Project Islamic H.O.P.E. Is there anyone associated with Obama who is NOT a crook, a member of a hate group or a terrorist?

Sure-Shot Oakley writes:

Whoa! Within a few weeks the headliner pic on IslamicHope.org has changed again!

Obama’s pic was scrubbed from this group of images (captured in February) featuring black leaders and friends some time ago. It was then replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger (!) whose picture, as you can see (above), is still there.

Now Islamic Hope is including Barry—again—pictured with Najee Ali. (Click on the Pictures link located in the task bar and find the picture of Obama, along with Malcolm X street signs and more.)

Just a month ago, on June 19, 2008, Yid with Lid asked why Obama’s picture was still on Islamic Hope’s website:

The Imam for the Project Islamic H.O.P.E., Wallace Deen Mohammed, aka Warith Deen Muhammad aka W.D. Muhammad was/is a member of the radical Islamist group Nation of Islam, he is also an ex-con. Wallace Deen Muhammad (b. Chicago 1933) is the son of Elijah Muhammad, who was the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI) until his death in 1975. In 1961, W.D. Muhammad refused military draft and was sentenced to three years in a Federal Prison. When W.D. Muhammad was installed as Supreme Minister of Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1975, he immediately began to reformulate his father’s beliefs and practices to bring NOI closer to American Sunni Islam.

Imam Warith D. Muhammad’s embrace of mainstream Islam was rewarded with political and economic benefits. In 1975, he met privately with Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat in Chicago, and 1976 he received a gift of $16 million from Sheikh Sultan Ben Mohammad al-Qasmini, head of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, to purchase a mosque and build a school.

Imam Wallace (Warith) Deen Mohammed, aka Warith Deen Muhammad aka W.D. Muhammed was linked to Jim Jones and his church in 1976.

What is Project Islamic H.O.P.E.?

Project Islamic H.O.P.E. (Islamic Hope) is based in Los Angeles, California, but has an office in Chicago.

In an August 2001 interview with IslamOnline.net, Najee Ali said:

The goal of Project Islamic H.O.P.E (Helping Oppressed People Everywhere) is to help establish Islam in America by participating in the process; whether it be through social or political activism. [...]

We want to be viewed as an organization that fights for the civil rights of all people regardless of race or religion, by using the Holy Qur’an and the example of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a guide.

Who’s Najee Ali?

Well, according to yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, Najee Ali (Ronald Todd Eskew), a Muslim activist and “frequent critic of local police was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to bribe a witness in a case involving his daughter.”

Najee Ali, 45, was sentenced Monday. A two-year sentence was doubled because of a prior robbery conviction in 1992, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney.

Ali has for years been a fixture at rallies and outside courtrooms in Southern California, often organizing demonstrations against actions by the LAPD. He was a gang member before converting to Islam and founding the group Project Islamic Hope, which describes its mission as fighting poverty and social injustice.

But he has had his own troubles with the law.

In addition to the 1992 conviction, he was sentenced to five years probation for leaving the scene of an accident in 2004. He was free on bail for charges of identity theft at the time. [...]

Ali took his activism to some unpredictable places, protesting pornography in a Snoop Dogg video, calling for a boycott of an energy drink called Pimp Juice, and appearing outside a courtroom last year when Paris Hilton had a jail term enhanced.

But his own troubles have plagued him.

“Najee Ali has been on the wrong side of the law pretty consistently,” said Bernard C. Parks Jr., chief of staff for his father, city councilman and former L.A. police chief, Bernard C. Parks. “He had the hit-and-run and now this. It all finally caught up with him.”

More here about Ali’s plea deal.

As recently as August 11, 2008, Najee Ali, identified as, among other things, a “founding contributor to the African-American news and opinion site, Urban Thought Collective, where he details his efforts in a blog called “Digital Activist,” posted the open letter “Why Jesse [Jackson] Really Attacked Obama” at The Huffington Post, among other websites.

A disclaimer and an endorsement

There’s also a handy disclaimer below the photographs which states that only Najee Ali is a member of Islamic Hope. Hmmmm.

Islamic Hope also endorses Obama. The link to his website is posted right there on Islamic Hope’s front page:

Project Islamic H.O.P.E. proudly supports the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama.

Sure Shot Oakley comments:

There’s something wryly ironic about a candidate whose campaign people banish Islamic women wearing hijabs from Obama’s background audience despite the fact that Obama—unbeknownst to the majority of Americans—actively supports Islamic groups.