Once Again, CAIR Shows That Islamism and Civil Rights Don’t Mix: Gregg Roman and Sam Westrop, The Hill, May 4, 2017— In addition to denouncing alleged acts of “Islamophobia,” representatives of the organization have been quick to condemn every “progressive” cause under the sun. But peer beneath CAIR’s carefully-crafted press releases and publicity stunts and it’s clear that the group’s reactionary Islamist roots are as strong as ever.
Dartmouth Announces Linda Sarsour Lecture, Days After Refusing to Co-Sponsor Event Featuring Israeli Soldier: Rachel Frommer, Algemeiner, May 10, 2017— Dartmouth College announced Wednesday evening that it will be hosting a lecture by virulently anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, days after an office at the school declined to co-sponsor an event featuring a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces.
Sarsour's Anti-Semitism Campaign Minimizes Anti-Semitism: Ariel Behar, IPT News, May 9, 2017 —Criticism crosses into anti-Semitism when it delegitimizes or demonizes Israel, or subjects it to double standards. Through her actions and statements about Israel and Jews, celebrity Islamist activist Linda Sarsour fails Natan Sharansky’s “3D test.”
The Resurgent Threat of al Qaeda: Ali Soufan, The Wall Street Journal, Apr. 21, 2017 —Since the death of its founder, it has transformed itself from a close-knit terrorist outfit with a handful of struggling affiliates into a vast network of insurgent groups spread from Southeast Asia to northwest Africa. Together, this network now commands an army of tens of thousands of Islamist militants.
On Topic Links
Is CAIR a Terror Group?: Daniel Pipes, National Review, Nov. 28, 2014
San Diego School District Pushes CAIR-Assisted ‘Anti-Islamophobia’ Plan: Michelle Moons, Breitbart, Apr. 23, 2017
CAIR Smears and Tries to Silence An IPT Fellow: IPT News, Mar. 30, 2017
Liberal ‘Rabbis,’ Defend Sarsour and Say Terrorist Rasmea Odeh May be Innocent: Elder of Ziyon, Jewish Press, May 9, 2017
Indonesia Governor’s Loss Shows Increasing Power of Islamists: Richard C. Paddock, New York Times, May 6, 2017
ONCE AGAIN, CAIR SHOWS THAT ISLAMISM
Gregg Roman and Sam Westrop
The Hill, Apr. 28, 2017
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been claiming for years to be not merely the nation's preeminent Muslim civil rights group, but a defender of the civil rights of all Americans. In addition to denouncing alleged acts of “Islamophobia,” representatives of the organization have been quick to condemn acts of antisemitism, police shootings of African Americans, anti-LGBTQ violence, and so forth, while expressing solidarity with every “progressive” cause under the sun. But peer beneath CAIR’s carefully-crafted press releases and publicity stunts and it’s clear that the group’s reactionary Islamist roots are as strong as ever.
Last week came a striking demonstration that CAIR’s support for workers’ rights is just a ruse. The group had been seeking for some time to block the Service Employees International Union from organizing the staff at its national office, claiming that it is a religious organization and therefore exempt from the National Labor Relations Act. The National Labor Relations Board rejected that argument in an April 7 ruling. Contrast this with the high-profile appearance just weeks earlier of a CAIR representative alongside auto workers in Marietta, GA, protesting the anti-union policies of a Nissan plant.
The same hypocrisy was on display in the wake of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL, last year by a radical Islamist, when CAIR leaders across the country condemned anti-LGBTQ bigotry. The media fawned over a statement from the head of CAIR’s Florida chapter, Hassan Shibly, declaring his "overwhelming love and support and unity" for the LGBTQ community. But CAIR, with its strong connections to the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, whose hatred of homosexuals is quite explicit, has a long history of promoting homophobia. Indeed, Shibly himself decried homosexuality as "evil" and a "quick way to earn God's wrath" in a 2009 Facebook essay on gay marriage. While CAIR officials have avoided such statements since Orlando, the organization continues to host radical Islamist speakers notorious for gay-bashing at its events.
