At a time when the U.S. is battling the most savage of Islamic enemies yet in ISIS, Barack Obama delivered a speech at the United Nations and praised Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, a deputy to Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Bayyah is a confirmed supporter of Hamas, a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), so designated by the U.S. State Department – as is ISIS.

Muslim Brotherhood Spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi (L) and his Deputy Abdallah bin Bayyah (R)

By endorsing a Hamas-supporting deputy of Qaradawi – who has been banned from the U.S. since 1999 – Obama is essentially endorsing the brand of Islam bin Bayyah practices. That makes the following excerpt from Obama’s speech even more troubling:

“…we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace.”

Bin Bayyah’s brand of Islam does not teach peace but Obama is praising it.

While Obama’s expressed support for bin Bayyah may be based in ideological agreement, another possibility may be a bit more politically pragmatic. With Gen. Abdel Fatah el-Sisi in attendance at this year’s UN confab, the Muslim Brotherhood is fuming over his being granted such legitimacy. By praising a top Muslim Brotherhood figure like Bayyah, Obama is also throwing the Brotherhood a bone.

Obama’s words at the UN demonstrate that previous instances of controversy involving bin Bayyah and the Obama administration – which involved an actual visit to the White House by Bayyah in 2013 – were likely not inadvertent but intended to push the envelope. They have clearly paved the way for Obama to say the following on an international stage about a deputy to one of the most notorious anti-Semites in the world:

“The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of day,” Obama said before the U.N., according to a White House transcript of his remarks.

“Look at the new Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies—Sheikh bin Bayyah described its purpose: ‘We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace,'” Obama said, quoting the controversial cleric.

In June of 2013, during Bayyah’s visit to the White House, he can be seen in a photo seated at a table with Rashad Hussain, Obama’s envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as Shoebat.com reported. Hussain has been identified as a Muslim Brotherhood infiltrator of the Obama administration. Approximately three months after Bayyah’s visit to the White House, he stepped down from the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which is led by Qaradawi.

As to the stated reason for Bayyah’s visit, it was to urge support for the Syrian rebels:

Bin Bayyah lobbied the White House to “take urgent action” to help Syrian rebels. “We demand Washington take a greater role in [Syria],” Bin Bayyah told Al-Jazeera. President Obama later announced plans to arm Syrian rebels.

In granting Bin Bayyah a visa, White House officials ignored his radical statements as well as his close connection to Qaradawi. The IUMS’s hostility toward Israel, and its support of terrorists, is well documented. Bin Bayyah falls comfortably in line with that view.

This reality should serve as another in a long line of examples that the notion of ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels is a ruse. Qaradawi himself has called for an Islamic caliphate as Shoebat.com has reported. Any caliphate that involves what is today Syria would be far worse and far more extreme than the Assad regime.

Bin Bayyah’s name was at the center of controversy again more recently when the #BringBackOurGirls campaign against Boko Haram was in full swing. The Counter Terrorism Bureau of the State Department tweeted a link to his website that announced his group’s condemnation of the kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls. The State Department deleted the tweet, saying it was a mistake.

With Obama’s words today, that line is all but debunked. Again, the envelope was likely being pushed with trial balloons. With two instances of the Obama administration connecting itself to bin Bayyah already in the books, any backlash in response to Obama doing it at the UN would be diminished.

As Shoebat.com reported, bin Bayyah has been an attendee at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum (US-IWF) as well. The annual event is co-sponsored by the nation of Qatar and the Brookings Institute, a prominent U.S. think tank. Usually held in Doha, Qatar the 2011 Forum was held in Washington, DC and was attended by Bayyah. Also in attendance was Senators John McCain (R-AZ), then Senator John Kerry (D-MA), and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.