Thread by @HaisamHassanei1

(1-18)

Not endorsing what she said on @FoxNews @TuckerCarlson about Sharia Law in America, but there're reasonable questions on @JoeBiden's embrace of political Islam by participating in an event on July 20th sponsored by @EmgageAction, a partner organization of @CAIRNational

https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1293351032362340352

(2-18)

@CAIRNational was co-founded by known Hamas sympathizer, @NihadAwad. There is a great deal of info on CAIR’s ties/links to extremist and terrorist groups.

jpost.com/diaspora/ilhan…

fdd.org/analysis/2009/…

(3-18)

Also, @JoeBiden further embraced political Islamists narratives by quoting the Hadith "Whoever among you sees a wrong, let him change it with his hand. If he is not able, then with his tongue. If he is not able, then with his heart.”

(4-18)

This particular Hadith is well-known in Muslim world & has been a source of much polarization & extremism there. While some #Muslims take a broad interpretation of it but in the hands of many radical Islamic groups, it's been invoked to justify all manners of terrorism.

(5-18)

For example, #ISIS uses it to justify the targeting of #Christians & killing of secular intellectuals, as well as #Hamas to justify and recruit for suicide bombings against #Jews and #Israel.

(6-18)

Former Saudi Grand Mufti Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz famously used it to justify the vicious Saudi religious police that repressed women for decades. The #Taliban & Islamic Republic of #Iran follow suit, erecting innumerable laws in the name of enjoining good & forbidding evil.

(7-18)

It is unlikely that @JoeBiden had any personal knowledge of the implications of this Hadith, but his hosts most certainly did - where Mr Biden sought to bond with broad Muslim audiences, he instead won applause of slim & radical minority of Muslims.

(8-18)

Additionally, @JoeBiden's words were lauded by the #MuslimBrotherhood (MB), who aired it widely on their channels in #Turkey. @AlJazeera also distributed his message making it something of a far-reaching (if inadvertent) dog whistle to extremist groups.

(9-18)

This has domestic implications for @JoeBiden as #Coptic and other Middle Eastern #Christian minorities who fled #MiddleEast recognize that this is political Islamists’ narrative & they're most likely to rightly reject & not endorse the candidate who is using it.

(10-18)

You’ll be surprised by # of #Coptic #Egyptians & other #MiddleEastern #Christians in swing states (MI, FL, PA, VA) who voted for #Trump in 2016 due to his rejection of political Islam & widespread perception that Hillary & Obama supported the MB & political Islam.

(11-18)

In terms of foreign policy, this sets up @JoeBiden for failure & mistrust w/ US allies in #MiddleEast, as many are already suspecting, if not convinced, the #Biden Team is sympathetic to #MB and other political Islamists, #Turkey, & #Iran’s regional goals in the region.

(12-18)

Some might say so what, who cares, but this opens the door for increased malign #Russian and #Chinese influence, if you care about great power competition and continuation of America’s dominance in the world, and reinforces the notion that the #US is unreliable.

(13-18)

It's true we must stand up for our values, but doing any of this will ring hollow if existing perception that #Biden team is sympathetic to political #Islam & #MB is reinforced by association w/ terrorist-sympathetic orgs such as CAIR, and usage of their vile narrative.

(14-18)

To contextualize, #UAE classifies #CAIR as a terrorist organization so any call for reform by the Biden Team will immediately be seen as a call for a free rein to #MB and political Islam in the region.

(15-18)

Regardless of how we view #MB and the political Islam axis (#Iran and #Turkey), most of our allies in the Middle East see them as an existential threat and will not engage with us if we are seen as sympathetic or even worse embracing their "enemies".

(16-18)

While it may help @JoeBiden domestically and in European countries like Germany, but If he wants to be effective in the Middle East, he has to distinguish himself from Obama’s policies & change the perception in the region that he's merely an @BarackObama third term.

(17-18)

The solidification of the view that @JoeBiden is a third term of #Obama among America’s regional allies will hinder most of the big, fancy foreign policy plans that the #Biden team is putting together right now & will only increase regional instability.

(18-18)

And further pin a future #Biden Administration in the Middle East regardless of their intentions to pivot to #Asia or focus elsewhere in the world. For a good illustration, see what happened to @BarackObama in #Afghanistan and how #Iraq blew up on him.