CAIR: Apologist for terrorism

Shalom CAMERA E-Mail Team:
The Council on American Islamic Relations: Civil Rights or Extremism?
The headline of this Alert is the title of a new CAMERA monograph. This 13-page booklet provides important, timely source material on the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The documentation strongly suggests that CAIR functions as a public relations adjunct to Islamists such as the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement), rather than as a traditional American civil rights group. Although CAIR has been listed by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism funding trial, it has attempted to mainstream itself, taking advantage of uncritical news media coverage.
CAIR was co-founded by individuals with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood - an anti-Jewish, anti-Western, religious extremist movement - and to Hamas. Its claims to represent mainstream American Muslims have been disputed by other American Muslims.
Is CAIR an American Muslim version of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or the Anti-Defamation League? It portrays itself as the advocate for U.S. Muslims facing religious discrimination, and as an educational guide for non-Muslims - including the press - about Islam in the United States. However, CAMERA's monograph, citing numerous published sources, indicates that much of CAIR's activity has more to do with shielding Islamic extremism by tarring legitimate inquiries and criticisms as examples of prejudice or "Islamophobia."
Action Items
Obtain a copy of the monograph. Click here for the CAMERA Web site link introducing the monograph, and click here for the link to the monograph itself. Or, request a printed copy from CAMERA's Washington office, P.O. Box 1763, Washington, D.C. 20013.
Use the information to educate local newspaper editors, radio-TV assignment editors, columnists, talk show hosts, and local, state, and national public officials. Make clear that they should not accept CAIR's self-description uncritically. Urge them to dig a little deeper before relying on the organization as a representative of the American Muslim mainstream or as a credible source on Islamic beliefs and practices. If you'd like to include a link to
the monograph in your letters, you can use this one: http://tinyurl.com/6nropj

Media contact information is below.
Please send CAMERA a blind copy (bcc) of your letter(s): letters@camera.org
With thanks,
Eric RozenmanWashington Director CAMERA