Michigan Congresswoman Meets with Imam Accused of Extremist Ties

On 27 March 2025, the Mid­dle East Media Research Insti­tute (MEMRI) report­ed that Con­gress­woman Deb­bie Din­gell, who chairs the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Pol­i­cy and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee, recent­ly met with a Dear­born-based Shi’ite cler­ic accused of main­tain­ing close ties with Iran and express­ing sup­port for des­ig­nat­ed ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tions. The arti­cle begins:

On March 7, 2025, Con­gress­woman Deb­bie Din­gell, who rep­re­sents Michi­gan’s 6th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict and serves as Chair of The House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Pol­i­cy and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee (DPCC) met with Imam Moham­mad Ali Elahi, a promi­nent Iran-born Shi’ite cler­ic who heads the Shi’ite Islam­ic House of Wis­dom in Dear­born Heights, Michi­gan and is con­sid­ered a cen­tral fig­ure in the U.S. Shi’ite com­mu­ni­ty. He is also known to main­tain close rela­tions with the Iran­ian regime. Rep. Din­gell met with Imam Elahi on March 8, 2025, along­side fel­low Michi­gan Con­gress­woman Rashi­da Tlaib, at his Islam­ic cen­ter, The Islam­ic House of Wis­dom (IHW). Elahi post­ed about the meet­ing on his Face­book page, shar­ing pho­tos of the two Representatives…

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Key Points:

• Imam Elahi report­ed­ly deliv­ered a ser­mon last Sep­tem­ber dis­cussing Quran­ic vers­es about “treach­ery of Jews,” link­ing them direct­ly to con­tem­po­rary Zionists.
• MEMRI doc­u­ments Elahi’s pub­lic state­ments mourn­ing Hezbol­lah leader Has­san Nas­ral­lah and meet­ing with Iran­ian Pres­i­dent Masoud Pezeshkian at the UN.
• Michi­gan Gov­er­nor Gretchen Whit­mer and oth­er promi­nent offi­cials have pre­vi­ous­ly engaged with Elahi, includ­ing invit­ing him to deliv­er prayers at offi­cial events.
• In 2023, nine US Rep­re­sen­ta­tives sent a let­ter to fed­er­al offi­cials warn­ing of Iran­ian regime influ­ence through Islam­ic cen­ters, specif­i­cal­ly nam­ing Elahi’s institution.

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