Despite all the questions that swirl unanswered around the Council on American Islamic Relations, it is still generally accepted by the media and the public as a neutral, mainstream civil rights organization. From Daniel Pipes, with thanks to Bruce Gordon:
CAIR Accepted as "Mainstream." I will intermittently post items here to document how, despite its terrorist associations and other legal tribulations, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is gaining acceptance among the gullible, the ignorant, or the foolish as a legitimate "civil liberties group."Elderhostel ("a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing extraordinary learning adventures for people 55 and over") is pleased to announce a new series of programs titled "Building Bridges to Islam" in March and April 2004. So far so good. But the first one, to be held four times in Santa Clara, California, will be held in collaboration with CAIR. Elderhostel's publicity incorrectly describes CAIR as "a mainstream organization that regularly works with national law enforcement authorities, elected officials, media and other civil liberties and minority groups." Responding to a protest about the Elderhostel-CAIR connection, Jay Rittenberg of Elderhostel's Customer Service Group wrote this drivel: "Please note that CAIR is America's largest not profit organization that promotes civil rights for Muslims in America. Its aims are to promote a better understanding of Islam and the American Muslim community. The CAIR chapters that Elderhostel is currently working with to provide programming have worked with the Federal Government to educate and train US troops and federal law enforcement officials on the Islamic community and culture."
KERA ("public TV and radio for North Texas") announces that it and CAIR together are presenting an advance screening of the PBS series "The New Americans" on March 18 in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas. KERA informs readers that the screening will feature two items: an episode from "The New Americans" about a Palestinian immigrant and a segment from "The Islam Project."
CAIR is one of the most dispicable organizations in America, responsible for advancing radical Islam through the sponsorship of those with questionable agendas. This includes inviduals and groups. The fact that they have become mainstream is revolting. I guess, if you repeat a lie often enough, people will begin to believe it, especially if they are uninformed and raised under the banner of diversity and the concept of Western-style tolerance. However, we all know what will be the result if that tolerance becomes the Islamic style - totaitarianism.
This is EXACTLY the same naive, foolish approach that has been taken by the United Church of Canada through its "That We May Know Each Other- United Church-Muslim Relations Today" discussion document.
Concisely, the UCC is the first mainstream Canadian Christian church that is in danger of being captured by Islamist idealogues making common cause with multicultural cultural-relativists.
In effect, what the UCC is proposing is that, by validating that Muslims and Christians worship the same God, validating Mohammed as a legitimate prophet and validating the Qur'an as the word of God (despite the enormous, self-evident ideological differences between Christianity and Islam), the UCC will become the first Christian-Islamic sect in history.
This is theological lunacy- I have already commenced identifying this travesty to my many UCC friends and relatives- all of whom have been completely unaware of this initiative.
it seems that more and more, what may have been relatively reasonable people in the past are in a time of trial and crisis turning to short-circuit appeasement approaches. these amount to amalgamation of group think -- which unfortunately, has two ill effects: (1) the disintegration of individualism, (2) the increased power of misguided groups.
I live in the Dallas area. Can I crash this party?