Mufid Abdulqader

Mufid Abdulqader is a former Dallas Public Works and Transportation Department engineer, entrepreneurial investor, and music and skit performer who was convicted to 20 years of prison[1] for allegedly raising funds for Hamas according to the prosecution, on three separate conspiracy charges.[2]

Early life and education

Abdulqader was born in 1960 the West Bank, at the time a territory of Jordan. Together with Abdulqader's half brother Khaled Mashal, his father moved the family to Kuwait afterwards for financial reasons, where Abdulqader, like his half-brother Khaled, completed high school.[3]

Singing and skit performance career

Mufid performed for the band Al Sakhra ("The Rock"). It performed Palestinian traditional and revolutionary songs initially and primarily about the Palestinian First Intifada during the late 1980s and early 1990s, due to it's anti-zionist nature, some considered it "anti-semitic" [4] on coast-to-coast tours in the United States.[5] In addition to singing, Mufid performed skits on stage.[6] His band was afterwards called Al Nojoum.

Engineering career

Mufid won praise from Dallas Mayor Laura Miller during his tenure as a "rising star" in the Dallas Public Works and Transportation Department, where he worked on street design and sidewalk projects, and led the $4.8 million Bishop Arts District redevelopment in 2001.[7] By September 2003, he was Senior Project Manager.[8] Before Dallas, he worked at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation from 1988 to 1996.[9]

Investments & entrepreneurship

Together with co-worker Mohammad Elyazgi, Abdulqader was a co-owner of Sinbad Greek & International Food in Oklahoma.[10][11][9]

Holy Land Foundation

Abdulqader was a "top fundraiser" for the Holy Land Foundation,[12][13] and was described by The New York Times as a "leader" of it.[14]

Conviction and incarceration

In September 2008, prosecutors asked the judge for the dismissal of 29 counts each against Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh,[15] keeping only three conspiracy counts.[16]

On October 29, 2012, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari; thus making Abdulqader's conviction final and definitive.[17][18][19] Nonetheless, the American Human Rights Council in 2017 asked for Mufid Abdulqader's conviction, as well as others, to be conmuted to time already served by then-president B. H. Obama.[20]

A 2011 NPR report claimed Abdulqader is imprisoned in a highly restrictive Communication Management Unit in Terre Haute, Indiana.[21]

In 2018 Miko Peled published the book, Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five, where he catalogs the trial of the criminalization and dismantling of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, leading to the arrest and jailing of Foundation President Shukri Abu Baker, Chairman Ghassan Elashi, Mohammad el-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulraham Odeh.[22]

Family

Abdulqader half-brother is Khaled Mashal,[23][13] the Palestinian political leader and the leader of the Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas who stepped down as Hamas' politburo chief in 2017.[24] Abdulqader's daughter Sarah Mufid Abdulqader has publicly asked for her father's freedom as well as of all Palestinian political prisoners in the United States.[25]

