An imam who previously declined to label Hezbollah as a terrorist group and has faced accusations of extremist views has been selected to deliver a benediction at President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next week, the New York Post reported Monday.
Husham Al-Husainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center, from Dearborn, Michigan, appears in an inauguration program among four religious leaders scheduled to speak following Trump's Jan. 20 address, the Washington Reporter revealed.
The Middle East Forum characterized Al-Husainy's background in stark terms. The conservative nonprofit, which focuses on Islamic issues, described him as having "a significant history of extremism."
The organization alleged Al-Husainy organized a 2015 rally at his educational center opposing Saudi Arabia's Yemen intervention. The Forum also claimed he participated in a 2006 pro-Hezbollah event in Dearborn where he displayed a photo of Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah until his death in an Israeli airstrike last September.
Al-Husainy's 2007 Democratic National Committee winter meeting invocation drew criticism from Fox News host Sean Hannity for suggesting forces were "oppressors and occupiers." When pressed by Hannity to "admit that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization," Al-Husainy declined.
"That is your explanation. Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization. And I've got nothing to do with that," Al-Husainy said during his appearance on "Hannity and Colmes."
The US State Department formally designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in October 1997.
The Iraqi-American religious leader expressed support for Trump last October on a Republican media call, citing alignment on social issues, according to the Detroit Free Press – though his stated rationale included positions not actually held by the president-elect.
