Don't think there is a Trojan Horse in America? Think again

December 2, 2006

Marching To The CAIR Agenda: From 'Praying Imams' To Muslims Having Their Own 'Prayer Room' At Airports

Who among the wide-awakes in America didn't see this demand for a 'Muslim prayer room" coming? Are we supposed to believe that this wasn't a deliberate effort to test the boundaries of tolerance and to gain special treatment for Muslims that would never be given to other faiths? Quite the contrary, it's quite clear that these six imams have an agenda beyond acceptance of their religion by Americans. And that agenda is identical to CAIR's - the Islamization of America

The moment the six imams were removed from the US Airways flight and detained for doing a hell of a lot more than praying in the airport, we all knew that CAIR (an Islamic terrorist/jihadist-supporting organization) would be using the made-for-media event for propaganda to fulfill their agenda - the Islamization of America:

... like busy little beavers, but very deadly - the Islamists are on task and on the march, whether we choose to recognize it or not. Their war against us is in full swing, even while we sit back and yawn as though it isn't real. The problem is that it is very real, and is not going to stop unless we choose to stop it - in time. Even within our own borders, they use our freedoms and legal systems against us, and when they've finished their deadly mission, sharia will be in place, and the U.S. Constitution will be gone. The threat is as much against Muslims that support a secular government that separates religion from politics, as it is against non-Muslims that refuse to submit to Islam.

That the entire "praying imams" event fits squarely in the Islamist agenda to use our freedoms and legal systems against us and was planned, is evidenced by the almost immediate request by Muslim Congressman-elect Keith Ellison to meet with executives of US Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission. The "playing out of an agenda" has been so obvious that it was actually hypothesized in an Investors Businesss Daily editorial, then proven. Powerline wrote of IBD's hypothesis:

... Within 48 hours Ellison has taken the first steps to prove the shrewdness of the editorial's hypothesis that the underlying incident was fabricated for the benefit of an agenda to be advanced by Ellison. I'm afraid that it's time to scream bloody murder before the flying imams and their friends in high places turn the incident into the means by which citizens are disabled from taking reasonable action to defend themselves from apparent danger.

And as obvious as it is that we should be concerned that incidents are used to facilitate conditions in which "citizens are disabled from taking reasonable action to defend themselves from apparent danger," it is also very obvious that we should be alert to an agenda to gain special treatment for Muslims that would never be given to other faiths. Using our "busy beaver" analogy, no radical Islamic group in the U.S. stands out more than CAIR, which has been intimately involved in using the entire "praying imam" event to further their radical Islamic agenda. CAIR is a supporter and an apologist for radical Islam, and a proponent of the Islamization of America, along with the establishment of sharia, Islamic law, in America.

Let's not be fooled - CAIR is not what it pretends to be:

It is not a group fighting for equal rights for Muslim-Americans. It is not a group trying to protect the interests of Muslims in America. It is not a group promoting human rights for anyone.

It is a group whose real mission is changing the very character of America - remaking it in the image of the Islamo-fascists who fund them from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

You will never hear a nice word about America from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It's a hate group. It spends all or most of its time and resources denigrating America, condemning it as a pariah state that exploits and oppresses Muslims.

According to CAIR, America is a terrible place for Muslims. At the same time, CAIR boasts Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America. It makes you wonder: If conditions for Muslims are so bad in America, why is Islam so popular? Why are Muslims flocking from all parts of the world to the United States - this hideous concentration camp for Muslims?

I'll tell you why. Many Muslims have come here and continue to come here to escape the Islamo-fascism of places like Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia - places about which CAIR never has a bad word to say.

CAIR was late to the party in condemning Osama bin Laden for the Sept. 11 terror attacks. It finally got around to it three months after the fact. Don't expect to hear any CAIR officials condemn suicide bombings by the terrorists in Hamas. The founder of this organization is on record in support of the goals and tactics of Hamas.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper indicated in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he wants the United States to become a Muslim country.

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper told the Star Tribune. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

Founded in 1994, CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association of Palestine, identified as a "front group" for the terrorist group Hamas, according to Steve Pomerantz, former chief of the FBI's counterterrorism section.

Another ex-FBI counterterrorism chief, Oliver "Buck" Revell, has called the Islamic Association For Palestine - Hooper's former employer - "a front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants."

CAIR advisory board member Siraj Wahhaj was named by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White on Feb. 2, 1995, as one of the "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators in the attempt to blow up New York City monuments," including the World Trade Center in 1993.

