When President Obama gave his big speech at the U.N. on terrorism, he mentioned by name the prominent Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah and praised his work helping to bring peace to the region (emphasis ours):
The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed and confronted and refuted in the light of day. Look at the new Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies — Sheikh bin Bayyah described its purpose: “We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace.” Look at the young British Muslims who responded to terrorist propaganda by starting the “NotInMyName” campaign, declaring, “ISIS is hiding behind a false Islam.”
This is the same cleric, however, who once reportedly “endorsed a fatwa calling for the killing of American troops and other personnel serving in Iraq.” Even worse for the president, the State Department’s Counter Terrorism Bureau actually apologized back in May for “tweeting in favor of Bin Bayyah and promoting an article on his website.” Oops.
Fox’s Megyn Kelly sat down with State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf to discuss the shout-out to Bin Bayyah and asked Harf:
“Be honest, that must have been embarrassing for you. They’re putting you in a very difficult position aren’t they?”
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Harf’s reaction:
.@marieharf “not at all” embarrassed by #Obama mentioning controversial cleric in #UN speech. #KellyFile pic.twitter.com/WueTcLxpB7
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) September 26, 2014
“Not at all” embarrassed. Of course not. Why should she be embarrassed? Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.
Harf went on to say “What we’re judging him by is what he says very openly right now about the fact that Muslims should reject ISIS’s ideology.”
Summary: Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah’s views on the killing of American soldiers has evolved. It’s a rather quick evolution from May, but it’s an evolution nonetheless.
Tweeters were having none of it, however:
You're insane @MariaHarf. Obama is more beholden to Team Islam than to our troops https://t.co/NUqNW5vHjQ
He called for death to Americans
— Ed Shahzade (@Ed) September 26, 2014
Oh Marie Harf you poor thing. Someone get her an icepack. Megyn is giving her an epic beatdown. #KellyFile
— Itsallgood, man (@recoveringlibrl) September 26, 2014
https://twitter.com/BarracudaMama/status/515106012869578754
https://twitter.com/MYKALFURY/status/515318284821200897
marie harf (in her most patronizing voice), "well,… Megyn…" Then insert snarkiness. @megynkelly #KellyFile
— Craig (@cjl85718) September 26, 2014
This is not the first time the president and his administrations have praised Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, and we doubt it will be the last. We do wish, however, that Team Obama would one day attempt to assure us why Bin Bayyah’s evolved views are to be trusted now.
Video here:
Related:
State Dept.’s Marie Harf: ‘We are not going to telegraph our plans, period’
‘I wish you’d get this snippy with our enemies’: Marie Harf chides Daily Beast correspondent
International diplomacy outreach: Ayatollah Khamenei refers to Marie Harf as ‘that girl’
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