As has been discussed at Jihad Watch previously, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) uses its media access to attack individual people or things on TV at a current rate of four times a month. These incidents vary in degree of severity and outrage, but are steadily increasing in frequency every year. This past August, CAIR hit two targets on one broadcast. CAIR put out slanderous misinformation about PragerU videos, and then tried to inflame an already potentially explosive situation involving Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters.
After Superintendent Ryan Walters allowed teachers the option to use videos produced by PragerU in the classroom, CAIR started a media campaign to denounce both PragerU and Walters himself.
But even after four separate broadcasts, we still do not know exactly what CAIR’s objections to PragerU videos are. CAIR representatives claim that the videos are “skewed,” “inappropriate,” “slanted,” “not entirely accurate,” and “far from reality,” but rarely give concrete examples. In a KOKH broadcast, CAIR’s Adam Soltani says:
PragerU is definitely skewed toward a political and Christian nationalist white-savior that is not beneficial to minorities of any background here in Oklahoma.
PragerU describes itself as promoting
American values through the creative use of educational videos that reach millions of people online. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Prager University Foundation (“PragerU”) offers a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media, and education.
News reports will frequently mention that PragerU is not an accredited university, but then neither are various groups that provide optional teaching material for public schools, including PBS, Unity Productions, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Thus lack of accreditation is not the issue here; the problem CAIR has is with one of the presenters, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
According to her bio at PragerU,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a women’s rights activist, champion of free speech, political refugee, and best-selling author. Ayaan’s journey began in Somalia in 1969 where, as a young girl raised in a devout Muslim culture, she was subjected to female genital mutilation. In 2004 Ayaan gained international attention following the murder of Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh had directed her short film Submission, a film about the oppression of women under Islam. The assassin left a death threat for her pinned to Van Gogh’s chest.
However, she does not dwell on her personal experiences in the PragerU videos. When she brings up her disinvitation from Brandeis University, she does not mention that it was CAIR’s doing. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is entitled to her opinion, and some people might want to hear what she has to say. But CAIR does not want you to hear what she say to say, and would much prefer you to get their permission before associating with Ms. Hirsi Ali in public.
The only other PragerU video mentioned in a broadcast is “Egypt: Bishoy Chooses Bravery.” Here once again is Adam Soltani, CAIR-OK’s Executive Director, from a KOKH Fox 25 story, “Big Story Breakdown Crisis in the classroom“:
These are five-minute videos and you cannot tell the story of a complex and complicated relationship between two of the major world religions in a country like Egypt, and any other country in the Middle East, or the world, in a five-minute snippet.
Of course, that is not what the video is doing. It is a fictional story of a Christian Egyptian boy who does not let religious discrimination hold him back from joining a Muslim soccer team. He makes the team, everybody is friends, and the video does not vilify anyone. There is even a happy ending.
Oklahoma State University lists Soltani as Adjunct Instructor of Islamic Studies at OSU. It would be interesting to audit some of Soltani’s courses to see what he thinks an unbiased presentation of Christian persecution in Egypt looks like.
CAIR is not the only one angry at Ryan Walters. As superintendent, Walters is not just trying to salvage the captured institution of public schools; he is also taking on the corrupt media. “How Oklahoma’s schools superintendent became the state’s top culture warrior,” by Tyler Kingkade, NBC News, August 23, 2023
A top aide for Walters warned in emails to staff that anyone caught leaking to the press would be fired. It turned out to be a trap; each of the 400 emails were unique. Walters received a round of applause when he described the operation at a June 7 OCPAC meeting, according to video of the event. He said the department caught “dozens” of leakers.”
In the style of Donald Trump, Ryan Walters is calling the corrupt media out for what it is. “Oklahoma superintendent says he was targeted in Union Schools bomb threats,” by Jackson Walker, The National Desk, September 7, 2023:
Bomb threats against public schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, continued to pour in on Tuesday as right-wing indignation over a satirical TikTok video posted earlier this month by a local educator enters its second week.
Large numbers of students have reportedly stayed home in the wake of the threats, which set the city of just over 400,000 on edge.
At the same time, the state’s 38-year-old Superintendent of Public Instruction—who helped stoke outrage over the supposed intentions of a “woke” school librarian—now stands accused of ignoring ongoing child abuse allegedly taking place right under his nose.
“I was the target of some of the bomb threats, my personal residence,” he told TND. “The local media here conveniently left that part out. It was just telling half the story to try to connect me [to the bomb threats], when in reality, I was targeted with threats as well.”
The omission, Walters said, helped aid the advancement of a belief that he was to blame for the threats.
“I think it’s absurd,” Walters said of claims he was to blame for the threats. “This is just the gaslighting they do and trying to and push us conservatives into a corner and drive a fake narrative. It amazes me at the lengths they’ll go to try to defend their left-wing position.” –
So it was against the backdrop of a week-long series of bomb threats against Ryan Walters and Oklahoma schools that Adam Soltani got on TV to talk about his feelings and call out Ryan Walters by name.
I would want Ryan Walters to know he is really playing with the lives and the emotions of people in our state.
There are numerous examples of CAIR inciting, or being involved in incitement, resulting in rape threats, tears, peaceful towns divided, riots, and a terrorist incident.
There is no other group on Earth that gets on TV as often as CAIR to place someone’s position or safety at risk. And it is no accident that KOKH let Adam Soltani speak against Ryan Walters on behalf of the people of Oklahoma.
During the station’s deep dive, or “Big Story Breakdown” as KOKH calls it, it took a look at the background of PragerU, as well as Ryan Walters, and even passed along the rumor that Walters was under FBI investigation. But there was no examination of CAIR at all.
Ryan Walters is CAIR’s thirty-fourth target this year. If the pattern holds true, there will be 48 such incidents before the year ends.
Charles Stephan says
Is CAIR’s only purpose to peddle propaganda?
James Lincoln says
Judging by their actions, that seems to be the case, Charles.
CS Anderson says
Oklahoma is the last place I would expect to see CAIR so publicly lauded. I am disturbed, but not totally surprised, especially at the actions of OSU. As a recovering liberal democrat from Chicago, a Jew living in Oklahoma for the past 21 years, kudos to Superintendent Walters for his stand.