During President Obama's speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, he spoke favorably of a controversial Muslim cleric who is accused of endorsing Hamas and calling for resistance to be enacted against U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
"The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of da," said Obama. "Look at the new Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies - Sheikh bin Bayyah described its purpose: 'We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace.' "
The problem, according to some, is that Sheikh bin Bayyah is reported to have previously endorsed Hamas which is labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and its allies.
Bayyah is also the former the vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a group who at one point encouraged Muslims to fight back against US forces in Iraq.
IUMS "ruled that resisting occupation troops in Iraq is a 'duty' on able Muslims in and outside the war-torn country and that aiding the occupier is impermissible," adding that "this kind of jihad does not necessitate a central command to organize military operations, but willing Muslims can do it on their own."
So when Obama mentioned the same Bayyah who reportedly took part in ordering Muslims to fight back against occupying US soldiers, critics such as the Washington Free Beacon were quick to call Obama on his contradictory statements by bringing up Bayyah's questionable past.
Patrick Poole, a reporter who has long covered Bin Bayyah, noted the hypocrisy of Obama's hat tip, telling the Free Beacon, "It is simply amazing that just a few months ago the State Department had to publicly apologize for tweeting out it's support for Bin Bayyah, only to have Barack Obama go before the leaders of the entire world and publicly endorse Bin Bayyah's efforts."
Earlier this year, the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau recalled several tweets about Bin Bayyah which "should not have been tweeted," reported the Free Beacon.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf appeared on Fox New's Megyn Kelly show Thursday in an attempt to clear the air.
"I think what the president was saying is that we need respective voices in the muslim world to stand up and reject ISIS's ideology. We need people other Muslims listen to, to stand up and do that."
Last week Bin Bayyah released a fatwa "questioning just about everything for which ISIS stands," reported NPR. Bin Bayyah went on to say that establishing a caliphate by force is a misreading of the religious doctrine, and that violence, along with the killing of innocents, is also wrong.
Kelly quipped back, "It's good that he issued a fatwa against ISIS, but he also issued a fatwa against us!"
