll use to describe your attempt to weave an anti-muslim component into your writings. You will of course deny the charge, and others will jump to your defense while JM reposts his stuff again.
I just want you to know that we know what you are doing, no matter how clever you think you are. Hopefully, people WILL be able to separate your posts on this blog from your leadership in Help Save Manassas. That group has enough difficulty fighting false charges that anti-illegal-immigrant groups are just racist and bigoted, and stuff like this will empower the liberal media to smear the group again.
That 70% figure was from the current campaign finance reporting period. According to the guidelines, any donations collected on the 31st were required to be reported, which might indicate that an amended report should be coming.
I think it’s a valid question to ask why a collection of Dawoodi Bohras in Texas think that Faisal Gill’s campaign is so important that their clerics would direct contributions to it. If they’re hearing a different story from this campaign than the one we’re getting, that’s a pretty significant issue. I doubt their motivation here had much to do with Virginia’s tax policies, transportation issues, or Gill’s other publicly stated campaign issues.
The Rev. Al Sharpton doesn’t have a thing on the race-baiters in the Gill camp. Takes Charles’ comment posted above, for instance:
“”"Clever is not the word I’ll use to describe your attempt to weave an anti-muslim component into your writings. You will of course deny the charge, and others will jump to your defense…”"”
Here we go again. The argument is, if you object to Gill’s record of working as a chief lobbyist for or on behalf of a convicted terrorist (Abdurahman Alamoudi, founder and leader of the American Muslim Council and serving a 23-year sentence) then you are prejudiced.
Unprejudiced people, so this reasoning goes, do not object to candidates who worked as chief lobbyists for the American Muslim Council, a group so extreme that even Muslims rejected it. It is now defunct.
Gill was the chief lobbyist for this group in the aftermath of 9-11. While the nation was gathering information about who did it, the organization that Gill was the chief lobbyist for was telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI.
Notice that Charles provides no examples of Greg’s or others alleged “anti-muslim component.” That is left to the reader’s imagination. Let’s hear it Charles. Show us specifically what Greg L says that is anti-Muslim, as opposed to anti-Gill.
“Apparently honest men can be bought very cheaply. Unless, of course, they are not that honest to begin with.”
Definitely! Honest politicians are unable to rely on developer money for campaign funding because of their controlled growth platform. And who is OFFERING them money-Gill. These politicians or candidates have worked along side of Gill on campaigns for years and along the way believe they developed a trusted friendship. They also believe that if Gill had some deep dark secret he wouldn’t risk the exposure by running for public office.
Gill’s driving and court clearly demonstrates his blatant disrespect for the law of perhaps more specifically the laws in the United States of America.
Have you called out Cuccinelli, Lingamfelter, and Bolling on why they support Gill?