AMP’s Alleged Connections to Extremist Organizations
The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), allegedly a Hamas-linked organization that has incited hostility toward Israel and Jews, is hosting an annual convention in Chicago over Thanksgiving weekend.
AMP has faced ongoing litigation due to alleged ties to Hamas, originating from its perceived connection to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). In 2004, the Boim family, whose son David was killed in a 1996 Hamas attack, won a $156 million judgment against IAP for providing material support to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. Following this judgment, IAP dissolved, prompting the Boims to allege it was a deliberate attempt to avoid paying the court-ordered compensation. Subsequently, AMP was established with similar leadership and activities, leading the Boims to claim that AMP effectively functioned as a continuation of IAP and sued again in 2021.
AMP’s alleged Hamas ties continued to attract scrutiny, culminating in a recent lawsuit filed in Virginia in May 2024. This new lawsuit, filed by victims of the Hamas October 7, 2023, attacks, accuses AMP of providing ideological and material support to Hamas. The Virginias Attorney General has required AMP to disclose relevant documents. AMP denies all allegations.
AMP’s leadership includes several figures allegedly involved with terrorist groups.
AMP co-founder Rafeeq Jaber formerly led the IAP, which shared leadership with the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). The HLF was shut down in 2008 after five of its leaders were convicted of channeling millions of dollars to Hamas.
“Hitler will be a peace dove in comparison to us.”
On the forty-eighth anniversary of the death of PFLP spokesperson Ghassan Kanafani, AMP participated in banned NGO Samidoun’s “Days of Resistance” in major cities around the world to “remind the world that the Palestinian people will continue to rise and confront all attempts at liquidation and destruction of the cause of Palestine and resist dispossession, exile, and genocide.”
This Year’s Speakers
AMP conferences have drawn speakers known for their anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric that regularly crosses the line from legitimate criticism of Israeli policy into extremism. This year’s speakers are no different.
Osama Abuirshaid, AMP’s executive director, was reportedly denied U.S. naturalization for failing to disclose past connections to IAP and was also placed on a federal watch list—most likely indicating he was designated as a “known or suspected terrorist.” Abuirshaid reportedly has “shown extensive connections with and sympathy for Hamas.” Abuirshaid spoke alongside terrorist members of Hamas and the PFLP: Sami Khater, a senior Hamas Politburo leader and co-founder, and Mohammad Nazzal, Hamas’s official representative in Jordan. Abuirshaid described Israel as “a parasite that sucks the blood of America” and has participated in conferences alongside figures linked to terrorist organizations, such as Leila Khaled of the PFLP and Sami Al-Arian, who was convicted for aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Abuirshaid made a trip to Qatar and posted photos with Ayman Jarwan, who was imprisoned and later deported from the U.S. for involvement in a fraudulent charity that violated Iraq sanctions and funneled funds to organizations linked to al-Qaeda.
Hatem Bazian, AMP’s co-founder, has called for an “intifada” within the U.S., an endorsement of violent uprising.
“[A]nd the question is that, what are we doing? How come we don’t have an intifada in this country … and it’s about time that we have an intifada in this country, that change fundamentally the political dynamics in here [sic]. And we know … they’re gonna say it’s some Palestinian being too radical, well you haven’t seen radicalism yet!”
Bazian has also shared social media posts featuring antisemitic imagery. One cartoon depicted a smiling Orthodox Jew with the caption: “I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal the land of Palestinians. #Ashke-Nazi.” Anonymous campus watchdog group Canary Mission named Bazian—also founder of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) movement—"The Most Dangerous Professor in America.” In June 2004, Bazian spoke at a KindHearts Fundraising Dinner. In 2006 the organization, also known as IAP, was shut down by the U.S. government and became listed as a specially designated terrorist organization for being a Hamas front.
Mwafaq Jbara, leader and chair of the Palestinian American Community Center, was imprisoned in Israel with the co-founder of Hamas (whom he praised as “a model and great example.” On social media, Jbara blessed Hamas on its 30th anniversary and also said, “Hitler will be a peace dove in comparison to us.”
