Muslim seen as long shot

The state Senate race in Virginia’s heavily Democratic 31st District pits that party’s caucus chairman against a Republican immigration lawyer who recently achieved notoriety for sticking up for an accused financier of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Republican nominee Kamal M. Nawash, who hopes to become the first Muslim member of the General Assembly, is a senior partner with the law firm representing Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi. Mr. al-Amoudi was arraigned yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on charges of smuggling cash from Libya into the United States to fund terrorists.

Mr. al-Amoudi also is a chief architect of the Pentagon’s Muslim cleric-training program who selected for service Army Capt. James Yee, a suspected al Qaeda spy currently detained in a military brig.

Political handicappers and even the Virginia Republican Party say the high-profile case has done little to better the odds of Mr. Nawash’s long-shot challenge against Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, a Democrat first elected in 1996 and chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus since 1999. Elections will be held Tuesday.

“This is a very Democratic district and it would be surprising if it changed and voted for a Republican nominee,” said Mrs. Whipple, a Presbyterian originally from Watseka, Ill. But she credited Mr. Nawash with campaigning aggressively and raising a significant amount of money.

Mr. Nawash has raised $116,067 to Mrs. Whipple’s $70,637, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections.

Mr. Nawash said Mr. al-Amoudi donated $10,000 to his campaign.

Mr. Nawash returned Mr. al-Amoudi’s donation. President Bush and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, returned similar donations, though critics say Mr. Nawash was in a better position to recognize the source of the funds when first accepting them.

Despite Mr. Nawash’s lead in fund raising, Virginia Republican Party spokesman Shawn M. Smith said, “This is certainly going to be an uphill battle.”

Mr. Nawash, 33, remains confident that he has been underrated and that Mrs. Whipple is vulnerable among new voters in the redrawn 31st District, which includes Arlington, Falls Church and parts of Fairfax County.

Mr. Nawash has said he has been erroneously identified by some media outlets as Mr. al-Amoudi’s attorney. Mr. al-Amoudi’s defense team is led by New York City lawyer Stanley L. Cohen. But, one member of that defense team is May Kheder, who is a partner with Mr. Nawash’s Falls Church-based law firm of Hanania, Kheder & Nawash.

Mr. Nawash blamed Mrs. Whipple’s campaign for spreading the false information and exploiting his loose connection to Mr. al-Amoudi to incite anti-Muslim sentiment among voters.

“She is a mean-spirited racist,” said Mr. Nawash, who was 6 when his family moved to the United States as refugees from Bethlehem. “The reason she focuses on this … is because she wants to draw innuendo and say, ‘Look at this guy. He is a Muslim and he has ties over here to terrorists.’”

Mrs. Whipple, 63, said neither she nor anyone in her campaign had made Mr. al-Amoudi a campaign issue. “I have not done anything of the sort,” she said. “I have not criticized Mr. Nawash for the sources of his funds.”

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