How seriously can we take the charges of a group that called the conviction of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers "a travesty of justice"? How seriously can we take a group that called the conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, who conspired to blow up New York City landmarks, a "hate crime"? How seriously should we take a group about which Steven Pomerantz, former FBI chief of counter-terrorism, says: "CAIR, its leaders and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups"?

According to Khalid Duran (who is a Muslim), in an article entitled, "How CAIR Put My Life in Peril," published in the Middle East Forum:

CAIR is the principle front organization of a coalition of Islamist (or fundamentalist Muslim) groups that have taken root in America over the past two decades. Most are spin-offs of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), such as the American Muslims for Jerusalem, the Holy Land Foundation, and the Islamic Institute. These are extreme groups, and some have even come under federal investigation for alleged support of Middle Eastern terrorism. But CAIR's mission has differed from the others: its special assignment is the insinuation of the Islamist agenda into mainstream American politics. Like the many front organizations established by the Soviet Union in its heyday, CAIR works to give a "white bread" image to advocates of illiberal and even radical ideas.

CAIR is run by a duo. The executive director, Nihad Awad, is a Palestinian; his associate, Ibrahim ("Dougie") Hooper, is an American convert. Awad actively propagates the cause in Arabic, while Hooper handles most of the English-language work. To create the perception that CAIR speaks for Islam in America, the two indefatigably issue position statements on anything remotely touching on Muslim or Arab affairs, reacting on everything from U.S. foreign policy to letters in college newspapers. ( More here ...

Keep in mind that the comments that CAIR's "special assignment is the insinuation of the Islamist agenda into mainstream American politics" and that ""it works to give a "white bread" image to advocates of illiberal and even radical ideas" - is coming from a Muslim."" And exactly as described by Khalid Duran, CAIR reacted to the "praying imams" event and is using it to insuate the Islamist agenda into mainstream American politics - in this case a newly-elected Muslim Congressman. And as Daniel Pipes has warned of in the past, CAIR and the "praying imams" are attempting to gain special treatment for Muslims that would never be given to other faiths - a "Muslim prayer room." It's just another case of CAIR and Muslims such as Congressman-elect Keith Ellison following an agenda that, as described by Ibrahim Abdul Mu'min, a Muslim - as "victimization" of Muslims instead of helping Muslims to become part of the "American Fabric":

CAIR should be helping Muslims to become part of the "American Fabric", to co-operate, and integrate into our society. Instead, CAIR pushes them into a kind of emotional helplessness, trying to force upon them the unpleasant gratification of feeling themselves victims...victimized, but at the same time with a sort of lurking, sardonic consciousness that the "victim" is stronger than the "victimizer" In the end the victims pull down their victimizer like a pack of hyenas on an unwary lion.

The victimization, however, is false...it doesn't exist. The Muslims are the victims in this case, but the real victimizer is CAIR itself...they know it. Cursed are the falsely meek...don't let them inherit the earth. Expose their Wahabi Saudi backed agenda.

MUSLIMS ARE NOT IN DANGER FROM AMERICA OR IN AMERICA!
AMERICA AND MUSLIMS ARE IN DANGER FROM CAIR! (emphasis is in Ibrahim Abdul Mu'min's comments)

Our own politcal correctness, freedoms, and legal systems are being used and manipulated by a minority of Muslims that are pretending to speak in the interest of all Muslims, presenting Muslims as victims, with a mission to change the very character and fabric of America - making it in the image of the Islamofascists. Their mission can only be accomplished if we let it happen. If we fail to stop CAIR and their Muslim accomplices at every single step they make toward inching their way to their ultimate goal, the Islamization of America, we will have no one but ourselves to blame.

As I wrote in a previous post in which I quoted Daniel Pipes:

"While Muslim demands to change our history and accomodate their religious sensitivities may seem relatively minor in and of themselves, implying no drastic alterations in existing American arrangements but rather only slight adjustments in our already expansive accommodation of social "diversity," cumulatively, however, by whittling away at the existing order, they would change the country's whole way of life--making Islam a major public presence, ensuring that both the workplace and the educational system accommodate its dictates and strictures, adapting family customs to its code of conduct, winning it a privileged position in American life, and finally imposing its system of law.

Muslims deserve the same, and no greater, rights and freedoms that the all non-Muslims enjoy, but no more. We cannot allow Muslims such as Congressman-elect Keith Ellison and Muslim groups such as CAIR, to change our way of life or to award Islam a privileged position in American life.

