CAIR's Dark History

Prior to lobbying for the firing of Juan Williams by NPR, CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations), which poses as a civil rights organization, had a long history of involvment in and support for terrorism. It is safe to say that Juan Williams knows a lot more about civil rights than the operatives at CAIR ever will. CAIR is, in fact, a foreign-funded front organization. The known facts may shock you:

Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York) describes CAIR as an organization "which we know has ties to terrorism." Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) observes that CAIR is "unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect." Other members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, have alleged ties between the CAIR founders and Hamas.

Steven Pomerantz, the FBI's former chief of counterterrorism, notes that "CAIR, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups." The family of John P. O'Neill, Sr., the former FBI counterterrorism chief who perished at the World Trade Center, named CAIR in a lawsuit as having "been part of the criminal conspiracy of radical Islamic terrorism" responsible for the September 11 atrocities. Counterterrorism expert Steven Emerson calls CAIR "a radical fundamentalist front group for Hamas."

CAIR has consistently defended Islamic terrorists:

CAIR called the conviction of the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing "a travesty of justice." CAIR labeled the conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh who planned to blow up New York City landmarks, a "hate crime."

The founders of CAIR, Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad, had earlier been officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), described by a former FBI analyst and Treasury Department intelligence official as "intimately tied to the most senior Hamas leadership." Both Ahmad and Awad participated in a meeting held in Philadelphia on October 3, 1993, that involved senior leaders of Hamas, the Holy Land Foundation, and the IAP. Based on electronic surveillance of the meeting, the FBI reported that “the participants went to great length and spent much effort hiding their association with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)." Participants at the meeting discussed forming a "political organization and public relations” body, “whose Islamic hue is not very conspicuous."

On Feb. 2, 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named Siraj Wahhaj as one of the "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the attempt to blow up New York City monuments. Yet CAIR deems him "one of the most respected Muslim leaders in America" and includes him on its advisory board.

CAIR's neo-Nazi side came out most clearly in its early years. In 1996 Yusuf Islam (the Muslim convert formerly known as the singer Cat Stevens) gave a keynote speech at a CAIR event, and wrote a pamphlet published by the Islamic Association of Palestine, CAIR's stepparent, which included these sentences:

"The Jews seem neither to respect God nor his Creation. Their own holy books contain the curse of God brought upon them by their prophets on account of their disobedience to Him and mischief in the earth. We have seen the disrespect for religion displayed by those who consider themselves to be "God's Chosen People."

In a July 1994 meeting CAIR was identified as one of the four U.S. organizations comprising the working organizations of the Palestine Committee of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization and supporter of Hamas. At a 1994 meeting at Barry University, Awad said that he was "in support of the Hamas movement". Hamas launched its first wave of suicide bombings in later that year. Hamas was officially designated a terrorist organization in January 1995.

In 1998, CAIR co-hosted an event at which an Egyptian Islamist leader, Wagdi Ghunaym, declared Jews to be the "descendants of the apes."

Omar Ahmad, CAIR’s chairman, announced in July 1998 that “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran...should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”

In October 1998, when CAIR demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as "the sworn enemy," finding this depiction "offensive to Muslims." The same year, CAIR denied bin Laden's responsibility for the twin East African embassy bombings that killed 224 people and wounded 5,000 others.

In the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks which killed over 3,000 people, Journalist Jake Tapper criticized CAIR for refusing to condemn specifically Osama bin Laden, and Islamic extremism.

In December 2001, federal agents shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, an Islamic "charity," for raising millions of dollars for Hamas. In the aftermath of September 11, CAIR featured the Holy Land Foundation on its Web site. The Holy Land Foundation was founded by Hamas deputy Marzook (who is now believed to be in Syria). Ghassan Elashi was once its chairman.

CAIR continued to expose its Fascist political orientation by its repeated activities with William W. Baker, exposed as a neo-Nazi in March 2002. Even after that date, CAIR invited Baker to speak at several events, for example in Florida on August 12, 2003 and New Jersey on October 18, 2003. CAIR liked Baker's work so much, it used the title of his book, "More in Common Than You Think", in one of its ad campaigns in March 2004, and as the title of an Elderhostel lecture.

In 2002, CAIR launched an effort to "put quality materials about Islam in all 17,000 public libraries in the United States." The initiative was funded with an initial $500,000 contribution from Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, whose donation to the Twin Towers Fund was refused by then-Mayor Rudy Guliani because it came with a letter attributing US support for Israel for the 9/11 attacks.

