BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) – The Wiesenthal Center has called on governments in the Americas scheduled to host a 10-member delegation from an Islamic political organization to cancel the programs and deny entry to its members, citing their alleged terrorist ties.
Abdur Razzaq, deputy secretary-general of the the Jamaat-e-Islami, is scheduled to lead the Salafist group starting Oct. 9 in Washington, D.C., to meet with political leaders. The Wiesenthal Center said Jamaat-e-Islami is linked to the Taliban, al-Qaida and ISIS.
In Washington, the delegation will meet with Democratic Congress members and think tanks close to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
On Thursday, the director of international relations for the Wiesenthal Center, Shimon Samuels, and the group’s Latin America representative based in Buenos Aires, Ariel Gelblung, requested the intervention of the Organization of American States and its secretary-general, Luis Almagro, to alert authorities from the host nations to the group’s violent background and terror ties.
The Wiesenthal Center called on the governments to deny the delegation’s entry at their borders.
Details of the group’s tour appeared Thursday on the Argentine news website Infobae.
“Those that receive this group are probably ignorant of their guests’ role in financing, inculcating, arming and glorifying terrorism,” the Wiesenthal Center said in a statement. “This visit undermines new approaches to confronting terrorism in the region, such as last week’s arrest by Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay of a Hezbollah leader in the lawless so-called ‘Triple Border’ region.”
Assad Ahmad Barakat, who heads the Barakat Clan, a Hezbollah supporter, was arrested several weeks after an Argentine judge’s international order. In July, Argentina froze the assets of Barakat Clan.
“A new wave of counterterrorism was announced by Argentine President Macri, who from the podium of the United Nations called on Iran to cooperate in arresting the planners of the Israeli Embassy and AMIA Jewish Center bombings in Buenos Aires, for which Tehran is responsible,” Gelblung said.
The statement also said that “Jamaat is linked to ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) which, in 2015, raised $40 million ostensibly for mosques.” It said that ICNA’s former president, Mohsen Ansari, and an active leader of Jamaat, recently lauded its work, “despite the efforts of anti-Islamic media directed by Jews.”
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