Will law enforcement support groups cut ties with pro-Hamas leader Sofian Zakkout?
September 21, 2015
South Florida Muslim leader Sofian Zakkout has been affiliated with the Miami-Dade offices of both Crime Stoppers and Citizens Crime Watch for a number of years. What would seem to be commendable acts to help the community are quickly nullified by the fact that Zakkout, too, has been affiliated with hatred and terrorism for many more years and poses a significant threat to this same community. This month, his pattern of bigoted extremism has continued with the posting of a heavily anti-Semitic video onto his Facebook page.
Sofian Abdelziz Zakkout is the director of the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), a radical Islamic group based in Miami, Florida. Previously, Zakkout, who was born in Gaza, was the Vice President of the Health Resource Center for Palestine (HRCP), a terrorist charity whose Secretary/Treasurer, Syed Khawer Ahmad, was a website developer for Hamas.
In the past couple years, Zakkout’s Facebook page has become a storage space for images of bosses and armed militants from Hamas and videos from white supremacist and former KKK leader David Duke. Zakkout organized a pro-Hamas rally in 2014, where his rally goers shouted “We are Hamas" and “Let’s go Hamas.” Following the rally, he wrote in Arabic, “Thank God, every day we conquer the American Jews like our conquests over the Jews of Israel!” He signed it, “Br. Sofian Zakkout.”
Last February, over a graphic of deceased Hamas founders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Zakkout wrote the following violent threat in Arabic, “It is an obligation and it is mentioned in the Quran to defend the land and the population. It is an obligation to kill those who left our religion. It is an obligation to kill those who fight our religion and to intimidate our enemies and the enemies of the religion. Everything is from the Quran, not from me.” And he signed it, “Sofian.”
To hide his extremist conduct and history, Zakkout has joined up with groups that help in fighting criminal activity. Crime Stoppers of Miami-Dade County Executive Director Richard Masten and President Suzette Rice and Citizens Crime Watch of Miami-Dade County Executive Director Carmen Caldwell have all confirmed to this author that Zakkout has continued to serve in an active role in both organizations for a number of years. As this new piece was being written, none of these individuals have returned phone calls.
How lightly these individuals have taken this terrorism-related issue is disturbing, especially given the fact that Zakkout has persisted with his radical behavior.
Last month, on his Facebook site, Zakkout posted a photo of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) training to commit terrorist acts versus Buddhists, with a caption that read in part, “Declaration of jihad in Burma against… Buddhism.” Of it, Zakkout wrote in Arabic, “Glory be to Allah! Oppression and injustice against Muslims is the leading cause of Jihad in Burma.” He signed it, “Sofian.”
On September 8th, Zakkout posted a vehemently anti-Semitic video onto his Facebook page, titled ‘USA enslaved Zionist domination.’ The video contains a number of offensive images in it. One of the images depicts five politicians with their hands placed over their hearts, pledging their allegiance in front of an American flag with a large Star of David (Jewish Star) on it, the males – President Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, and Vice President Joe Biden – all wearing yarmulkes (skullcaps).
Another image on the video is of an octopus with a Star of David on its head and its tentacles, which are dressed in the names of different prominent US Jewish organizations, are wrapped around and crushing the U.S. Capitol. The graphic is reminiscent of an infamous Nazi propaganda picture, also depicting an octopus with a Jewish Star on its head, with its tentacles wrapped around the world and dripping with blood.
The narrator of the video makes a number of libelous statements regarding Jews. He says, “No candidate or politician can ever hope to be elected without the obligatory visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, while being forced to wear that mind-numbing yarmulke…” He asks, “You think you have Freedom of the Press – you know, the press that’s owned, controlled and run by the Jews?” And he takes full aim at Americans, themselves, referring to the US as “a nation of ignorant cowards.”
The video was created by an individual residing in Hamburg, Germany named Hussam Sakr. Along the same line of thought as his video, the banner on Sakr’s Facebook site is of a fist punching through an American flag intertwined with an Israeli flag. The profile icon on his YouTube page, which is where the video is housed, is of a cartoon American eagle bloodily gouging at the world.
Why would someone like Zakkout, who is involved with organizations combatting crime, place such a sociopathic video on his Facebook page? Because it is in his nature to do so.
Sofian Zakkout is an Islamist ideologue who is exploiting Crime Stoppers and Citizens Crime Watch as a facade for his terrorist incitement. In his warped parallel universe, propaganda from groups such as Hamas and Al-Qaeda and bigotry represented by David Duke and the Sakr video represent socially acceptable means of overturning the Western society which he despises.
Islamist radicals like Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout should not be permitted to live in America or any bastion of Western civilization. He should be forced to go back to his beloved Gaza to live among like-minded individuals, whose affinity for terrorism he embraces.
No doubt, Zakkout’s involvement in law enforcement support groups like Crime Stoppers and Citizens Crime Watch presents a clear and present danger to us all. If they have not done so already, these organizations should move to cut ties with Zakkout immediately. By not doing so, one can only be led to believe that they stand in defense of his actions.
To voice your concern regarding this situation, you can contact Crime Stoppers of Miami-Dade County at 305-471-6160 and Citizen’s Crime Watch of Miami-Dade County at 305-470-1670. Please be respectful, when speaking with these organizations.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.