CAIR

Year Formed: 1994

Website: www.CAIR.com

2011 Revenue: $4,748,618 (under the title of CAIR Foundation because CAIR Inc.’s non-profit status was revoked)

National Headquarters: 453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003

CAIR describes itself as “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.”

In 2007, the U.S. government labeled CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for financing the Hamas terrorist group. CAIR was listed among “individuals/entities who are/were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations.” The Palestine Committee is a secret body set up to advance the Brotherhood/Hamas agenda. The FBI subsequently severed official contacts with the group, saying it “does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner.”

On July 1, 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis upheld  CAIR’s designation as an unindicted co-conspirator because of “ample evidence” linking it to Hamas. However, he also ruled that the designation should not have been made public.

In a 2007 court filing in the case of convicted terrorist Sabri Bekhala, federal prosecutors state: “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”[2]

CAIR grew out of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a group founded in 1981 by Hamas member Mousa Abu Marzook. He is now a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip. U.S. Muslim Brotherhood documents clearly identify the IAP as one of its fronts. One 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memorandum says it is engaged in a “Civilization-Jihadist Process.” It states:

“The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

In 1993, the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Palestine Committee organized a secret meeting in Philadelphia that was wiretapped by the FBI. The participants, which included two IAP officials, Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, discussed how to support Hamas and, in the words of Judge Solis’s ruling, “goals, strategies and American perceptions of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Ahmad was recorded discussing how to modify language about destroying Israel for an American audience.

The need to create a new “neutral” entity for influencing U.S. policy and opinion was agreed upon because “it is known who we are.” CAIR was formed by Awad and Ahmad the next year. A 1994 Palestine Committee meeting agenda includes “suggestions to develop work of” CAIR and IAP.

Ahmad served as CAIR chairman until 2005. Nihad Awad remains the Executive Director of CAIR. In 1994, Awad said, “I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO.”[3] That same year, he said Hamas is right to “defend themselves against illegal occupation.”[4] In 2004, Al-Jazeera asked him about the U.S. designations of Hamas and Hezbollah as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. He answered, “We do not and will not condemn any liberation movement inside Palestine or Lebanon.”[5]

The group’s events regularly feature Islamists and it closely works with other Brotherhood-linked organizations. Some CAIR officials continue to openly support Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the elimination of the state of Israel. Others are more evasive and condemn “acts of terrorism” but not Hamas and Hezbollah by name. The Clarion Project’s film, The Third Jihad, includes a news clip where current CAIR Government Affairs Director Corey Saylor is seen awkwardly refusing to condemn the two terrorist groups.

CAIR wages an unrelenting campaign to discredit its critics as anti-Muslim bigots.[6] CAIR also attacks its Muslim critics, for example, loudly protesting the appointment of anti-Islamist activist Dr. Zuhdi Jasser to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms because he is a “sock puppet for Islam haters and an enabler of Islamophobia.”[7]

The CAIR spokesperson who attacked Jasser, Ibrahim Hooper, previously worked for IAP. In 1993, he said, “I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.”[8] In 2003, Hooper said on the Michael Medved radio show that Sharia Law would replace the U.S. Constitution if Muslims became the majority.[9]

A Gallup poll published in 2011 found that only 12% of Muslim-American males and 11% of females picked CAIR when asked which Muslim-American organization most represents their interests.[10]

---

[1] Address as of January 1, 2013, as listed on CAIR website’s “Contact” page: http://www.cair.com/Contact.aspx

[2] U.S. v. Sabri Benkahla, No. 07-4778, Brief for the United States, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, On Appeal From U.S. District Court of Eastern District of Virginia. http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/542.pdf

[3] The statement was made at Barry University on March 22, 1994. The Investigative Project on Terrorism has recording of it at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/223/cairs-awad-in-support-of-the-ham...

[4] Stated on  CBS’s “60 Minutes” on CBS on November 13, 1994, as documented by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, “Apologists or Extremists: Nihad Awad,” http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/113.

