Vice Presidential nominee and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine has held some notable positions throughout his political career (Mayor of Richmond, Governor of Virginia, etc.), and continues the tradition – serving as a Virginia Senator as well as a member of important national security teams such as the Senate Armed Services and the Senate Foreign Relations Committees.

However, along with Kaine’s political experience lies a past filled with Islamist connections. Let’s take a look at Kaine’s associations with the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Muslim American Society (MAS) as well as other Islamist groups.

The Clarion Project provides some evidence of MAS’s Muslim Brotherhood background:

Federal prosecutors said in 2008 that “MAS was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America” and that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and MAS “omit reference to a shared background that limits their membership to those of a particular political bent, and undercuts their credibility.” In January 2012, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, an admitted U.S. Muslim Brotherhood operative that was convicted on terrorism-related charges in 2004, stated, “Everyone knows that MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

It’s important to note that the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy for North America is about performing a “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated.” The Brotherhood’s ultimate goals are to re-establish the Islamic caliphate and implement Sharia law.

As Virginia’s Governor in 2007, Kaine spoke at the 5th Annual Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation event. MAS was described by U.S. federal prosecutors as the “overt arm” of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Gates of Vienna reports that Kaine “stressed the need for people of all faith traditions to work together to overcome intolerance and bigotry[,]” a key message of the ‘interfaith dialogue’ movement – a movement which Islamists generally promote to conceal their true intentions of furthering Islam. Also in 2007, Kaine regrettably appointed MAS President Dr. Esam Omeish to Virginia’s Commission on Immigration (Omeish resigned shortly after). The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) reveals some of Omeish’s radical proclivities:

…online videos that show Omeish at rallies denouncing the invasion of Lebanon by the “Israeli war machine” and telling a crowd of Washington-area Muslims: “…you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land.” The latter video was obtained exclusively by the Investigative Project on Terrorism and can be viewed on YouTube, along with another video that shows Omeish congratulating Palestinians for giving up their lives for the sake Allah.

It’s alarming to think a man who has publicly advocated for jihad was picked by Kaine to influence immigration policy. And now Kaine’s a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee? Even years after the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development Trial in 2007, which exposed the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan for North America, Kaine continues to hang around Islamists.

For example, in 2011, then Senate candidate Kaine spoke at an event organized by New Dominion PAC that presented Jamal Barzinji, a major U.S. Brotherhood leader, with a Lifetime Achievement award. Kyle Shideler for the Center for Security Policy details Barzinji’s impact for the Brotherhood and how his ‘achievements’ were anything but noble:

Barzinji was one of the co-founders of the Muslim Brotherhood Think Tank known as the International Institute of Islamic Thought, located in Fairfax, Virginia. Barzinji was also a founding member of the Muslim Student’s Association (MSA), the founding general manager of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), a member of the Majlis Ashura of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and director of the SAFA Group, a network of charities and companies headquartered in Northern Virginia, and raided by federal authorities over funding to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Barzinji was also a founding member of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists of North America (AMSS) and Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers (AMSE), both early Muslim Brotherhood organizations established out of the MSA.

Whether Kaine’s ignorance or knowledge of these Muslim Brotherhood groups and figures led him to make these ill-advised decisions is up for debate, but one thing that’s clear is Kaine’s failure to take the threat of radical Islam seriously.

Some examples of this failure to confront the dangers of radical Islam were exhibited in Kaine’s decision to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 2015 speech to Congress as well as efforts to delay the speech, Kaine’s support for Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran deal, Kaine’s refusal to halt or pause the refugee resettlement program after the shootings in Paris in November of 2015, and the list continues.

It’s obvious from Kaine’s record that he does not perceive political Islam as major threat to U.S. national security. We must have leaders that can identify subversive Islamists groups within the American political system such as the Muslim Brotherood – who not only want to gradually introduce Sharia law but also will build arguments that defend their jihadist co-religionists. It’s obvious Islamic law does not coincide with Western values since it inherently opposes freedom, liberty, and equality. Kaine must denounce these past associations with Islamist groups and seek their ouster from our political process if he wants to effectively guard our fundamental American freedoms.