What a difference a day makes! One day, you could have the Mayor of Florida’s second most populous county address your mosque and, the next, you could have an imam who is notorious for his overt bigotry and suspected by the FBI of ISIS involvement. And that is exactly what happened, as one day, last month, Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher spoke at the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF) and, the next, radical imam Fadi Kablawi did as well. While the Mayor’s appearance at such a controversial place as this raises ‘red flags,’ in truth, Mayor Fisher has a suspect history with ICOSF, dating back to well over a decade.

ICOSF is a Pompano Beach-based radical mosque that features sermons performed by extremist imams. The mosque is owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), a group that – for two federal trials held in 2007 and 2008 – was named by the US government a party to the financing of Hamas.

On April 17th, Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher addressed the congregation at ICOSF. The event was an iftar, a break-the-fast meal offered during Ramadan. Photos from the event, including a full color pic of Mayor Fisher’s official county business card, were posted on ICOSF’s Facebook page.

Standing by the Mayor’s side, as he spoke, was ICOSF Imam Al Muthanna. Days after the Mayor’s speech, Muthanna would be photographed at the mosque with another imam, Ibrahim Dremali, both with big smiles on their faces. In May 2021, during a live interview, Dremali told others to donate to Hamas and stated, “If the Arab leaders open the borders for Palestine… the Jews they’ll be inside that ocean.”

Seated at the table next to Mayor Fisher, during the iftar meal, was ICOSF’s Dawah Director and security guard, Rasheed Mahamad. Apart from his involvement with the mosque, Mahamad is the Assistant Secretary of the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), a group that has been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for posting “venomous” anti-Semitic material on its website and whose President, Sofian Zakkout, was removed from two prominent anti-crime boards for his support of Hamas and Holocaust denial.

On April 18th, just one day following the Mayor’s speech, ICOSF Imam Fadi Kablawi – also with Muthanna by his side – spoke to the congregation from the same exact area as Mayor Fisher stood, when he spoke. In December 2020, Kablawi called Jews “the lowest of the lowest.” In August 2021, he blamed women victims of rape for the violence committed against them. And he has preached his own violence. In July 2020, he stated, “Real jihad is not climbing walls. Real jihad is climbing over people’s necks and heads and skulls.” Not surprisingly, Kablawi has come under the radar of the FBI, which, according to him, believes he is involved with ISIS.

The main mosque that Kablawi operates out of is the North Miami Islamic Center (NMIC), a.k.a. Masjid As Sunnah An Nabawiyyah. That is where he made all of his alarming declarations. On April 14th, ICOSF allowed Kablawi to use its facilities to raise funds for NMIC, so that Kablawi could continue to have the means to spread his bigoted vitriol. And once again, it took place from the same exact location Mayor Fisher stood.

Other imams who recently spoke in front of ICOSF include Monzer Taleb and Izhar Khan. Taleb is a self-professed member of Hamas, who posted on Facebook, in June 2019, that Jews in Israel “should be relocated to Germany.” Khan, in May 2011, was accused by the FBI of participating in a scheme to ship $50,000 to the Taliban. After spending 20 months in federal prison, Khan’s case was dismissed by a sympathetic judge. Khan’s mosque, Masjid Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen (MJAM), promotes material on its website calling Jews and Christians “enemies,” endorsing domestic violence against women, and sanctioning death punishments for gays.

In October 2022, ICOSF held a service in honor of Qais Imad Shejaiya, a dead member of Hamas’ militant wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), prior to his being neutralized by the IDF, Shejaiya was functioning as a Hamas gunman who had just opened fire on the Beit El Israeli settlement of Judea and Samaria, a.k.a. the West Bank. ICOSF stated on Facebook, “We pray Allah to accept “brother Qais Shejaeya” and to grant him highest place in Paradise (Jannat Al firdacus)… ‘Condolences’ will be offered… tomorrow Sunday at the Islamic Center of South Florida… 7pm to 8:15pm.”

Why would the mayor of such a large place as Broward County risk his and his elected office’s reputations to participate with an institution that has so much extremist baggage? The fact is that the Mayor has a history with ICOSF.

In February 2010, Mayor Fisher brought ICOSF then and current senior Imam Hasan Sabri to give the invocation at the Pompano Beach City Commission, where Fisher was then Mayor of Pompano. He stated to the crowd: “I ask you now to stand for the invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Invocation tonight is given by Imam Hasan Sabri from our Islamic center.” Mayor Fisher, who had just taken ownership of the mosque for himself, his colleagues and the audience, rose from his seat, clasped his hands, and bowed his head in prayer, as Sabri stood directly in front of him and commenced in the honor bestowed upon him.

As a result of the imam’s invocation, which, according to one city official, Sabri had performed a number of times previously, there was a public outcry from citizens who were angered that the Mayor and Commission would invite such an individual as Sabri. The outrage was warranted. Years before the invocation, during a 2000 sermon to his congregation, Sabri denounced the United States as an “enemy” and threatened Muslims who accept America’s assistance.

Sabri stated, “Allah tells us, in the Quran, that the kuffar will continue to fight Muslims… until Muslims are either liquidated or they have joined the Christian or the Jewish faith… [I]t is imperative upon us… to understand exactly what’s happening to our brothers… so that we will know what the enemies of Islam are planning, and so that we will plan ourselves… [The US] is calling its people and its army and its nation to rush to the help of Muslims, but in reality… they want to mobilize Muslims… to use their money… and to use their lives, so that they will further [America’s] plans… [D]o not rely on the kuffar, because if you do so, you will suffer.”

Mayor Fisher, in visiting ICOSF, may have thought that his involvement with the mosque was innocuous, or maybe he believed that, by ignoring the radical and bigoted nature of the mosque, he could garner votes by speaking there. In reality, though, his pandering and participation at ICOSF gave an air of legitimacy to this extremist institution – a legitimacy that was not there prior to his talk. Instead of shunning ICOSF for its many links to hatred and terror, the Mayor provided assistance to the center’s fanatical Islamist agenda.

Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.