Parvez Ahmed is the former National Board Chairman of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He thus has no business being on a Human Rights Commission. Ray Holt deserves congratulations. “Councilman Changes Vote On Nomination: Parvez Ahmed’s Nomination To Commission Stirs Controversy,” from News4Jax.com, April 26 (thanks to Randy):
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An ongoing controversy over Dr. Parvez Ahmed being appointed to Jacksonville’s Human Rights Commission might spark controversy between council members themselves Tuesday night.
Councilman Ray Holt called Channel 4 Monday afternoon to say he is changing his vote to approve Ahmed’s nomination.
“I don’t want to put somebody on there who might someday rationalize or minimize violence in Jacksonville,” Holt said.
Holt said he changed his vote from yes to no after he e-mailed Ahmed about his views on issues concerning many issues on terrorism and the Middle East. Holt said Ahmed e-mailed him back a document he wrote.
“I read through it. It’s 30 pages long, but I read through it,” Holt said. “I think he minimizes terrorism. I think he rationalizes terrorism. And it just showed poor judgment.”
Holt said one of his concerns is Ahmed calls the Iraq war a “U.S.-led fiasco.” Another concern is a quote by Ahmed saying, “Both Hamas and Hezbollah have conducted suicide bombings that killed civilians. Unlike al-Qaida, however, they do not embrace such violence as a matter of policy.”
“Well I don’t care if it’s their stated policy. They do it. And it’s wrong and for you to rationalize it by saying it’s not their stated policy,” Holt said. “I think that shows a real gap in judgment.”…
Bravo, Mr. Holt.
Here is some background. When the story of Parvez Ahmed’s appointment first broke, Randy McDaniels of ACT Jacksonville prepared a 20+ page Intel brief on Ahmed and CAIR, and submitted it to Jacksonville Mayor Peyton and the Jacksonville City Council. They, unsurprisingly, disregarded this information and dug in their heels — and the Florida Times Union began running articles on racism and hate speech.
Nonetheless, the mountain of evidence of Ahmed’s unsavory associations kept growing higher. Still, during a rules committee hearing last Monday, former Jacksonville Mayor Delaney referenced the book To Kill a Mockingbird, implying that opposition to Ahmed was racism, saying that it had the feel of a 1960’s lynching, and even equating it to the World War II-era interment of Japanese in the U.S. The public was not allowed to speak, and so ACT was unable to respond to this defamation.
Parvez Ahmed did not help his own case, however, when (like all CAIR operatives) he refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. The vote is tomorrow.