Congratulations to Sanat Sethy. Few politicians possess the fortitude to stand up to the dictatorship-like demands of Islamic supremacist groups — many of which were designated uninindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding case, including CAIR. There is a widespread fear of being called “Islamophobic” and “racist.” Islamic supremacist lobbies have taken full advantage of that fear and wield it persistently. They have bestowed upon themselves the authority to take politicians to the woodshed if they refuse to kowtow to their demands.
More leaders need to stop being dhimmis in the face of intimidation from these groups. We need more politicians who are responsible, loyal to their societies, and willing to take a stand for human rights, justice and freedom.
“Criticism mounts on mayoral candidate after refusal to participate in Muslim group forum,” by Sam Richards, SF Bay, October 8, 2020:
A candidate for mayor of San Ramon is taking criticism for declining to take part in an election forum sponsored by a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group over what he called “anti-Semitic positions” taken by the national group.
A statement Monday from the Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area Office condemned Sanat Sethy for what its leaders said was Sethy’s “Islamophobia and fear-mongering rhetoric” in justifying not participating in a Sept. 30 San Ramon mayoral candidates forum carried out on Zoom.
Aliza Kazmi, San Francisco CAIR’s advocacy manager, said in a statement:
“Sanat Sethy made his intent to divide voters based on bigotry very clear and in doing so missed out an opportunity to pitch his platform and positions.”
She noted that San Ramon is home to one of the region’s larger Muslim populations and said Tuesday that Sethy’s reasoning for skipping the forum wasn’t justified.
She said:
“(Sethy) accused us of being anti-Semitic; this is a baseless allegation and one that seeks to further divide communities.”
In a release last week, Sethy said he opted out of attending the CAIR forum because of some of CAIR’s previous positions – some of which he views as anti-Semetic – “do not align with (my) personal values or the values of San Ramon residents.”
Sethy, a mechanical engineer and businessman, expanded Wednesday on those statements. He said he takes exception to a number of statements over the past several years by CAIR leaders, notably by San Francisco CAIR Executive Director Zahra Billoo. One tweet from Billoo in 2015 read:
“Israel commits war crimes and terrorism as a hobby.”
Another, from 2018, reads:
“Israel is an apartheid, racist state, which engages in terrorism against Palestinians.”
These tweets, Sethy said, “are just the tip of the iceberg” for Billoo.
Sethy said Wednesday:
“As a person of color and immigrant, I passionately condemn racism, discrimination, and prejudiced beliefs against all persons. Spreading false and baseless accusations of Islamophobia takes attention away from authentic issues that need media coverage. Muslim-Americans face enough real instances of prejudice – there’s no need for fictitious ones.”
Billoo acknowledged the tweets Wednesday, saying:
“I stand by those stated critiques of the apartheid and violence perpetrated by Israel, and funded by U.S. tax dollars.”
Billoo added that Sethy is conflating a critique of Israel and anti-Semitism.
Sethy, in his statement last week, said he also passed on the Sept. 30 CAIR forum because CAIR is a national organization, and that “attending a debate centered around a national organization is unnecessary and counterproductive.”
Sethy is one of six candidates in the Nov. 3 general election seeking to succeed Bill Clarkson, who is stepping down after three four-year terms. Current City Council members Dave Hudson and Sabina Zafar are among the six mayoral hopefuls.
Three candidates — Hudson, Zafar and Aparna Maddireddi — took part in the Sept. 30 San Ramon mayoral forum sponsored by CAIR. The 50-minute forum covered several local issues, including Covid-19 response and reopening local businesses, homelessness, traffic safety, racial justice and economic development.
Kazmi said Tuesday that the other two candidates who didn’t take part in the Sept. 30 forum — Susmita Nayak and Dinesh Govindarao — told CAIR that schedule conflicts prohibited them from participating.
Imad Abboushi, president of the San Ramon Valley Islamic Center, said in a statement Monday he wishes Sethy had taken part in the Sept. 30 Zoom forum.
Abboushi said:
“Community leaders need to support all of their constituents. It is quite disappointing to see a mayoral candidate ignore the needs of a minority group in his community.”
The Bay Area chapter of the Jewish Voice for Peace also sided with CAIR on Monday.
A general statement from the group said:
“We stand with CAIR in condemning Sethy’s actions. CAIR-SFBA has been an invaluable partner in the Muslim community in supporting Jews against rising antisemitism.”…
rubiconcrest says
SF Bay is afraid of comments on the story … “Comments are closed.”
juleonly says
See how clever Islam is….there is no way to verbally disagree with what they are and what their goals are. The only way is for people to become truly educated and watch what is happening in the world and in Muslim countries, and Just Say NO. They would call us dictator but that is the only way to deal with SUPREMACISTS. Supremacists do not fit in Freedom at all as the nature of Supremacy is to destroy freedom. Its what Supremacy is. And Islam is as much Supremacist as Hitlers thing or KKKlan. There is no way Supremacists can co-exist with Freedom.
toomanyhobbies says
sounds like the right man for the job to me….
