CAIR's True Colors

By Steven Emerson

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Though it represents itself to be a Muslim civil rights organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) devoted most of its resources earlier this month to mobilizing opposition to Israel's attempt to neutralize Hamas militarily. It organized petition drives and bus caravans from chapters across the country to a protest held January 10th in Washington, D.C.

CAIR has cultivated sympathetic coverage in everything from local newspapers to the New York Times, nurtured alliances with members of Congress, including Democrats Jim McDermott of Washington, Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, all of whom have spoken at CAIR events.

In the past six months the mayors of Houston and Tampa have issued proclamations designating "Council on American Islamic Relations day" in their cities. Not bad for a group labeled as a front group by an FBI agent during sworn testimony in a successful terror-finance prosecution in which CAIR is an un-indicted co-conspirator.

The following report shows the consistent support CAIR officials have shown for Hamas, Hizballah and other radicals and their refusal to condemn terrorist attacks and suicide bombings by those groups.


IN THEIR OWN WORDS: THE COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS (CAIR)

I. In Support of Hamas and Hizballah

CAIR incorporator and current executive director Nihad Awad has publicly expressed his support for Hamas. At a symposium at Barry University in Florida on March 22, 1994, he said: "After I researched the situation inside and outside of Palestine, I am in support of the Hamas movement ."[1] [emphasis added]

Again, on CBS' 60 Minutes in November 1994, when Mike Wallace asked him what he thought "of the military undertakings of Hamas," Awad responded, "Well, I think that's — that's for the people to judge," avoiding the question. He then spoke in support of Hamas and armed resistance:

"the United Nations Charter grants people who are under occupation [the right] to defend themselves against illegal occupation."[2]

Awad has sought to justify these clear statements of support for Hamas in terms of their timing. In Senate testimony, he wrote, "You will never find a CAIR statement supporting Hamas after the commencement of suicide bombings and United States government's designation of them as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) on January 24, 1995."[3] Similarly, Awad commented on the context of his Barry University remarks, "It [Hamas] has not attacked civilians then, and it was not designated by the United States government as a terrorist organization."[4]

However, CAIR officials have gone back on Awad's statements, criticizing the U.S. government for listing Hamas as a FTO. At the 2007 ISNA 44th Annual Conference in Rosemont, Illinois, then CAIR-National Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed defended Hamas and Hezbollah by criticizing those who refuse to separate their roles as terrorist organizations and their roles as parts of democratic governments:

"Hamas and Hezbollah are both on the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. But Hamas and Hezbollah are also part of their democratic governments. They're elected representatives of their own people. So this presents a problem. And the challenges that often the detractors, who have a vested interest in perpetuating a situation of conflict in the Middle East try to use simple language and simple broad brush to lump them into the same category . And I call this 'Islamic exceptionalism.' In other words that while the discourse among people of influence, people of knowledge, are able to distinguish between the subtleties of different things for other groups, that subtlety of differences are not applied towards Muslims."[5] [emphasis added]

In a May 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., Ahmed encouraged cooperation with Hamas, painting the organization as a legitimate and benevolent entity:

"Our posture of diplomacy, our policies have to be significantly altered from where we are today so that we address all issues. If we look at the State Department's list of terrorist organizations, it lists many groups that are part of political processes, like Hamas and Hezbollah. They're part of the political processes in their societies, just like the IRA was part of political process in their society. And part of Al Qaeda's rage come from the un-interest or the lack of progress towards peace in the Middle East."[6]

Mustafa Carroll of the Dallas Fort Worth Chapter of CAIR said the following in support of Hamas in response to the late 2008, early 2009 Gaza crisis:

"I think you can only blame Hamas for so long. It takes two to tango. And I think, you know, that what we've heard for a number of years is this terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, was not just Hamas."[7]

CAIR has also come out in support of Hamas by vocally protesting the killing of Hamas leaders.

On March 22, 2004, Israel assassinated Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin. "CAIR Condemns Israeli Assassination of Religious Leader,"[8] the organization announced in a press release that day. It criticized Israel for killing a "wheelchair-bound Palestinian Muslim religious leader."[9] Similarly, after an Israeli missile killed Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Yassin's replacement as head of Hamas,[10] CAIR issued an April 17, 2004 press release blasting Israel for killing a "political leader."[11]

CAIR's 1997 report, "The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States," characterized the failure of the U.S. government to respond to pressure by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) to investigate and "to seek justice" for the death of Ahmed Hamida, an Arab-American terrorist killed in Jerusalem, as an act of discrimination.[12] In its description of the incident, CAIR depicted Ahmed as an innocent "Palestinian-American Muslim" visitor "gunned down by armed Israelis." [13] CAIR also implied that the shooting was committed in retaliation for a Tel Aviv bus bombing that occurred a day prior to Hamida's killing.[14]