References
  1. "5 men from defunct Muslim charity get long sentences". CNN. 27 May 2009. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mufid Abdulqader, 49, of Richardson, Texas, received 20 years
  2. "Founders of US Muslim charity jailed for 65 years for funding Hamas". The Telegraph. 27 May 2009. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mufid Abdulqader, 49, was sentenced to 20 years on three conspiracy counts.
  3. TODD BENSMAN (13 February 2006). "Hamas's Rock Star". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mufid and Khaled both graduated from a Kuwaiti high school.
  4. "Jurors see bin Laden's mentor stumping for Holy Land Foundation". The Dallas Morning News. October 2008. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mufid Abdulqader -- a former city of Dallas civil engineer -- is seen performing with his Palestinian folk band, Al Sakhra, or "the rock," singing stridently anti-Semitic songs
  5. TODD BENSMAN (1 January 2005). "The Terrorist at City Hall". D Magazine. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mufid’s secrets. For more than a decade, he’d been touring the country with the popular Arabic singing troupe Al-Sakhra. If he had muffled his political views about the Middle East while at City Hall, the Arabic lyrics he sang on weekend gigs all across the country left no doubt about his true feelings. With all the angst of a rock star, he urged on the violent holy war and glorified the martyrdom of suicide bombers
  6. "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. MUFID ABDULQADER and ABDULRAHMAN ODEH - NO: 3:04-CR-0240-P" (PDF). Government Publishing Office. Government of the U.S. 26 March 2009. p. 7. Retrieved 26 December 2018. videos depicted performances of the Al Sakhra band, with Albdulqader singing songs of praise for Hamas and violent jihad and performing skits depicting the killing of Jews
  7. "The Terrorist at City Hall". Dmagazine.com. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  8. "Accelerated Construction Technology Transfer (ACTT) Workshop" (PDF). Federal Highway Administration. U.S. Department of Transportation. 9–11 September 2003. p. A-2. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Name: Mufid Abdulqader Title: Senior Project Manager Company: Public Works & Transportation Office: City of DallasCS1 maint: date format (link)
  9. Erick Stakelbeck (2011). "Chapter Five - Freaks Geeks and Jihadis". The Terrorist Next Door: How the Government is Deceiving You About the Islamist Threat. Simon and Schuster. p. 112. ISBN 1596986808. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Adulqader and Elyazgi have worked for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation
  10. DIANE WEST (30 October 2007). "Oklahoma lawmakers hang tough". Tulsa World. Newspaper Enterprise Association. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mohamed Elyazgi, was a business partner of Mufid Abdulqader, a defendant in the Holy Land Foundation trial and half-brother to the political chief of Hamas
  11. Annie Jacobsen (January 12, 2006). "How Normal Is Norman?". Free Republic. Retrieved 26 December 2018. I had reviewed 1995 court documents that list Elyazgi and Abdulqader as co-owners of Sinbad Greek & International Food in Oklahoma and as co-defendants on fraud and failure to pay charges (Case No.: CJ95 2176-66)
  12. Elizabeth Wilcox (2010). Digest of United States Practice in International Law 2008. Oxford University Press. p. 97. ISBN 0199738556. Retrieved 26 December 2018. HLF was incorporated by Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, and Ghassan Elashi. Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh worked as fundraisers.
  13. Zeyno Baran (2011). A&C Black (ed.). Citizen Islam: The Future of Muslim Integration in the West. Bloomsbury. p. 100. ISBN 1441112480. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mufid Abdulqader, a top fundraiser for the HLF, is Mishal's half-brother
  14. GRETEL C. KOVACH (24 November 2008). "Five Convicted in Terrorism Financing Trial". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 December 2018. The charity’s leaders — Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdulrahman Odeh and Mohammad El-Mezain — were not accused in the 2004 indictment of directly financing suicide bombings or terrorist violence. Instead, they accused of illegally contributing to Hamas after the United States designated it a terrorist group.
  15. JOSH GERSTEIN (15 September 2008). "High-Stakes Trial Is Set Against Alleged Hamas Arm". The New York Sun. Retrieved 26 December 2018. at the prosecution's request, the court dropped 29 counts each against Messrs. Odeh and Abdulqader. The counts, charging money laundering and providing aid to a terrorist group, pertained to individual financial transfers to the zakat committees.
  16. JEFF CARLTON; David Koenig (2 September 2008). "Some charges tossed in case against Muslim charity". Fox News. Associated Press. Retrieved 26 December 2018. prosecutors requested the dismissal of nearly 30 counts against Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh. The men each will still face three conspiracy counts that could send them to prison, if convicted, for 55 years.
  17. Kampeas, Ron (2012-10-30). "Supreme Court denies appeal of Holy Land Foundation convictions". Jta.org. Retrieved 2014-06-04.
  18. Elashi v. United States, No. 11-1390, 133 S. Ct. 525 (2012)
  19. "Defendants' Petition for Certiorari Rejected, Elashi et al v. United States, October 29, 2012".
  20. "AHRC urges President Obama to commute the sentence of the Holy Land". American Human Rights Council. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Five well- regarded members of the Muslim American community, Mufid Abdulqader, Shukri Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mohammad El-Mezain, and Abdulrahman Odeh, were given unusually lengthy sentences that shocked the American Muslim community for their harshness
  21. Data & Graphics: Population Of The Communications Management Units, Margot Williams and Alyson Hurt, NPR, 3-3-11, retrieved 2011 03 04 from npr.org
  22. THE UNJUST PROSECUTION OF THE HOLY LAND FOUNDATION FIVE
  23. TODD BENSMAN (13 February 2006). "Hamas's Rock Star". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 26 December 2018. Mufid's family hails from the West Bank farming village of Silwad. His half brother Khaled was born in 1956; Mufid was born four years later to a different mother.
  24. TODD BENSMAN (1 January 2005). "The Terrorist at City Hall". D Magazine. Retrieved 26 December 2018. But Mufid had yet another secret. His half brother is the notorious Khalid Mishaal, the current leader of Hamas
  25. Steven Emerson (14 December 2011). "American Muslims for Palestine's Web of Hamas Support". Algemeiner Journal. Retrieved 26 December 2018. The audience also heard from Sarah Mufid Abdulqader, the daughter of one of the convicted HLF members, Mufid Abdulqader. Her father “traveled around the country on HLF’s behalf to speak and raise funds,” according to court documents. “It’s an honor to have a father that was put in jail,” Sarah Abdulqader said, and she asked Allah “to free all political prisoners of Palestine in Palestine and in the United States.”
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