[5] Al-Jazeera interview with Talal al-Haj. Translated by the Translating Jihad blog, “CAIR’s Nihad Awad Refuses to Condemn Hamas,” January 24, 2011, http://www.translatingjihad.com/2011/01/cairs-nihad-awad-refuses-to-condemn.html.

[6] See “Anatomy of a Smear: ‘The Third Jihad’ Fights Back” by Wayne Kopping, posted on YouTube on February 13, 2012: http://youtu.be/fdBTuUH5AAA

[7] Markoe, Lauren. “Muslims Call New Religious Freedom Appointee a ‘Puppet’ for Islam Foes,” Religion News Service, March 27, 2012. http://archives.religionnews.com/culture/social-issues/conservatives-app...

[8] Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Apr. 4, 1993. As reported in, “CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment” by Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha, the Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2006, pp.3-20, http://www.meforum.org/916/cair-islamists-fooling-the-establishment

[9] Pipes and Chadha, referencing personal communication with Medved in 2004.

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[10] Gallup Nightly Poll from January 1, 2008 to April 9, 2011.  http://www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/153611/REPORT-Muslim-Americans...

The annual convention of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) brings together Islamists from around the U.S. and outside the country. This year’s event, held on December 21-25, had at least a dozen Islamist speakers with links to the Muslim Brotherhood and histories of extremist rhetoric. (See our previous article about the here.)

One speaker who was booked for the event, Saudi Sheikh Ayed Al-Qarni, is so radical that the U.S. government refused to let him enter the country to attend the conference.

Advocating for his entry into the U.S. was CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (whose executive-director spoke at the event), who demanded that the U.S. allow him in.

MAS was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood and ICNA is listed in a 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” 

Renting venues and equipment, covering travel expenses, purchasing advertising and all the other costs that come with these huge events (MAS-ICNA expected nearly 10,000 people) are not cheap. That’s where sponsors come in. Helping with this year’s event was the DISH Network and Turkish Airlines. Their logos are seen at the bottom of the convention home page and were printed on the bags given to attendees.

It’s unclear why the DISH Network would sponsor an event like this. You can click here to email them and ask them. Press them to commit to ending their financial support for future MAS-ICNA events.

Turkish Airlines at least has a customer base to target. Turkish Airlines donated two economy class plane tickets to the 2011 conference of American Muslims for Palestine but, contrary to original reports, decided against supporting the 2012 conference because of its “highly political nature.” Turkish Airlines should be encouraged to end its support for MAS-ICNA events as well. A proper email address was not found at its website, but a mailing address was found: Levent Selvili; Turkish Airlines; General Manager, Chicago; 455 N. Cityfront Plaza Dr., Ste. 2560; Chicago, IL 60611

Other MAS-ICNA convention sponsors include:

• Islamic Relief USA, whose background we documented here. CEO Abed Ayoub promoted the conference in a videotaped message, referencing his charity’s long relationship with MAS and ICNA.

• ICNA Relief USA, a part of ICNA. It was also one of the top two donors (along with ICNA Relief Canada) to the Al-Khidmat Foundation in August 2006 when the Pakistani Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami group said it was using the Foundation to give about $100,000 to Hamas.
• Zakat Foundation of America, which has reportedly worked the terror-tied IHH group of Turkey. IHH is banned in Germany and the Netherlands.  Members of the U.S. Congress want to do the same. It has also worked with Muslim Hands, a member of the Hamas-linked Union of Good coalition led by Brotherhood spiritual leader Sheikh Qaradawi.

• Life for Relief and Development (LIFE), an official of which was convicted for illegal dealings with the Saddam Hussein regime that included being paid by Iraqi intelligence. Its office was raided by the U.S. military in Iraq in 2004. According to the Investigative Project, LIFE has been involved with multiple Hamas-linked charities. For example, one of its employees used to be a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity shut down for financing Hamas. In 2008, it was reported that some of LIFE’s staff were supporters of the Islamic Party of Iraq, a Brotherhood affiliate.