Sami Hamdi, editor-in-chief of International Interest, has allegedly argued that the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in the Middle East has been unfairly demonized. Revealingly, at an event 10 days after the October 7 attacks, Hamdi reportedly told the audience to “celebrate the victory” and expressed euphoria about the massacre.
Josh Ruebner, who formerly worked as managing director of AMP and is now an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University, defended terrorists by reposting an advertisement on X for a “day of action” for Rasmea Odeh. Odeh, who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was convicted for involvement in a 1969 supermarket bombing that killed two young civilians.
Ismahan Abdullahi, national executive director at MAS, which allegedly has Muslim Brotherhood ties, has advocated for convicted cop-killer Jamil Al-Amin, defended the supremacist Black Panther Party and lionized Muslim Brotherhood icon Mohamed Morsi, whose brief and despotic reign as Egypt’s president was characterized by brutal crackdowns and torture on nonviolent protesters.
Suleiman Hani, dean of academics at the Al Maghrib Institute, has claimed that “freedom of speech” is merely a “facade of a tool” used to stifle “objective discussion” of the “Holocaust or Jews.”
Ayah Ziyadeh, senior project manager for the Indivisible Project, which tries to influence Members of Congress, was the “advocacy director” for AMP. Ziyadeh has defended violence and expressed support for members of terrorist organizations.
Oussama Jammal, secretary general at the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, ran a fundraising campaign in 2004 for Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian, who was charged with terrorism and accused of being the U.S. leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Jammal served as Chairman of the NGO MAS, which allegedly has Muslim Brotherhood ties.
Zarefah Baroud, AMP’s digital media associate, has a history of using emotionally charged language and historical revisionism to demonize Israel. Baroud cheered Hamas’s massacre of Israelis on October 7.
Mohamad Habehh, AMP’s director of development, has shown homophobia and antisemitism, including mocking the Holocaust in a tweet that said “These Pakis are more gassed up than a Jew in Nazi Germany smh.”
Othman Ata/Atta is a frequent speaker at AMP events. He was allegedly “involved in raising money in the name” of HLF “that is actually for Hamas,” according to a November 2001 FBI memo.
Sawsan Jaber, a “global educator,” posts virulent antisemitic and anti-Israel messages in her professional work and on social media, utilizing antisemitic tropes, suggesting the Jewish state seeks to dominate the world.
Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national director, made headlines for his comments regarding the October 7 attack when he said, “I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and... Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense.”
Taher Herzallah, AMP’s associate outreach director, encourages violence and martyrdom and wrote: “The Palestinians’ ongoing will to physically resist such a well-armed and powerful occupier continues to inspire awe and respect.”
Nida Sahouri, head of AMP’s Chicago Chapter, has glorified violent protesters and demonized Israel. She has also endorsed anti-Israel agitators.
Rifqa Falaneh, Justice Fellow at Palestine Legal, was featured in a group photo posted on Instagram with Rasmea Odeh, who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and convicted for involvement in a 1969 supermarket bombing that killed two young civilians.
Previous AMP conferences hosted other Speakers of note. In 2019, Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association, assailed both the legitimacy of Israel and the United States by declaring, “Ask them this: How can you be against white supremacy in the United States of America, and the idea of living in a supremacist state based on race and class, but then support a state like Israel that is built on supremacy? That is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everybody else.” Zahra Billoo, executive director of the CAIR San Francisco Bay Area office, stated, “If a Muslim shows up to an interfaith space, we need to be willing to compromise on Israel’s right to exist for us to be able to participate in that conversation. … If you want to be in community with me, my people and the Palestinians I work in solidarity with, then let’s have a conversation about how Israel as it exists today is an illegitimate state … I am not going to support its right to exist?”
The AMP conference hides behind the mask of Palestinian advocacy, but with each passing year, the shadow of extremism and terrorist-linked allegations looms larger over its leadership and events.
