This takes chutzpah. Does the NCCM have ties to Hamas or not? The superb Canadian site Point de Bascule laid it all out when the NCCM first started threatening to sue. A sampling:
In order to understand the context of the PMO’s remarks, it is helpful to go back to the origins of CAIR-CAN. CAIR-CAN was established as a branch of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that had itself been founded by three leaders of a Hamas front group in the United States.
In their answers to FAQs provided when CAIR-CAN became NCCM, NCCM leaders completely falsified history and claimed that “There was never any operating or funding relationship between CAIR.CAN and CAIR.”
The operating relationship between a Hamas front group called Islamic Association of Palestine, CAIR and CAIR-CAN is presented in the following chronology:
June 1994 “ The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was established by three leaders of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP): Nihad Awad, Omar Ahmad and Rafeeq Jaber. The IAP was a front group for Hamas in the United States in the eighties and nineties. In a video archived by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Nihad Awad expresses his support for Hamas at Barry University in 1994. In 2002, an American judge presiding the case Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development v. Ashcroft concluded that the “Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), has acted in support of Hamas.”
2000 Foundation of CAIR-CAN
December 29, 2000 “A CAIR-CAN press release issued in Washington provides the name of a US-based CAIR leader as contact to comment about a fire at a mosque in Canada. In this press release, CAIR-CAN is referred to as CAIR’s “office in Canada.”…
Jamal Badawi and Wael Haddara are two important pillars of the Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure in Canada. Both were members of CAIR-CAN Board of directors for ten years or so. Badawi was still identified as a CAIR-CAN leader on the organization’s website on May 28, 2013, while Haddara resigned his position on the Board on April 3, 2012. On March 3, 2004, both of them were simultaneously on CAIR-CAN’s Board and on the Muslim Association of Canada’s Board. That day, MAC issued a press release in which it openly endorsed Hamas. That was more than one year after the Canadian government, Liberal back then, had added Hamas to a list of terrorist organizations. The listing is available on Public Safety Canada’s website….
In 2002-2003, while he was on CAIR-CAN’s Board, Wael Haddara was also an administrator for IRFAN-Canada. In April 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revoked IRFAN-Canada’s charity status after it concluded that, for the period 2005-2009 alone, it transferred $14.6 million to the terrorist organization Hamas (GMBDR – Toronto Star). A CRA audit of IRFAN-Canada for the fiscal year 2002 confirms that Wael Haddara was on IRFAN-Canada’s Board of Directors at least from 1999 to 2003. (See pp. A-2 and A-3)
In 2002, while she was CAIR-CAN Chair, Sheema Khan endorsed Youssef Qaradawi by introducing him as a “renowned Muslim scholar” to her Globe and Mail readers. Youssef Qaradawi is the most important leader of the Muslim Brotherhood international network, its spiritual leader. He is also considered Hamas’ spiritual guide. In the past, his fatwas have been quoted by Hamas to justify its suicide operations against civilians at the heart of Israel.
Jamal Badawi and Wael Haddara are two important pillars of the Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure in Canada. Both were members of CAIR-CAN Board of directors for ten years or so. Badawi was still identified as a CAIR-CAN leader on the organization’s website on May 28, 2013, while Haddara resigned his position on the Board on April 3, 2012. On March 3, 2004, both of them were simultaneously on CAIR-CAN’s Board and on the Muslim Association of Canada’s Board. That day, MAC issued a press release in which it openly endorsed Hamas. That was more than one year after the Canadian government, Liberal back then, had added Hamas to a list of terrorist organizations. The listing is available on Public Safety Canada’s website….
Does the NCCM really think they can keep all this information out of the public eye and the hands of the Harper government? Harper has already shown himself to have considerably more courage on this point that virtually anyone with political power in the U.S. “Muslim group to proceed with libel suit against Stephen Harper and spokesman over ‘terrorist’ comment,” Toronto Star, May 26, 2014:
OTTAWA—A national Muslim organization is proceeding with a lawsuit against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his chief spokesman for a comment it says linked the organization to a terrorist group.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims is filing a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court after failing to get an apology from the Prime Minister’s Office for the January remark.
Lawyer Jeff Saikaley says the council is seeking a public retraction and damages of up to $100,000.
The comment in question came after the council criticized the inclusion of controversial rabbi Daniel Korobkin in a delegation accompanying Harper to the Middle East.
In January the council took its first legal step by filing a notice of libel which quotes Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald as saying, “We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas.”
The comment was “categorically false, offensive and defamatory,” Ihsaan Gardee, the council’s executive director, said at the time.
Discussions between the parties have not resolved the matter.
“We did have conversations with the lawyer representing Stephen Harper and Jason MacDonald, and we weren’t able to reach a satisfactory agreement. So we have no choice but to proceed to the next step,” Saikaley said.
“We’re still hopeful that something can be done to avoid an actual trial, but for the time being this is what’s been required to protect our client’s interests.”
The council describes itself as an independent, non-partisan, non-profit group that has worked for 14 years on human rights and civil liberties issues on behalf of Canadian Muslims.
A half-dozen other rights groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of University Teachers, have offered support to the Muslim group.
There is never a shortage of Useful Idiots.