https://islamism.news/2022/11/02/waitin ... ime-story/Waiting on CAIR’s Explanation of San Diego ‘Hate Crime’ Story
Tazheen Nizam, executive director of CAIR San Diego (above left), stated on October 24 that she would speak with Uthman Ibn Farooq about an alleged hate crime that took place in San Diego in March 2022. She also said she would let Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s national communications director (above right), “work through a statement” with the imam. Hooper has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
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It has been more than a week since the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) indicated it was going to issue a public statement regarding an alleged crime that took place in San Diego in March 2022. But the organization, which regularly accuses its critics of “Islamophobia,” has failed to explain its role in publicizing a hate crime that neither the local police nor the prosecutor knows anything about.
The story began in late March when Uthman Ibn Farooq, a well-known Muslim preacher, posted a video claiming that he had been “stabbed” on the streets of San Diego by an “Islamophobe” offended by his successful efforts to spread the message of Islam.
The video garnered a huge amount of attention from Muslim organizations and news outlets throughout the world who used the story to portray the United States as an unsafe place for Muslims to practice their faith. It is a story Islamists have been peddling about Western democracies for decades. The fact is, Muslims living in Muslim-majority environments are more likely to be subjected to violence than they are in Western democracies. That’s why so many have migrated West.
True to its Islamist agenda, CAIR took full advantage of the “stabbing” to promote its hysterical narrative about Muslims at risk in the United States. It published a press release calling on people to report any information they might have about the attack to the San Diego Police. In a Tweet, CAIR described the attack as an example of “Islamophobia.”
But seven months later, officials revealed that Uthman had never filed a complaint about the attack with the San Diego Police Department, indicating the stabbing had never taken place.
In response, Uthman and his supporters declared that Uthman had reported the attack not to the San Diego Police but to another police department located in San Diego County. Uthman further declared that his attacker — whom he would not name — had already been arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for his crime. Then the San Diego County District Attorney reported it had no record of the case, putting what looks to be the final nail in the coffin to the story’s credibility.
Uthman has said that he will provide proof of the attack in a forthcoming documentary, but given the paucity of evidence lending credence to Uthman’s story, it seems increasingly reasonable to conclude that Muslims have been needlessly alarmed by the story, which has damaged the reputation of a major metropolitan city in the United States.
If CAIR were truly the civil rights organization it claims to be, it would have worked to get to the bottom of the story.
It hasn’t.
It’s a bad look for an organization aptly described by Daniel Pipes as having “a history of making claims about ‘hate crimes’ and ‘Islamophobia’ that do not stand up to scrutiny.”
When contacted for a response on Oct. 24, 2022, Tazheen Nizam, executive director of CAIR San Diego, said she would speak with Uthman to see what his “thought process” was and that she would let Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s national communications director, “work through a statement” with the imam. Hooper has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response. CAIR is an Islamist organization that makes full use of the rights of free speech and association in the United States to promote an anti-democratic agenda.
Its founder and executive director, Nihad Awad, recently eulogized Yusef Qaradawi, a man who promoted the downfall of Western democracies, incited violence against homosexuals, and lamented that Hitler didn’t wipe out all the Jews during the Holocaust. These are the statements that leaders of a civil rights organization would condemn, not praise or condone.
By eulogizing Qaradawi and portraying Uthman as a victim of an “Islamophobic” attack — with very little evidence that such an attack took place — CAIR has revealed its agenda.
It is not committed to civil rights and harmonious human relations in America, but is intent on radicalizing and isolating Muslims from their non-Muslim neighbors in the country.
It’s a malign and divisive agenda that Americans of all faith traditions must oppose.
USA: CAIR, de Ikhwan en Co
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Mahalingam
- Berichten: 52288
- Lid geworden op: za feb 24, 2007 8:39 pm
Re: USA: CAIR, de Ikhwan en Co
Wie in de Islam zijn hersens gebruikt, zal zijn hoofd moeten missen.
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Mahalingam
- Berichten: 52288
- Lid geworden op: za feb 24, 2007 8:39 pm
Re: USA: CAIR, de Ikhwan en Co
https://worldisraelnews.com/white-house ... arian-day/White House consulting CAIR on antisemitism is like inviting ‘butchers to National Vegetarian Day’
Leading Jewish Democrats ignored questions about why the Biden administration sought advice from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Soon after the White House unveiled its 60-page, national strategy to counter antisemitism on May 25, the Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed “the Biden administration’s efforts to implement national strategies to confront various forms of bigotry, starting with the threat of antisemitism.” CAIR added that the strategy’s fact sheet noted “CAIR as one of the many contributing organizations.”