• Baitul Maal, Inc. The 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo lists it as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”

• Zaytuna College, whose founders include Zaid Shakir and AMP chairman Hatem Bazian.

• Iman Fund/Allied Assets Advisors, which shares its address with the North American Islamic Trust. NAIT was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation. The U.S. government says it is an entity of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, a claim substantiated by the 1991 U.S. Brotherhood memo.  In 2009, a federal judge ruled that “ample” evidence linked NAIT to Hamas to justify the label.

• Mercy-USA. The chairperson of the Board of Directors is Iman Elkadi, the widow of Ahmed Elkadi, the former president of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood from 1984 to 1994. Its leadership has denied being connected to Mercy International, a group tied to Al-Qaeda.

• Dar El Salam Travel.

• IQRAA International Channel.

• Azzad Funds.

• Reach Media, Inc.

Multiple other groups and businesses paid for advertisements in the MAS-ICNA profile. One was the Mishkah Islamic University of North America, which was originally called the Sharia Academy of America when it started in 2004. It is an online university with an office in Cairo.

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RadicalIslam.org will be happy to post any response from the DISH Network or Turkish Airlines you receive explaining their sponsorship of this Islamist event.

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), identified by the U.S. government as an entity of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, has launched an advertising campaign to change how the term “jihad” is viewed by the public, promoting a definition that is so broad it becomes meaningless.

Said another way, in the words of one television news station waxing poetic about the campaign, the purpose of the campaign is to take the stigma out of the word jihad.

For its part, CAIR says the purpose of its “MyJihad” campaign is to “[take] back Islam from Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists alike.”

CAIR says “Islamophobes” are consciously misinterpreting the term and its negative stigma as a way of bashing innocent Muslims. But really, according to the “MyJihad” website, “Jihad means ‘struggling in the way of God.’ The way of God being goodness, justice, passion, compassion, etc.”

Promoting “goodness, justice and compassion” must have been CAIR’s goal in their recent demand that Saudi Sheikh Ayed Al-Qarni be allowed into America after the U.S. government refused his entry on the grounds that he was a dangerous radical Muslim extremist.

Al-Qarni was named as one of the Saudi clerics who influenced Osama Bin Laden’s followers. You can watch just one of the documented rants of Al-Qarni (below) where he praises “the Jihad, the sacrifice and the resistance against the occupiers in Iraq. We curse all of them every night and pray that Allah will annihilate them, tear them apart and grant us victory over them ... Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered." Al-Qarni also says he prays that Allah "will destroy the Jews and their helpers from among the Christians and the Communists, and that He will turn them into the Muslims' spoils.”

Al-Qarni was scheduled to speak at the annual convention of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which brings together Islamists from around the U.S. and outside the country. (See our article about the convention here.) CAIR’s Executive Director Nihad Awad, who was speaking at the same event, protested Al-Qarni's exclusion from the U.S. on the part of the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security officials.

Awad has also joined forced with the radical extremist Muslim preacher and virulent anti-Semite Imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader. Awad and Qaradawi recently shared the stage at a news conference in Qatar announcing their collaboration on a high-budget movie to be made about the life of Mohammed.

Qaradawi has also spoken about his desire for “his jihad,” saying, “I’d like to say that the only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom.”

Qarawadi’s extremism led the United States, Britian and France to ban him from entering their countries as well.

Interestingly, CAIR-Chicago, the branch responsible for the “MyJihad” campaign, holds joint events with Imam Zaid Shakir, a widely-respected scholar that often speaks at events held by CAIR and other groups originating with the Brotherhood.

Shakir also acknowledges that jihad can be a form of holy war. It can be violent (like killing members of the U.S. 82^nd Airborne) and non-violent, such as "institution-building” for the Islamist cause—or as the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood calls it, “civilization jihad.” In fact, in the video of Shakir that is on the "MyJihad" website, he says that Hezbollah’s bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks wasn’t an act of terrorism (see below).

