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News & Analysis
012/06  April 4, 2006



     CAIR Defends Itself?

     On March 30, the Washington Times carried a “Letter to the editor” by M. Zuhdi Jasser, chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.  (Jasser is a former US Navy officer.)

     The letter is a well written piece lamenting the politization that has overtaken much of Islam and calls for a “counter-movement’ within Islam to reclaim the Islamic faith.  In short, Jasser’s article makes several good points about Islam and points out the need for concerned Muslim groups to take the reins to battle those Muslims who have perverted their faith.

     The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is also mentioned in the article, coming in for severe criticism:

“Night after night, I see Muslim national organizations like the
Council for American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, cry out over and over about
anecdotal victimization while saying and doing absolutely nothing about
the most vile hate-speak and actions toward Jews and Christians
in the Muslim world. It is the most self-serving of outrage.”

     Needless to say, this upset Ibahim Hooper, spokesman for CAIR.  In his own “Letter to the editor”, Hooper writes that Jasser has ignored CAIR’s condemnation of terrorism “in all its forms”.

     Hooper then wrote a laundry list of things CAIR has done to support a positive view of Islam.  However, as usual, Hooper completely missed the point of Jasser’s concerns about CAIR, that CAIR has done nothing to defang radical Islam.  On this point, Jasser is not only correct, Hooper knows it and only offers the lamest of statements in defense of CAIR as a result.

     As Anti-CAIR (ACAIR) has repeately shown, CAIR has proven ties to Islamic terrorist groups and is on public record as being in support of the Hamas terrorist movement.  CAIR’s HQ in Washington was funded by the same bank that handles cash payments for the families of suicide bombers.  CAIR has several top members in prison on Islamic terrorism charges and CAIR has repudiated none of the above statements. 

     How can they, when they are true?

     If CAIR wants to be taken seriously, they could start by repudiating Hamas, disowning the numerous CAIR officials in prison, and end their ties to foreign banks and groups that support Islamic terror.

     An apology to the American people wouldn’t hurt either.

     Jasser has responded to Hooper:

"Let me make my points more direct. CAIR (Council for American-Islamic Relations)
and other Muslim organizations gain their public notoriety as supposed Muslim
responses to the darkness cast over our community from radical Islamists.
Its response, however, is all about victimization and little else. And yet again, in
Mr. Hooper's response to my column he still could not get himself
to answer these questions which I all but spelled out" ...(continued)

     Jasser, once again, makes Hooper look like what he is; the lacky of a radical Islamic group that has no part to play in the American Muslim community.  As in the first letter, Hooper just doesn't "get it".
 
    Jasser not only put Hooper in his place, he showed him for the fool that he is.

    Good for him; good for the American Islamic Forum for Democracy; good for America. 

     It’s long past time that the American Muslim community produced such a man as Jasser and we welcome his words.

     We look forward to reading more about Jasser and his efforts to provide the kind of leadership North American Muslims need in these trying times. 



Andrew Whitehead
Director
Anti-CAIR (ACAIR)
ajwhitehead@anti-cair-net.org
www.anti-cair-net.org



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