Extremism Found in Journal During Huma Abedin's Tenure

If Huma Abedin is an anti-Islamist Muslim, then she must explain why she was the assistant editor of a radical Islamist journal.

BY RYAN MAURO

Mon, August 12, 2013

Huma Abedin, (left) shown with former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. Abedin was an aide to Clinton beginning with an internship in the White House in 1996. She was Clinton's travelling chief-of-staff during Clinton's bid for the White House and deputy chief of staff while Clinton was Secretary of state. (Photo: © Reuters)

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Islam expert Dr. Andrew Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad andSharia vs. Freedom, has discovered alarming extremism in an Islamist journal bearing the name of Huma Abedin, former Secretary of State Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff and wife of New York City mayoral candidate, former Rep. Anthony Weiner.

The Clarion Project helped bring attention to the Islamist ties of Abedin in July 2012, specifically her family’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and her position as an assistant editor of the Islamist journal from 1996 to 2008. More recently, we’ve covered thedonations from an Al-Jazeera lobbyist to the mayoral campaign of her husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner.

The publication in question is the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. Originally known as the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs Journal from 1979 when it began to 1995. The Institute was founded by Abedin’s late father and two Islamist colleagues that led the Muslim World League and World Assembly of Muslim Youth, two powerful engines of Wahhabism.

Abedin was the assistant editor of the journal for at least a dozen years, from 1996 (the year she began working as an intern at the White House) to 2008. She worked alongside several family members on the publication, including her mother, brother and sister.

Her mother, Saleha, has an especially strong Islamist resume, though the overlaps in the Islamist infrastructure can make it confusing. In short, Abedin’s mother is a member of the female counterpart of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Muslim World League. She leads a group called the International Islamic Committee for Women and Child, a subsidiary of a Muslim Brotherhood-led group that is banned in Israel for its links to Hamas.

In 1999, the Abedin family journal and Saleha Abedin’s group published a book in Arabic titled “Women in Islam.” This was three years after Huma Abedin joined the journal.

The book teaches that man-made law is inherently oppressive towards women, while Sharia law is liberating. According to the text, Muslim women have an obligation to contribute to jihad; apostates are to be put to death; freedom of speech should be conformed to the boundaries set by Sharia and wives must have sex with their husbands on command.

The Center for Security Policy has published a 28-page analysis of the book. Page three of the Center for Security Policy analysis states that the organization led by Huma Abedin’s mother “advocates for the repeal of Mubarak-era prohibitions on female genital mutilation, child marriage and marital rape, on the grounds that such prohibitions run counter to Islamic law, which allows for their practice.”

Dr. Andrew Bostom found an issue of the family journal from 2000that states on page 125 that non-Muslims should give up resistingSharia governance and join Muslims in fighting secularism. It even states that this resistance to Sharia is nearly an act of treason.

“In the name of peaceful co-existence and religious harmony, non-Muslims should stop opposing the application of shari’ah by and for the Muslims … Moreover, the Ahl al-Kitab [Christians and Jews] should eschew all acts bordering on treasonable felony but cooperate with Muslims and, as scripturalists, should not support secularism.”

And what is the consequence of treason? Look at an issue from 2011after Huma Abedin left. It explicitly states that treason qualifies as a crime with a specific sharia-proscribed punishment. Left unsaid is that this punishment is death. The other offenses in this category are adultery, defamation of character, alcoholism, theft, apostasy and oppression.

This post-Huma issue explicitly states that the criminal justice system of sharia is to be implemented because it prevents chaos and vigilantism. “The Shariah penal code is best. People in societies where the Shariah is not operative have lost total confidence in the penal code of the existing laws, and hence they may resort to what one may call ‘jungle justice,’” it states.

The Abedin family journal reiterated that those that fight against the Islamist agenda deserve death in an issue in 2004, Huma’s eighth year at the publication. According to Bostom, page 167 states a summary of Abul Ala Maududi’s position as follows:

“Waging war with the Creator and His Apostle is serious for it amounts to a clear rebellion against the Islamic State where the principles of equity, justice and respect for all are established. So anyone who disturbs or attempts to disturb that system of life is an outlaw who deserves capital punishment. Abul-A’la Maududi explains that it does not make any difference whether that mischief is created by criminals or murderers who cause disorder in the settled and peaceful society, or by armed forces who attempt to overthrow an Islamic State and establish some corrupt un-Islamic system instead.”

Maududi is the founder of the Pakistani Islamist group, Jamaat-e-Islami. The Abedin family journal teaches that this radical thinker is a foremost authority and his words are to be followed today.

If Huma Abedin is an anti-Islamist Muslim, then she must explain how she reconciled her involvement with an Islamist journal. More importantly, the U.S. government must explain whether any of this was taken into account when granting her a top-secret security clearance.