Muslims in our Government: Mohamed Elibiary
IT’S WORTH CONSIDERING
This is the fifth post in a series informing you about some of the Muslims who now hold key positions in our government.

Mohamed Elibiary is an Islamic cleric who founded the Freedom and Justice Foundation (F&J), a Muslim group that played a key role in successfully lobbying for the passage of Texas’s Halal Food Law (the state’s first Muslim consumer-protection statute), and for the institution of Islamic prayers (recited by Imams) in both chambers of the Texas State Legislature.

Elibiary gained notoriety in 2004 while a guest speaker at a conference in Dallas entitled “A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary.” That visionary was none other than the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution and the founder of modern Islamic jihad. When a reporter asked Elibiary why he had chosen to appear at an event honoring the iconic jihadist, Elibiary claimed he didn’t know about the conference’s agenda. When journalist Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News voiced skepticism about Elibiary’s explanation, Elibiary threatened Dreher: “Expect someone to put a banana in your exhaust pipe.”

In 2006 Elibiary co-founded the North Texas Islamic Council to coordinate the activities of the many mosques, Islamic schools, and community groups serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s 150,000+ Muslims. Having convinced government officials that he was a moderate Muslim, he positioned himself so successfully that he has advised numerous federal, state and local law-enforcement organizations on homeland security-related matters. In October 2010, President Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed Elibiary to the DHS Homeland Security Advisory Council.

AS I SEE IT
Nothing good could possibly come from placing someone with Elibiary’s history in such a key position. Fortunately, a freelance writer and political analyst with experience in both the business and public policy arenas was paying attention. In October 2011, Patrick Poole alleged that Elibiary had leaked key elements from sensitive local and state intelligence reports (intended solely to aid law-enforcement agencies) and then shopped them to a media outlet to attack Rick Perry. The database to which he had been given access was the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest, or HS SLIC.

Poole’s investigation also resulted in his allegation that Elibiary was collecting the information to back his claim that the DHS was promoting “Islamophobia.” Poole’s claims gained credibility when it was discovered that Elibiary was the only Homeland Security Advisory Council member (out of 26) who was permitted to view the HS SLIC.

Poole’s allegation eventually proved to be true when Elibiary abused his privileged status by collecting a number of classified documents that, in his view, promoted “Islamophobia.” He presented them to a left-leaning media outlet in hopes that it would write a story about DPS’s bias against Muslims. Even with its liberal bias, the media outlet couldn’t find anything in the report to support Elibiary’s claims.

In early November of 2011, Elibiary’s access to the HS SLIC database was finally revoked. Just how much sensitive information he had collected before his access was revoked is impossible to determine. Today he serves as a spokesman for the Islamic Association of North Texas, a.k.a. the Dallas Central Mosque, which boasts the largest Muslim congregation in the state. He is also a member of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a lifetime member of the International Association of Business Communicators, and vice president of the FBI-Dallas Citizens’ Academy Alumni Association.

This is the man that Janet Napolitano, with Barack Obama’s blessing, trusted with sensitive national security information and defended to the end when allegations were brought.

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