The Washington Post has a disturbing story about a radical Islamic cleric connected with the mad mullahs of Iran—who has been spreading his poison in the United States for 20 years, at the Islamic Education Center in Potomac, Maryland: U.S. Keeps Close Tabs on Muslim Cleric.

Seven weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Islamic cleric Mohammad Asi made a speech at the National Press Club, calling them “a grand strike against New York and Washington” launched by “Israeli Zionist Jews” who had warned the 5,000 Jews at the World Trade Center to skip work. He warned America that if it continued to offend Islam, “the day of reckoning is approaching.”

A small man with a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard who lives in Silver Spring, Asi, 51, may sound to some like an al Qaeda spokesman. He is actually a U.S. citizen, an Air Force veteran and a fixture in the local Islamic community.

He also belongs to a little-known group of Muslim activists that many U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials believe is closely aligned with the government of Iran. For 14 years, until 1997, Asi ran the Islamic Education Center on Montrose Road in Potomac that serves 1,500 families. The center is funded by the New York-based Alavi Foundation, which law enforcement officials say is closely tied to the mullahs who dominate Iran.

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials believe Alavi and its related institutions are a vehicle through which the Iranian regime keeps tabs on Iranians here, obtains data about U.S. technology, promotes Tehran’s views on world affairs, provides gathering places for pro-Iran activists and channels money to U.S. academics to gain a friendly reading on Iran.

What an interesting allegation. Academics are being paid to whitewash militant Islam?