It is a Saturday night as I write this and I am unfortunately not where I intended originally to be, namely the Council on American-Muslim Relations’ (CAIR) Champions for Justice 21st Annual Fundraising Banquet. CAIR’s aversion to critical observation had foiled my plans to get up close and personal with this Hamas-derived radical group, demonstrating yet again this faux civil rights organization’s guardedness.
When a sponsor recently asked to attend and observe this dinner, I jumped at the chance, yet wondered whether CAIR would refuse me admittance, as my extensive writings have not put me on CAIR’s good side. Corey P. Saylor, now director of CAIR’s Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia, had previously emailed me to deny my attendance at a September 2013 CAIR press conference at its Capitol Hill headquarters. He claimed that one website where my material appears, Family Security Matters, is not a legitimate news outlet.
CAIR at the same press conference had ejected Daily Caller reporters, another outlet for which I have written that would be my downfall the second time I tried to enter a CAIR press conference earlier this year. At the conference registration desk outside the Zenger Room of Washington, DC’s National Press Club I announced my name to CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper and asked if I could attend. Hooper mused “why does that name ring a bell” and asked for the names of the outlets where I have written, whereupon my mention of the Daily Caller prompted him to call this an anti-Islamic “hate site” and refuse my admission.
Former CAIR leader Ahmed Bedier has personally expressed his distaste for me. At a May 2014 press conference in the Zenger room involving various Muslim organizations including CAIR, he unilaterally approached me and complained of my writing being unfair. A grim-looking Bedier also took a close-up photo of me at a June 2014 conference in downtown Washington, DC.
CAIR policies for its events like the Champions of Justice banquet confirm the organization’s secretive, suspicious nature. The banquet’s website announces that the dinner “is a private CAIR event and CAIR reserves the right to refuse admittance to anyone for any reason” and “to eject anyone from the private event for any reason.” Those ejected “will not receive a refund for their tickets or be compensated in any way. All audio, visual and audio/visual devices and photography, filming, recording and taping are strictly prohibited.”
CAIR’s tight control means that unsympathetic observers may only come into contact with CAIR officials when they on rare occasions participate in uncontrolled public events. Before I became so well-known to CAIR, I was able to interview briefly its director Nihad Awad at a January 2014 protest on the Washington, DC, Mall. I have also seen Awad appear on public panels in January 2015 and just this past week.
An October 6 CAIR refund of my $65 PayPal banquet ticket purchase indicated that I would not be seeing Awad again for dinner. Saylor responded to my email query that day by writing that “CAIR will not be able to honor your request to attend our banquet” and has “refunded the cost of your ticket to you and apologize for any inconvenience.” A friend considered me “lucky,” given CAIR’s proclaimed “right to reject people for any reason WITHOUT a REFUND” and to “take someone’s money and deliver nothing in return…Now I’m asking you, isn’t that called ‘stealing’??”
JihadWatch director Robert Spencer has “heard of it happening many times before…that CAIR works to seal its events from all critical eyes.” As Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes has noted, CAIR closed its January “Stand with Prophet” event in Garland, Texas, to reporters from Fox News, the Washington Free Beacon, and other outlets. CAIR even threatened United West reporters who had purchased tickets in advance with arrest and imprisonment.
Pipes wonders about this “sudden shyness from a publicity hound” like CAIR. “CAIR, I suspect, shudders at a random Islamist wandering off the reservation” where “live events have unscripted moments.” CAIR’s “chairman did this in 1998, announcing in public that ‘Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,’ a burst of bluntness that still today impedes CAIR.” While CAIR event policy “appears to be legal…it’s unheard of for an outfit claiming to be a human rights organization.” Such “blatant thought control reflects CAIR’s origins in Hamas, the totalitarian Palestinian movement, and points to how Islamists threaten a free society.”
My thoughts can only speculate on what might have been as I look from my building’s rooftop across to the Crystal City, Virginia, venue of the sold-out banquet a metro ride away from my residence. Of CAIR’s honorees, I could have conversed with Sheikh Omar Suleiman. While he has called homosexuality a “disease” and “repugnant shameless sin,” CAIR has opposed recent religious freedom measures protecting objecting businesses from involvement with such behavior.
Similarly I could have heard Dean Obeidallah, whom Spencer calls a “painfully unfunny ‘comedian.’” He has stated that Republican Senator Rick Santorum sounds like the Taliban and written that Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist group “has nothing to do with Islam.” I could have asked Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman about her membership in a Yemeni political party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. A late entrant to CAIR’s program is also Ahmed Mohamad, the Garland, Texas, high school “clockmaker” whose suspicious encounter with “Islamophobia” provokes more than a few questions.
More than just a social snub, my definitive CAIR banning should also raise questions. What kind of civil rights or political group refuses to engage in critical debates and discussions? Whom does CAIR admit to its events and what boundaries does CAIR impose? If CAIR is not accessible to Americans across the political spectrum, should public authorities look to CAIR as an objective civil society partner? All this and more is food for thought from a disinvited dinner guest.

