In Defense Of The
Constitution
News & Analysis
April 14, 2009
CAIR:
Defending Muslim Student “Rights”?
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is
claiming that local colleges are not protecting the rights of
predominantly Somali
Muslim college students. CAIR claims that it has received
“an increasing number of reports” by Muslim students that they are
being “interrogated” by FBI
agents on campuses. The students are being questioned as part of
an
on-going
investigation into the whereabouts of several male Somali students whom
have gone missing and are suspected of leaving the US to fight in
Somalia’s long-running civil war.
CAIR-Minnesota (CAIR-MN) Civil
Rights Director Taneeza
Islam states:
“Students' legal rights
need to be upheld and
they aren't currently
being afforded the only true
legal protection they have when talking to the law
enforcement - an attorney."
Islam’s
concern is "confirmed" by this example of the FBI’s "brutal"
interrogation
methods involving a Muslim student. From an article titled “Pressure
By FBI Puts Somalis In
Bind”:
“In December, one of
her friends
who works for the University of Minnesota police
approached her, saying
the FBI would like to talk about her
organization. The agent, she said, was polite and made it clear she
could refuse to talk. "He wanted to know how we got funded and what
activities we do," she said of
the 20-minute interview. He also wanted
to know "how some of the missing boys were involved in the
organization," she said, adding she never felt pressured.”
So,
the FBI agent explained "she didn’t have to talk" and the student
stated
the agent was polite?
Where is the coercion? What “rights” did
the
FBI agent not explain?
Considering CAIR’s reputation when it
comes to providing legal advice; buyer beware. In
addition to the
numerous proven
allegations that CAIR is directly tied to Islamic terrorism
and individual Islamic terrorists, CAIR has also been accused
of
providing shoddy legal advice to the very North American Muslim
population it claims to represent and protect. (What does it say about
CAIR when they apparently set off to deliberately commit fraud against
American Muslims?)
So
why would it "appear" that Somali Muslim students are turning to CAIR
for
legal advice?
*The simple answer is --- they aren't. Nowhere does CAIR even
make
the claim that CAIR supplied any legal
advice to any of the students in question. Would it be outside the
realm of possibility that CAIR completely fabricated the claim that
“an increasing number” of students filed complaints with them?
We also learn that apparently none of the
students interviewed for the article
had anything bad to say about the FBI. None
of the students stated that they were abused, denied rights, or forced
to answer any questions. None were taken into custody.
For instance, the opening line from the article:
“When the FBI
approached the young women at the University of Minnesota,
they said they didn't mind talking.”
Does this sound
like abuse, or a
case where Muslim Somali students are responding to legitimate FBI
concerns?
Also:
“But
the women, both
second-year students who don't want their names used because they fear
for their safety,
said the investigation into whether missing Somali
men from Minnesota
have been recruited by terrorists to fight
in their homeland has left
many students caught between wanting to help investigators find the
truth and facing
scorn from some in their community.”
From the statements of the Muslim women, it
sounds as if they have more to fear from their own Muslim community
than they do from the FBI. Why doesn’t CAIR step up and demand
that
local law enforcement provide protection to those who want to cooperate
in the investigation? It seems as though CAIR selectively focuses
“outrage”
against not only the college and the FBI, but sadly against Muslim
students who see
nothing wrong with providing information that may help locate fellow
missing students.
Just what is CAIR’s game?
CAIR recently
announced that it is considering
severing
ties with the FBI because the FBI,
rightly, cut off contact with the terrorist supporting “civil
rights”
group.
The
truth of CAIR’s disdain for the FBI is summed up by Islam:
“Islam added the FBI’s
decision to discontinue its outreach efforts
through CAIR “is a huge loss for them”
Can anyone
recall
when CAIR ever provided genuine, actionable information to the FBI
or any other law enforcement agency
that resulted in the prevention of a radical Islamic action?
It
took the FBI over ten years to end its association with CAIR; an
association that contributed absolutely nothing to the FBI’s
understanding of peaceful Islam and CAIR calls it a “huge loss for
them”. This would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic.
We
can take heart that it appears that none of the students approached
CAIR for assistance or took any of CAIR’s “legal” advice.
Apparently,
the Somali Muslim students simply aren’t aware that the FBI is as bad
as CAIR claims them to be.
What is left unanswered by CAIR is: If the
FBI is so bad regarding Muslim civil rights, why does CAIR complain about ties being
severed?
Here we have an excellent example of CAIR’s
waning influence and
inability to attract attention to yet another
non-event involving
American Muslims having their rights “violated”. It didn’t happen, and
the students interviewed did not support even one of CAIR’s claims.
Perhaps
the Somali Muslim students understand the threat of radical Islam and
want to do what they can to assist their adopted country in the battle
against radical Islam. Maybe they understand, unlike CAIR,
exactly how bad radical Islam in practice really is
and want no part of
it in the USA?
One student went
on to say:
"Whatever is
happening in the community, we should fix it, you know…the FBI, they're
trying
to fix it."
Either way, it is a great win for the FBI and
a smack in the face to CAIR’s attempts to butt in where they aren’t
wanted ... or needed.
(*Update: One
Somali woman did call CAIR after she was interviewed by the FBI at her home. Ruqia Mohamed, who is a student, called CAIR
for legal advice and as mentioned in a mndaily.com
story: "CAIR
couldn’t help Mohamed because their lawyers were busy")
Andrew Whitehead
Director
Anti-CAIR
ajwhitehead@anti-cair-net.org
www.anti-cair-net.org
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Story Links:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-1/12393293616770.xml&storylist=national&thispage=1
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S871651.shtml?cat=206
http://www.anti-cair-net.org/FBItiesCAIRHamas
http://www.saneworks.us/uploads/news/applications/27.pdf
http://www.investigativeproject.org/985/fbi-cuts-off-cair-over-hamas-questions
http://www.americanmuslimvoter.net/pView.asp?action=viewPDetails&pageId=11102&pCatName=%20&pGrpName=%20&pT=Community%20Relations
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=63AED464-5EAC-43B9-88F6-787ECB3F72CF