These are just three spiritual leaders with whom CAIR has joined forces in their goal of “taking back Islam from Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists alike.”

CAIR knows its campaign is misleading – starting with their own support of extremists (not surprisingly, Awad, himself, is on record as supporting Hamas, an extremist terrorist group) to the fact that all four Sunni schools of thought define jihad as a “struggle” in the context of a holy war.

By assuring us that “jihad means ‘struggling in the way of God.’ The way of God being goodness, justice, passion, compassion, etc,” CAIR is trying to convince us that virtually any kind of non-violent “struggle” -- such as learning to play the guitar or saving up for retirement – is jihad. CAIR and its fellow Islamists can then explain away almost any uncomfortable statement about jihad they have ever made.

But the story doesn’t end there. CAIR is also urging the media to drop the term, “Islamist.”  Today, the term “Islamist” is viewed negatively. Therefore, being Islamists, CAIR argues that the term means nothing more than politically active Muslims. Since it can’t change the term’s negative perception, CAIR wants it gone. (See RI,org’s article, CAIR to Media: 'Stop Using the Term Islamist' ).

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Yet, terms like “Islamist” and “jihad” are necessary to define the ideological conflict we are in. If we can’t define it, we can’t fight it.

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), identified by the U.S. government as an entity of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, is suggesting  a New Year’s resolution for the media: Stop using the term “Islamist.”

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, who expressed his desire for “the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future” in 1993 and, again, in 2003, writes that the media shouldn’t say “Islamist” anymore because it is “currently used in almost exclusively pejorative context.”

Hooper argues that being an Islamist isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He quotes from the Associated Press Stylebook that describes an Islamist as a “supporter of government in accord with the laws of Islam. Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi.”

This, he says, is no different than a Christian politician being influenced by Biblical values. But Christian politicians are influenced by the Bible as a moral influence. There’s no authoritative Christian doctrine on how a “Christian State” should be run.  As the definition itself says, Islamists view their religion as a system of governmental “laws” and a “political model.”

Hooper says that Muslims are unfairly called Islamists when there are political disagreements — sort of like the word “Islamophobe,” which he hypocritically uses in the very same sentence.

The attempt to eliminate the word “Islamist” from the media’s vocabulary is a reflection of what was said during a secret U.S. Muslim Brotherhood meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 that the FBI wiretapped. Two officials that founded CAIR the following year were present.

“Forming the public opinion or coming up with a policy to influence …the way the Americans deal with the Islamists, for instance. I believe that should be the goals of this stage,” said Hamas operative Abdel Haleem al-Ashqar.

The meeting participants, who repeatedly referred to themselves as Islamists, understood that friendly media coverage was essential to their goal of influencing public opinion and policy towards them. As pointed out by the Investigative Project, future CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad said at that meeting:

“The fourth goal is becoming open to the media in the U.S. and the Western society to ease the intensity of the campaign and to explain the legality of the opposition led by the Islamists,” he said.

The government determined from these transcripts that deception was an integral part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s procedure. In a 2007 court filing, federal prosecutors state: “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists …the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”

Hooper writes that “the label [Islamist] should not be used unless a group applies the term to itself.” So, if an Islamist decides it’s inconvenient to include that on his resume, you better not call him one.

Nonetheless, the FBI wiretaps shows CAIR’s founders do describe themselves as Islamists — but only in private. In places where the term is less toxic, it is used regularly. A search of the word “Islamist” on the Muslim Brotherhood website, IkhwanWeb.com, yields 3,046 results.

CAIR doesn’t want the term “Islamist” used anymore because it is not helpful to be associated with an unpopular word. This campaign to swap out the word “Islamist” is a modern-day application of what the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood has always done: Switch to a new name when the old one becomes counterproductive.

The 1993 meeting participants discussed the need for a new “neutral” organization because “it is known who we are.” They needed a group with a clean track record and greater credibility. Two of those present formed CAIR the next year. The Muslim American Society was founded in 2003 because the Muslim Brotherhood needed a new name, as detailed by the Chicago Tribune in 2004. When a title or name becomes problematic, the Islamists try to run away from it.

