When the George W. Bush administration began welcoming into the White House, leaders of Muslim Brotherhood groups in America – with the help of Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan – it represented the camel’s nose inside the tent. Little more than a decade later, when Rashad Hussain, Barack Obama’s envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), welcomes the vice president of an organization founded and led by Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Al Qaradawi, it’s safe to say the camel is resting comfortably on a rug inside the tent.

Via IPT:

Radical Egyptian cleric Yusuf Qaradawi is considered so radical that the United States bans him from entering the country.

Qaradawi, considered the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, has called for the killing of Jews and Americans.

That history makes the June 13 White House meeting with Sheik Abdullah Bin Bayyah all the more inexplicable. Bin Bayyah is vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a group founded by and headed by Qaradawi. The IUMS has a long history of supporting Hamas –a top Hamas leader is an IUMS member – and of calling for Israel’s destruction.

Also according to IPT, Bayyah’s website placed Rashad Hussain at the June 13th meeting, which appears to be confirmed with a photo posted to Bayyah’s website as well. In it, you can see someone bearing a striking resemblance to Hussain two seats to Bayyah’s left.

Abdullah Bin Bayyah at the White House

Even if one is inexplicably amenable to Hussain being offered a job in the Obama administration in the first place, there is no way he should have remained there after February 19, 2010. Shortly after Hussain was named as Obama’s envoy to the OIC on February 13th of that year, reports came out that Hussain expressed support for convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian at a Muslim Student Association (MSA) event in 2004 (MSA is one of several Muslim Brotherhood group in America).

It was learned soon thereafter that an archived article in publication known as the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) included the damaging quotes attributed to Hussain at that event but that a more recent version had reference to him omitted. The editor of WRMEA, Delinda Hanley, attempted to blame the writer for misquoting Hussain but the writer refused to go under the bus. Hanley then took responsibility for the ‘mistake’ while using pretzel logic to accuse others of anti-Muslim bias for making it an issue.

As of February 16th, the White House was attributing Hussain’s comments to Sami al-Arian’s daughter. Here is a video report from that time:

Then, on Friday night, February 19th, the POLITICO reported that Hussain had changed his story in the wake of an audio recording of his comments at the event being released:

That following Monday, on February 22nd, the White House expressed confidence in Hussain and did not fire him despite…

1. His original comments in support of al-Arian.
2. The attempt to cover-up those comments.
3. Denying the comments were made.
4. Allowing others to take blame for the comments being printed erroneously when they weren’t.
5. Hussain being caught lying.

As the IPT article points out, Hussain met with Bayyah in 2012, at another event sponsored by another Muslim Brotherhood group in America – the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)

Now, here we are in 2013 and Hussain is meeting the deputy of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, a man who reveres Adolf Hitler, in the White House.

Moreover, there is strong evidence to suggest that Hussain was not only instrumental in the crafting of Barack Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo, but that the writings of the Ground Zero mosque imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, were incorporated into it as well.

Yet, these issues are typically off-limits to the Republican Party establishment. Why?

At the beginning of this post, we made reference to the Bush administration allowing the camel’s nose inside the tent. There is strong evidence to suggest that Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), who is married to a Palestinian Muslim woman, may be the man most responsible for influencing George W. Bush and Karl Rove to welcome leaders of Muslim Brotherhood groups into the White House soon after the 9/11 attacks, to include ISNA President Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, American Muslim Council President Dr. Yahya Basha, and Executive Director of the Musim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) Salam Al-Marayati. Like Hussain, Marayati holds a prestigious position with the Obama administration today as well.

“Eventually, as part of the George W. Bush administration, Khan gained enough influence to become what David Horowitz described as a ‘White House gatekeeper for the Muslim community.’ In that capacity, Khan was involved in the post 9/11 meetings that took place between the administration and groups like ISNA and CAIR. Khan also brokered a White House meeting with none other than Sami al-Arian, who was later convicted of charges related to financing terrorism.” – The Case FOR Islamophobia, p. 287

The controversy surrounding Hussain’s comments at the 2004 MSA event all but died after the White House stood by him. That he is still in the Obama administration today is at least partially attributable to an unwillingness on the part of members of the opposing party to demand his ouster. Perhaps that party’s refusal to own up to its own behavior is partially to blame. In particular, since the end of the George W. Bush administration, the former president’s closest adviser – Karl Rove – has accumulated quite a bit of king-making power through his PACs. His role in reaching out to Islamists after 9/11 is indisputable and he likely wants to keep it as hidden as possible.