Why did State Department Assistant Secretary Patricia de Stacy Harrison, Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher and Ambassador William Burns attend a meeting with Nihad Awad? Don’t they care about Nihad Awad’s support for Hamas?
And as for a world “Islamophobia” report, it is likely only to be more of this kind of willful obfuscation and prevention of any honest investigation of the roots of Islamic terror.
From IslamOnline, with thanks to Teri:
WASHINGTON, January 14 (IslamOnline.net) – The largest US Muslim civil liberties called on the State Department to issue a report on Islamophobia across the world, as American Muslims have complained of more anti-Islam TV rants.
The proposal was made when the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and several other Muslim and Arab-American groups met Thursday, January 13, with top State Department officials to discuss a number of issues related to American foreign policy, according to CAIR”s Web site.
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad presented in the meeting — attended by Assistant Secretary Patricia de Stacy Harrison, Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher and Ambassador William Burns — a proposal for cooperative efforts to challenge both Islamophobia and anti-Americanism.
The proposal includes such measures as producing a report on the
growing phenomenon of Islamophobia, conferences in this country and in the Muslim world to discuss both Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism and domestic and international “goodwill ambassadors” who can speak about both topics.“By challenging anti-Muslim bigotry, we can help reduce anti-American attitudes in the Islamic world.
“And by having American Muslims speak out in support of their nation’s values, while at the same time maintaining essential credibility on issues of importance to Muslims worldwide, we undercut growing Islamophobic views in our society,” read the report, carried by the group in a press release Thursday.
Awad described the meeting as “open and forward-looking.”