Barack Obama is making his first presidential visit to a U.S. mosque on Wednesday, but the historic occasion is being overshadowed by criticism that the Baltimore-area center he chose has extremist ties.

The controversy centers around the Islamic Society of Baltimore's former imam, who has ties not only to the Muslim Brotherhood but the Northern Virginia mosque where the radical Anwar al-Awlaki used to preach.

“As a Muslim American I’m just insulted, this is disgraceful that this is one of the mosques -- or the mosque -- that he’s chosen to visit,” Zuhdi Jasser, of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told Fox News on Sunday. “This mosque is very concerning.”

The former imam in question is Mohamad Adam El-Sheikh, who served at the Baltimore mosque from 1983-1989 and 1994-2003. A member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, he had moved to the U.S. in 1978 and went on to receive several advanced law degrees as he became involved in the religious community.

During his time in Baltimore, El-Sheikh was a regional director for the Islamic American Relief Agency, the international parent organization of which has been cited by the U.S. Treasury Department for connections to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. After 2003, he was the imam for the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., near Washington. It was there that Awlaki, just months earlier, gave his fiery sermons, before going on to be a top Al Qaeda affiliate operative in Yemen. Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.

The ties could pose a distraction for Obama at a time when the White House is trying to emphasize religious tolerance -- in part, as a counterpoint to what the White House says are intolerant statements being made on the Republican presidential campaign trail.

The Islamic Society of Baltimore serves thousands of area Muslims and includes a school and a housing complex. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama is visiting to “celebrate the contributions [of] Muslim Americans.”

“Religious freedom and religious tolerance is central to the way of life in this country,” and this visit will show that “those values endure more than 240 years” after America’s founding, he added.

While the president has visited mosques overseas, this is the first visit in the U.S.

It will also be an opportunity, Earnest said, for the president “to talk about the role that faith plays in his own life.”

It's not just El-Sheikh's affiliations but his past comments that have stirred controversy.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/...rsial-ties.html