Tim Walz Praised, Met With Muslim Cleric Who Promoted ‘Pro-Hitler’ Film, Defended Hamas’ Oct. 7 Massacre

Corey Walker

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US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US, Aug. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for US vice president, has praised and hosted several times a controversial Muslim cleric who promoted a pro-Adolf Hitler film and later expressed support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, according to new reports.

Walz hosted Asad Zaman, the imam of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, on at least five occasions as governor of Minnesota, the Washington Examiner reported. Zaman has a lengthy history of issuing public support for violence against Jews and Israel, leading to questions about the extent of Walz’s relationship with him.

The Minnesota governor invited Zaman, alongside other leaders in the Muslim community, to attend a May 2023 meeting about mosque security, according to the Examiner. In May 2020, Zaman spoke at an event to call for non-violent protests in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. One year earlier, the Muslim cleric attended a Ramadan event hosted by Walz’s office. 

The revelations of Walz’s ties to Zaman come as the campaign of US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has insisted that her running mate has no “personal relationship” with the imam. However, according to footage unearthed by the Examiner, Walz called Zaman a “master teacher” at an event hosted by Minnesota’s Muslim American Society on Feb. 16, 2018, at the South Metro Islamic Center in Rosemount, Minnesota.

“I would like to first of all say thank you to the imam,” Walz said at the 2018 event. “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.”

In 2015, Zaman encouraged his social media followers to watch an infamously pro-Hitler film titled “The Greatest Story Never Told.” The 2013 film is popular with neo-Nazis and considered to be revisionist history which depicts Hitler as a hero.

Years later, Zaman signaled support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ murder of 1,200 people and kidnapping of some 250 hostages during its rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7 of last year. The onslaught was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

On the day of the surprise invasion, Zaman posted on Facebook that he “stands in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli attacks.” That same day, he shared a social media post that stated, “Palestine has every right to have its freedom from the Zionists who [invaded] its land from many countries mostly Eastern Europe.”

Zaman has also shared links to Hamas press releases “mourning” the death of terrorists.

On Oct. 8, 2023, the cleric lambasted US Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) on X/Twitter for condemning the Hamas atrocities, asking the lawmaker if she will “also condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinian civilians and children?”

“Do you also stand with the Palestinian people? Do you also reaffirm the right of Palestinians to defend themselves?” Zaman asked Porter. 

Two days later, Zaman targeted Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin on X/Twitter, writing that Martin’s group “cannot be joined at the hip to apartheid Israel and still hope to court the Muslim vote” after the political leader said he was “beyond heartbroken” to learn Israelis he knew were “brutally killed or kidnapped” on Oct. 7.

Zaman also criticized Martin for expressing sympathy toward civilians killed in the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. The Muslim cleric chastised Martin for not condemning the Jewish state.

“So Ken. You can easily condemn Hamas for killing civilians, but you can’t muster the courage to condemn Israel for killing civilians? Shame on you,” Zaman posted on X/Twitter. 

Independent studies and Western intelligence agencies have found that the explosion at Al Ahli hospital was caused by a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in Gaza, not Israel.

Zaman previously attempted to equate the Hamas terrorist group to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, questioning why Israeli civilians are not “punished” for installing a so-called “genocidal” leader. 

“If Palestinians are punished for electing Hamas, why is Israel not punished for electing this genocidal maniac as its leader?” Zaman posted to X/Twitter in May 2021. 

An investigation by US federal prosecutors described the Muslim American Society of Minnesota as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” The Muslim Brotherhood is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.

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