President Obama's top national security advisers have just hosted Sheikh Abdulla bin Bayyah at the White House. As vice president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) in 2004, bin Bayyah endorsed a fatwa calling for the killing of American troops and other personnel serving in Iraq.

Bin Bayyah is the principal deputy to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's chief sharia jurist and the driving force of the IUMS. In addition to being behind the 2004 fatwa, Qaradawi also promotes suicide bombing against Israel. The IUMS strongly supports the Brotherhood's Palestinian branch, Hamas, the terrorist organization designated as such under American law. Indeed, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh – a close ally of both Qaradawi and Turkey's Islamic supremacist prime minister (and Obama fave) Recep Tayyip Erdogan – was welcomed into the IUMS as a member in 2004. As detailed here on other occasions (see, e.g., here), Hamas's charter explains that the group's imperative to destroy Israel is an Islamic obligation, and it cites authoritative scripture – frequently repeated by Qaradawi – stating that the world will not end "until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: 'O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!'"

News of the White House meeting with bin Bayyah was broken last night by Steve Emerson and John Rossomando of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. The meeting took place at the Obama administration's request, according to an account of it posted – along with a photo – on bin Bayyah's website. Since its original posting, the account has been edited to omit mention of Obama National Security Adviser Tom Donilon's participation.

This marks a new low for the administration that, in brazen violation of U.S. counterterrorism law, previously invited a member of the Blind Shiekh's terrorist organization for consultations at the White House.

Notably, bin Bayyah lobbied the administration to "take urgent action" to help the Syrian "rebels" (i.e., the factions opposing the Assad regime, which are dominated by Islamic supremacists and violent jihadists – more accurately described as the Syrian mujahideen than as "rebels"). As Emerson and Rossamondo observe, President Obama has since announced plans to arm the Syrian opposition.

Emerson and Rossamondo's full account is very much worth reading. So is the take offered by Patrick Poole at PJM. Patrick elaborates on Emerson/Rossamondo's assertion that this is far from the administration's first consultation with bin Bayyah.

The enemy is not at the gate. He has long since skipped across the welcome mat.