(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) recently awarded taxpayer funds under a state antiterrorism program to a San Diego mosque that has been linked to 9/11 hijackers and whose imam defended the Hamas attack on Israel.

Newsom, considered a top 2028 presidential contender, awarded nearly $200,000 to the Islamic Center of San Diego in March as part of a program to help religious institutions and nonprofits beef up security to protect against potential terrorist attacks, according to state records.

"Today more than ever, our state stands together to support our communities. Californians deserve the right to worship, love, and gather safely, without fear of violence," said Newsom, whose administration has given another $500,000 to the San Diego mosque in previous years.

The Islamic Center of San Diego, led by Imam Taha Hassane, has condoned anti-Israel violence over the years. Hassane, who joined the center in 2004, defended Hamas’s slaughter of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, saying in a sermon weeks later that "resistance [against Israel] is justified," the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

"We cannot accuse somebody who is fighting for his life to be a terrorist. The terrorist is the one who started the occupation, not the one who is defending himself," said Hassane, whose remarks prompted his removal from San Diego’s Human Relations Commission.

Hassane’s wife, Lallia Allali, resigned from her job with the San Diego school district after she posted a cartoon following the Oct. 7 attacks that showed a Star of David beheading five children. She currently teaches courses on "Islamophobia" at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

The Islamic Center of San Diego gained notoriety in the wake of 9/11 after revelations that two of the al Qaeda operatives who flew the plane that hit the Pentagon—Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar—prayed regularly at the mosque. An official at the mosque also allegedly helped the terrorists receive a $5,000 wire transfer from the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. Other mosque leaders hosted a welcoming party for the hijackers when they arrived in San Diego in 2000, according to the 9/11 Commission report.

Newsom awarded the grant as California faces a steep budget shortfall. State leaders acknowledged in a press release regarding the antiterrorism program that it comes amid "significant budget challenges" for the state.

The office that oversees the grant program—the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services—is the same one that oversees the state’s wildfire mitigation program. Newsom faced criticism following a Free Beacon report that he shut down a highly trained volunteer firefighting force called Team Blaze a year before the Los Angeles wildfires devastated the city in January.

Newsom has awarded grants to other mosques that preach anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate, the Free Beacon previously reported.

He gave $200,000 to the Islamic Society of Corona-Norco, where preacher Hussam Ayloush said it was a "lie" that Hamas waged an "unprovoked attack" on Israel. Another $200,000 went to the Islamic Center of Hawthorne, where Imam Hamdy Sadek prayed in one sermon: "Oh Allah, purify the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the malevolence of the Jews." Sadek has also lamented that "weak Muslims" are affected by the "media of the Jews," the Middle East Media Reporting Institute reported.

Following those revelations in 2023, the Newsom administration said it would investigate whether any of the grant recipients had engaged in hate speech.

"If it is determined they have, their funding will be immediately revoked," Newsom spokesman Brian Ferguson said at the time. "As a matter of principle, the State of California rejects hate speech and discrimination in all of its forms. Such speech is a menace to democratic values, social stability and peace."

Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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