The Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky discussed his new investigative report detailing the ties Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) has to a Muslim cleric, who in one case has promoted a movie praising Adolf Hitler on social media.
The cleric in question, Asad Zaman, is from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whom Walz has hosted on at least five different occasions. Kaminsky stated that this group was deemed as “an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood” in 2008 in a terrorism financing case.
“But this individual, Asad Zaman, has a controversial history on social media, on his Facebook page,” Kaminsky told the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro when discussing his report. “He has, in one case, promoted a pro-Hitler movie, a movie that glorifies Adolf Hitler. On Oct. 7, when 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered in the Jewish state, his immediate response was to say that Palestinians had a right to resist, a right to defend themselves. And this individual has promoted other conspiracy theories on his social media history.”
The movie in question that Zaman promoted was titled The Greatest Story Never Told, which was released in 2013 and shared by Zaman in 2015. The Muslim cleric has also used his Facebook page over the years to share Hamas press releases, as well as blog posts on antisemitic websites slamming Jews, according to Kaminsky’s report.
The question of Walz’s connection to Zaman has come under the spotlight after the Minnesota governor was selected by Vice President Kamala Harris as her 2024 running mate. Kaminsky said that the Harris campaign claimed that Walz “has no relationship with this individual.”
One other factor that Kaminsky’s report unearthed was how the MAS of Minnesota received over $100,000 under Walz’s leadership, which was given in three separate payments. Kaminsky explained that the first two payments were for mosque security, while the third is a 2024 grant from the Labor Department “that has not disbursed yet.”
“That’s what the agency had told me, but it will soon be disbursed,” Kaminsky said. “It’s just a matter of when Zaman’s organization files a report with the state to get that reimbursement.”
Besides Walz’s connection to Zaman, another issue with the Minnesota governor that has come into question is his time in the National Guard, with some questioning if he left the military before deployment to pursue his congressional career. Former Minnesota National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin, Walz’s superior, stated that Walz used “a backdoor process” to exit the military before pursuing politics.
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Julin explained that he was informed, along with his commander, in the fall of 2004 “that we would be alerted to go to Iraq within the next upcoming year.” A meeting with the command team was then conducted in February 2005, for which Walz was in attendance, and Walz informed Julin of his plans to run for Congress after the meeting.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, has cited Julin’s comments to back his argument that Walz “knew he was going to Iraq” and “decided to quit” so he could instead pursue a congressional run. Vance, a veteran himself, said he was not criticizing Walz’s military service but rather “the fact that he lied about his service for political gain.”