Attempted Islamist Infiltration of the Republican Party
Emgage operative shows up to local GOP meeting, praises anti-Semite.
By Joe Kaufman
In February, I attended a local Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) meeting. I had been rushing over from another event, so I came in towards the tail end. Being a candidate for US Congress, I was given the opportunity to say a few words in front of the group. In the midst of my speech, I observed someone in the small crowd who seemed familiar to me. Following the meeting, after speaking with a couple of people, I headed outside. I soon was approached by the gentleman I had noticed. He said my name. I immediately knew who it was – Corey Shearer.
Corey Shearer is the Florida Outreach Lead for Emgage, an Islamist group that disguises its extremist agenda as political advocacy. The group’s former South Florida Director Syed Ammar Ahmed, once joked that he “should have threatened to blow up” a school he had participated in a debate at. The group’s founder and former Chairman Khurrum Wahid is a South Florida lawyer who represents high-profile convicted terrorists and, reportedly, was placed on a federal terrorist watch list, himself, in 2011.
Emgage has infiltrated the Democratic Party in a very big way, but so far, the group has had little to no interaction with Republicans. Seeing Shearer at the RLC meeting is a major concern.
I asked Shearer what he was doing there. He told me that he had come with a couple of “black Republicans” and was hoping to bring people together. I asked him if he was a Republican. He answered me nervously, “No, but I have been thinking about it.” It was a lie.
Prior to coming to Emgage, Shearer was a local leader in the Democratic Party. He has happily posed for photos with Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Charlie Crist. He repeatedly refers to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as “Governor DeathSantis,” and just this past October, he labeled both President Donald Trump and Governor DeSantis “jerks,” “racists” and “xenophobes.” He retweets Nancy Pelosi, and in November, he wrote, “I come from a PROUD Democratic family.”
During our brief conversation, Shearer told me that he was upset about the cancellation of a conference that was to take place in January, organized by the South Florida Muslim Federation, a radical Muslim umbrella organization, of which Emgage is a member. I had led the effort to shut down the conference, as, following the October 7 brutal massacre perpetrated by Hamas on 1200 Israeli civilians, a number of the event’s advertised speakers championed Hamas.
Shearer repeatedly brought up one of the conference’s featured speakers/moderators, Naima Khan-Ghany, to me, praising her as “a good person.” This past July, she was thrown off both of the committees she had served on within the Broward County School Board. In May, I had provided the School Board member who had appointed Khan-Ghany to her positions, Jeff Holness, proof that she had been using her social media to spread the most vicious of antisemitism, including a video calling Jews “Satanic.”
Shearer, himself, has promoted the group Islamic Relief, an entity that has been banned in several countries. Israel has labeled Islamic Relief a front for Hamas.
I informed the local RLC leadership about Shearer’s background and was assured that he would no longer be welcomed at RLC events.
This was not the first time I had witnessed an attempted infiltration of the GOP by Islamists.
In September 2011, then-Executive Director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Nezar Hamze tried to become a Committeeman for the Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC).
CAIR has foundational and financial ties to the terrorist organization Hamas. CAIR was founded, in June 1994, as a member of a worldwide Muslim Brotherhood umbrella group, the Palestine Committee, which was led in the US by then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook. Over a decade later, CAIR would be named an “unindicted co-conspirator” for a federal trial dealing with the funding of millions of dollars to Hamas. CAIR had previously used its website to raise money for the defendant in the trial, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), a fellow Palestine Committee member, under the guise of support for the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
Prior to the start of the BREC meeting, this author and others handed out printouts discussing the background of CAIR. As well, this author had the pleasure of being able to pose questions to Hamze in front of the crowd. I asked him if he was willing to support then-US Congressman Allen West, who was a local star in the Republican Party and who CAIR had previously vilified. I asked if he would denounce terrorism and his organization which was associated with terror.
Following questioning, the members of the Committee took a vote to approve or disapprove of Hamze becoming a Committeeman. Hamze was voted down 158 to 11, the first time a prospective Committeeman had been voted down. Then-BREC Chairman Richard Denapoli announced, “Mr. Hamze, your membership has been denied.”
In both instances, this author aimed to enlighten GOP leaders and thwart infiltration.
Yet, what about scenarios where party leaders remain unaware? There have been serious cases of this taking place, like that of then-Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami al-Arian, who was invited, along with his family, to the White House by the George W. Bush Administration, in an effort to court Muslim votes.
It is incumbent upon Republican Party leadership to recognize the nefarious intentions of such individuals and others, ensuring they don’t become prey to Islamist intrusion, as their Democratic counterparts have already experienced and continue to experience without hindrance.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.