Dems dismiss concern about ties to radical Imam after Fox inquiry sparks photo purge

FIRST ON FOX: Former Democrats and scores of Michigan Democratic Party lawmakers have dismissed concerns about their ties to a radical imam who praised the death of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei at the hands of “the most miserable hands on the planet” and who works at a mosque known as a purveyor of Iranian propaganda.

Dearborn Heights, Michigan, Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi’s social media pages were a who’s who of Michigan Democratic Party politicians and also included a slew of photos of him with former Democrats and Democratic Party officials from other states, before they were removed. The photos, many from various political and religious events, were removed from the imam’s social media after Fox News Digital contacted him and his Michigan-based Islamic House of Wisdom (IHW).

However, screenshots maintained by Fox News Digital and other photos that remain publicly available on the imam’s social media sites show him posing alongside former Democrats like former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State John Kerry.

Other Democrats the imam was photographed with on his social media pages included current candidates for office in Michigan and some of the state’s top leaders, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose 2023 inauguration included a Muslim prayer tribute from Ali Elahi, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. One post on his social media included a flyer highlighting an event IHW helped sponsor with the headline Dr. Anthony Fauci, while others included photos of the imam interacting with out-of-state Democrats, such as Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

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Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi leads a prayer at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, October 18, 2024. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

In addition to Ali Elahi’s public photos with a slew of Democrats, he has also donated to many of those same lawmakers, including candidates running this year in his home state of Michigan, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Database. Current U.S. Senate candidate from Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, who appears in at least one of the imam’s photos, received more than $800 from him in 2017. Gilchrest, who was photographed several times with the imam on his social media pages, received more than $1,000.

Meanwhile, Mike Duggan, the former Detroit mayor who is currently leading an independent bid for governor and is seen having dinner with the imam, received $500, according to state records. Ali Elahi has also made numerous small donations through Act Blue to various Democrats and Democratic institutions for years.

“The reluctance of public officials to distance themselves from someone so controversial would be troubling enough under normal circumstances, but even more so during times of conflict where Americans’ lives are at stake and voters expect their leaders to rally around the flag,” said Republican Party strategist Colin Reed. “For nearly 40 years, the leaders of the Iranian regime have pushed for America’s demise and exported terror around the world. It should be no small feat to want to shine a light on someone so sympathetic to their cause.”

When asked, following Ali Elahi and IHW’s tribute to Khamenei, whether any of the Democratic Party figures regretted participating in events alongside the Iranian-born imam living in Michigan, or whether they planned to reconsider their interactions with him in the future, Democrats seen with him in photos at various events either did not respond or downplayed their ties to the imam. A staffer for Michigan gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson initially made contact after Fox News Digital contacted her, but then ignored Fox News Digital’s requests after learning the story was not just about Benson.

Khamenei, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike last month, has repeatedly attacked the United States and Israel on social media, including saying, “Death to America.”

“Yes, it will happen. The death of America will happen,” Khamenei said in 2022, the Middle East Media Research Institute reported at the time. “Some people say, by chanting ‘Death to America,’ you bring America’s animosity upon yourself. I say that’s not true. When America began its hostility toward Iran, no one was chanting ‘Death to America.’

“Senator Peters regularly attends events with his constituents across Michigan. Peters has long said that Iran and its leaders, like Ayatollah Khamenei, are bad actors, and he firmly believes we must ensure that Iran never has nuclear weapons,” a spokesperson for the Michigan senator said.

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“Georgians are concerned about an illegal war that is costing taxpayers a billion dollars a day and sending gas prices skyrocketing,” a Warnock spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The senator believes that Ayatollah Khamenei was a brutal dictator and that this president should focus on domestic issues instead of entangling our country and our military in another endless war.”

Democratic Party Senators Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia (left), and Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan (right), pictured walking inside the U.S. Capitol. (Getty Images)

“It was 60 seconds of social politeness at a funeral. Shaking someone’s hand is not a bond or endorsement,” a Clinton spokesperson said. “They don’t know each other.”

“The press often rushes after Republicans in power to ask them why someone took a photo with them and how quickly they will distance themselves from this individual, but this same level of scrutiny is not applied at all to Democrats,” lamented Republican strategist Mark Bednar. “For the good of the country, Democratic elected officials and candidates must explain to their constituents and the media exactly where they stand on the cheerleading of the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.”

Duggan, who initially told local Michigan newspaper The Michigan Enjoyer that he “had no recollection” of the photos they shared of him with the imam, told Fox News Digital that the gubernatorial candidate did not know Ali Elahi personally when asked if he planned to reconsider any interactions with him in the future. Fox News Digital discovered several photos of Duggan attending events alongside Ali Elahi that were on the imam’s Facebook page, including one where the two are seen kissing.

“During his 12-year term, Mayor Duggan consistently reached out to congregations of all faiths, visiting 40 to 50 churches, mosques and synagogues each year,” said a spokesperson for Duggan’s gubernatorial campaign. “He has attended nearly 1,000 political events during that time and has greeted and taken photos with people at each one. The mayor knows Imam Elahi no more than the many other men from across the political spectrum he has met over the years.”

Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan speaks at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. (PBS Newshour YouTube channel)

As recently as September, Ali Elahi was seen in a photo with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Also present at the meeting were the co-founder of the left-wing activist group CODEPINK, accused of having close ties to China, and former US intelligence official and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, whose home was raided by the FBI for what Ritter himself described as a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The imam also met with Pezeshkian at the United Nations Assembly in 2024, a photo on the imam’s Facebook and Instagram broadcasts, which also includes a caption praising the regime leader and criticizing Israel and the media. Ali Elahi has photos of him meeting anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, who infamously compared Jews to termites in one of his sermons.

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“Elahi’s numerous photographs with high-level Iranian politicians and religious leaders that he regularly posts on his social media accounts demonstrate his ties to the Islamic Republic,” says a report from the George Washington University Program on Extremism. The same report points out that Ali Elahi was head of the Iranian Navy’s “political ideological office” in 1982, an allegation the imam responded to but did not deny in a 2023 speech.

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers accused the Ali Elahi Mosque of being “a major purveyor of extremist propaganda consistent with the views of the Iranian regime” in a 2023 letter to then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling on him to investigate various mosques supported by the Iranian regime in the United States. As recently as 2023, Ali Elahi visited Iran, sharing photos and videos from his 2023 trip on social media.