“Some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas,” the Anti-Defamation League stated in 2015. “In addition, some of CAIR’s leadership have used inflammatory anti-Zionist rhetoric that on a number of occasions has veered into antisemitic tropes,” and the organization “frequently partners with vehemently anti-Zionist and anti-Israel groups.”
So why did the White House invite such a group—one that Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, recently told the Jerusalem Post she knows to be “problematic”—to participate in a strategy on antisemitism?
JNS sought comment from the White House and from 10 leading Jewish Democrats in Congress. The White House did not respond, nor did six of the lawmakers: Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.); and Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Joseph Bush, deputy communications director for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Hailey Barringer, communications director for Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.), sent JNS previously released statements that did not comment on CAIR’s role in the strategy. Neither responded to specific questions about CAIR. Jacob Wilson, communications director for Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), twice indicated that a response about CAIR was forthcoming, but none arrived by press time.
“It is sad and concerning to see the dramatic rise in antisemitism throughout our country and around the world, so I am both proud and grateful that the Biden White House has put this ‘whole of society’ plan together,” Matt Fried, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), told JNS.
“Standing up to the rising tide of hate is one essential step in putting America back together,” he added. He did not respond to a question about CAIR.
‘A bad actor’
Scholars who study antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred, and activists who focus on those areas, told JNS that CAIR should have been kept far away from a national strategy to counter antisemitism.
Gil Troy, a history professor at McGill University, told JNS that the decision reflected the “illogic” of “inclusivity and faux diversity.”
“Let’s make sure to recruit some male chauvinists for the next women’s rights initiative—and invite some butchers to National Vegetarian Day,” he said.
“Once they are helping in the strategy, perhaps representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations want to offer some tips on fighting dog-whistling and gas-lighting, on making every accusation against anyone else be about you and about how to disprove the ‘I’m only anti-Israel. I’m not antisemitic’ ruse,” Troy added. “After all, according to the ADL and others, they have mastered those tricks of the New Antisemitism.”
Professor Gil Troy at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. Photo by Hanna Taieb.
Jason Bedrick, an education policy research fellow at the Heritage Foundation who focuses on religious liberty, among other topics, told JNS that it is “absurd and outrageous” that the Biden administration consulted “one of the chief purveyors of antisemitism” on its national strategy to combat antisemitism.
“CAIR is still a bad actor that advocates on behalf of vicious Jew-haters and people convicted of supporting terrorism,” he said.
The inclusion of CAIR “at least partially explains why the Biden administration’s plan falls woefully short of anything meaningful, especially as it embraced two conflicting definitions of antisemitism,” he said.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism deems it antisemitic to single out the Jewish state for condemnation in a unique way, while the Nexus definition “is primarily designed to let Jew-haters off the hook, so long as they thinly veil their antisemitism as mere ‘anti-Zionism,’” Bedrick said.
Sam Markstein, national political director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS that the inclusion of CAIR is “further evidence that President Biden blew it by failing to include a single clear definition of antisemitism in his plan.”
Insofar as CAIR “demonizes Israel” and promotes the anti-Israel BDS movement, it falls under the IHRA definition, according to Markstein.
“Jewish Americans deserve better than a White House that embraces an organization like CAIR, while undermining the IHRA definition by promoting alongside it an alternative definition that says applying double standards and singling out the Jewish state for criticism is not antisemitic,” he said.
‘Serious doubts about their suitability’
Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst in homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, told JNS that CAIR’s roots in the 1990s were as a front to support Hamas.
“CAIR has been clear and unapologetic about its willingness to engage in Jew-hatred, even if it occasionally attempts to disguise this as opposition to the state of Israel,” he said. “CAIR’s inclusion would make more sense if the Biden administration was proposing a strategy for promoting antisemitism, instead of a supposed strategy to reduce antisemitism.”
The decision to include CAIR demonstrates that the Biden administration, “is fundamentally unserious about opposing genuine antisemitism and merely going through the motions while making sure not to alienate the radical anti-Israel wing of the left, which remains a vital portion of their political base,” added Shideler.
Dr. Sheila Nazarian, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon of Iranian descent and host of the 2020 Netflix show “Skin Decision: Before and After,” told JNS that she is “deeply concerned” as a pro-Israel Jew that CAIR was included in the strategy.
“While it is essential to combat antisemitism and promote religious tolerance, CAIR’s track record raises serious doubts about their suitability for such a critical role,” said Nazarian, a pro-Israel activist.
