M. T. Mehdi

He has also been criticized for his denouncing of Yasser Arafat, especially by those within the Muslim organizations. Regarding Arafat's red-carpet welcome from President Bill Clinton, M. T. Mehdi, then-president of the American Arab and Muslim Council, denounced Arafat as "... a pawn in the reelection bids of both Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres...", who visited the White House on April 30, 1996. "He is being as well-received as Peres because he is doing what Peres wants him to do," said Mehdi. "It's a charade."

After the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, he gave counsel to the blind sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was later convicted and given a life sentence for his role in the attacks.

Mohammed (or Mohammad) Taki Mehdi, commonly M. T. Mehdi (January 6, 1928 - February 23, 1998) was an Arab-American based in New York and one of the earliest pro-Palestinian activists in the United States, and often brash in his defense of the Palestinian cause. He held debates on television and radio with many supporters of Israel, including the rabbi Meir Kahane. He died of cardiac arrest at Bellevue Hospital in 1998.

M. T. Mehdi was born in Karbala Iraq (then in the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1928. He came to the United States to study at the University of California at Berkeley and achieved a doctorate in Political Science. He sued, successfully, the New York City Board of Education, requiring it to display Islamic crescents along with Christian and Jewish symbols during the holiday season. Out of his three daughters, Anisa Mehdi is a documentary filmmaker.