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Today, the term “Islamist” is viewed negatively. Therefore, being Islamists, CAIR argues that the term means nothing more than politically-active Muslims. Since it can’t change the term’s negative perception, CAIR wants it gone.

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

Steven Emerson, the executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, is suing Cyrus McGoldrick, the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations—New York (CAIR-NY), for defamation of character. McGoldrick has a history of making inflammatory statements, including supporting Hamas’s violence and the elimination of the state of Israel.

The lawsuit was sparked by a tweet posted by McGoldrick that states, “Steve Emerson is an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest child pornography case in US history.”

The tweet was mocking the often-mentioned fact that organization McGoldrick serves, CAIR, is designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history. Emerson’s complaint states that it “accuses [him] of having committed a vile crime and constitutes libel per se.”

Emerson's complaint continued, “Although CAIR describes itself as a Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization, members of Congress, various law enforcement agencies and the FBI have described CAIR as participating in funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. An FBI agent has testified that CAIR is a front group for Hamas.”

McGoldrick is one of CAIR’s most radical voices. During the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, he openly supported Hamas’s acts of terrorism. On November 15, he tweeted, “Palestine is a land occupied by foreign settlers. They have the right to resist, to defend themselves ‘by any means necessary.’ ”

On November 16, he tweeted, “Sign of the times: bloodthirsty Zionists trend #HAMASbumperstickers, then erupt when I acknowledge Palestinian right to resist occupation.”

On November 29, he retweeted a quote from Hamas leader Khaled Meshal: “Meshal: Anyone who is bothered by our rockets is welcome to provide us with accurate weapons to fight the enemy.”

McGoldrick supports Hamas’s goal of wiping Israel off the map.

On November 29, he tweeted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Insha’Allah.” That same day, he retweeted a post making it clear that he rejects a two-state solution. “What is urgent and overdue for Palestinians is not a ‘state’ but their rights; ending Zionist colonial rule, and return of refugees.”

He also stood by the side of the Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi when his power grab sparked massive protests, suggesting that the opposition was a puppet of the West and Israel: “Can’t shake the feeling that all this anti-Morsi energy is a last stand by old pro-West/Mubarak/Israel crowd to keep power in judiciary. No?” he tweeted.

Like CAIR as a whole, McGoldrick casts law enforcement as oppressive, bigoted and inhumane. He wrote these two tweets on December 15:

“Maybe I listened to too much Dead Prez growing up, but I can’t accept the liberal ‘ban all guns’ platform. If the cops have 'em, I want 'em.”

“Watching and filming the police is one of the few ways we have to defend ourselves. Start a #CopWatch team in your hood!”

McGoldrick has appeared on Iran’s state-controlled propaganda "news" network, Press TV, multiple times. It’s easy to see why the Iranian regime would book him as a guest. Rather than forcefully defend the U.S. and Western values, he blames anti-American terrorism on America's foreign policy.

[ad] He said that the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Libya that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens was a result of “the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of Muslims’ patience with American and Western intervention.”

McGoldrick said the proper U.S. reaction to the attack should be “to [critically think] about how much more weight will we put on the Muslim world? How many more attacks? How many more drone strikes? How many more coups … until we realize that we need to take a principled stand, and a just stand, to make sure that we respect human rights, sovereignty and dignity all over the world.”

He even subtlety suggested that the U.S. is not a free country. In an interview on Iranian Press TV about the riots sparked by the anti-Islam Innocence of Muslims tape, he said that the U.S. “allegedly” has freedom of speech.

All of this information is public. CAIR, who bills themselves as a "moderate" group certainly knows about Cyrus McGoldrick’s rhetoric, yet continues to have him as its leader in New York. Is this the message of a genuinely “moderate” group?

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Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.

There they go again. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has just put out an Action Alert that takes direct aim at the Constitution of the United States.

