A leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in South Florida also serves as a deputy for the Broward County Sheriff's office, which is under fire for its handling of the Valentine's Day school shooting in which 17 people were killed.

Nezar Hamze is the regional operations director for the Florida chapter of CAIR, whose national office was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-funding scheme and was designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates.

How, then, asked anti-Shariah activist Joe Kaufman in a 2015 column for FrontPage Magazine, "is it possible that one of [CAIR's] leaders, Nezar Hamze, could be considered for a position at one of the most prominent Sheriff's offices in the United States?"

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Hamze, who has conducted active-shooter training at a Florida mosque, was caught on video outside a fundraiser in 2010 for then-British MP George Galloway repeatedly refusing to denounce Hamas.

CAIR's parent organization was founded in 1993 in the United States by operatives of Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In June 2007, Hamze covered for his cousin, Abdelaziz Bilal Hamze, after the relative murdered a woman, running her over with a minivan and dragging her body for several miles down the road, scattering her body parts. The cousin then attempted to flee the U.S. to the family's native Lebanon.

Nezar Hamze was quoted by media saying that while his cousin "made some bad decisions," he "may have been a little threatened."

In a column last November for the Gainesville Sun, Hamze dismissed the threat of Islamic terrorism.

He said the shootings in recent years in Las Vegas; Orlando; Blacksburg, Virginia; San Bernardino, California, and many other places "are horrific and deadly examples of mass killings that were committed by criminals that come from various ethnicities and backgrounds."

"The over emphasis on 'Muslim' threats and the vilifying of Islam has made us less safe and has misdirected our much-needed safety resources to play a political chess game," Hamze wrote.

Hamze was mentioned in a local news story last month when he was one of two Broward County deputies involved in a dog rescue.

Sheriff Israel's tour of mosques

Kaufman noted that through Hamze's leadership, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel – who is facing an investigation into his handling of the Parkland school shooting – visited several area mosques and Islamic leaders with radical ties.

In January 2015, Israel posed for photos with Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, a supporter of Hamas.

Zakkout, just six months earlier, organized a pro-Hamas rally co-sponsored by CAIR-Florida in downtown Miami in which participants shouted, "We are Hamas" and "Let's go Hamas."

Following the rally, Zakkout, wrote, "Thank God, every day we conquer the American Jews like our conquests over the Jews of Israel!"

During Ramadan that year, Hamze joined Israel at the Darul Uloom mosque in Pembroke Pines. At a gathering of Muslims there, Hamze praised Sheriff Israel as a champion for the Muslim community, noting he helped Muslim business owners who had been targeted in a financial scheme.

In December 2015, Hamze went to Tampa to perform active-shooter training at the Daarus Salaam Mosque, which is associated with three U.S.-based Muslim groups on the United Arab Emirates' terror list.

With a gun in each hand, Hamze simulated firing at his audience during the training. The mosque said the need for the training was motivated by fear of a "backlash" against Muslims following the San Bernardino attack that month.

See Hamze leading active-shooter training:

Clare Lopez, a strategic policy and intelligence expert with the Center for Security Policy and a former CIA operations officer, commented in a recent tweet.

"Maybe if Broward Deputy Sheriff Hamze had trained his own officers better – instead of the Muslim Brotherhood – more FL kids would be alive today," she wrote.

Kaufman pointed out that Darul Uloom mosque in Pembroke Pines has ties to a number of high-profile al-Qaida terrorists. Among them are "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, who was sentenced to 21 years in prison for providing material support to terrorists and for conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim individuals overseas.

The late al-Qaida global operations chief, Adnan el-Shukrijumah, was a prayer leader at the mosque. Shukrijumah was indicted in 2010 for plotting suicide bombings in New York City's subway system. His father, who taught classes at Darul Uloom, was a translator for the spiritual leader of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, "blind sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman.