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In a troubling display of indifference to terrorism, the City of Coral Springs, Florida has effectively transformed itself into ‘Jihad Central.’ This was made evident in March when the city partnered with the South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF) for a Ramadan ‘Iftar Open House,’ hosted by Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen, at the city-run Coral Springs Center for the Arts.

While framed as a community celebration, the event raised serious concerns due to SFMF’s disturbing history of organizing pro-Hamas conferences, one of which occurred at the very same city facility. These conferences featured individuals who glorified Hamas murderers and kidnappers, yet the city proceeded with the partnership despite repeated and well-documented warnings.

SFMF, a consortium of South Florida Islamic organizations, has been mired in controversy for promoting events that appear to openly endorse terrorism.

The February 2025 Florida Muslim Conference, held at the Coral Springs Arts Center, was marketed as a cultural gathering but included a bazaar selling mugs bearing the image of Yahya Sinwar, the now-deceased Hamas leader who orchestrated the October 7, 2023 massacre that left over 1,200 Israelis dead. The mugs contained the words “The Martyr Leader” in Arabic and were sold in a booth openly advertised by the conference organizers in promotional videos.

This was not an isolated incident. In 2024, SFMF attempted to hold a similar conference at a Coral Springs Marriott, which was ultimately canceled after the hotel received credible information that advertised speakers had glorified Hamas in the wake of the October 7 atrocities. That event was sponsored by the U.S. branch of Islamic Relief, a group banned in multiple countries for alleged terror-related activities, including the financing of Hamas.

Despite this precedent, the 2025 conference proceeded under the aegis of the City of Coral Springs along with additional extremist elements.

This extremism included the participation of Siraj Wahhaj, a U.S. government named “unindicted co-conspirator” of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Naima Khan-Ghani, a local Muslim activist who was removed from two Broward County School Board committees for making anti-Semitic posts on social media, at least one of which was a video referring to Jews as Satanic.

Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen had been fully informed of the dangerous nature of the conference in advance. This author’s colleague, Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, provided irrefutable evidence to sponsors and officials. As a result, the United Way of Broward County withdrew its support, and Broward School Board Chairwoman Debra Hixon canceled her participation.

Nevertheless, Bowen ignored these warnings and chose to participate, lending legitimacy to the event. Her judgment is even more questionable given her previous engagement with Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen (MJAM), a nearby radical mosque known for promoting on its website violent anti-Jewish texts and sanctioning cruel practices like female genital mutilation. At the conference, Bowen sat on a panel moderated by Khan-Ghani.

In contrast, School Board Chairwoman Hixon demonstrated a more principled stance. After receiving the same information about SFMF’s previous conference and calls for her to pull out of this year’s one, Hixon promptly canceled her participation, recognizing the risks of associating with an event tied to extremist rhetoric and terrorist glorification.

Yet Bowen’s involvement with SFMF only deepened. At the March Ramadan Open House, she and the City of Coral Springs directly partnered with the Muslim Federation. SFMF’s website and social media featured a prominent photo of Bowen with the caption: “Introducing Our Esteemed Host, Nancy Metayer Bowen.”

Participating at the open house and photographed with Bowen was Abdul Rauf Khan, the CEO of ICNA Relief, the social services division of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA). ICNA has numerous ties to terrorism, including to Hamas financing. In July 2014, ICNA co-sponsored a pro-Hamas rally in downtown Miami, where attendees repeatedly chanted “We are Hamas,” “Let’s go Hamas, and “Hamas kicked your ass.”

Khan is also President of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), a radical mosque with significant ties to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and al-Qaeda. ICBR once published an essay on its site branding Jews “usurpers and aggressors” and “people of treachery and betrayal” and called for violence against Jews. Khan himself has used his social media to target Jews and LGBTQ with hate.

Coral Springs has additionally been linked to alleged jihadist Harun Abdul-Malik Yener. In November 2024, Yener, a Coral Springs resident, was taken into custody and charged with plotting to set off a bomb at the New York Stock Exchange. Yener had compared himself to deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

His arrest should have been a wake-up call to local officials about the threat brewing within their own backyard. Instead, the city has moved in the opposite direction, welcoming with open arms an organization whose affiliates promote extremist ideology and terror sympathies.

The Coral Springs Center for the Arts, a taxpayer-funded facility, hosted the February conference despite its open celebration of Hamas, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Allowing the sale of pro-Hamas merchandise at a public facility is an affront to American values and a violation of public trust.

The city’s ongoing involvement with SFMF – particularly through Vice Mayor Bowen – poses serious risks. Such partnerships lend legitimacy to extremist agendas and embolden those who seek to infiltrate American institutions with jihadist propaganda. What is being presented as “inclusion” is, in reality, a dangerous tolerance of organizations and individuals with ties to terrorist networks.

By continuing to host and promote groups like SFMF, Coral Springs is not just enabling hate, it is inviting it in through the front door. The city’s leadership must be held accountable. Coral Springs can no longer be allowed to serve as a safe haven for those who glorify terror.

It is time for the city to correct its course and take decisive action to ensure that taxpayer-funded spaces are no longer used to amplify the voices of extremists.

Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.