Video shows Walz praising controversial Muslim cleric Harris campaign said he had no 'relationship with'
Walz praised Imam Asad Zaman as a 'master teacher' in 2018
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., faces fresh controversy after a resurfaced 2018 video showed him praising a Muslim cleric, who once shared a pro-Hitler propaganda film and celebrated Oct. 7, as a "master teacher."
In the last few years, Imam Asad Zaman has used his Facebook page to share official Hamas press releases, blog posts from antisemitic sites and a 2015 link to a pro-Hitler film, "The Greatest Story Never Told." Zaman also posted on Oct. 7 that he and his organization "stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks."
On Fox News’ "Outnumbered," Chicago-based correspondent Mike Tobin reported on The Washington Examiner unearthing a video of Walz speaking at an event hosted by Zaman's group, the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, on Feb. 16, 2018.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}At the event, then-gubernatorial candidate Walz said of Zaman, "I am a teacher, so when I see a master teacher, I know it. Over the time we’ve spent together, one of the things I’ve had the privilege of is seeing the things in life through the eye of a master teacher, to try and get the understanding."
TIM WALZ HAS TIES TO MUSLIM CLERIC WITH ANTISEMITIC VIEWS, GAVE STATE FUNDING TO HIS GROUP: REPORT
Vice President Harris' running mate for the 2024 presidency, Gov. Tim Walz has been scrutinized for associating with a controversial Muslim leader. (Walz photo by Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images | Imam Zaman photo by Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via Getty Images.)
Despite Walz referring to having spent time with Zaman, the Harris-Walz campaign told Tobin, "Gov. Walz does not have a relationship with [Zaman]," and "strongly condemns Hamas terrorism."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This was not Walz and Zaman’s only public appearance together.
"We start to see more appearances with Zaman and Gov. Walz in 2019, January, April and May. At one point, Zaman delivers an invocation to the state of the state address," Tobin reported. "He appeared with Gov. Walz in May of 2020, calling for calm in the George Floyd riots, and again in 2023 following a string of vandalism at mosques."
"Sam Westrop of The Middle East Forum says Gov. Walz has been willfully ignorant of Zaman’s radicalism because he relies on the Arab or Muslim voting bloc and cannot do anything that would make him appear Islamophobic," the Fox News correspondent said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's political and military career have both been scrutinized since he was announced as Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Westrop said, "This is a serious problem. Under a Walz-Harris ticket, given Walz's ability to embrace really just the worst kind of radicals within the Muslim community, one can only imagine this will be replicated at the White House level. Walz clearly doesn't want to know about the extremists he embraces."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Walz’s administration has also donated over $100,000 to Zaman's group, according to state records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
The Minnesota Muslim American Society is a chapter of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which the United Arab Emirates designated a terrorist group in 2014. MAS faced criticism in 2019 when a video emerged of children at a Philadelphia chapter event calling for Jewish people to be killed.
Federal prosecutors have described the MAS as "founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S.," according to court records, the Examiner first reported.
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Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.