Texas Democrat James Talarico’s Senate campaign accepted $3,000 from a celebrity Muslim speaker accused of grooming female fans for sham marriages and assuring husbands that Allah would “let you get away with” wife-beating — under certain conditions. Nouman Ali Khan — founder of the Bayyinah Institute, an Islamic studies outfit boasting millions of fans on YouTube — cut the Texas Democrat three $1,000 checks, Federal Election Commission records show.
The most recent donation arrived Oct. 19, the day early voting opened in the Lone Star State — and one day after Talarico worked the room courting Muslim voters at a halal barbecue spot in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Khan, who a Talarico campaign official said did not attend the halal event, took a major reputational hit in 2017, when multiple women accused him of using his celebrity to draw them into relationships — in some cases quickie religious marriages they said were a cover for sex — and then pressuring them to keep their mouths shut. A panel of four Muslim scholars found that when women complained about his conduct, Khan “apologizes and attempts to buy their silence or threatens them,” BuzzFeed News reported in December 2017.
