Hillary Clinton invited a controversial Muslim from Virginia, Esam Omeish, to participate in a conference call of Muslim leaders last week following President Obama’s call to reach out to Muslims in Cairo, Egypt. Omeish made headlines after it was discovered that he told a crowd at a pro-Palestinian rally in 2000 that “the jihad way is the way to liberate your land.”

So how did this radical Muslim end up as a member of Hillary Clinton’s outreach effort to loyal American Muslims? Is this just another example of the poor vetting process that goes on in the Obama administration? Did Hillary even know this man’s background before she invited him to participate in this conference call? Did she know this man’s outrageous Jihadist tendencies before her office contacted him?

In 2000 Esam Omeish urged people to support the Palestinian liberation movement.

“We the Muslims of the Washington Metropolitan area are here today in sub-freezing temperatures to tell our brothers and sisters in (Palestine) that you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land,” Omeish said, just three months into the Al-Aqsa uprising that would claim over a thousand lives through Palestinian terrorist attacks.

Fox News reports that Omeish had to resign from Virginia’s immigration commission once his jihad comments were publicized in 2007.

Omeish is currently running for state assemblyman against Republican Jim Hyland.

Naturally, Omeish used the old jihad-has-many-meanings dodge to explain away his support of Palestinian jihadists and also is trying to redefine the situation as a racist attack against him by his critics.

“I am hopeful that the my friends on the far right and even some of those in the media, that continue to try and distort my record and my name, and continue to distort public perceptions of the Muslim community, will realize that we have a president and an administration, along with most of the American people, that are ready to move beyond divisive politics,” he said on the call, according to a press release from his campaign office.

Of course it should be expected that anyone that questions his particular definition of jihad is considered by Omeish to be an extremist on “the far right.” Naturally, it is everyone else that is “distorting” the religion of peace. Granted we should all assume that Omeish’s definition of “jihad” must surely be filled with puppies, flowers, hearts and kisses, right? Why, what else could he have meant when raising jihad to a crowd of angry Palestinians?

All the more reason to support Jim Hyland for Virginia’s House of Delegates for the 35th District on November 3, 2009. (Hyland’s FaceBook page) And if you can’t vote for Hyland, maybe you can spare a few dollars for his campaign?

Donate to Jim Hyland.