somehistory says
One could spend $65 on gasoline and visit many garbage dumps.
revereridesagain says
Any one of which would offer more uplifting content than a CAIR event.
I think they are allergic to Robert and fear they would disappear into piles of dust in his presence. Perhaps not, but it’s a satisfying image to contemplate nevertheless.
quotha raven says
To revereridesagain, who sez “… they would disappear into piles of dust in his presence. Perhaps not, but it’s a satisfying image to contemplate nevertheless.”
Yes, indeed – thrilling image in fact!
Cheers!
quotha r
quotha raven says
I find the image nothing short of thrilling…
Cheers!
quotha r
p.s. I’ve been having trouble getting a comment to appear first time…so if there’s duplication, sorry.
jayell says
Well, well, Mr. Spencer, how does it feel to be so popular? They say that you know a man by the company he keeps – or doesn’t keep. I suppose this lot welcoming you is about as likely as Capone & Co inviting Eliot Ness out to dinner. And the similarity between this lot’s behaviour and your treatment by our wonderful UK government hasn’t escaped my attention either. You really should learn to be less challenging, just like our nice Mr. Chamberlain was in 1939, and look at the sorts of friend you’d keep! Anyway, you’ve saved $65.
Robert Spencer says
I didn’t write this. Andrew Harrod did.
eduardo odraude says
Thank you to Andrew Harrod and Robert Spencer for being heroes.
Suggestion — maybe the author of a piece should have his name appear in bigger or brighter letters, so that people do not assume it is Robert Spencer. This seems to happen regularly.
Robert Spencer says
Thank you, we have taken your advice. I hope this makes the byline clearer.
jayell says
Yes, I ought to read the top of the page more carefully! Well, it was late at night this side of the pond!
cs says
Wow, what you just missed!
Is Obama or Hillary paying them a visit?
jihad3tracker says
Rumors are flying around that the event was preserved “just for the record” anyway by interested parties.
CAIR’s big brave men apparently cannot even take a pee without it being noted for posterity.
William L. Di Gennaro says
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.” Mahatma Gandhi
Angemon says
I wonder if the attendance has increased or decreased over the years.
dsinc says
If CAIR only allow guests who are on their side they could be plotting to overthrow America from within.
somehistory says
islam’s aim is to take over…and they are some of the main spokesmen for islam in the country. As the article reminded us, one of the members said that several years ago…about the same time that the mb were saying they were going to ‘destroy the miserable house from within’…
Of course, they deny it openly, but the favorite sport of moslims is lying, lying, lying and pretending it’s the truth.
They have rackets for lying, and nets for lying and courts for lying…they kick the truth to the sidelines and lie…their favorite sport.
wtd says
Well, saving $65/seat is nothing to sniff at. On the other hand…you did miss the awards…
Ahmed “Clockmed” Mohamed was honored as “Muslim of the Year”, and presented with a gold plaque & “clock”…only in Islam, believe it, or else!
underbed cat says
The words of Obama, let he cat out of the bag, “The future does not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”, so with that bit of information, of course this group does not want a inquisitive writer to hear which is forbidden, plans for the future and know what is the plan for working with the DOJ and SPL, would be my guess.
Although it would be interesting to see how they discuss their plans, I guess they will not let anyone close to over hear conversations, especially someone who has a clue and can interpret code words.
Linde Barrera says
To Andrew Harrod- I enjoyed your article but I feel your frustration. So I am thinking if there might be a different “angle” for you into the world of CAIR. If you could write for a publication, say WWD known as Womens Wear Daily (they also cover men’s clothing trends and stores that sell men’s clothing, and men’s fragrances) then CAIR might concede to having you at their dinner, to report on who is wearing Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. I mean, wouldn’t a bunch of men associated with terror want the world to know how they are looking and how they are smelling? If you don’t like this idea, I will have to think harder for a better idea to get you in!
Vivienne Havalant (Leijonhufvud) says
Not too worry, ISLAM (Wahhabi & SHIIA) are about to fall and many have woken up, though not yet enough. ISLAM has been fake from its inception in the 7th Century some hard done by traumatized kid whose Mom popped her clogs at his early age. His Uncle flogged him onto to an older women who no doubt decided to sexually abuse him when his tackle reached maturity around 12 years. She dies leaving him a fortune which he spent too quickly so had to go out steal. He approves of pedophilia and rape since this happened to him. History repeats itself especially when a kid suffers from PTSD. ISIS suffers from the same disease and this is why we need to take draconian action.
shaheb says
First thing which i would like to say that,why these groups are existing in USA,because someone allow them to come and gave them space for it.
One one hand ruling policy dose work but on other hand your are allowing some people which can change the game plane.
No one can stop them to rule America,which is there basic struggle,even though,they are in army and other ranks.
The day is coming when America needs to fight for its existence.If they consider only there policies,might be game can change,but they need to struggle very hard for it.