Radical Islam in Tarrant County: Part 1
With the recent discussion on Iran and the controversial "EPIC City" planned Muslim community east of the Metro, we thought it would be good to introduce you to some of the Muslim operatives in Tarrant County.
In northeast Tarrant County, there is an Albanian mosque called Xhamia Shqiptare. The imam is a man named Ilir Aliji Koka. He proudly advertises the imams under whom he studied and who credentialed him as an Islamic scholar. Several of these have a record of extremism, and some support for terrorist groups! Let's take a look.
One of Koka's tutors is a man named Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, who is the current Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. The Grand Mufti is seen as the head religious scholar of the country and issues fatwas for the nation. In 2012, Al-Sheikh made waves by calling for the destruction of all Christian churches in the Arabian Peninsula. In the same year, he issued a fatwa suggesting that 10-year-old girls should be married.
Another one of Koka's tutors is a man named Abdul-Rahman bin Nasir al-Barrak. This imam publicly received the praise of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden's praise for Al-Barrak stems from an open letter he wrote denouncing anyone who calls for peace with the Jews.
Koka has also studied under current and former leaders of Saudi Arabia's judicial system. One of his mentors, a man named Sheikh Saleh bin Muhammad Al-Luhaidan, served as the head of the Supreme Judicial Council. In a secret recording obtained in 2004, Al-Luhaidan instructed Saudis to engage in jihad against American and Iraqi troops.
Apart from being the imam for our county's Albanian mosque, he works with the Texas-based Al-Hirz Institute to promote Islam in our state. The head of Al-Hirz is another imam named Shaykh Oshaka Kameny.
As with Koka, Kameny proudly lists his mentors, a list which inevitably includes vocal supporters of jihad against America.
Kameny is proud of the fact that he has received invitations from and held meetings with distinguished men like Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, former Mufti of Oman. Kameny has met with him multiple times, including in 2022. This meeting was after al-Khalili publicly congratulated the Taliban for its defeat of America in Afghanistan! You can find a news article on that episode here, and read the tweet directly from al-Khalili here.
Another of Kameny's jihad-supporting mentors has been public about his radicalism on Twitter, but you can't see that for yourself. This is because his mentor, Sheikh Abu Usamah Musa'ad ibn Bashir al Sudani, has been banned on Twitter for his full-throated support of ISIS and of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, famously killed by President Trump. Al Sudani not only expressed support for Baghdadi but also declared allegiance to him.
Islamic extremism isn't new to Tarrant County. In 2019, Michael Kyle Sewell of Arlington, TX, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to the Pakistani Islamic terrorist organization Laskhar-e-Tayyiba.
Last fall, we released a full report on Catholic Charities of Fort Worth's partner, Islamic Circle of North America, which is a "leading domestic affiliate" of the Pakistani Islamic terrorist group Jammat-e-Islami. You can read that report here.
For context on the presence of Islam in our county, Tarrant County is home to one of the only two Muslim State Representatives in the Texas Legislature, Salman Bhojani. You can see of list of his pro-Islam bills and resolutions here.
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