Clive Delmonte says
Well said! I agree with you!
Cornelius says
One wishes Sethy had spoken out about all those original founding members of CAIR who have been indicted on terrorism-related charges over the years. One wishes he had identified CAIR as the Muslim-Brotherhood front group that it is. One wishes he had asked why the media refers to such an organization as a “civil rights group”.
When a politician or media figure has the guts to challenge our politically-correct status quo, one hopes they have all the information available to make their case as well as it can be made.
revereridesagain says
It just makes me cringe every time some flock of woke rabbis starts throwing fresh meat to the CAIR crocodiles when someone has the fortitude to stand up to them.
Norman Gardner says
JVP are anything but Jewish.
mortimer says
Agree. Sanat Sethy is a rare politician who ‘gets it’. CAIR is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas … two of the most bigoted organizations on earth today.
It should be remembered that the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood consciously patterned itself on Mussolini’s fascist party and Hitler’s National German Socialist Workers’ Party.
Eva says
And the treacherous vermin jvp sided with cair, in condemning a man who called out Jew-hatred.
I guess that says it all about who’s paying them off.
I hope Mr Sethy wins, but after the principled stand he made, I don’t see it. In the dirty world of politics, the fewer morals and less integrity you have, the higher you rise.
somehistory says
He tells the Truth about the so-called, “civil rights group,” but better known to those who have taken the time to learn, “un-indicted”…due to the ‘o’ moslim…”co-conspiritor in the Holy Land Foundation” trial in Dallas, TX in 2008.
Every time he gets the opportunity, he should make that fact known…as well as reading quotes from the moslims themselves about their view of Jews, such as “offspring of apes and pigs,” and “kill them wherever they find them,” and the “trees will say ‘here is a Jew behind me, kill him.”
This mosli lying about what they believe and saying his charge is “baseless,” is just what every cair member is told to do. They take orders from the mb, and this is something the candidate should make known. Use their own words to prove his claims of their Jew-hatred.
And make a big thing out of their fake “phobia”…by telling the people where it originated and why they coined the word. moslims want to keep the truth hidden, but the Truth is his best weapon against them.
livingengine says
CAIR used their media access to attack 8 people in August. That is a rate of twice a month. Isn’t it time to start complaining about this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sERDD-jZVBk
livingengine says
should read “twice a week”, but you get the idea.
CAIR was on TV 42 times in August, so more than a 3rd of their TV appearances was devoted to getting someone fired.
gravenimage says
California: Mayoral candidate under fire for ‘Islamophobia’ after refusing to participate in Hamas-linked CAIR forum
……………………
Just appalling–kudos to Sanat Sethy.
And this is right in my neck of the woods.
Cornelius says
Graven….why was I under the impression you were Australian?
gravenimage says
Hi, Cornelius. I have Australian relatives and friends, but am American.
I live in the San Francisco bay area. My mother was English, though, and I still have relatives in England.
Cornelius says
I’m on the east coast. Did we have an email discourse about 10 years ago? We met at Secularislam.org…?
gravenimage says
That wasn’t me, Cornelius–but that does sound like an interesting site.
We have had any number of discussions here, though.
Cornelius says
Sorry about the confusion. What threw me was that she was also from the Bay area.
gravenimage says
No problem, Cornelius. There are more Anti-Jihadists here than you might think.
gary fouse says
Down here in SoCal, we have heard plenty of anti-Jewish comments from the CAIR director, Hussam Ayloush. I personally heard him question why there was so much worry about dozen or young Muslim males going off to fight for ISIS and nothing said about the “thousands of young Jewish men going to join the IDF “killing the people of Gaza”. You can watch the video.
https://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-crisis-of-isis-panel-at-islamic.html
gravenimage says
Thanks for that link, Gary.
The Political Oracle says
We should not forget to honor Beth Van Duyen, ex mayor of Irving, Texas. She stopped sharia law from being imposed on the people there.
On another note, all Muslims owe their allegiance to Saudi Arabia before any other country. This should be obvious as to why. All forms of islam are an arm of Saudi Arabian Wahabist ideology. There is no moderate islam except under taqiyyah. All islamic roads leads to Saudi Arabia.
gravenimage says
Saudi Arabia is really bad, but this is orthodox Islam.
infidel says
They are the ones that play the dividing game the world over and then accuse others…
Georgette Bensimon says
Kudoos to Sanat Sethy. Not too many people, moreover aspiring politicians, would have the courage to stand up for the truth in today’s world ! CAIR and all their bandit accolytes cannot accept that in a democracy one’s right is to be able to express and denounce freely. It is against their policy as their aim is to conquer, convert and submit everyone on earth by force. ?
notnolib says
I don’t understand the problem. Sanat Sethy decided he doesn’t want to have anything to do with a terrorist organization, of which the terror organization CAIR is one. In fact, its officers, members and supporters are terrorists.