For example, the radical cleric Siraj Wahhaj, a former member of CAIR’s advisory board, remains one of the organization’s most frequent speakers. Wahhaj has preached that homosexuality is “a disease of this [American] society” and reminded his congregants, “[You know what the punishment is, if a man is found with another man? The Prophet Mohammad said the one who does it and the one to whom it is done to, kill them both.”
Although CAIR officials nowadays speak of women’s rights, the mainstay of the organization’s “civil rights” work is funding lawsuits under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other statutes to ostensibly protect the “right” of Muslim women to wear face-concealing religious garb in any and all circumstances, from police booking photos and airline security checkpoints to any number of jobs and professions that require dress codes. “To be shown without a headscarf, it’s almost like being shown naked,” CAIR national spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told the Washington Post last year. CAIR claims it works to protect the rights of women, but it’s really about protecting the “right” of men to oppress women. Islamists want to create a social environment in which no American Muslim woman will ever have legitimate cause to take off her hijab without the permission of her husband or male relatives.
Again, CAIR’s choice of speakers at its events reveals the duplicity of the Islamist organization’s message. One cleric promoted by CAIR, Abdul Nasir Jangda, has justified the possession of female sex slaves, and advocated marital rape as a “divinely given right.” The mainstream media rarely challenges CAIR representatives who appear on TV claiming to support lofty ideals that conflict squarely with the extremism they preach within the Muslim-American community.
Deceit lies at the heart of lawful Islamism. Extremists that prosper in the West do so because they have learned to exploit its rhetoric and democratic processes. But it cannot be long before that hypocrisy is laid bare – perhaps it will be the next time a CAIR official expresses solidarity with a labor union.
Rachel Frommer
Algemeiner, May 10, 2017
Dartmouth College announced Wednesday evening that it will be hosting a lecture by virulently anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, days after an office at the school declined to co-sponsor an event featuring a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces. The Sarsour event — to be held Friday evening in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month — is co-sponsored by the college’s Office of Pluralism and Leadership (OPAL) and Special Programs and Events Committee. According to a member of Dartmouth Students for Israel (DSI) — who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution by the administration — OPAL turned him down earlier this week when he approached them about co-hosting a program featuring Izzy Ezagui, the only soldier to ever return to battle after losing an arm in combat.
DSI was told by an OPAL representative that the Ezagui lecture “sounds like a great event, but it is felt that it does not meet the mission of OPAL.” The representative then suggested “more appropriate places to reach out to” for assistance, including the Student Accessibility Services, which the DSI member said is “generally not an organization that does events.”
On its website, OPAL describes its mission as “to foster a Dartmouth where all students can thrive, value difference, and contribute to the creation of a socially just world.” The Ezagui event will go forward — with the co-sponsorship of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America on Campus, as well as the Dartmouth Chabad and Hillel centers — but the DSI member said he has asked OPAL to “kindly explain in more detail why the event does not meet the OPAL mission?”
In his follow-up email to OPAL, the DSI student wrote, “I looked at the OPAL mission prior to contacting the office and thought it was very compatible with a ‘comprehensive leadership development’ program, as well as representing historically under-represented groups (Izzy is a Jew, and is disabled, so both groups have been historically under represented at this college and nationally).”
Sarsour — who will be speaking on “how home and a sense of belonging is sometimes the result of our own personal advocacy,” according to the program description on Facebook — has been condemned by Democratic New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind as “someone who associates with radical Islamists” and as a “bigot” by former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman.
Sandor Farkas, the president of DSI, told The Algemeiner that he and his friends are “outraged” by the Sarsour program, especially in “light of the recent controversy” surrounding a professor with ties to the campaign to boycott Israel who has been promoted to the consequential role of Dean of Faculty. “I think Dartmouth College has shown a remarkable disregard for the concerns of the Jewish community by inviting renowned BDS advocate and Israel-hater Linda Sarsour,” said Farkas, who will graduate this spring.
