A Norquist Islamist reinvents himself as a Bernie leftist.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam

Vermont Democrats have something else to celebrate besides the creation and failure of the first statewide socialized medicine system in America. Recovering from that glorious triumph, Vermont Democrats have elected their first Muslim state party chairman.

The lucky fellow is Faisal Gill who called his victory a rebuke of President Trump. “To have a Muslim and immigrant to be the state party chair sends a really strong message to Trump and his type of politics that this is not where the country is at.”

Gill’s election doesn’t send much of a message about where America is at. But it certainly sends a message about where the Democrats are at.

Back when Gill was playing a Republican, courtesy of Grover Norquist, left-wing media outlets like Salon were willing to report on his troubling Islamist ties. But Faisal Gill has been reborn as a supporter of Bernie Sanders and Keith Ellison. The left has become a warm and moist safe space for Islamists. The Salon article which Gill blamed for many of his problems would be nearly inconceivable today. Could anyone really imagine a leftist publication today describing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror nexus?

But did Faisal Gill really go from Norquist Republican to Sanders Democrat? Did he shift from believing in free enterprise to embracing Socialism? Or did Gill always hold to an overriding ideology in whose shadow the distinction between Capitalism and Socialism becomes pointless infidel quibbling?

When revelations first emerged that Faisal Gill had been under FBI surveillance, he blamed Islamophobia. When Snowden’s enemy espionage operation exposed national security documents which were published by left-wing terror apologist Glenn Greenwald and The Intercept, a site whose former writer is now charged with some of the terroristic bomb threats aimed at Jewish centers, Gill’s email appeared on a list of alleged terrorist suspects and supporters, including Al Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki.

Glenn Greenwald had claimed that the Al Qaeda leader’s only crimes were “speak[ing] effectively to the Muslim world about violence that the U.S. commits in [Yemen] and the responsibility of Muslims to stand up to this violence.” Examples of this could include Anwar Al-Awlaki quotes such as, “Jihad against America is binding upon myself, just as it is binding on every other able Muslim”, “Don’t consult with anybody in killing the Americans, fighting the devil doesn’t require consultation” and “We will implement the rule of Allah on earth by the tip of the sword.”

The other Muslim leaders spotlighted by Greenwald and The Intercept included CAIR boss Nihad Awad, who has been open about supporting Islamic terrorism, and Hooshang Amirahmadi, a key Iran Lobby figure who had declared that, “Hezbollah and Hamas are not terrorist organizations, they are defending their country and their nations.” Glenn Greenwald had similarly described Hamas and Hezbollah as being “dedicated to protecting their citizens against the State of Israel.”

Glenn Greenwald and The Intercept had featured Faisal Gill as the embodiment of the innocent Muslim leader surveilled by the United States government for no other reason except his religion.

But why did Faisal Gill really appear on that list?

Gill had worked at the White House Office of Homeland Security under Bush. He became the policy director for the intelligence division at the Department of Homeland Security. His top-secret security clearance gave him access to information that terrorists would have died for. There was only one problem.

Faisal Gill had neglected to mention that he had worked for the American Muslim Council. The AMC was another front for the Muslim Brotherhood. Its founder, Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, was sent to prison due to an investigation into his involvement in a terrorism plot. Al-Amoudi had been both blatant in expressing his support for terrorism, particularly Hamas, and the need to conceal it.

“I think if we were outside this country, we can say, ‘Oh, Allah, destroy America,’ but once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it,” he had said. In telephone transcripts, he regretted that no Americans had been killed in an Al Qaeda terrorist attack and urged more attacks like the bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Beyond Al-Amoudi, the American Muslim Council had a history of expressing support for terrorists.

The policy director for the intelligence division at the Department of Homeland Security had worked for an organization with terror ties. And he had failed to disclose his linkages to that organization.

Despite that, Faisal Gill forged on. He tried to kick off as a career as a Republican candidate. But there was yet another problem. He was working for Islamists who combined terrorism with the mass murder of Christians.

Sudan is run by an Islamist regime interlinked with the Brotherhood that perpetrated genocide against Christians and other non-Muslims. Omar Bashir, its leader, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, war crimes, extermination, torture, rape and genocide. These are the sorts of activities that Islamists get up to when they are allowed to take over entire countries.

The Islamist regime of Sudan is listed as a state sponsor of terror. The United States has sanctions in place on the terror state (although some of these were lifted by Obama in his final days in office). And families of terror victims have sued Sudan. Faisal Gil and his partner Asim Ghafoor took Sudan’s case. Asim was still representing Sudan against terror victims as of last year.

The American Muslim Council had its own ties to Sudan. It had even sponsored a panel titled, “Slavery in Sudan is a Sham”. The Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee, which had endorsed Gill’s candidacy, had come out in opposition to divestment from Sudan.

Gill’s Republican career faltered. But he reinvented his political identity. He moved to Vermont and began writing checks to Democrats. Over $150,000 worth. $40,000 of it has gone to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee making his eventual objective all too obvious.

And he embraced all the usual leftist causes. He pledged not to ask anyone if they’re an illegal alien and serves on the board of Justice for All which “identifies and dismantles institutionalized racism”. Meanwhile he’s been involved in the Apex Investment Group and the Gill Investment Group. Apex has offices in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Because nothing says institutionalized racism like an actual slave state.

The former Grover Norquist man now supports taxes and entitlements. And he signs big checks.

Virginia Republicans turned Gill down despite the best efforts of the Norquist organization. But Vermont Democrats were eager to be bought. Vermont Dems have indeed sent a message. Not just to President Trump, but to America.