Walz administration awarded $2 million to Muslim group fundraising for al Qaeda-linked charity

EXCLUSIVE — Under Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the state of Minnesota awarded over $2 million to an Islamic group that fundraises for a charity linked to an al Qaeda affiliate, according to funding records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

The Islamic Association of North America, the recipient of the state grants from 2019 to 2024, is fundraising after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year for Rahma Worldwide, a Michigan-based charity that says it is shipping humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to flyers. In a since-deleted Facebook post in October 2023, Rahma Worldwide President Shadi Zaza revealed his charity was collaborating on an aid initiative with the Islamic Heritage Revival Society of Kuwait, a terrorist group sanctioned by the U.S. government for funding al Qaeda.

News of the Walz administration’s grants to the IANA comes as the Democratic vice presidential candidate faces backlash after a series of Washington Examiner reports revealed his ties to Muslim cleric Asad Zaman. As Minnesota’s governor, Walz has repeatedly hosted Zaman, who shared a pro-Adolf Hitler movie on social media and defended the Oct. 7 attack. Moreover, according to unearthed footage, Walz referred to Zaman as a “master teacher” at a 2018 event held by the Zaman-led Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which partners with the IANA.

The presidential campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris has continued to claim Walz has no personal relationship with Zaman. Harris and Walz officials did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner on Thursday.

“Embracing and funding an imam that sympathizes with neo-Nazis was apparently only the start,” said Sam Westrop, a terrorism analyst at the Middle East Forum think tank.

Formed in 2001, the same year the Treasury Department’s terrorist designation of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation sent shockwaves throughout the philanthropy world, the IANA is “a nationwide umbrella organization with over 35 centers” and offshoots — over a dozen of which are in Minnesota. The IANA is representing “Muslim communities on national levels and speaking on behalf of member organizations on all matters concerning Muslims,” according to its website, which notes that members, including mosques, pay membership dues.

Minnesota’s Health Department awarded over $238,600 to the IANA in 2024, according to state records. In 2023, the agency gave $191,900 to the IANA, which received over a million dollars from the agency in 2022 and over $612,200 from 2019 to 2021. The funding appears to have been for public health-related initiatives, including community vaccinations and outreach to the Somali community.

Yusuf Abdi Abdulle, IANA’s director, said on Oct. 7, “Palestine has the right to defend itself,” which prompted Zaman to reply to the director on Facebook with an image of a Palestinian flag. On Oct. 7, the Walz administration-backed IANA affirmed a statement by its partner group that said Israel was engaged in “unprovoked” attacks in Gaza after Hamas killed 1,200 people in the Jewish state.

The IANA is part of a coalition supporting imam Jamil al Amin, a convicted murderer, according to a letter. The IANA shares an office building in Minneapolis with the Humanitarian African Relief Organization, which Abdulle used to lead, according to tax forms. In 2012, HARO saw one of its volunteers sentenced to eight years in prison for providing material support to an al Qaeda affiliate called al Shabaab.

Rahma Worldwide, the charity that receives fundraising help from the Walz administration-backed IANA, has touted its participation on social media in a pro-Palestinian aid campaign with Kuwait’s Islamic Heritage Revival Society.

That same Kuwait-based group faced Treasury Department sanctions in 2008 for backing al Qaeda and, according to a January Washington Post report citing U.S. officials, is part of a Hamas fundraising operation.

Just last year, Rahma Worldwide organized an event with Mohamad Rateb al Nabulsi, a Syrian cleric who has appeared on al Aqsa TV, the official network of Hamas, to call for the killing of gay people, the New York Post reported. In October 2021, Rahma Worldwide shared a post on Facebook depicting Rahma Worldwide’s Shadi Zaza signing an agreement with officials at the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

In December of last year, Zaza and Abdulle were listed on a flyer together as speakers for a fundraiser benefiting Rahma Worldwide. And on Jan. 1 of this year, Abdulle posted a separate flyer on Facebook promoting a Gaza fundraising event in Minneapolis for Rahma Worldwide featuring Zaza as a speaker.

Meanwhile, the IANA’s former director, Sheikh Hassan Dhooye, congratulated Walz in an X post on Aug. 6 that included an image of him with Walz.

Dhooye recently congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Hamas ally, for his reelection. In 2020, Dhooye was part of a delegation of Muslim leaders who met with Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, according to a press release.

Dhooye, who also goes by the name Hassan Mohamed Jama, came into the spotlight in 2011 after CBC News reported that the Somali community believed he was connected to a terrorism financing and recruitment operation.

Dhooye was a key activist who pressured President Joe Biden not to run for reelection and also appeared in 2017 with then-congressman Walz and Zaman in Washington, D.C., according to a Facebook post.

Dhooye appears to be still involved with the Walz administration-backed group.

In April, he attended a meeting with the IANA’s Abdulle and other Somali leaders, according to a Facebook post. Dhooye spoke at the IANA’s annual convention last September, footage shows.

And last May, Dhooye offered a prayer on behalf of the IANA before Minnesota’s legislature, according to state records.

“Determined to choose the worst possible partners at every turn, we now know that Walz oversaw $2.1 million of grants to yet another terror-aligned organization, with whose officials the governor seems to have close relations,” Westrop, the terrorism analyst, told the Washington Examiner.

“It’s not just a reprehensible use of Minnesota taxpayers’ money,” Westrop said. “It’s also a complete betrayal of all those moderate Muslim and Somali activists working to fight this extremism in their communities every day.”

Minnesota’s Health Department did not return a request for comment, nor did the IANA.