Ron Paul snubs CAIR over banquet
Congressman turns down terror-tied group's invitation to speak

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Posted: November 27, 2008
12:05 am Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily


Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas

The Council on American-Islamic Relations boasts that a "capacity crowd" turned out for its 14th annual fundraising banquet earlier this week. But there was at least one prominent no-show: congressman and former presidential candidate, Ron Paul.

Paul, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, has become a darling of the Wahhabi lobby in Washington. But WND has learned that he turned down an invitation to speak at CAIR's confab in Washington at which a number of CAIR officials were slapped with a legal summons.

CAIR claims more than 700 people attended the event, which it called the "best ever" annual dinner for the Islamist lobbying group.

"Demand for tickets was so great that a number of people had to be turned away or given standing-room-only entry," it maintained on its website.

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But CAIR had hoped that Paul, a Republican from Texas, would headline its fundraising event. A spokeswoman for the lawmaker confirmed that he declined the invitation.

"He had commitments in Texas and couldn't be in two places at once," explained Paul press aide Rachel Mills.

Asked if CAIR's ties to terrorism had anything to do with the decision, Mills declined comment.

But as CAIR held its banquet, a Texas jury was deliberating over 108 terrorism and other felony charges against a charity tied to CAIR. The Holy Land Foundation and five of its former organizers – including a founding director of CAIR – were subsequently found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Both CAIR and its co-founder Omar Ahmad are named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case.

Speakers who did attend the CAIR event, held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va., included: Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., Congress' first Muslim; North Carolina state Sen. Larry Shaw, D-Cumberland, a Muslim and CAIR board member; and Debbie Almontaser, a Muslim who resigned as founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in New York after her defense of the violent Palestinian intifada against Israel created a firestorm in the press.

Last November, representatives from Paul's presidential campaign attended a townhall meeting in Cary, N.C., titled, "Voting is Power," hosted by the Muslim American Society, or MAS. Shaw also attended the event, with Ellison appearing via video.

The FBI believes MAS is the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement. Its leaders run the mosque in Falls Church, Va., that hosted some of the 9/11 hijackers. And the MAS official listed on the event's press release, Mahdi Bray, was caught on video cheering on Hamas and Hezbollah during a rally in Washington just before 9/11.

CAIR executive director Nihad Awad has also expressed support for Hamas.

CAIR claims to represent the average Muslim in America. "The success of this year's dinner demonstrates the support CAIR has in the community," CAIR's website says.

Yet the dinner was interrupted by the serving of legal papers to Awad that name him and CAIR as defendants in a fraud lawsuit brought by Muslim clients of CAIR, who claim the group misrepresented them in immigration cases and stole thousands of dollars from them.

At the banquet, Awad called on President-elect Barack Obama to "restore" civil liberties he claims have been denied Muslims under the Patriot Act and other counterterrorism measures enacted since the 9/11 attacks.

In contrast to previous fundraising banquets, this year CAIR did not release a dollar figure indicating the amount of money raised at the event.






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