“Over my four years at Dartmouth, I have always felt that our campus conversation around Israel was reasoned and respectful, with only an occasional exception,” he added. “While I want to believe that this coincidence [of two anti-Israel incidents in one week] is nothing more than administrative incompetence, OPAL’s refusal to co-sponsor an event with an Israeli speaker demonstrates otherwise. I am deeply saddened to graduate knowing that my Jewish friends on campus may face real hatred and discrimination, not only from other students, but from the highest levels of the college administration.” Farkas said pro-Israel students plan to “stage a silent protest during the [Sarsour] event, including flooding [her] with difficult questions.” Dartmouth’s announcement comes as the City University of New York (CUNY) has come under fire for inviting Sarsour to give the commencement speech at the graduation exercises for CUNY’s Graduate School of Public Health. Representatives for OPAL did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment.
SARSOUR'S ANTI-SEMITISM CAMPAIGN MINIMIZES ANTI-SEMITISM
Ariel Behar
IPT News, May 9, 2017
Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet political prisoner and Jewish Agency chairman, put forth a "3D test" to distinguish between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism. Criticism crosses into anti-Semitism when it delegitimizes or demonizes Israel, or subjects it to double standards. Thus, when Israel is cast as evil, when only Israel is held accountable in a conflict, and when Israel's fundamental right to exist as a Jewish homeland is questioned, criticism crosses into anti-Semitic territory. Through her actions and statements about Israel and Jews, celebrity Islamist activist Linda Sarsour fails the "3D test."
In a recent Newsweek article, Sarsour argues that she has been labeled an anti-Semite because of her participation in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement. "This is a deliberate attempt to smear me, as a prominent leader in the progressive movement," she told the magazine. "They're basically criminalizing and defaming my work calling for human rights in Palestine. They equate activism on Palestine with anti-Semitism and that is an unfortunate equation."
"The reason why Israel gets singled out in this debate is because the majority of military aid … goes to Israel … which they use to occupy Palestinians," Sarsour said in a radio interview last month on SiriusXM radio. Sarsour's answer is a self-serving attempt to divert attention away from her own words. It ignores her support of sharia law, her failure to denounce terrorism committed in the name of Islam, and her support of the violent Palestinian "resistance," all of which aligns her with anti-Semitism.
Sarsour also tries to shut down those who cite her record of celebrating terrorists and advocating radical positions by calling the critics Islamophobes. "Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian Muslim American woman in a hijab and she has the audacity to be prominent in this country, the audacity to resonate with communities outside her community," she said, speaking in the third person in the SiriusXM interview. "How dare I do that? How dare I defy every stereotype that Islamophobes have of me." Yet, she's nakedly intolerant of beliefs other than her own.
Sarsour famously tweeted, "Nothing is creepier than Zionism." That's not a statement critical of the Israeli government or of settlement building in the West Bank. Instead, Sarsour believes the entire concept of a homeland for the Jewish people is flawed, is "creepy."
And Sarsour wants nothing to do with you if you believe in and support the state of Israel. That goes for Jews who might try to stand in solidarity against anti-Muslim bigotry. In her worldview, Zionism and feminism are mutually exclusive. "You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none," Sarsour told The Nation. "There's just no way around it."
"But insisting that Jews need not apply if they subscribe to the belief in a Jewish homeland in Israel is an anti-Semitic double standard," StandWithUs researcher Lauren Post wrote in the Forward. "Too many leftists already ignore anti-Semitism unless it's rhetorically convenient, so perhaps it's unsurprising that Sarsour's brand of feminism demands that we give up our liberation movement for some nebulous greater good." Women who disagree with Sarsour about feminism are met with sometimes profane attacks. She attacked ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali, saying she deserves an "a$$ whippin'," and that she'd like to "take [Hirsi Ali and Islam critic Brigitte Gabriel's] vaginas away- they don't deserve to be women."
