Tim Walz says he has no personal relationship with imam who shared pro-Hitler video

( JTA ) — For days, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has been dogged by criticism — including from the Republican Jewish Coalition — about his ties to a Minnesota imam who praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and once shared a link to a pro-Hitler documentary.

Now, the Harris-Walz campaign has responded, saying that Walz has no “personal relationship” with Imam Asad Zaman, the executive director of the Muslim American Society Minnesota, a network of seven mosques, despite appearing together in public events on several occasions.

And the Anti-Defamation League is calling on that political leaders in Minnesota to avoid appearing with Zaman and to make clear, if they have appeared with him in the past, that they do not share his “toxic views.”

Zaman appeared alongside Walz on several occasions between 2018 and May 2023. When he was running for governor in 2018, Walz called Zaman a “master teacher,” and the imam delivered an invocation before a speech Walz gave in 2019.

Zaman has appeared at public events over the years with a range of Minnesota officials, and a spokesperson for Walz said the two men do not know each other beyond the public appearances.

“The Governor and he do not have a personal relationship,” a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign said in an emailed statement. “Governor Walz strongly condemns Hamas terrorism.”

The interactions between the two men were first reported by the Washington Examiner, a conservative newspaper that also said Zaman’s group has been awarded more than $100,000 in three state grants, two of which were for mosque security. The ties have drawn criticism from conservative activists, and Jewish leaders have condemned Zaman’s statements.

While some Jewish groups that issued condemnations did not directly reference Walz, this week, the Republican Jewish Coalition said, “It is an outrage to the American Jewish community that Tim Walz would champion Hitler-promoting cleric Asad Zaman.”

The RJC statement was referring to a 2015 Facebook post by Zaman, now deleted, that linked to a website for “The Greatest Story Never Told,” a six-hour documentary that, according to the website, “reveals a personal side of Adolf Hitler.” The Facebook post, according to a screenshot from the Washington Examiner, claimed that large numbers of Jews served in the Nazi army.

Multiple outlets reported this week that Zaman endorsed a post saying “Palestine has the right to defend itself” on Oct. 7 when Hamas’ attack on Israel killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage. He also shared a statement his organization made that day that “reaffirms its unwavering support for the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli occupation.” The statement also references “Israel’s recent unprovoked attacks on Palestinian areas.”

Zaman told CNN on Tuesday that he and Walz do not have a personal relationship, and that he occasionally posts things on social media “without fully looking at them.”

“I support organizations, leaders and efforts to bring greater justice, equality and wellbeing to all people whether Muslim or Jewish, Christian or Hindu, believer or atheist,” he told CNN. “Desiring harm to people is against my faith and my personal convictions.”

In response to a question on the Harris-Walz position on the Israel-Hamas war, Zaman said he is “unclear on what their stance is” but wishes to see “an immediate end to the enormous human suffering and devastation this war is causing.”

The Anti-Defamation League said Zaman “has a troubling history of playing into classic anti-Jewish themes and justifying violence against Israel.”

“Given his hurtful remarks post-Oct. 7, and absent any recognition of the pain he has caused the Jewish community, we urge all public officials and leaders to avoid meeting with him in the future,” the ADL statement said. “Those who have met with Imam Zaman should clarify that they don’t agree with his toxic views about Jews and the Jewish state.”

Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said Zaman has “toxic views” and endorsed the ADL’s statement.

Walz is not the only senior Minnesota politician to meet with Zaman. In 2018, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune , Zaman was one of the religious leaders to give an invocation at the swearing in of Jacob Frey, the city’s Jewish mayor. The paper reported that a rabbi, whose name it did not include, delivered a benediction at the same ceremony.

After Walz was selected as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Jewish leaders in the state praised his interactions with the community, including his support for Israel and for a Holocaust education mandate in Minnesota.

Morris Allen, rabbi emeritus at Beth Jacob Congregation and a local Democratic community organizer, said the revelations about Zaman, whom he said was “very well connected politically in Minnesota,” don’t change his opinion of Walz.

“The politics of ‘gotcha’ are just unfortunate,” Allen told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “People meet with lots of people, and I think that we need to really look at results and actions. And I think that Tim Walz’s actions have consistently been actions that promote the best values of the Jewish people and the best interests of the state of Israel.”

He added, “It doesn’t change my opinion on Gov. Walz. … I have seen nothing from the Harris-Walz team that would suggest anything but continued support and belief in the appropriateness of the State of Israel and concerns to the Jewish community.”

Allen had previously been in a rabbi-imam discussion group that included Zaman but left the group “when it became clear that there was no way to avoid severe disagreement over the legitimacy of the State of Israel,” he told JTA. “But many of the imams with whom we did meet were kind and careful.”