How odd – the Social Democrat Party (SDP) in Finland just minted a brand new member of Parliament who insulted gays, Somalis, America, Israel, Jews and Sunni Muslims. The SDP is the leftist party of progressives, kind of like the Social Democrat wing of our own Democratic party. Notwithstanding their political “convictions,” the party has stood by the man whose election victory last month gave the SDP the majority over the right wing Finns Party.

The 35-year-old MP in question, pro-Iran Iraqi refugee Hussein al-Taee, enabled the SDP to reach 40 members in the Parliament, narrowly besting the Finns Party showing of 39. For months Al-Taee denied authorship of the offensive statements, that is until his party won the election.

Why a leftist party embraces as one of its own someone who ridiculed gays or Somalis on his Facebook page at first blush is puzzling. His homophobic post was perhaps the most shocking. In 2011 al-Taee posted a scandalously scatological reference to a gay Finn who attended a public event with Adam Lambert, an internationally known gay entertainer.

It is less surprising, if no less inappropriate, that Al-Taee slammed the U.S., Jews and Israel, and even Sunni Muslims.

CLAIMED U.S. AND ISRAEL TRAINED ISIS

In a pro-Russian Facebook page of which he was an administrator, al-Taee claimed America (during the Obama era!) and Israel gave military training to ISIS. He also wrote,“I don’t see a big difference between the state of Israel and ISIS.” In 2015, al-Taee referred to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war criminal,” and likened Israel’s defensive actions in Gaza to the ISIS terrorist slaughters in Paris in November, 2015.