CAIR: Islamists Masquerading as Moderate Muslims
May 27, 2008, 2:09 pm |
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By Andrew L. Jaffee
I worked with a Shiite Muslim for seven years, probably one of the best customers I’ve ever had. I avidly follow true moderate Muslim commentators like Fareed Zakaria, [1] Kamal Nawash, [2] Fouad Ajami, [3] and Mansoor Ijaz. [4] I hold democratically-elected Muslim leaders like President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia with the highest regard. So I find it disturbing that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a “media darling” claiming “itself as an advocate for Muslims’ civil rights and the spokesman for American Muslims” when it is indeed a Saudi-funded, Islamist front for whitewashing terrorism [7]. CAIR is far from moderate.
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated that CAIR’s leaders have “intimate links with Hamas” and that “we know CAIR has ties to terrorism.” [5] [6] [7] [8] [10] Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called CAIR “unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect.” [6] [7] [9]
Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director and co-founder, [21] stated publicly, “I am in support of the Hamas movement,” [22] a group whose founding charter requires it to destroy Israel, i.e., to commit genocide. [23]
CAIR’s founder, Omar Ahmad, [24] stated publicly in California, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.” [22] [25]
Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer, who served as CAIR’s communications specialist and civil rights coordinator, pled guilty to involvement with terrorist groups, to explosives and weapons charges, and to helping several people “gain entry to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.” [7] [11] [12] [13] [14] Royer is now serving 20 years in prison. [7] [11]
CAIR’s Texas chapter founder, Ghassan Elashi, was convicted in July 2004 for illegally transporting computers to Libya and Syria, officially designated as state sponsors of terrorism. [7] [15] He was again “convicted in April 2005 of knowingly doing business with Mousa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas leader.” [7] [16] Finally, “he was charged in July 2004 with providing more than $12.4 million to Hamas.” [7] [17]
Bassem Khafagi, “CAIR’s onetime community relations director, pleaded guilty in September 2003 to lying on his visa application and passing bad checks for substantial amounts in early 2001, for which he was deported.” [7] [18]
Rabih Haddad, “a CAIR fundraiser, was arrested in December 2001 on terrorism-related charges and deported from the United States.” [7] [19] He was involved in “financing Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.” [7] [19]
A one-time member of CAIR’s advisory board, Siraj Wahhaj, was named in 1995 by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White “as one of the ‘unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators’ in the attempt to blow up New York City monuments.” [7] [20]
In one of CAIR’s most recent episodes, in which the group was named an unindicted co-conspirator during federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, “…Documents introduced into evidence indicate both HLF and CAIR were part of a Muslim Brotherhood committee in the U.S. created to help Hamas.” [26]
CAIR has used litigation in an attempt to silence those trying to expose its ties to terrorism. [7] But the group has found the court room to be a double-edged sword. CAIR settled its lawsuit against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR (http://www.anti-cair-net.org/) [27]. CAIR-CAN dropped a similar suit against David B. Harris, Director of the International and Terrorist Intelligence Program, INSIGNIS Strategic Research Inc. [28] As Daniel Pipes pointed out:
…[CAIR] ran into a litigation buzz-saw, and it seems to have cut and run. CAIR preferred the ignominy of walking away from the case [against Anti-CAIR] it initiated rather than open to public scrutiny its finances, its list of supporters, and the beliefs and intentions of its key leaders. [27]
Unfortunately, there are droves of people who either know nothing of CAIR or, on the other extreme, are eager to tolerate the group merely because the word “Islam” is included in its organization’s name. Are good citizens to sit back while this Islamist front-group runs roughshod over the U.S. Constitution?
I strongly encourage readers to write letters to the editor of their local newspapers whenever CAIR is mentioned, and remind citizens of the group’s scary agenda. Use the references provided here when you speak out.
Think globally, act locally. You may not get published at the Washington Post, but you may be able to expose CAIR on the local level.
Suggested Reading
- *Anti-CAIR* Defending America from the Council on American-Islamic Relations
- CAIR Exposed
- Getting to Know the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
[1] David Kemker, “PEACEMAKER HERO: DR. FAREED ZAKARIA,” The My Hero Project, Laguna Beach, CA, 6/18/2004, http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=Dr._Fareed_Zakaria.
[2] Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism, Washington, DC, info@freemuslims.org, http://freemuslims.org/.
[3] Fouad Ajami, “Iraq and the Arabs’ Future,” Foreign Affairs, Palm Coast, FL, January/February 2003, http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030101faessay10218/
fouad-ajami/iraq-and-the-arabs-future.html.
[4] Mansoor Ijaz, “Islamic truths,” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, February 18, 2006, http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/
la-oe-ijaz18feb18,0,6492979.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions.