New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, called Sarsour out on her hypocrisy and double-standards after she was invited to give a commencement speech at CUNY School of Public Health in Brooklyn. Hikind highlighted Sarsour's dishonesty in a recent op-ed published in the New York Daily News. "Until recently, she'd convinced a lot of people that she stood for progressive liberalism, stood for feminism, stood for dignity, human rights and all of the things that people who favor the liberal left say they stand for, too," Hikind wrote. "But there's an old saying: You can't hide the crazy." That "crazy" includes embracing Rasmieh Odeh, a convicted terrorist whose participation in a 1969 grocery store bombing in Jerusalem killed two college students. Sarsour called it an honor to be in Odeh's presence after Odeh announced her intention to plead guilty to naturalization fraud. Sarsour "associates with terrorism and supports terrorism," Hikind told the Investigative Project on Terrorism. "Her record, her involvement, her statements, is just beyond the pale. What kind of message does that send?" It is not clear if Sarsour is feeling the heat or has other motivations, but she is orchestrating a broad campaign to insulate herself from questions of whether she fails the 3D test and crosses into anti-Semitism.
When vandals desecrated a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Sarsour made sure everyone saw her helping raise money to repair the damage even though those cemeteries likely included (shudder) Zionists. Still, her efforts garnered unquestioning national attention. "This is another way for us to publicly defy the stereotype that Muslims and Jews are not communities that can get along," she told National Public Radio. Sarsour also appears in a video produced by the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace, in which she said a "conversation on anti-Semitism is so critical at this moment." But that good deed can't be done without qualification, as she says accusations of anti-Semitism are often "used by the right wing against Palestinians and those who are pro-Palestine … [to say] that we are anti-Semitic, or because we're critics of the State of Israel that means we are anti-Semitic."
Anti-Semitism is a problem, she says in the video. It's just not as bad as racism or anti-Muslim bigotry. Most Jews are white, after all, and therefore do not face systemic discrimination in employment or housing. "And we need to make that distinction." Again, Sarsour offers a self-serving answer meant to define a problem on terms best suited for her. It's a gross misrepresentation that minimizes the threat of anti-Semitism in America.
The latest FBI hate crime data, covering the year 2015, shows Jews are targeted more than twice as often as Muslims in hate crimes motivated by religious identity. In fact, Jews account for more than half of all hate crimes based on religion, with 664 documented incidents in 2015, compared to 257 targeting Muslims. Generally speaking, activism is something worth celebrating. But Sarsour is notorious for her controversy and her double-standards. And praising Sarsour as a "champion of change" does harm to the legitimate struggle for human rights, and for the fight against anti-Semitism. We need not embrace someone who defends and supports extremism in the name of social justice.
THE RESURGENT THREAT OF AL QAEDA
Ali Soufan
The Wall Street Journal, Apr. 21, 2017
The popular governor was the clear front-runner. Despite his religion, a Christian in Muslim-majority Indonesia, Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama of Jakarta held a commanding lead in the polls. Then, in a campaign speech in September, he made a fatal reference to a verse of the Quran. A video, edited to make it seem that he had said the Muslim holy book was misleading people, went viral on Facebook. Mr. Basuki was charged with blasphemy, mass rallies were mobilized against him and despite a tearful apology, he was trounced in a runoff election last month.
“A half-minute destroyed his career,” said Komaruddin Hidayat, a former rector of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta. The governor’s loss was the most prominent sign yet of Indonesia’s tilt toward political Islam. A moderate, secular democracy with the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia in many ways provides a counterweight to the sectarian clashes and autocratic rule that have plagued Muslim countries in the Middle East, some 5,000 miles away.
But in recent years, the radical Muslims who have been trying to turn Indonesia into a strict Islamic state have gradually gained influence, accruing an array of significant victories. As the Jakarta election was underway, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling that was less noticed but could have a broader effect. The court struck down a law allowing the government to annul discriminatory local laws, such as religious-based laws regulating morality or women’s behavior.