CAIR failed to mention that Hamida was shot by civilians while attempting to flee after deliberately driving his car into a group of Israelis waiting at a Jerusalem bus stop.[15] In the attack, he killed a mother of two and injured 22 other Israelis.[16] The subsequent investigation left no doubt that the car crash was not an accident, but rather a terrorist attack. Eyewitnesses heard Hamida yell "Allahu Akbar!" as he jumped out of his car.[17] Also, he had indicated to friends on the morning before the attack that they would see him on television that night.[18] Hamas later took credit for the attack.[19]

Also of note is the fact that in 1994, IAP posted a CAIR press release that closely mirrored language in Hamas' Covenant. The press release, which discussed the Hussein-Rabin Summit, was quickly modified to remove this text.[20] The covenant says Hamas "believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf [endowment] throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it."[21]

CAIR's original release described the Cairo and Oslo peace agreements as a chance "for all those who met secretly with the Zionists behind the scenes to come out in public and take their masks off."

"We have affirmed repeatedly the danger of such agreements lies in abandoning the basic legitimate Palestinian rights, and it is a way to penetrate economically, politically, and culturally the ME region where Arab states are in their worst conditions. Thus, we affirm the followings:

1. Palestine is an Islamic and Arabic land which no one has the right to trade, sell, or give up

2. The current situation of the Arab states is at a weakness stage that must end sooner or later, and rights can't be lost with signing agreements."

Also notable in talking about CAIR support of Hamas is that Hamas has itself posted CAIR information and activities updates on its official web site (http://www.palestine-info.net), including a June 5, 2001 article in which Nihad Awad called for a demonstration at the U.S. State Department to protest American support for Israel.[22]

II. Refusing to condemn by name, when asked, Hamas or Hizballah

An October 27, 2001 National Journal article reported, "Asked to describe CAIR's view of Hamas, spokesman Ibrahim Hooper declined to comment."[23] A November 18, 2001 Washington Post article quoted Hooper as saying, in response to an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) request to condemn Hamas and Islamic Jihad by name:

"It's not our job to go around denouncing, that when they say jump, we say how high."[24] [emphasis added]

Asked by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in February 2002 to condemn Hamas, Hooper called such questions a "game" and declared, "We're not in the business of condemning."[25]

Asked in a May 27, 2003 deposition, "Do you support Hamas," CAIR co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Omar Ahmad responded, "It depends. Qualify 'support.'"[26] Similarly, he was asked whether he had "ever taken a position with respect to ,,, [Hamas'] 'martyrdom attacks.'" Ahmad responded, "No."[27]

In 2007, CAIR-Chicago's Ahmed Rehab pulled the conversation in another direction when asked if he "condemned organizations which use terrorism as an action." Rehab, instead of addressing the question, turned the question around to blame Israel for killing innocent civilians:

"then you would condemn the IDF and the Israeli army... because they also use..[speaking over other guests] civilians."[28]

Following the example Hooper set years earlier, CAIR national legislative affairs director Corey Saylor refused to directly respond to a challenge to condemn Hamas when pressed to do so during an August 2008 interview with Fox News:

Reporter David Lee Miller:

"Can you sit here now and in just one sentence tell me- CAIR condemns Hamas and CAIR condemns Hezbollah?"

Corey Saylor:

"I'm telling you in a very clear fashion — CAIR condemns terrorist acts, whoever commits them, wherever they commit them, whenever they commit them."

David Lee Miller:

"That's not the same thing as saying you condemn Hamas and you condemn Hezbollah."

Corey Saylor:

"Well I recognize that you don't like my answer to the question, but that's the answer to the question."

David Lee Miller: "It's not no, it's not whether I like it or dislike it. I was asking whether or not you can sit here now and say- CAIR condemns Hamas or Hezbollah. If you don't want to, just say that. If that is a position your group doesn't take, I certainly accept that. I just want to understand what your answer is." [emphasis added]

Corey Saylor:

"The position that my group takes is that we condemn terrorism on a consistent, persistent basis, wherever it happens, whenever it happens." [29]

In an interview following the Gaza Crisis which began at the end of 2008, CAIR spokesman Hooper avoided commenting on whether the Palestinian people would like Hamas to lose power in the region:

Newscaster:

"In your view tending to the aspiration desires of the Palestinian people, does that also include making Hamas irrelevant in the region ?" [emphasis added]

Hooper:

