CAIR wants no scrutiny of al-Qaida in America

Lobbies to eliminate plans to counter violent attacks

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 20, 2011
8:05 pm Eastern


By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WND




An organization that monitors Islamic extremism around the world reports there have been 3,094 people killed in 66 Islamic terror attacks in the United States in recent years, but the activist Council on American Islamic Relations says it is unfair for the nation's Department of Homeland Security to single out Muslims for observation.

CAIR, which calls itself a civil liberties and advocacy organization and says its goal is to "empower American Muslims," is distressed with proposals in Congress that would authorize the federal department to appoint an official to coordinate efforts that would be aimed at deterring and preventing such attacks.

The organization is urging Muslims "and other people of conscience" to lobby members of Congress an oppose the plans that are outlined in Senate Bill 1546, which calls for the DHS secretary to "designate an official … to coordinate efforts to counter violent extremism in the United States, particularly the ideology that gives rise to Islamist terrorism as identified in the 9/11 Commission Report."



A related proposal, pending in the House, is H.B. 3116. It calls for DHS secretary "to designate an official of the department to coordinate efforts to counter homegrown violent Islamist extremism, including the violent ideology of al-Qaida and its affiliated groups, in the United States."


It is the Religion of Peace website that has compiled lists of Muslim attacks around the world. Its list for the United States alone features the 2010 attack in Illinois in which "a Muslim convert shots his family members to 'take them back to Allah.'"

It includes the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, with a fatality toll in the thousands.

Also included is the 2008 incident in which "a devout Muslim strangles his 25-year-old daughter in an honor killing" and in 2009 when "a woman dies from injuries suffered when her father runs her down with a care for being too 'Westernized.'"

Also in 2006 in Maryland, "a 62-year-old Jewish moviegoer is shot to death by a Muslim gunman in an unprovoked terror attack," and the same year in Denver, "Saying it was 'Allah's choice,' a Muslim shoots four of his co-workers and a police officer."

In 2007 in Salt Lake City, "A Muslim immigrant goes on a shooting rampage at a mall, targeting people buying Valentine's Day cards at a gift shop and killing five."

The website notes that since the Islamic terror attacks on 9/11, there have been 17,881 deadly Islamic terror attacks around the world. For the week of Oct. 8-14, there were 29 jihad attacks with 145 fatalities and 534 critically injured globally. For the month of September, there were 144 attacks with 658 dead and 1,377 critically injured.


But, according to Robert McCaw, CAIR government affairs coordinator, "CAIR, along with the mainstream American Muslim community, utterly rejects violent extremists. Any action that harms innocent civilians is reprehensible, regardless of ideology that drives it. Focusing solely on American Muslims to combat domestic extremism is misguided."

However, the legislation doesn't focus "solely" on American Muslims; both proposals target "violent extremism in the United States" and "homegrown violent Islamist extremism, including the violent ideology of al-Qaida."

And both are consistent with the department's purpose to deter and prevent violence from any source, according to the bills themselves.


But CAIR wants the Muslim factor to be ignored.


"The Department of Homeland Security's own statistics show there are a variety of domestic extremist groups threatening the nation and that each deserves serious consideration and consistent attention," McCaw said.

The group is urging Muslims and "people of conscience" to "call members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about proposed legislation" that focuses on a group that factors largely in the violent extremism in the U.S. and around the world.

"CAIR believes that the legislation, sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME), is too narrowly focused and does not go far enough to keep Americans safe from all types of violent extremism," the group said.

In a release about the issue, the organization tells people what to say to members of Congress, including to U.S. senators: "I also ask you to ensure that if the Department of Homeland Security Reauthorization Act of 2011 comes to a vote in the Senate, that Section 213 is amended to remove all problematic language that targets ideology and singles out American Muslims for additional scrutiny."

CAIR also advises supporters to say: "As your constituent, I urge you to oppose any legislation that singles out the American Muslim community for unwarranted scrutiny. I also ask that you support measures that persue (sic) criminal action, not beliefs."

In a letter from DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to Collins, she noted that homegrown violent extremism is "not limited to a single ideology."

But she also wrote, "We know that foreign terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaida, and individual terrorist thought leaders, are actively seeking to recruit or inspire Westerners to carry out attacks against Western and U.S. targets."

The activism of CAIR and like-minded groups has been getting more attention in recent days.

WND reported this week when the Hyatt Place Hotel in Sugar Land, Texas, abruptly canceled a tea party organization's meeting with author Pamela Geller, who wrote "Stop the Islamization of America."

Geller said the action, apparently in response to telephone calls to the hotel from Islamic activists, puts, "free speech, the cornerstone of our constitutional republic … in serious jeopardy."

"Under the Shariah, criticism of Islam is blasphemy (punishable by death in Muslims countries living under the Shariah). This is the death of free speech in the continuing Islamization of America, as I saw vividly Tuesday night when I was spoke in Houston, Texas. But free people and free speech ultimately prevailed, despite the best efforts of Islamic supremacists to crush them. The Hyatt's cancellation, and the reaction of freedom lovers to it, best illustrates why I wrote my book "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance:" to show what Islamic supremacists are doing in America today, and how we must fight back."

She said, "I was scheduled to speak Tuesday evening for the Sugar Land Tea Party at the Hyatt Place Houston/Sugar Land. But Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) thugs intimidated the hotel where the event was scheduled to take place, Hyatt Place Houston/Sugar Land, into canceling the event altogether. Giving Tea Party organizers little time to find a new venue, the Hyatt Place in Sugar Land caved to Islamic pressure and agreed to enforce the blasphemy law under the Shariah."

WND also reported that a key individual behind the radical uprisings called "Occupy" protests is also a leading activist for Muslims in Orlando.

The opposition to Geller's address is hardly the first time revelations about CAIR and Shariah have generated a response. The authors of "Muslim Mafia" also have been taken to court by CAIR over the revelations it contains