An activist group steeped in legal battles over alleged support for Hamas announced its new DMV chapter on Sunday, expanding its presence around the nation’s capital.
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) will target schools and political institutions around Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia to spread the cause of “Palestinian liberation,” the organization said in a statement. AMP faces an investigation by Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and several lawsuits alleging material support for terrorists, though a federal court blocked Miyares’ probe in October over First Amendment concerns, Virginia Mercury reported.
AMP has continually denied associations with terrorists, but several of its leaders formerly worked for so-called charities that the federal government shut down for funding or otherwise benefitting Hamas, Capital Research Center found, citing AMP’s public webpages and documents.
“As residents of a region deeply complicit in upholding and funding the Zionist occupation, we recognize our responsibility to advance principled action in supporting [boycott, divestment and sanctions] efforts locally and challenging the political structures that enable genocide,” AMP said. “We are committed to providing political and Islamic education in our masajid, offering cultural and historical education and equipping our College and high school [Muslim Student Associations] with the political guidance, teach-ins and tools they need to build informed and unapologetic student power.”
AMP lamented “the supposed ‘ceasefire’” negotiated by President Donald Trump that Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating, as well as “martyrs” killed in the Gaza war.
“From Gaza to the DMV, the movement for Palestinian liberation remains steadfast,” AMP said. “We are grounded in our duty to achieve Collective Liberation and resist every day until every inch of land, from the river to the sea, is liberated and returned to the Palestinian people.”
The group’s terror-linked figures include AMP Executive Director Osama Abuirshaid, who wrote an article praising Hamas in 2014 that is still live on the terrorist group’s official Al Qassam Brigades website. The Obama administration denied Abuirshaid’s request for naturalization as a U.S. citizen in 2015 for failing to disclose his past work for the Islamic Association for Palestine, a now-defunct nonprofit that was found liable in federal court in 2004 for providing material support to Hamas, court records show.
AMP has been involved in anti-Israel protests around the country since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel ignited the war. The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a Virginia-based AMP leader in 2024 and later convicted him of destruction of government property for spray-painting “Hamas is comin” on a Washington, D.C., monument during a July 2024 riot.
Hatem Bazian, AMP’s chairman, also co-founded the explicitly pro-Hamas Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which fomented anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses after the Oct. 7 attacks. Bazian helped fundraise in 2004 for KindHearts — two years before the Treasury Department sanctioned the self-described charity for funding Hamas. KindHearts reached a settlement with the government in 2012 that admitted no wrongdoing after suing over constitutional objections.
AMP’s website lists eight regional chapters in the U.S. aside from the DMV.
“Through sustained local and state-level advocacy, we aim to build a liberated future grounded injustice, dignity and self-determination for the Palestinian people,” AMP said Sunday.
“May Allah grant victory to the oppressed, protect the steadfast & allow us to witness a free Palestine within our lifetime,” the group declared.
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