Kelleigh Nelson -- Beware of Abu Chris Christie

Kelleigh Nelson -- Beware of Abu Chris Christie

Beware of Abu Christie

Christie's Bridgegate is nothing however, compared to his cultivation of relationships with Islamists who have connections to known terrorist groups. The governor has a problem, a very big problem, specifically an Islam problem, and it should well keep him from attaining any higher office. Why? Because he consistently sides with Islamist forces against those who worry about safeguarding American security and civilization. Let's take a look at those allegiances. New Jersey has the second largest Muslim population of any state, after Michigan, so is it any wonder Christie cultivates these friendships? [Link]

In 2008, when Christie was serving as US attorney for New Jersey, heembraced and kissed Mohammed Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County (ICPC), and praised him as "a man of great goodwill." He did this after Qatanani had publicly ranted against Jews and in support of funding Hamas, a U.S. government–designated terror organization, and on the eve of his deportation hearing for not hiding an Israeli conviction for membership in Hamas. And, in a June 2007 sermon at the ICPC, Imam Qatanani condemned Christians to "eternal hellfire." He is an advocate of Islamic blasphemy laws that criminalize criticism of Islam. In addition, Christie designated a top aide, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McKenna, to testify as a character witness for Qatanani.

Investigative journalist, Daniel Greenfield, reports that, “despite the fact thatMohammed Qatanani was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that is behind both al-Qaeda and Hamas, despite his own guilty plea to being a member of Hamas, and despite the fact that even in the United States, he had defended a charity that provided funds to children of suicide bombers (this is done as an incentive to reassure terrorists that if they die their families will be taken care of), Qatanani was not deported.”

Imam Mohammed Qatanani greets his supporters outside the Peter Rodino Federal Office Building in Newark last June after testifying in his deportation trial. Photo by Walter Ruby

To top it off, Governor Christie has derided anyone who perceives shariah law as a threat in the U.S. despite the fact that 23 states have already used shariah as a factor in their deliberations. In 2009, a New Jersey judge referenced shariah when he refused a temporary restraining order for a divorced Muslim woman who had been raped and assaulted by her ex-husband, maintaining that Islamic doctrine requires wives to comply with all of their husband's sexual demands. Under current New Jersey law, non-consensual sex between married persons is considered rape. (Fortunately, the decision was overturned 13 months later).

In 2010, when New Jersey Transit employee, Derek Fenton, burned three pages of the Koran at a 9/11 ceremony, his employer got Christie's approval to fire him. Christie endorsed Fenton's termination saying, "That kind of intolerance is something I think is unacceptable. So I don't have any problem with him being fired." The American Civil Liberties Unionsuccessfully represented Fenton to get his job back.

In 2011, Christie appointed an Islamist, Sohail Mohammed, to the New Jersey state superior court. Mohammed has a very jaded record. He serves as general counsel to the American Muslim Union, (which has stated that a "Zionist Commando Orchestrated The 9-11 Terrorist Attacks"). He wasdefending Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian (his indictment, Mohammed said, was "nothing but a witch-hunt"), and helping Qatanani's legal defense. Mohammed established himself not just as the Islamists' lawyer, but as one of them.

Chris Christie was New Jersey's Attorney General during the investigation of the murder (and "neck slashing") of the Armanious family, Coptic Christians massacred in Jersey City in 2005. A cover-up of the facts in this case is alleged.

That same year, Sohail Mohammed called for a "bias crime" investigation of the Coptic community for its anti-Muslim sentiment following the slaying of a Coptic family in Jersey City. As an American lawyer, no doubt familiar with the Constitution and the First Amendment, Mohammed doubtless knew that his request constituted a threat to the Coptic community's freedom of speech by attempting to muffle their vocal suspicions of Muslim involvement in the crime.

When members of New Jersey's Senate Judiciary Committee asked Mohammed appropriately tough questions about his enthusiasm for Islam's archaic law code, Shariah, Christie ridiculed the lawmakers, "Sharia law has nothing to do with this appointment of Mohammed at all. It's crazy. It's crazy. . . . So, this Sharia law business is crap. It's just crazy. And I'm tired of dealing with the crazies. I mean, you know, it's just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background." For this outburst, unsurprisingly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)thanked and applauded Christie.