Western Resistance

« US: Catholic Father Talks About Pope Benedict, Islam | | US: Chicago Mosque Leader Gets 20 Years' Jail On Drugs Charge »

January 7, 2006

US: CAIR Joins Boston Islamic Society Controversy

We recently described the growing controversy surrounding the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB), which is building a giant mosque in the Roxbury distict of the city. The construction of the mosque has virtually halted while the organisation fights a lawsuit against various organisations and individuals which it claims have "defamed" it.

The "defamatory" groups named in ISB' lawsuit, including Boston's Fox Channel 25, have pointed out some unpleasant truths, regarding a former founder's sentencing to 23 years' jail. Abdurahman Alamoudi, identified by the US Treasury Department as a fund-raiser for al-Qaeda, was involved in an assassination plot. We listed other instances of extremist connections in our earlier article.

Today, Reuters discusses the rising tensions between ISB leadership and leaders of Jewish groups in Boston. On Thursday, Boston's Jewish Advocate newspaper carried a full page advertisement, in which ISB was accused of using litigation to suppress discussion, and also of failing to adequately respond to Jewish leaders' questions. Jewish leaders have, since London's 7/7, where mosques have been cited as sources of extremism, been concerned about mosques with possible terror links.

Larry Lowenthal heads the American Jewish Committee's Boston branch. He says: "There is a great deal of anxiety.... The distance that I think has to be established between these current leaders and their colleagues who have made troubling statements ... that distance has to be clearly distinct and established."

There are an estimated 240,000 Jews in the Boston region, with 70,000 Muslims. Reuters reports that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has 33 branches in the US and Canada, has also thrown its support behind the Islamic Society of Boston.

Arsalan Iftikhar, who is legal director for CAIR, said: "Unfortunately, I see the Boston case as indicative of a growing trend in anti-Muslim rhetoric that has grown after 9/11. It has especially impacted local Muslim communities in terms of building their mosques. High concentrations of Muslim populations are being given a hard time for just trying to practice their faith."

Well CAIR knows what a hard time it has had, just trying to practice its faith. CAIR was founded in 1994, at a period according to Ahmed Bedier, the group's communications director, when it was not "immoral" to support Islamic Jihad, the anti-Israeli terrorist organisation.

The organisation's headquarters near the White House was funded with Saudi money. National Review states: "According to saudiembassy.net, the official website of the Saudi government, CAIR received $250,000 from the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, an official Saudi financial institution, in 1999, for the purchase of land in Washington, D.C., to construct a headquarters facility." IDB have funded US mosques too, including ones associated with Wahhabism, the extremist Sunni doctrine which originated in Saudi Arabia.

The most comprehensive sources on CAIR itself being linked with terrorism and its advocates can be found in ANTI-CAIR, currently subject to a lawsuit from the group, and Daniel Pipes.org. A class action lawsuit has been filed against CAIR, naming the group as a defendant, by the families of FBI man John P. O'Neill, Sr, who died in the World Trade Center on Sept 11, 2001.

A full copy of the charges specifically laid against CAIR can be found in a pdf upload, provided by Daniel Pipes, entitled Plaintiffs' More Definite Statement as to Defendant Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and CAIR-Canada. From page 11:

CAIR was founded by donations from the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), which is a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization, World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), and International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO).

CAIR is funded by terrorists. The International Institute of Islamic Thought, an organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, donated money in 2003, according to its tax filings. Additionally, the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) gave CAIR $250,000 in August 1999. The IDB also manages funds for the Al-Quds which finance suicide bombings against Israeli civilians by providing funds to the families of Palestinian "martyrs".

One of CAIR's fundraisers, Rabih Hadid, was co-founder of the Global Relief Foundation, which was designated as a financier of terror by the US Treasury Department. Its assets were frozen on December 14, 2001.

The document has cited CAIR as an active supporter of terror: "CAIR has long provided financial support and other forms of material support to terrorist organizations including Radical Muslim Terrorism, or the al Qaida, and/or the International Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders."

The lawsuit naming CAIR also mentions its continued support for Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Qatar-based Sheikh.

Qaradawi is also involved in the disputes and claims surrounding Boston Islamic Society. For several years he was listed as one of the trustees of ISB. He was asked to attend a fund-raising event for the group in 2002, but had to appear on a video-link, as he is banned from entering the US, on account of his radical views.

Qaradawi is, according to the lawsuit brought by John O'Neill's estate, "a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who has issued fatwas calling for attacks on American forces and killing Jews and mandating Jihad." CAIR has repeatedly championed Qaradawi.

On July 13, 2004 on his weekly program on Al-Jazeera TV, Qaradawi accused Jews of being oppressors. "There is no dialogue between us except by the sword and the rifle," he announced. In August 2004, he signed a statement which called for support for "resistance" against US and coalition troops. He also supports suicide bombings in Israel, and the death penalty for homosexuals.

Perhaps Boston Islamic Society is not doing itself any favours by associating with CAIR. Sure, similarities exist between the groups, and the nature of the accusations made against them. An alliance made with CAIR is hardly going to impress any but the most naive US citizens. The vindictive lawsuits produced by CAIR against its detractors (now mimicked by ISB), and their campaigns of oppression against US citizens such as Christopher Wilson and Michael Graham, their unwanted interventions regarding school holidays, their constant criticism of the US government and exploiting the names of real civil rights leaders - all these small issues add up to CAIR being perceived by the public much as US communists were perceived in the 1950s .

CAIR and ISB both have links with terrorists, even if only in the past, and luminaries within both organisations have been charged on terror-related offences and have been convicted.

According to FrontPageMag, from 1997 to October 2001, Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer was CAIR's "Communications Specialist". He was also "Civil Rights Coordinator." He was indicted on charges of conspiring to help Al Qaida and the Taliban to battle American troops in Afghanistan. On January 16, 2004, he pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was convicted of weapons and explosives charges in connection to a terrorist related offense. Royer also supplied funds to Lashkar-e-Taiba.

CAIR was formed by two IAP officials, Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad, the latter of whom has openly pledged his support for Hamas.

IAP is the Islamic Association for Palestine, which has been called a "Hamas front."

So perhaps it is appropriate that CAIR should wade into the feud currently surrounding Boston Islamic Society. They are two groups which tell the world they are moderate, yet which have founding members who espouse terrorist causes, and continue to twist and pervert the normal standards of reasoning to claim that their presence in the US bodes well for the nation's future. CAIR and ISB deserve each other far more than the general non-Muslim US public deserves them.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 7, 2006 2:35 PM

Comments

Post a comment