“The administration risks legitimizing an organization that has faced accusations of promoting anti-Israel rhetoric and enabling a hostile environment for Jews,” she added. “We need a comprehensive strategy that includes stakeholders committed to genuine peace and coexistence, not those who may contribute to a biased or one-sided approach.”
Wie in de Islam zijn hersens gebruikt, zal zijn hoofd moeten missen.
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Mahalingam
- Berichten: 52288
- Lid geworden op: za feb 24, 2007 8:39 pm
Re: USA: CAIR, de Ikhwan en Co
https://worldisraelnews.com/hamas-seeks ... -hostages/Hamas seeks to exchange CAIR leader in federal prison for US hostagesBarakeh went into more specifics about which Hamas members he meant in another interview.Spoiler! :
“There are Palestinians held in America. We will ask for their release. There are Palestinians who are detained by the United States on charges of supporting the resistance in Palestine. They were detained in America because they were accused of running charity organizations that support the people besieged in the Gaza.”
This almost certainly refers to the Holy Land Foundation case in which key figures in the largest Islamic charity in America were convicted of helping to send millions to Hamas.
Hamas would have a special interest in at least one of the terror convicts. Mufid Abdulqader, the half brother of Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, who is currently serving out his 20 years in prison sentence in a low security federal prison in Seagoville, Texas. Funding terrorists and a history of chanting terrorist threats apparently netted Abdulqader an easy ride at a low security prison.Perhaps the Hamas family member will resume his musical career in which he toured America to sing to Muslim communities cheerful ditties such as, “with Koran and Jihad, we will gain our homes back… the agony of death is precious, killing Jews … Death to Jews, is precious.”.Spoiler! :
But it’s another of the Holy Land Foundation terror funders who is far more explosive.
Ghassan Elashi was a founding board member for CAIR in Texas. CAIR’s D.C. office was funded by money from the Holy Land Foundation and the trial led to CAIR being named “an unindicted co-conspirator” in terror funding. It’s a label that the group is still trying to shake off.
But the FBI stated that “evidence was introduced that demonstrated a relationship among CAIR, individual CAIR founders (including its current President Emeritus and Executive Director) and the Palestine Committee. Evidence was also introduced that demonstrated a relationship between the Palestine Committee and Hamas, which was designated as a terrorist organization in 1995.”
CAIR founder and executive director Nihad Awad responded to the Hamas attacks by posting, “a unique Palestinian day. Never say ‘impossible.’” And Awad reacted to Biden’s speech condemning those atrocities by posting, “there is no moral equivalence between the occupied and the occupier. You must condemn the occupier not the occupied.”
Awad had previously stated, “I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO.”
Ghassan Elashi was sentenced to 65 years in prison. At the age of 69, he’s serving out a sentence that would only see him released in 2068.Will Biden make such a trade? After making similar deals with Russia and Iran, it seems possible. But with Iran, Biden could argue that he wasn’t directly negotiating with terrorists, there is no such argument when it comes to Hamas. We will be negotiating with terrorists.Spoiler! :
Trading for hostages creates a market in them. Biden’s deal with Iran encouraged Hamas to take Americans hostage and try to trade for them. And the more hostages we trade for, the more hostages Islamic terrorists will launch attacks to try to take.
Wie in de Islam zijn hersens gebruikt, zal zijn hoofd moeten missen.
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Mahalingam
- Berichten: 52288
- Lid geworden op: za feb 24, 2007 8:39 pm
Re: USA: CAIR, de Ikhwan en Co
https://jeffjacoby.com/27462/cair-lets- ... slip-againCAIR lets the mask slip — again
"I WAS happy to see people breaking the siege."
Thus spake Nihad Awad, the cofounder and longtime executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in an address to the annual American Muslims for Palestine convention in November. He was explaining why the Oct. 7 Hamas terror assault in Israel filled him with joy.
"The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on Oct. 7," Awad told his audience, employing the antisemitic device of likening Israel to Nazi Germany. "And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in."
The slaughter of more than 1,200 civilians, the frenzied sexual mutilation of women and girls, the burning of homes with families in them, the abduction of hundreds of hostages, the worst massacre of Jews since the end of the Holocaust — in Awad's telling, that was simply the people of Gaza engaging in their "right of self-defense." He made no reference to Hamas. Instead, he emphasized that Israel was not entitled to defend itself. "Yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense."
When an excerpt of Awad's speech was made public on Dec. 7 by the Middle East Media and Research Institute, it drew an appalled rebuke from the Biden administration.