By David Frum

Two weeks ago, the National Post and I were served with a notice of libel by the Canadian branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The Post and I are not alone. Over the past year, CAIR's Canadian and U.S. branches have served similar libel notices on half a dozen other individuals and organizations in the United States and Canada. Each case has its own particular facts, yet they are linked by a common theme: That we defendants have accused CAIR (in the words of the notice served on me) of being "an unscrupulous, Islamist, extremist sympathetic group in Canada supporting terrorism."

Lawyers for individuals and newspapers served with libel notices will normally urge their clients to avoid any comment on the matter--to avoid even any acknowledgement that they have been served. This is usually good advice. A notice of libel is not a lawsuit, but a warning of a lawsuit to come. If the potential defendant keeps quiet, the potential plaintiff will often drop the suit altogether.

But wise legal advice often comes at a cost, a cost in public information. So I was heartened that the National Post's lawyers have encouraged the paper and me to continue with this important story.

CAIR is understandably protective of its reputation. Until recently, it has had considerable success winning acceptance in the United States and Canada as something close to an official spokesman for local Muslim communities. CAIR has been influential in advocating for a sharia court to arbitrate divorces and other family-law matters in the province of Ontario. CAIR's strong criticisms of Canada's anti-terror legislation have won respectful hearing in Ottawa. Any reporting or commentary that cast doubt on CAIR's carefully cultivated image would deeply threaten the group's mission.

What is that mission? The public record offers some clues:

CAIR was founded in 1994 by alumni of an older group, the Islamic Association for Palestine. The IAP, founded by senior Hamas figure Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state under Islamic law in Israel's place. (In 1996, CAIR would condemn the U.S. government's decision to deport Marzook as an "anti-Islamic" act.)

CAIR's first executive director, Nihad Awad, publicly declared himself a supporter of Hamas at a 1994 forum at Barry University in Florida.

One of CAIR's original advisory board members, Siraj Wahhaj, served as a character witness for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman is the blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks. CAIR described Rahman's conviction as a hate crime.

CAIR's founding chairman, Omar Ahmed, also an IAP alumnus, is said to have declared at a public event in California 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." Ahmed has since disputed the accuracy of the quote--five years after it was reported by a California newspaper.

After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, CAIR's Web site featured a link titled, "Donate to the NY/DC Disaster Relief Fund." The link connected to the Web site of the Holy Land Foundation, a charity closed down by the United States three months later as a Hamas front.

Over the past 10 years, CAIR has grown rapidly. It now claims a total of 29 affiliates, including CAIR Canada. CAIR's media savvy won it much official attention after 9/11. With that attention, however, also came a higher degree of scrutiny.

Since 9/11, three CAIR associates in the U.S. have been indicted on terrorism-related charges.

In September, 2003, CAIR community relations director Bassem K. Khafagi, pleaded guilty on immigration and bank-fraud charges, in Detroit. Khafagi interestingly co-owned a print shop with another man who has since been charged with illegally sending goods into Iraq.

Randall Todd Royer, a communications specialist at CAIR's Washington headquarters, pleaded guilty in January, 2004, to belonging to the Kashmiri Lashkar-i-Taibi terrorist group and illegally acquiring firearms and explosives in order to train for terrorist missions against India. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

A founding member of CAIR's Texas chapter, Ghassen Elashi, was convicted of conspiracy and money-laundering charges in connection with the shipment of high-technology items to Syria and Libya in July, 2004.

This record has drawn increasing notice in the United States. CAIR officials were invited to join President Bush at his September, 2001, visit to Washington's mosque, but were omitted from the invitation list to the 2003 and 2004 White House Iftar dinners (an Iftar meal is the fast-breaking at the end of a day in Ramadan). New York Senator Chuck Schumer has charged that CAIR members have "intimate links to Hamas." Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, a political leader noted for his sensitivity to Islamic concerns, has said that CAIR is "unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its association with groups that are suspect."

CAIR Canada describes its relationship with CAIR as "close but distinct." It is not clear what this means. On its Web site and in its publications, CAIR lists CAIR Canada as one of its local affiliates, giving it the same status as a state or regional CAIR chapter. CAIR Canada has its own board; so do many of CAIR's local chapters. It should of course be stated that no criminal charges have ever been filed against CAIR Canada or any of its officers.

These are the facts behind the commentary that the National Post and I have published. They are facts that the Canadian public and Canadian officials are entitled to know. The National Post and I are confident that Canada's courts will agree that no proper interest would be served by suppressing them.