Local laws are where the Islamists have made the biggest gains. Since 1998, with the introduction of democracy and the decentralization of power to the local authorities, more than 440 local ordinances have been adopted imposing elements of Islamic law, or Shariah, like requiring women to wear head scarves or restricting alcohol sales, according to Michael Buehler, a senior lecturer at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, in his book “The Politics of Shari’a Law.”
“Religion has become politicized in local elections, and we saw that emerge in a big way in the election for governor in Jakarta,” said Melissa Crouch, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney who researches Asian legal systems. “Democracy gives a greater space to everyone, including greater space for radical Islam.”
While the ultimate goal of those promoting such laws is an Islamic state, that prospect seems distant. Indonesia remains mostly tolerant and moderate. In Jakarta, the capital, many Muslim women socialize freely with men, ride motorbikes and decline to wear head scarves. Islamist parties have not fared well in national elections. But the Islamists have kept up the pressure on a variety of fronts. There have been efforts to change national laws: A bill before Parliament would ban alcohol nationwide, while the Constitutional Court is hearing a petition by an Islamist group demanding that gay sex be outlawed and that the adultery law be broadened to criminalize sex between any unmarried people.
The blasphemy law, rarely used before 2004, has been deployed in more than 120 cases, helping build support for the Islamists and silence dissent, said Andreas Harsono, the Indonesia representative for Human Rights Watch. A self-appointed morality brigade called the Islamic Defenders Front, best known for smashing up bars, has recently attacked people for selling food on Ramadan or wearing Santa outfits at Christmas. While such efforts by hard-core activist groups are not new, what stood out in the governor’s election was their tacit acceptance by moderate Muslims, many of whom took offense at a perceived insult to their religion.
The radical groups organized the protests, demanding that the governor be jailed or killed and warning Muslims of dire consequences if they voted for a Christian. The sight of an estimated half million people at a rally in December was shocking in relatively cosmopolitan Jakarta even if, as has been reported, many protesters had been bused in from the more conservative hinterlands. Neither of Mr. Basuki’s rivals publicly questioned the blasphemy accusation, instead forging alliances of convenience with the radicals …
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
Is CAIR a Terror Group?: Daniel Pipes, National Review, Nov. 28, 2014— CAIR can rightly be characterized as an instigator of terrorism. True, it does not set off bombs, but, as the UAE’s foreign minister explains, “Our threshold is quite low. . . . We cannot accept incitement or funding.” Indeed, CAIR incites, funds, and does much more vis-à-vis terrorism:
San Diego School District Pushes CAIR-Assisted ‘Anti-Islamophobia’ Plan: Michelle Moons, Breitbart, Apr. 23, 2017— The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) has been working with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on “anti-Islamophobia” plans, including adding lessons on Islam in social studies classes and adding Muslim “safe spaces” to campuses. The plan is to be implemented in the fall with the start of the new school year.
CAIR Smears and Tries to Silence An IPT Fellow: IPT News, Mar. 30, 2017 —Using misleading claims and engaging in rank hypocrisy, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is waging a campaign to silence an Investigative Project on Terrorism senior fellow.
Liberal ‘Rabbis,’ Defend Sarsour and Say Terrorist Rasmea Odeh May be Innocent: Elder of Ziyon, Jewish Press, May 9, 2017— The New York Daily News has an op-ed by ‘rabbis’ Ellen Lippman and Barat Ellman, fully supporting Linda Sarsour’s activities and defending her from accusations of antisemitism and supporting terror. How they treat and downplay the most damning piece of evidence of Sarsour’s support for murderers shows how intellectually dishonest Sarsour’s supporters are:
Indonesia Governor’s Loss Shows Increasing Power of Islamists: Richard C. Paddock, New York Times, May 6, 2017— Despite his religion, a Christian in Muslim-majority Indonesia, Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama of Jakarta held a commanding lead in the polls. Then, in a campaign speech in September, he made a fatal reference to a verse of the Quran. A video, edited to make it seem that he had said the Muslim holy book was misleading people, went viral on Facebook. Mr. Basuki was charged with blasphemy, mass rallies were mobilized against him and despite a tearful apology, he was trounced in a runoff election last month.