[5] Ben Johnson, “Tides Foundation and Tides Center - Excerpted from 57 Varieties of Radical Causes,” DiscoverTheNetwork.org, September 2004, http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/articles/Tides%20
Foundation%20and%20Tides%20Center1.htm.
[6] Mychal Massie, “We have right to know truth about CAIR,” WorldNetDaily.com, Inc., Grants Pass, OR, August 16, 2005, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45799.
[7] Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha, “CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment,” Middle East Quarterly, PHILADELPHIA, PA, SPRING 2006, VOLUME XIII: NUMBER 2, http://www.meforum.org/article/916.
[8] FDCH Political Transcripts, Sept. 10, 2003.
[9] Evan McCormick, “A Bad Day for CAIR,” FrontPageMagazine.com, Center for the Study of Popular Culture, Los Angeles, California, September 24, 2003, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=9981.
[10] Christopher Orlet, “The Nation’s Pulse - A Phony Fatwa,” The American Spectator, Salt Lake City, UT, 8/3/2005, http://tas.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8532.
[11] “RANDALL TODD ROYER AND IBRAHIM AHMED AL-HAMDI SENTENCED FOR PARTICIPATION IN VIRGINIA JIHAD NETWORK,” Press Release, U.S. Department of Justice, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 9, 2004, http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/April/04_crm_225.htm.
[12] “Va.-based terror members plead guilty,” USA TODAY, Gannett Co., Inc., McLean, VA, 1/16/2004, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-01-16-terror-group_x.htm.
[13] “Guest CV - Ismail Royer,” Islam Online, Doha, Qatar, http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Guestcv.asp?hGuestID=605R88.
[14] “Muslims win rights in MO, VA, NE, and NJ: Store owners apologize to Muslim customer,” Action Alerts, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Washington, DC, 7/17/2001, http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=89&theType=AA.
[15] “ELASHI BROTHERS CONVICTED,” Press Release, U.S. Department of Justice, DALLAS, TEXAS, JULY 8, 2004, http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/PressRel04/elashi_conv.pdf.
[16] “Brothers Found Guilty of Funding Hamas,” FOXNews.com, FOX News Network, LLC, New York, NY, April 13, 2005, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2c2933%2c153402%2c00.html.
[17] “HOLY LAND FOUNDATION, LEADERS, ACCUSED OF PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT TO HAMAS TERRORIST ORGANIZATION, Press Release, U.S. Department of Justice, JULY 27, 2004, http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/PressRel04/HLF_ind_release_doj.pdf.
[18] “PLAINTIFFS’ MORE DEFINITE STATEMENT/ADDITIONAL ALLEGATIONS AS TO DEFENDANT COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS (CAIR) AND CAIR-CANADA,” UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, IN RE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, Civil Action No.: 03 MDL 1570 (RCC), September 30, 2005, http://www.anti-cair-net.org/OneillVsCAIR.pdf.
[19] “FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Treasury Department Statement Regarding the Designation of the Global Relief Foundation,” PO-3553, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Washington, DC, October 18, 2002, http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/po3553.htm.
[20] Daniel Pipes, “CAIR: ‘Moderate’ friends of terror,” New York Post, New York, NY, April 22, 2002, http://www.danielpipes.org/article/394.
[21] “Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Board Member: A Short Biography,” Council on American-Islamic Relations, Washington, DC, http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=Board&person=Nihad.
[22] John Perazzo, “Hamas and Hizzoner,” FrontPageMagazine.com, Center for the Study of Popular Culture, Los Angeles, California, March 5, 2003, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6473.
[23] “Hamas, Islamic Jihad: Palestinian Islamists,” Terrorism: Questions and Answers, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY, Updated: October 2005, http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/hamas.html.
[24] “Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Board Member: A Short Biography,” Council on American-Islamic Relations, Washington, DC, http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=Board&person=Omar.
[25] Art Moore, “Should Muslim Quran be USA’s top authority? Paper stands by story citing ‘mainstream’ leader pushing for Islamic America,” WorldNetDaily.com, Inc., Grants Pass, OR, May 1, 2003, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32341.
[26] “HLF’s Financial Support of CAIR Garners New Scrutiny,” IPT News, The Investigative Project on Terrorism, October 12, 2007, http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/513.
[27] Daniel Pipes, “CAIR Backs Down from Anti-CAIR,” FrontPageMagazine.com, April 21, 2006, http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3511.
[28] Andrew L. Jaffee, “A Bad Week for CAIR,” netwmd.com, LLC, April 25, 2006, http://netwmd.com/blog/2006/04/25/560.
General Legal Reference
“TEXT FROM LAWSUIT RESPONSE - VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF VIRGINIA BEACH,” COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS, INC.: Plaintiff, v. ANDREW WHITEHEAD: Defendant, Law No. CL04-926, http://anti-cair-net.org/Response.html.
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