In 2003, CAIR's communications director and civil-rights coordinator Randall "Ismael" Royer was arrested for his role in the Northern Virginia jihad terrorist network. After four of the eleven defendants pleaded guilty, the remaining seven, including Royer, were accused in a new, 32-count indictment of yet more serious charges: conspiring to help Al-Qaeda and the Taliban battle American troops in Afghanistan. Royer admitted in his grand jury testimony that he had already waged jihad in Bosnia under a commander acting on orders from Osama bin Laden.

In July 2003, Rabih Haddad was deported to Lebanon after being arrested and held by federal agents during a raid on the Global Relief Foundation, which billed itself as a charitable organization. According to the Treasury Department the organization "has connections to, has provided support for, and has provided assistance to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda network, and other known terrorist groups." A co-founder of the Global Relief Foundation, Haddad was also a fund-raiser for the Ann Arbor CAIR chapter.

In September 2003, Bassem Khafagi pled guilty to charges of making false statements on his visa application and bank fraud. He had been charged with funneling money to promote terrorist activities through the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), of which he was a founding member. The Washington Post reported in October that federal prosecutors described IANA's objective as the "dissemination of radical Islamic ideology, the purpose of which was indoctrination, recruitment of members and the instigation of acts of violence and terrorism." In January, the Syracuse Post-Standard revealed that Khafagi also had business ties to Rafil Dhafir, who has been accused of illegally sending money to Iraq. Dhafir is also a former vice president of IANA. Khafagi was sentenced to 10 months in prison and deported to Egypt. At the time of his arrest, Khafagi was a community affairs director of CAIR.

According to CAIR's Form 990 filings for 2003, its California offices invested $325,000 with the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). The NAIT was established in 1971 by the Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada, which bills itself as the precursor to the Islamic Society of North America, now the largest member of the Wahhabi lobby. According to Newsweek, authorities say that over the years "NAIT money has helped the Saudi Arabian sect of Wahhabism—or Salafism, as the broader, pan-Islamic movement is called—to seize control of hundreds of mosques in U.S. Muslim communities."

CAIR affiliates regularly speak at events sponsored by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an umbrella organization of the Wahhabi lobby. Nabil Sadoun, a director of CAIR-DC, spoke at the ISNA's regional conference in 2003. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR's Southern California chapter, and Fouad Khatib, the CAIR-California chairman, spoke at an ISNA-sponsored event. Safaa Zarzour, president of CAIR-Chicago, was also an ISNA speaker, as was Azhar Azeez, a board member of CAIR-Dallas, who has spoken at several ISNA conferences.

In 2003, Ibrahim Hooper made the point that if Muslims ever become a majority in the United States, it would be safe to assume that they would want to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law, as most Muslims believe that God's law is superior to man-made law.

Other CAIR personnel also express their contempt for the United States. Ihsan Bagby of CAIR's Washington office has said that Muslims "can never be full citizens of this country," referring to the United States, "because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country."

In July 2004, five Palestinian brothers were convicted in federal court of conspiring to use their Texas-based computer company to make illegal shipments of high-tech goods to Libya and Syria, two nations the U.S. State Department classifies as sponsors of terrorism. One of the brothers, Ghassan Elashi, the company's vice president of international marketing, was convicted of three counts of conspiracy, one count of money laundering and two counts of making false statements about the shipments. Mr. Elashi, along with two of his brothers, also faced a separate federal trial on charges relating to business dealings with Mousa Abu Marzook, the deputy political leader of terrorist organization Hamas. Mr. Elashi is also the founding board member of a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter in Texas.

Former FBI counterterrorism chief Oliver “Buck” Revell has described the IAP as “a front organization for Hamas.” This linkage between the IAP and Hamas was decisively established in 2004, when a federal judge in Chicago found it partially liable for $156 million in damages for its role in aiding and abetting Hamas in the murder of David Boim, a 17-year-old American citizen.

In May 2007, the U.S. filed a court action against the Holy Land Foundation (the largest Muslim charity in the United States at the time) for providing funds to Hamas, and Federal prosecutors filed pleadings. Along with 300 other organizations, they listed CAIR (and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad), Islamic Society of North America (largest Musim umbrella organization in the United States), Muslim American Society, and North American Islamic Trust as unindicted co-conspirators.