"Well what you want to do is give the Palestinians an idea that their future can be better. That their children can actually eat. Can you imagine right now, in the twenty first century, that we have a situation where there is a blockade keeping children from eating in any part of the world and America is supporting that blockade. It's outrageous, it's illegal, it's immoral and it's against international law. At a minimum we have to end the siege of the Gaza ghetto."[30]

As reported in October 2008 by NBC News Senior Investigative Producer Jim Popkin, Ibrahim Hooper once again refused to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah when asked in an interview. According to the report, Hooper asserted that CAIR has always condemned acts of terrorism, but then "would not answer whether CAIR condemns those designated terrorist groups themselves." The report then quotes Hooper as having ended the conversation saying, "I've already answered your questions."[31]

III. In support of armed resistance and refusing to condemn suicide bombings

CAIR officials often speak out in support of armed resistance in response to occupation and, in doing so, justify and excuse the occurrence of suicide bombings.

Speaking at a 2001 event at the New York Interfaith Center, Ghazi Khankan, who served as executive director of CAIR-NY from at least April 2001[32] through September 2004,[33] said:

"The people of Hamas who direct their attacks on the Israeli military are in the correct position."[34]

When pressed on his definition of a "civilian," Khankan revealed his view that anyone over 18 was a legitimate target:

"Who is a soldier in Israel and who is not? Anyone over eighteen is automatically inducted into the service and they are all reserves. Therefore, Hamas in my opinion looks at them as part of the military. Those who are below 18 should not be attacked."[35]

Also in 2001, Nihad Awad made a strong statement in support of armed resistance against Israel during a press conference and sit-in outside the State Department:

"We are not shy to support the Palestinian resistance against the occupation. It is a legitimate G-d-given right."[36]

Awad continued on during this 2001 press conference to advocate the reduction of violence only if it aids the Palestinian cause or in his words if it "produces a result."

"What we urge, we urge the reduction of violence if it produces a result. But we should not pressure and blame the victims for resisting the occupation. Remember, it is the Israeli forces who come to the Palestinian neighborhoods and Palestinian towns and cities, and they provoke response ,,, The aggression is coming from the Israeli side, not the Palestinians. The Palestinians are only responding to the root cause of the issue, which is the occupation. "[37]

In August of 2006, Nihad Awad excused suicide bombings as legitimate results of occupations and attempts to fight injustice during a C-SPAN Program while quoting Hamas apologist University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape:

"[Robert Pape] found out that [suicide terrorism] has more to do with occupations and fighting injustice than religion. And he pointed out that most of these suicide bombings have been done at the hands of the Tamil Tiger in Sri Lanka than by Muslims. I have not fully read that book, but whatever I have read from it I found very interesting and it really responds to the myth and the known notion now that has been used by several commentators and some politicians .."[38]

At ISNA's 44th Annual Conference in Rosemont, Illinois in 2007, then CAIR National Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed justified "suicide terrorism" as a response to occupation:

"Another problem when talking about this question of suicide terrorism, suicide bombings, especially in the Middle East, especially in the occupied territories, you know people use a circular logic. It was not the suicide terrorism led to occupation; it was occupation led to suicide terrorism."[39]

At a CAIR Dallas Banquet in 2007, Mustafa Carroll of CAIR- Dallas/Fort Worth excused terrorism as a result of oppression:

"..look at the true cause of the terrorism. It's not somebody is reading a book, reading a Qu'ran, and then go out and say, 'Well, the Qu'ran told me to blow this up. I'm gonna blow it up.' The cause, the root cause of terrorism is oppression. The root cause of terrorism is oppression. "[40] [emphasis added]

In January 2004, at a Muslim Students Association of UCLA Islamic Awareness Week event in Los Angeles, CAIR-Southern California Executive Director Hussam Ayloush affirmed the

"legitimate right of the Palestinians to defend themselves against the Israeli occupation."[41]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer summarized the attitude of Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's chief spokesman like this in 2003:

"While the Islamic council says it has denounced suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, spokesman Ibrahim Hooper yesterday would not criticize suicide attacks against Israeli soldiers. Instead, he spoke of Palestinians exercising 'the right to resist military occupation.'"[42]

At the National Press Club in Washington D.C. in May of 2008 then-CAIR chairman Parvez Ahmed downplayed the motivations behind suicide bombings:

"Suicide bombings are the product of modern political violence. Suicide bombings by Muslims are not the result of any Islamic ideology, but rather they are the result of social political conditions of occupations."[43]

This wasn't Ahmed's first attempt at suicide bombing apologetics. At an event at the Islamic Center at NYU in October of 2007 Ahmed said:

"Our going to Iraq caused terrorism the same way terrorism by some Palestinians is not the reason Israel keeps Palestine occupied. But it is the occupation that breeds resentment and enables terrorism to fester."[44]

One of the most significant ways in which CAIR has supported suicide bombings is in its support of Yusuf Qaradawi.

