Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) leaders have a peculiar way of expressing their oft-preached virtues of inclusion, pluralism, and participation — as evidenced by a recently filmed October 10 CAIR panel on “Anti-Muslim Bias in Politics.” CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw specifically asked me to leave this “private event” — broadcast online — in an act of censorship that is contrary to its supposed values. If CAIR can’t abide a modicum of political pluralism at a public event, why should anyone believe their platitudes about liberty and equality?
My expulsion was ironic in view of the comments by McCaw and his CAIR colleagues in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill during this sparsely attended event. He spoke of “open conversations” in which “we are going to encourage audience members to ask questions.” CAIR’s panel instead presented dubious boilerplate cries of victimization that have filled innumerable similar events. Reading somewhat awkwardly from his smartphone notes, McCaw claimed that “anti-Muslim bigotry inside the United States and Europe has risen consistently over the last two decades,” have “now just become a part of the mainstream American political experience,” and “fit in a larger historical frame of xenophobia and social discord.”
McCaw’s CAIR colleague Zainab Arain similarly condemned an “increasing institutionalization of Islamophobia within the government.” Barzegar’s “esteemed mentor and friend,” Islamist apologist John Esposito, ominously stated that a “tsunami wave” of hate crime violence and legal challenges have hit American mosques, even as mosque construction has boomed in recent decades.
In contrast, Esposito and his fellow panelists dismissed any scrutiny of Islamist threats, and claimed that American concerns over Sharia law were “fabricating an issue.” But statements from CAIR officials and significant Muslim support for Sharia law around the world, including in the United Kingdom, reveal the emptiness of his claim that no American Muslims desire Sharia.
Barzegar attacked Barack Obama’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs as a “very aggressive securitization and deputization of our entire civil society space.” Even these politically correct approaches to Islamism under the Obama administration displeased him; he claimed that CVE addressed a “manufactured problem.” Barzegar therefore praised as a “victory” the withdrawal of Los Angeles city authorities from CVE programs.
Pleasant-sounding statements by Esposito on confronting “across the board racism” were no more credible. Although McCaw asserted that American Muslims involved in the political process want to “make America great for everyone,” the Anti-Defamation League has documented CAIR’s “anti-Israel agenda.” Not surprisingly, the Hamas-derived CAIR likes “to partner with various anti-Israel groups that seek to isolate and demonize the Jewish State,” including slandering Israel as practicing “apartheid.”
With deceptive cheerfulness, McCaw concluded the panel by offering free tickets to the audience and any congressional staff to CAIR’s annual banquet. CAIR has expressly disinvited this reporter from that event. CAIR’s insular Islamists reserve their charm for useful idiots while excluding serious critics who refuse to play along with their hypocritical, one-sided demands for respect.
Andrew E. Harrod is a Campus Watch Fellow, freelance researcher, and writer who holds a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a JD from George Washington University Law School. He is a fellow with the Lawfare Project. Follow him on Twitter @AEHarrod.
mortimer says
The title should be ‘CAIR’s ONE-WAY Tolerance’, for that is what CAIR is actually promoting.
Oh, by the way, how many Muslims from OTHER sects (besides WAHHABISTS) are working at CAIR???
I thought as much.
gravenimage says
Spot on, Mortimer.
Westman says
It’s a very strange phenomenon: Through the civil rights era, as Americans learned about Blacks, racism declined and special provisions were made to advance the race. However, the more Americans learn about Islam’s theology and history, the less trusting they are of Muslims.
One could easily feel sorry for CAIR and its impossible mission. Muslims keep proving, through worldwide almost daily acts of violence and incredible intolerance of Islamic nations, that Islam is the religion of perpetual animosity.
J F says
“Convert or die” has such a nice welcoming ring to it.
gravenimage says
+1
RegT says
Feel sorry? Even “almost” sorry? I think most of us more likely long for the day when we haven’t a CAIR in the world.
livingengine says
CBS affiliate KOVR makes fake news story for CAIR.
https://youtu.be/WmfdXCWLzh0
Ibrahim itace muhammed says
Liar Gravenimage, how true the so-called decline in racism and police brutalities against the black in your apartheid evil United States? Remember, savage mad devil Trump even stated in his campaign promises that he was of recolonise black Africans and revive that cruel transatlantic slave and he is presently harassing good African leader like Nigerian president Buhari not retrieve the stolen public funds stashed in the economies of the west, more than $400 billions, and allow American Agric products to flood Nigerian markets to kill efforts to tap vast Agric resources in Nigeria, which is more than that of evil United States. wicked scums of evils!!
Ada Taiber says
Are you out of your mind???? Are you connected to reality and facts???? It seems you are another Muslim hateful liar!!!!
gravenimage says
The appalling Ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
Liar Gravenimage, how true the so-called decline in racism and police brutalities against the black in your apartheid evil United States?
…………………………..
Of course, there is no apartheid here. I live on a block with White, Black, Asian, and Jewish residents. How is that apartheid?
More:
Remember, savage mad devil Trump even stated in his campaign promises that he was of recolonise black Africans and revive that cruel transatlantic slave
…………………………..
Ibrahim itace muhammed has made this insane claim before, but it is completely baseless. If Trump had said *anything* even vaguely like this, his opponents would rightly be having a field day with it. Of course, he has said no such thing.
This is even more perverse, since Ibrahim itace muhammed *himself* has affirmed that Muslims have the right to enslave Infidels.
More:
and he is presently harassing good African leader like Nigerian president Buhari not retrieve the stolen public funds stashed in the economies of the west, more than $400 billions, and allow American Agric products to flood Nigerian markets to kill efforts to tap vast Agric resources in Nigeria, which is more than that of evil United States. wicked scums of evils!!
…………………………..
What is Ibrahim itace muhammed babbling about now?
Trump has certainly criticized Buhari for not doing more against terrorism, and not doing more to protect persecuted Christians in Nigeria. The idea that this is somehow ‘racist’ is absurd–Christians in Nigeria are also Black.
And no–trade does not destroy agriculture. That Ibrahim itace muhammed has claimed that he is employed in offering financial advice to some unnamed Muslim country in Africa does not bode well for their economy…
RegT says
Of course, this ignorant muslim refuses to admit that the muslim world is the largest slave owner on the face of the Earth. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that they have kept more people enslaved than the rest of the world altogether, even during the height of the slavery of blacks here in this country and elsewhere.
J.W.K. says
Did you really want to eat slop with those unwashed …….. ?
J.W.K. says
Why would you want to eat slop with those unwashe2d …….. ?
Obbop says
What I hope happens to CAIR and all infesting that foul den of filth is best left unwritten and not spoken.
somehistory says
So the “panel” was meeting at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.
This is a Government building for members of the House. So how does the hamas-linked, moslim brotherhood front group, cair, get to use this building for a meeting to discuss so called “anti-moslim” hate in the U.S.?
Since this is a public building…owned by “we the people”…how can they make someone leave just because they don’t like the questions being raised?
moslims create a putrid smell and then complain that others don’t approve of the evil odors. moslims commit every kind of atrocity and then complain that the average person doesn’t like their “work.”
And they have the gall to complain in a building built by taxes extracted from those same average persons. And not only complain, but lie about the degree of hate and actions thereof.
They are so disgusting in their putridness and even a tsunami wave couldn’t wash away the vileness of their beast.