In March 2008, former CAIR-Michigan director Muthanna al-Hanooti, was indicted for spying for Saddam Hussein and lying to the FBI. Hanooti was accused of working for Iraqi intelligence, while coordinating trips to Iraq for congressional delegations as CAIR director. The following year, Republican Senators Jon Kyl of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and New York Democrat Charles Schumer called for a government-wide ban on the terror-linked CAIR.

Current Support For Terrorism

- In October 2008, an FBI raid stopped the armed robbery of a warehouse in Detroit by a domestic terrorist group. During the raid, terrorist leader Luqman Ameen Abdullah opened fire on FBI agents and killed an FBI dog. FBI agents returned fire killing Abdullah before he could harm anyone else. CAIR subsequently filed lawsuits against numerous law enforcement agencies across Michigan in an attempt to discover sources and methods.

That Addullah was a terrorist is indisputable. He had told his followers that "America must fall... We should be figuring out how to fight the Kuffar" (unbelievers). "We got to take out the U.S. government. The U.S. government is nothing but Kuffars." With respect to the FBI, Abdullah declared: "Deal with them, deal with them the way, the way they supposed to be dealt with.... It's not that complicated, man....If they are coming to get me I'll just strap a bomb on and blow up everybody." A law enforcement official wrote in an affidavit that "Abdullah and his followers have trained regularly in the use of firearms, and continue to train in martial arts and sword fighting" - in accord with Abdullah's dictum that every Muslim believer should "have a weapon and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed."
Abdullah claimed that the Qur'an "justified stealing, robbing and other illegal acts, as long as they profit Islam."

The FBI has described Abdullah as a leader of a radical Sunni group that wants to create an Islamic state within the U.S. Authorities say Abdullah preached hate for the government and encouraged his followers to commit violence, especially against police and federal agents. Abdullah told an FBI informant that if the government messed with him, "it will be straight up war," according to a court document.

Dawud Walid, the director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed the lawsuits, seeks to learn the identity of confidential informants. It is likely that they would be killed if their identities were revealed.

The Justice Department's civil rights division is currently investigating Abdullah's death.

The case in Detroit is not the first time that CAIR acted on behalf of domestic terrorists. CAIR has called the extradition order of Hamas terrorist Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook "anti-Islamic", calling the closing of the Holy Land Foundation for collecting money used to support Hamas "unjust" and "disturbing", praising and defending convicted murderer H. Rap Brown as well as convicted attempted murderer Adnan Chaudhry.

- A weblog created by Affad Shaikh, the Civil Rights Manager of CAIR-Los Angeles, presently contains a link to the official website of Anwar al-Awlaki, the imam that issued a death fatwa against Seattle newspaper cartoonist Molly Norris.

Shaikh’s weblog, Muslamics, contains the link to al-Awlaki’s site, under the section titled “‘Muslamic’ Blogs We Read.” The link is found on every one of the pages of Muslamics, including the homepage. In September 2006, on another blog he created, Shaikh admitted that, following the 9/11 attacks, he became a fan of al-Awlaki.

Shortly after the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner, which officials believe al-Awlaki had a hand in planning, the White House took the unprecedented step of authorizing the CIA to kill or capture him.
Al-Awlaki has recently called on American Muslims to commit violence against their fellow Americans; he is the extremist Muslim cleric who corresponded with Maj. Nidal Hasan prior to the Fort Hood shootings.

Civil Rights Organization?

Neuroscientist and best selling author Sam Harris has criticized CAIR's legitimacy, saying CAIR is "an Islamist public relations firm posing as a civil-rights lobby".

CAIR has long engaged in other activities inconsistent with those of a civil rights organization:

Financial Intimidation:
in March 2005, when CAIR campaigned to have National Review remove two books: Serge Trifkovic's "The Sword of the Prophet" and J.L. Menezes' "The Life and Religion of Mohammed" (as well as the positive reviews of those books), from its online bookstore. CAIR claimed the books defame Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. When it did not get immediate satisfaction from National Review, it instructed its operatives to pressure the Boeing Corporation to withdraw its advertisements from the magazine.

Other CAIR targets of intimidation have included the Simon Wiesenthal Center (for juxtaposing a picture of the Ayatollah Khomeini beside Adolf Hitler), and the Reader's Digest for an article, "The Global War on Christians," which CAIR found "smears Islam" by citing well-documented cases of Christian persecution.

