U.S. Muslim leaders silent about Turkey’s threat to NBA star

By WND Staff

Enes Kanter
Enes Kanter (Wikimedia Commons)

Major U.S. Islamic groups that condemned Saudi Arabia for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been silent about Turkey’s threat to NBA star Enes Kanter.

A native of Turkey, Kanter did not travel with his New York Knicks teammates to London, where they play the Washington Wizards on Thursday, fearing he could be assassinated by Turkish spies, Agence France-Press reported.

On Tuesday, a prosecutor in Istanbul drafted an extradition request and an international arrest warrant for Kanter.

The Knicks center is accused of financially supporting the global Islamist movement headed by Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed Gulen for the 2016 coup attempt that was thwarted by the Turkish military.

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The Investigative Project on Terrorism noted Kanter’s plight has drawn no attention from American Islamic groups that expressed outrage at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for the murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul of Saudi Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashogg.

Among the groups that protested Khashoggi’s death were the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America.

“The best form of jihad is a word of truth against a tyrant ruler,” former MAS President Esam Omeish, a board member at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque outside Washington, D.C., said at last month’s MAS-ICNA Convention in Chicago.

Omeish said that when Khashoggi “saw the best of Saudi Arabia and the best of his companions being jailed and tortured,” he “realized that he can’t live in a society where he can’t speak.”

Silent about Kanter

Omeish has had nothing to say about Kanter, however, though he also is a Muslim U.S. resident who has drawn the ire of authoritarian rulers of Muslim-majority states because of his beliefs.

IPT noted CAIR touts itself as a Muslim civil rights organization.

But CAIR was founded by members of the terrorist organization Hamas in the United States, and Erdogan is a supporter of Hamas.

Senior Hamas leaders have found safe haven in Turkey, IPT pointed out. And last year, Israel’s Shin Bet accused a private military company run by a top Erdogan military adviser, SADAT International Defense Consulting, of funding Hamas.

Erdogan also supports the Muslim Brotherhood, which founded Hamas.

IPT said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad enjoys close relations with Erdogan’s regime. Days after the coup attempt, Awad offered prayers and thanksgiving for the soldiers and civilians who sacrificed their lives to defeat it at a rally outside the White House.

Kanter, meanwhile, posted in 2017 a video comparing Erdogan with Adolf Hitler.

Kanter’s father was purged from a university in Istanbul last summer and faces up to 10 years in prison for belonging to the Gulenist movement. Kanter faced a domestic arrest warrant last year. Turkey also canceled his passport in 2017.

Kanter grew up in the Gulen movement, attending its schools since the second grade.

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