Lawyers for New York City are investigating an event that sold merchandise in support of terrorist groups, a spokesperson at the New York City Council said last week.
Vendors sold keychains, stickers and pins in support of US-designated terrorist groups during a fundraiser at the Moslem American Society youth center in Brooklyn last week, in an incident first reported by The Times of Israel.
The merchandise had the logos of Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,..., Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, and images of the late terrorist leaders Yahya Sinwar of Hamas and His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
of Hezbollah.
The US State Department has designated all three groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Other items said "Death to the IDF" and "Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv," showed Leila Khaled a PFLP member who helped hijack a plane in 1969, or had inverted red triangles, a Hamas symbol.
The New York Post reported that the Moslem American Society’s New York branch has received $265,000 in discretionary funds from the New York City Council since 2023. Council members are granted budgets for discretionary funds, which they allocate to nonprofits of their choosing to fill local needs.
The Moslem American Society of New York is a nonprofit that had revenue of $781,000 in grants last year.
A spokesperson for New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin told The New York Post that the council will block $80,000 in additional funds to the society pending an investigation by city lawyers, and may ban future funding to the group.
"The City Council has zero tolerance for violations of our standards," the spokesperson said. "Funding to this organization is being paused pending a comprehensive internal review. Any nonprofit found to be supporting organizations that threaten the United States government is unacceptable and incompatible with City Council funding."
Soon after taking the council’s helm last month, Menin, its first Jewish speaker, laid out a plan for combating antisemitism in the city. Jews are targeted in hate crimes in the city more than all other groups combined, and the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a longtime anti-Israel activist, has raised concerns about community safety.
The fundraiser took place at the Moslem American Society Youth Center in Brooklyn, according to the social media posts. Organizers billed the event, called Thrift4Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
, as an exhibit and pop-up store, and said the proceeds would "go to Sudan."
Also at the event was a placard showing a masked figure alongside the quote, "Whomever wants to snatch our weapons, we will snatch their soul, God willing," a rough translation of a statement by the late spokesperson for the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group, Abu Hamza.
A video showing the items was posted by Pal-Awda, a hardline anti-Zionist activist group that caused an uproar by chanting for Hamas outside a Queens synagogue earlier this month. The youth center posted a video showing the display from another angle.
The event organizers advertised that six vendors had participated. One of the vendors sells the pins for terrorist groups and items that call for violence against Israel, and says that the proceeds are donated to families in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
. Some of the organizers’ social media posts about the event have been taken down since the initial Times of Israel report.
The activists have previously sold the pro-terror items in city parks.
The center and the Moslem American Society did not respond to requests for comment.
Days before the event, a speaker at the youth center said his "life mission" was to fight against the US government and the US army "to the last breath."