Media Intimidation:
After Daniel Pipes published an article in July 1999 explaining the difference between moderate and radical Islam, CAIR launched fifteen separate attacks on him in the space of two months, attacks widely reprinted in Muslim publications. Dozens of letters followed to the newspapers that carried Pipes' articles, some calling him harsh names ("bigot and racist"), others comparing him to the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis

In December 2003, CAIR ruined the career of an army officer and nurse, Captain Edwina McCall, who had treated American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan but ended up resigning under a cloud of suspicion. Her crime? Using her military e-mail address on an Internet discussion board concerning the Islamist agenda. CAIR sent the comments to the secretary of defense, calling attention to her allegedly "bigoted anti-Muslim comments" and demanding that her "extremist and Islamophobic views" be investigated and then followed by "appropriate action." The Army immediately cast the officer under suspicion, leading her to resign from a career she had loved.

Intimidating Moderate Muslims:
In at least two cases (Hisham Kabbani and Khalid Durán), CAIR has defamed moderate Muslims who reject its extremist agenda, leading to death threats against them. Some Muslims criticize CAIR for being overly conservative from a religious standpoint, for example by taking the disputed position that all Moslem women are required to veil their hair.

Embracing Murderers:
CAIR responded to the arrest and conviction of Jamil Al-Amin (the former H. Rap Brown) by praising him, raising funds for him and then denying his guilt after his conviction for the murder of an Atlanta policeman. Likewise with Ahmad Adnan Chaudhry of San Bernardino, Calif.: Disregarding his conviction for attempting murder, CAIR declared him "innocent" and set up a defense fund for him.

Promoting anti-Semitism:
The head of CAIR's Los Angeles office, Hussam Ayloush, routinely uses the term "zionazi" when referring to Israelis. CAIR co-hosted an event in May 1998 at which an Egyptian militant Islamic leader, Wagdi Ghunaym, called Jews the "descendants of the apes."
The Anti-Defamation League and Emerson have also accused CAIR of having a long record of propagating antisemitic propaganda.

Religious Intolerance:
As reported by the San Ramon Valley Herald, CAIR Chairman Omar M. Ahmad told a crowd of California Muslims in July 1998, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."

Impeding Counterterrorism:
A class-action lawsuit brought by the estate of John P. O'Neill, Sr. charges CAIR and its Canadian branch of being, since their inception, "part of the criminal conspiracy of radical Islamic terrorism" with a unique role in the terrorist network:

"both organizations have actively sought to hamper governmental anti-terrorism efforts by direct propaganda activities aimed at police, first-responders, and intelligence agencies through so-called sensitivity training. Their goal is to create as much self-doubt, hesitation, fear of name-calling, and litigation within police departments and intelligence agencies as possible so as to render such authorities ineffective in pursuing international and domestic terrorist entities."

Under the guise of participating in counterterrorism, CAIR does its best to sabotage counterterror efforts.

CAIR's annual budget of around $3 million (as of 2007) comes in large part through large donations from people and foundations identified with Arab governments. Their public spokesmen attempt to appear reasonable and thoughtful, while the organization continues to pursue its Wahabist, chauvanist agenda.

It is time that National Public Radio and other media outlets halted their misleading practice of referring to CAIR as a civil rights organization. CAIR is a foreign funded organization whose leaders have been engaged in criminal activites, including espionage, throughout its history. Unlike a legitimate civil rights organization, CAIR promotes religious intolerance and employs intimidation tactics. CAIR has engaged in fund raising for terrorist organizations around the world, has praised acts of terrorism within the United States, and has come to the defense of domestic terrorists using legal maneuvers and espionage activities.

There are a number of web sites dedicated to monitoring CAIR's activities; I encourage you to visit these sites to learn more:

CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment
http://www.danielpipes.org/3437/cair-islamists-fooling-the-establishment

Former CAIR Michigan Director Indicted for Spying for Saddam
http://cairhateandterror.blogspot.com/2008/03/former-cair-michigan-director-indicted.html

CAIR Watch
http://www.americansagainsthate.org/cw/

Jihad Watch
http://www.jihadwatch.org/

Anti-CAIR
http://www.anti-cair-net.org/
"Let there be no doubt that the Council on American-Islamic Relations
is a terrorist supporting front organization that is partially funded
by terrorists, founded by terrorists, and that CAIR wishes nothing
more than the implementation of Sharia Law in America"


Note: sources and text for this posting include the Associated Press, DanielPipes.org, and Wikipedia.