MAGA ally responds after explosive marriage details revealed
A top congressional Republican has confirmed he was married by an Islamic teacher with connections to Hamas, the Islamic Brotherhood and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., married his soon-to-be ex-wife, Rana Al Saadi, a naturalized American from Iraq, in 2014. The two were wed by Mohammad Al-Hanooti at the Dar Al-Hijirah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia.
Al-Hanooti had taught as the center's imam, or leader, from 1995 to 1999 and was a widely respected among the capitol 's Islamic community, according to CAIR.
But the teacher was also considered to be radical. He taught about the importance of jihad and advocated for holy wars against non-Muslims while he taught there.
All of this was unbeknownst to Mills, an Army veteran who fought in Iraq, the lawmaker bizarrely explained to The Blaze.
Dar Al-Hijrah, where Al-Hanooti taught, was also attended by 9/11 hijackers Hani Hanjour and Nawaf al-Hazmi in early 2001.
The pair later crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, which is just six miles from the islamic center where Mills was married.
'We all have to be ready for the jihad with our properties and our souls,' Al-Hanooti said in 1998. 'Allah will rain his curse on the Americans and the British.'
'The curse of Allah will become true on the Jews,' Mills' wedding officiator taught at the time.
The cleric is also reportedly an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Reports further indicate that Al-Hanooti, born in Palestine in 1937, was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a fundraiser for Hamas.
Mills, meanwhile, is a conservative Christian who represents a fairly red district along the Florida coast.
He has repeatedly invoked his Christian faith on the campaign trail and in Congress and told The Blaze he attends Word of Faith church near Orlando, Florida.
However, an anonymous source close to Mills revealed to The Blaze that the Republican became a practicing Muslim after marrying his wife.
Getting combative with The Blaze over the phone, Mills explained the wedding administered by Al-Hanooti was meant to protect his wife as she traveled to Iraq to visit an ailing relative.
She 'would've been arrested' without documentation of her religious marriage to Mills, the congressman told The Blaze.
Al-Hanooti, was sick at the time and died 'months' after the wedding, Mills recounted. 'I don't know the damn guy.'
Iranian activist Sarah Raviani told Washington law enforcement she and Mills got into a domestic dispute at his residence earlier this year. No wrongdoing was done, both have said, and no charges have been filed. Mills is in the midst of a divorce from Al Saadi, he has said
Mills claimed he would do anything for his family and that Al-Hanooti was 'the only Iraqi imam that her mom [could] get in contact with who would do this for us.'
'I don't know anything about his involvement in the co-conspirator thing,' the congressman told the outlet of Al-Hooti's connections to Hamas and the Islamic Brotherhood.
The Florida Republican also shared that he and his wife, Al Saadi, who served in the first Trump administration on Middle Eastern affairs, are in the midst of a divorce.
'We've been going through divorce proceedings for 2.5 years and have been separated for three years,' he told the outlet.
The update comes after the lawmaker was embroiled in a controversial domestic dispute earlier this year with a pro-Iranian activist, Sarah Raviani, 27, who told the police 'her significant other for over a year' at the time 'grabbed her, shoved her, and pushed her out of the door,' according to The Blaze report.
Both Mills and Raviani denied any wrongdoing and charges have not been filed.
However, a spokesperson for Washington's Metropolitan Police Department did confirm to the Daily Mail that 'the matter is still open.'
Mills and Raviani both went on a trip to Syria together this spring amid the fighting in the country and the recent overthrow of its government, pictures posted by Raviani show.
Images show the pair sitting at a table next to each together with Rep. Marlin Stuzman, R-Ind., and what appear to be Turkish officials.
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