From “Profile of Terror” by Evan D. McCormick in FrontPage, with thanks to EPG:
It seems that being formally exposed as a terrorist support group by U.S. senators hasn’t fazed the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). In the first weeks of 2005, the same organization excoriated by Senator Charles Schumer for having “intimate links with Hamas” was once again rallying support in the press for American Muslims whose civil rights allegedly were violated by U.S. counterterrorism officials.
The victims: a group of 40 Muslims — some of them American citizens — crossing the Canadian border on their way back from a weekend in Toronto, where they attended a conference titled “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” (RIS). Their grievance: being held at the border for six hours and singled out for questioning and fingerprinting by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents solely (they allege) on the basis of their religion. Homeland Security officials claim they acted on specific information regarding terrorist involvement at conferences like RIS, but CAIR shrugged off the explanation as a cover story for racial and religious profiling, and called for a “formal investigation.”…
As federal officials firmly stood their ground following the incident, articles in the press decrying the controversy and publicizing CAIR”s demands for an investigation continued throughout January. In early February, DOJ officials promised to meet, within the next two months, with members of the Western New York Chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) to hear their concerns over the incident.
This sequence of events gives an all-too-familiar insight into the political strategy of radical Islamist groups. First, CAIR or another of its Islamist kin complains loudly to the media regarding an alleged violation of civil rights. Sympathetic media outlets then report the claims, with little scrutiny of who is making them and why. Federal agencies, anxious to avoid embarrassment over the contentious issue of civil liberties, then agree to meet with the leaders of these groups, who air concerns and offer policy advice that would supposedly make the War on Terror more amenable to the American Muslims they claim to represent….
Since September 11, 2001, for example, no fewer than three CAIR officials — Randall Todd Royer, Ghassan Elashi and Bassem Khafagi — have been found guilty on charges related to major counterterrorism investigations. Royer, a former communications specialist with CAIR, was charged with providing material support to al-Qaeda. Nihad Awad has stated, “I am in support of the Hamas movement.” Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper has defended Saudi financial aid given to families of suicide bombers. At a congressional hearing marking the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Senator Richard Durbin stated that CAIR is “unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect.”
MPAC, whose officials will soon be meeting with DHS agents in New York, has defended Hezbollah and lobbied against the designation of the group, along with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as terrorists. MPAC, which also collects reports of hate crimes via its Web site, actively discourages Muslims from cooperating with anti-terrorism investigations. It is also interesting to note that MPAC”s Western New York Chapter was until 2004 a regional affiliate of the American Muslim Council, whose leader, Abdurahman Alamoudi, is now serving a 23-year prison sentence for conducting financial dealings with Libya aimed at assassinating the Saudi crown prince.
When groups that voice support for Hamas and Hezbollah and have employed alleged associates of al-Qaeda are meeting with Homeland Security officials in charge of protecting our borders, it can no longer be considered community outreach; it is subversion.
What Must Be Done
The solution is simple. Federal agencies must cease to meet with officials from Islamist organizations known to be affiliated financially, materially or ideologically with identified terrorist groups.
One would think that this sort of point would be obvious to everyone. Unfortunately, it seems to elude almost everyone in Washington.