Islamic event tiff roils Rice-Blakeman race

The race to fill Rep. Carolyn McCarthy’s South Shore Congressional seat tightened this week, with Israel sharing center stage.

Controversy swirled both around a cancelled appearance by Democrat Kathleen Rice at the Islamic Center of Long Island and over the candidates’ level of support for the state of Israel.

The Rice campaign said that in April, in her role as Nassau District Attorney, she accepted an invitation to speak at the Islamic Center in November, and that she understood that she would be the only speaker. When the New York Observer reported last week that radical Imam Siraj Wahhaj would be added to the program, she immediately withdrew her participation and denounced Wahhaj, the campaign said.

North Shore Rep. Peter King joined Blakeman in a Manhattan press conference to attack Rice.

“Peter King is a regular at this Islamic Center and, just as he has many times, Kathleen Rice accepted an invitation to address its members as the event’s sole speaker,” said Rice spokesman Eric Phillips.

“As soon as we heard that this Imam had been added to an expanded panel of guests, we immediately pulled out of the event, condemned the Imam, and criticized the Islamic Center’s decision to give him a platform.”

The Islamic Center is located in Westbury.

In an ad published in today’s Jewish Star, the Blakeman campaign refers to Wahhaj as having been “named in court papers as an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing” who testified in support of members of his mosque who were indicted.

On Wednesday, the Blakeman camp issued a statement supporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to build 1,000 more homes in eastern Jerusalem, a move criticized by the White House.

“Israel has a right to build on its own land,” Blakeman said. “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel. No one should be permitted to dictate how Israel should govern their capital.”