A Muslim cleric who refused to call Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has a “significant history of extremism” has been tapped to deliver a benediction at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
Husham Al-Husainy, the imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in Dearborn, Mich., is among four religious leaders listed in an Inauguration Day program, obtained by the Washington Reporter on Monday, who are scheduled to speak immediately after Trump’s Jan. 20 address.
The Middle East Forum, a conservative nonprofit focused on Islamic issues, has described Al-Husainy as “a radical anti-Semitic, pro-Hezbollah Shia imam” with “a significant history of extremism.”
The group claims that Al-Husainy hosted a 2015 rally at the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center where he “wished death upon Saudi Arabia” for its military intervention in Yemen.
Al-Husainy also attended a 2006 “pro-Hezbollah rally” in Dearborn, during which he allegedly held a photo of then-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on stage, according to the Islam watchdog.
Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last September.
A year later – after Al-Husainy delivered a controversial invocation at the Democratic National Committee’s 2007 winter meeting – Fox News host Sean Hannity blasted the imam for suggesting US forces were “oppressors and occupiers.”
Al-Husainy denied he was making a veiled reference to the United States or the Iraq War when he asked God to “help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation” at the DNC event.
When asked by Hannity to “admit that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization,” Al-Husainy refused.
“That is your explanation,” he responded during his 2007 “Hannity and Colmes” appearance.
“Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization. And I’ve got nothing to do with that,” Al-Husainy added.
“But there is a biblical meaning of Hezbollah. It is in Judaism and Christianity and Islam meaning people of God and that means yes,” he explained – dodging Hannity’s repeated attempts to pin him down on answering whether the group was a terrorist organization.
The US State Department designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in October 1997.
Al-Husainy, who is Iraqi American, voiced his support for Trump, 78, last October during a Republican media call, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“I am supporting Donald Trump because he opposes gay marriage and he is the most Christian person in the election,” Al-Husainy said of his support for the 45th president. “He will return us to conservative values, and I am a Muslim and I will stand with whoever opposes gay marriage.”
Trump has not called for a federal ban on gay marriage.
The Post attempted to reach out to Al-Husainy for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
