In their ongoing efforts to obscure uncomfortable facts about the career of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, CAIR is trying to intimidate Boeing into dropping ads from National Review as long as NR continues to advertise The Life and Religion of Mohammed by Fr. J. L. Menezes.
From CAIR’s press release (thanks to all who sent this in):
MUSLIMS URGE BOEING TO DROP ADS FROM NATIONAL REVIEW
CAIR says neocon magazine promotes ‘anti-Muslim hate’
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/28/05) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on aerospace giant Boeing Co. to drop its advertisements in a magazine that the group says is actively promoting virulently anti-Muslim books that attack Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
Despite messages of outrage from hundreds of concerned Muslims, National Review magazine continues to promote “The Life and Religion of Mohammed” on its Internet store. The magazine claims the book exposes “the ugly truth about the founder of the world’s most violent religion.”…
According to the promotional materials, the book is a “guide into the
dark mind of [the Prophet] Mohammed.” The online review states: “[The author] explains why Mohammed couldn’t possibly be a true prophet, and reveals the true sources of his ‘revelations.'” It quotes the author as claiming: “Mohammed posed as the apostle of God…while his life is marked by innumerable marriages; and great licentiousness, deeds of rapine, warfare, conquests, unmerciful butcheries, all the time invoking God’s holy name to sanction his evil deeds…Mohammed again and again justified his rapine and licentiousness with new ‘divine revelations.'”
Here and in a forthcoming article I support each of those assertions from Islamic sources.
CAIR also zeroes in on Srdja Trifkovic’s superb Sword of the Prophet:
Another book being promoted by National Review, “The Sword of the Prophet,” is described as: “What Muslims, multiculturalists, and the media hope you never find out about Islam.”
Looks as if that description was right on the money, as this very press release demonstrates.
The magazine’s review claims that the book “gives us the unvarnished, ‘politically incorrect’ truth about Islam — including the shocking facts about its founder, Mohammed; its rise through bloody conquest; its sanctioning of theft, deceit, lust and murder.”
Once again: is CAIR actually denying those things about Muhammad? Would they care to investigate them from Islamic sources? If you need any help, Ibrahim, give me a call — but as I am sure you already know, these assertions cannot be proven false, but only proven true by those sources.
In a letter sent today to Boeing CEO James A. Bell, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote: “I would therefore respectfully request that Boeing address the concerns of Muslims worldwide by withdrawing its advertising support from a magazine that actively promotes anti-Muslim hate.”
Note that Awad doesn’t show these assertions to be false, or even claim they’re false. He just demands that NR and others acknowledge they’re false in the teeth of all the evidence. If he succeeds, he will have won a great victory in the propaganda jihad.
UPDATE: The NR link above is broken: it looks as if National Review has definitively caved to CAIR’s pressure. They seem to have taken down their ad for Sword of the Prophet also. Add NR to the dhimmi list.
SECOND UPDATE: I just had a good talk with Rich Lowry of National Review, and I can see how this might not be a straight capitulation. It is important sometimes to choose one’s battles, and although NR and I might not always agree about which battles to fight and which ones to let go by, I respect the good work they have done in raising awareness of jihad terror, and am confident they will do more in the future.
Also, it is not relevant to this story, but I think it is prudent to reveal that I myself wrote the ad copy for the Fr. Menezes’ book — the ad copy to which CAIR objected. I did not write it for National Review, and I have received and stand to receive no remuneration whatsoever from the sale of the book by NR or anyone else: my stand on this issue was not motivated by anything but annoyance at the fact that CAIR is trying to demonize truth-tellers about Islam.