IV. Defending Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Qaradawi is a prominent and vehemently anti-Semitic leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Qatar. The Muslim Brotherhood is an 80-year-old Egyptian religious movement that seeks the global spread of Islam and establishment of a Shariah, or religious law, in nations with Muslim populations. It is the ideological underpinning for

all modern Islamic terrorist groups, including Hamas and Al Qaeda.[45] In his award-winning 1994 documentary Jihad in America, Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson showed Qaradawi at a 1989 conference in Kansas City predicting "On the hour of judgment, Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them." CAIR claimed that Qaradawi actually had "often spoken out against religious extremism."[46]However — as documented below — Qaradawi defends suicide bombings, is hostile to Jews, and has called for attacks on U.S. civilians in Iraq.

In January 1998, the Associated Press quoted Qaradawi as writing, "There should be no dialogue with these people [Israelis] except with swords. "[47][emphasis added] And in April 2001, commenting on suicide bombings, he said, "They are not suicide operations ,,, These are heroic martyrdom operations ."[48][emphasis added]

In September 2004, Qaradawi ruled it a religious duty for Muslims to fight Americans in Iraq, including U.S. civilians.[49]

And yet, at the 2002 Orange County CAIR fundraiser, Hussam Ayloush referred to Qaradawi as a "scholar:"

"Several people were asking about the eligibility claim for CAIR. And according to many scholars including Yusuf Qaradawi, basically this is one of the venues of Zakat for your money as vis a vis basically educating about Islam in America and the West."[50]

On July 26, 2005, in an interview on MSNBC,[51] CAIR's legal director Arsalan Iftikhar said:

"For example, if you look at Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the — one of the most famous Muslim scholars in Cairo, Egypt , he has said unequivocally that people who commit suicide bombings and — and acts of terror are completely outside the bounds of Islam."[emphasis added]

In 2006 Nihad Awad mentioned Qaradawi as a "prominent and known scholar" in condemning the Jill Carroll kidnapping:

"Even the prominent and known scholar who always appears on Al-Jazeera, Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, he conveyed the same message."[52]


V. In denying the legitimacy of Israel

CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad also echoed Hamas' absolute rejection of Israel's legitimacy. In an April 1994 letter to the editor of The Message, an American-Muslim publication, he criticized the magazine for using the term "Israel."

"I hope," he wrote, "that the use of 'Israel' in your news briefs was the result of an oversight and not intentional...Furthermore I hope you will return to the terminology 'Occupied Palestine' to refer to that Holy Land ."[53] [emphasis added]

At a Right of Return rally in front of the White House on September 16, 2000, Awad rejected coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, stating:

"they [the Jews] have been saying 'next year to Jerusalem,' we say 'next year to all Palestine.'"[54]

During CAIR's 13th Annual Banquet in San Jose, California in 2007, Awad denied the legitimacy of Israel by saying that the U.S. is wrong in supporting Israel:

"..our government is blindly, unlimitly and unconsciously supporting the state of Israel, oppressing the Palestinian people. This is wrong, and we have to stand up and we have to tell our government, 'Enough is enough.'"[55]

In March of 2008 Hussam Ayloush, Secretary of CAIR-California, characterized Israel with the aim of delegitimizing it and condemned the United States for "act[ing]" like a terrorist state:

"It's a struggle for an America that respects and humanizes religion. It's an America that if free to act on its values and not on the interests of any foreign lobby. It's an America that rejects all forms of collective punishment on the Palestinians of Gaza and West Bank, an America that genuinely supports justice, peace and democracy in Palestine, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Pakistan, in Lebanon, in Somalia and all over the world, rather than supporting occupation, instability, the interests of defense and war companies and the corrupt allies and puppet regimes that we keep supporting ,,, an America that can defeat terrorists without having to act like one."[56] [emphasis added]

Awad made a similar statement, calling Israel an occupational state, in August of 2008, during an American Muslim Association (AMA) Civil Rights Forum:

"America should take care of its own interests and should not prosecute case on behalf of the state of Israel, because it is an occupational state."[57][emphasis added]

A December 2008 Associated Press article quoted CAIR Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid downplaying the danger of the more than 5000 Hamas rockets fired at Israel in attempting to delegitimize Israel's defensive attacks:

"Today's attack -- which amounts to a massacre -- was definitely a disproportionate response to a few cheap, homemade, makeshift rockets being fired across the border."

CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad echoed this same sentiment as quoted in a CNN article:

"We demand that our government, the U.S. government, take immediate steps to end the immoral and illegal Israeli bombardment of Gaza and its population."[58]