Canton native gives up post in Obama campaign

Just days after being appointed Barack Obama's campaign liaison for the Muslim faith, the Metro Detroit native in that role has stepped down.

Amid questions about links to a fundamentalist Muslim organization, Canton native Mazen Asbahi, who attended Detroit Country Day School, told the Obama campaign, "he no longer wishes to serve in the volunteer position," the campaign said in a statement.

Some local Muslim leaders say the incident is yet another during the presidential campaign in which mainstream Muslims have been ostracized by both Democrats and Republicans amid allegations that amount to guilt by association.

"It seems like the Obama folks don't get it," said Imad Hamad, of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "Muslims are an integral part of this great nation, and Obama and McCain cannot undo that."

After it was reported on an Internet site, reporters of The Wall Street Journal questioned the Obama campaign about any connection between Asbahi and the Muslim Brotherhood, an 80-year-old fundamentalist religious organization in the Middle East that, in part, provides what political opposition exists in several countries.

While some critics charge that Muslim Brotherhood contributes to the extremism that provides roots for terrorists in the Middle East, many Muslims say that is not true. They also point out that neither the United States nor the European Union list the brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

But, The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report reported this week that Asbahi briefly served on the board of Allied Assets Advisors Fund, a registered trust, with Jamal Said, an imam at a mosque in Illinois.

Critics assert that Said is a member of Hamas, the political party and militias that control Gaza, and which is listed as a terrorist group by both the United States and the European Union.

The Muslim Brotherhood and a number of national Muslim groups also were named as unindicted co-conspirators in a recent federal prosecution in Texas, which ended in a mistrial.

"This is an outrage," said Dawud Walid, of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). "If Mazen Ashabi cannot serve a presidential campaign, no one can."

Asbahi declined comment, saying he removed himself from the Obama campaign to avoid being a distraction.
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
You can reach Gregg Krupa at (313) 222-2359 or gkrupa@detnews.com.
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Do you think that, "..mainstream Muslims have been ostracized by both Democrats and Republicans amid allegations that amount to guilt by association."?

Do you think the population of the U.S. is safer because of scrutiny into Muslim people's backgrounds like the article describes?

A member of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Imad Hamad, levies blame at the "Obama folks" in the article. How much if this incident do you think can be blamed on the Obama folks? Who else is responsible?
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