After reading the 16-page New York Times magazine piece on former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner and his Muslim wife, Huma Abedin, one thing is clear. Weiner is giving serious thought (and money) to exploring the possibility of running for mayor of the city that was hit by Al-Qaeda on 9/11/01.
Based on what is known about Huma, something else becomes clear. A woman with significant familial ties to the group that spawned Al-Qaeda would become first lady of the city that was hit by Al-Qaeda on 9/11/01.
Make no mistake, whether Abedin has Brotherhood sympathies or not, her mother – Saleha Abedin – is a leader within the Muslim Sisterhood and would undoubtedly view such a reality as a symbolic victory on par with the construction of the Ground Zero mosque. It seems that both Huma and Weiner are itching to get back into public life as well.
Via NYT:
“We have been in a defensive crouch for so long,” Weiner said. “We are ready to clear the decks on this thing.” Their lives have become too small, too circumscribed, too claustrophobic for a couple accustomed to public life. They haven’t been to a major event together — no White House Correspondents Dinner, no red-carpet events — in nearly two years.
Though there isn’t anything earth-shattering in the Times piece, there are a few nuggets of information that help to fill in the mosaic. For example, Huma didn’t take much interest in Weiner until the latter demonstrated that he was firmly ensconced inside team Hillary during the 2008 Presidential campaign:
The relationship turned romantic in 2008, during Clinton’s presidential campaign. “By the time Iowa came around,” Abedin says, “we were more than just friends.” At a stop in Puerto Rico, an A.P. reporter asked Weiner why he was spending so much time campaigning for Hillary. “It’s largely because I’m dating Huma,” he said, and the news was out.
Had Hillary defeated Obama in 2008, Huma certainly would have had a role similar to that of Valerie Jarrett in Obama’s administration. Weiner was a U.S. Congressman and demonstrated he would work hard to get Hillary elected. In essence, he would help Huma too. Perhaps he would work even harder for them both if he was married to Huma.
Another interesting revelation appears in the Times piece. In the days after the sexting scandal broke, Huma joined Hillary on a trip to Africa. A visit to the United Arab Emirates included a meeting with Huma’s mother Saleha and brother (likely Hassan Abedin):
When they arrived at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi, Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, told Abedin to go directly to her room. Mills had helped arrange to fly in Abedin’s mother and older brother, who live in Jeddah, and they were waiting upstairs. “One of the things that I remember about that night is that there was a lot of very, very painful silence.
This meeting involved the Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Secretary of State, a leader within the Muslim Sisterhood, and a man who served on the board of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) alongside the likes of Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. It just so happens that all three belonged to the same family. Something else each shared in common were spots on the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA), the goal of which is to transform every Muslim minority nation into a Muslim majority nation.
Unless one understands Muruna, it doesn’t make sense for a Muslim Sisterhood leader like Saleha to continue to carry on a relationship with her daughter, a Muslim woman who married a non-Muslim, Jewish, man. However, there doesn’t seem to be any rifts between the two women:
During a previous trip that Clinton and Abedin made to Saudi Arabia, Abedin’s mother, Saleha Mahmood Abedin, vice president of Dar Al-Hekma University, said to Clinton: “Hillary, you have spent more time with my daughter than I have in the past 15 years. I’m jealous of you!”
It’s also interesting to note that Weiner admits in the Times piece that the decision to resign from Congress was his and that Huma did not want him to.
If Anthony Weiner is elected mayor of New York City, the first lady of the city will be the daughter of a leader within the group that serves as the umbrella group for the one that brought down the World Trade Center.
And Huma has neither denounced that group or her mother’s role in it.
No doubt, the Muslim Brotherhood would see such a victory for Weiner as a symbolic victory for themselves.
Again, we get back to why Form 86 is so important.