"We condemn these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms," presidential spokesman Andrew Bates told reporters. The Hamas atrocities "shock the conscience," he said, and "every leader has a responsibility to call out antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head." Last spring, the White House included CAIR in a list of organizations supporting its National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. After Awad's comments became known, CAIR's name was scrubbed from the document.
To hear Awad tell it, CAIR is being unfairly maligned. An "anti-Palestinian hate website selected remarks from my speech out of context and spliced them together to create a completely false meaning," he claimed after his comments became known. All he had meant to say was that "average Palestinians who briefly walked out of Gaza and set foot on their ethnically cleansed land in a symbolic act of defiance against the blockade and stopped there without engaging in violence were within their rights under international law."
There are a few problems with Awad's protestation of innocence. For starters, MEMRI, the media database that called attention to the CAIR director's speech, is a highly regarded source of accurate information from across the Arab and Muslim world. Far from being a "hate website" as Awad described it, MEMRI strives to convey the entire scope of Arab/Muslim discourse — good and bad, ugly and admirable. It makes a point of focusing as much on reform in the Muslim world as it does on jihad and Islamism.
If Awad's words had really been taken out of context, the easiest way to prove it would be to let people view online the entire recording of his speech for themselves. Only — it's gone. American Muslims for Palestine, the group that organized the conference at which Awad spoke, has taken down the video of his remarks. Hmm.
CAIR holds itself out as a Muslim human rights organization, and that is how it is routinely described in news stories and headlines. CAIR-sponsored publicity events are given media coverage, and CAIR is invited to participate in — and at times even to host — roundtable events with local government officials. Journalists often turn to CAIR for comment in stories dealing with American Muslims and conventionally describe CAIR as "the nation's biggest Muslim civil rights group." One week before the Oct. 7 attacks, CAIR was invited to attend a White House program on "protecting places of worship."
But CAIR has a long history of sympathy with, and connections to, Hamas.
In 1994, the same year that Awad cofounded CAIR, he candidly told a Florida audience that he was "in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO." According to the Capital Research Center, CAIR opened its office in Washington, D.C., with a grant from the Holy Land Foundation, a charity listed by the Treasury Department in 2001 as a "Specially Designated Terrorist" group. In 2008, five former leaders of the foundation were convicted of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. A year later, the Obama Justice Department severed its ties with CAIR, noting that "the evidence at trial [had] linked CAIR leaders to Hamas . . . and CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case." FBI officials were directed to "significantly restrict" any "non-investigative interactions with CAIR" and to steer clear of including CAIR in community engagement or public relations activities.
Daniel Pipes, the president of the Middle East Forum, noted in 2014 that at least seven former board members or staff at CAIR were "arrested, denied entry to the US, or were indicted on or pled guilty to or were convicted of terrorist charges." In 2014, the United Arab Emirates included CAIR on a list of more than 83 terrorist organizations, along with Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Taliban.
For all that, CAIR insists that it is "principled and consistent" in opposing antisemitism. It regularly issues press releases condemning acts of antisemitic vandalism or violence in the United States. But such statements are best regarded as protective coloration intended to camouflage CAIR's mission of encouraging hostility to Israel and Israel's supporters in the United States.
Again and again, CAIR officials have let the mask slip.
Last February, for example, the head of CAIR's Los Angeles branch, Hussam Ayloush, declared that American police forces are "becoming more brutal, more racist, and more like an occupation army" because they are "being trained by Israel." In December 2021, the head of CAIR's San Francisco chapter exhorted supporters to oppose not only "vehement fascists" but "the polite Zionists, too," labeling as "enemies" the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish federations, "the Zionist synagogues," and Hillel chapters on college campuses. In October, CAIR's Maryland director, Zainab Chaudry, sneered at the outrage over Hamas's killing of "40 fake Israeli babies."
Whatever else CAIR is, it is no true champion of civil rights and interfaith harmony and never has been. In 2021, the Simon Wiesenthal Center put CAIR on its Global Antisemitism Top Ten list, charging it with "unleashing pollution of antisemitism into America's mainstream." Thirty years after CAIR was launched by a cofounder who openly acknowledged being in support of Hamas, it remains a front for Islamist extremism and anti-Zionist bigotry. To treat it as a legitimate "civil rights organization" that speaks for US Muslims is to set back the causes of civil rights and Muslims alike.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe).
Wie in de Islam zijn hersens gebruikt, zal zijn hoofd moeten missen.