Now that most of the votes have been counted, it appears that incumbent Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) will handily defeat his challenger, Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, in the Democratic primary for the 1stDistrict of Massachusetts.
As Islamist Watch has noted before, Ms. Amatul-Wadud is on the board of CAIR-MA; more seriously, she has deep connections with the fringe group Muslims of America (MOA), the U.S. front for Pakistani extremist organization Jamaat al-Fuqra. Since the 1980s, American members of Fuqra have been repeatedly convicted of murder, fraud, and weapons charges.
Ms. Amatul-Wadud’s campaign refused to answer questions about her relationship with Jamaat al-Fuqra or its leader, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani—despite Ms. Amatul-Wadud sharing an essay Gilani wrote in which he claimed that America was manipulated into fighting the Nazis by Jews, Wahhabism was created by British intelligence, and 9/11 was an inside job. (She recently deleted her post, however!) Despite this, Ms. Amatul-Wadud was held up as a Progressive standard-bearer by many on the left.
Massachusetts voters chose wisely in sticking with the politician they know. Ms. Amatul-Wadud could have chosen to explain her relationship with MOA and Jamaat al-Fuqra despite its violent and criminal history; instead, she chose to ignore the issue and hope it went away. Fortunately, that seems to have been a step too far for Democratic voters.