At issue is the Michigan state legislature’s House Bill No. 4769, which looks likely to pass in coming days. Quite simply, that bill states that no foreign law may take precedence over American law or Michigan state law in a Michigan court room.

The key provision of the bill is Section 2, which says:

 “A court, arbitrator, administrative agency, or other adjudicative, mediation, or enforcement authority shall not enforce a foreign law if doing so would violate a right guaranteed by the constitution of this state or of the United States.”

That’s it. Seems pretty straightforward and entirely in keeping with Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which states:

“This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby…”

So why would CAIR call on its members to oppose legislation that protects all American citizens, upholds the U.S. Constitution and in no way interferes with the right of any individual to freely exercise his or her religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment?

CAIR (a Muslim Brotherhood front group) points to the answer in its own words. Its Action Alert decries “discrimination on followers of a minority faith” and terms the legislation “anti-Islam,” even though there is no mention of Islam or any other faith in the bill.

There’s also no mention of any specific foreign law, just the general proviso that if ever there is a conflict between any foreign law – be it French law, Islamic law, Japanese law, Zambian law or any other – and U.S. and/or Michigan state law, it is the American law and the Michigan law that will prevail.

So, then, in what way is such legislation “anti-Islam”?

It would seem that CAIR is saying that Islam is not just a religion, but actually a legal system (hint: it’s called “sharia.”) This is quite forthcoming of them, because in fact, of course, Islam is not merely about diet/fasting, devotion, prayer, worship, pilgrimage, and proselytizing (Da’wa), which are completely 100% protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. No, as CAIR is rightly pointing out, Islam is also a “complete way of life,” encompassing a legal, military, political, and social system. The name of that “complete way of life” is sharia (Islamic law), which governs every aspect of a Muslim’s life and actually forbids a separation between faith and governance. It is unlawful under sharia for a devout, practicing Muslim to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” 

The CAIR Action Alert against Michigan’s pending legislation perhaps unintentionally illustrates this in a most instructive way. The reason the Muslim Brotherhood and all other sharia-adherent Muslims cannot accept that sharia provisions that conflict with U.S. law be superseded by Constitutional law in American courts is precisely the notion that Islamic law must dominate all other laws on earth in every respect.

Of course, this sort of legal supremacism is not only in direct contravention of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution; if acted upon, it arguably also could be grounds for a charge of sedition, conspiracy to commit sedition, or misprision of sedition.    

Aside from the obvious need to ensure that American law prevails in American courts, the specific nature of Islamic law is particularly problematic. Of course, CAIR does not mention this in its Action Alert, but although sharia indeed contains legal prescriptions about devotion and worship as well as many other aspects of life, there are also multiple elements of sharia that are utterly antithetical to the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

Most important of all is that the Islam of sharia mandates legal inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims, and between men and women. Sharia also imposes barbaric, mutilating punishments for theft, flogging for “fornication” and the death penalty for adultery, apostasy, homosexuality and,  in some cases, slander/blasphemy. For those who do not accept the rule of Islam, sharia is a supremacist, violently expansionist doctrine that requires every Muslim to participate in jihad, which is “warfare to spread the religion.” 

Clearly, then, CAIR, which was named by the Department of Justice an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation HAMAS terror funding trial, is presenting a misleading impression of Michigan’s “Restriction of Application of Foreign Laws Act” and also concealing its real reasons for opposing it.

This kind of deliberate dissimulation is called taqiyya and is often used by adherents of sharia to deceive the non-Muslim (infidel or kafir). Quite helpful for everyone, however, is the unintended way that CAIR provides a revealing look inside the operations of the Muslim Brotherhood in America as it seeks to protect the insinuation of sharia provisions into the U.S. legal system. 

As a careful reading of Michigan’s House Bill No. 4769 will confirm, this legislation actually provides assurance that American Muslim families are afforded the same constitutional protections and liberties as other Americans. Unfortunately, as a June 2011 Center for Security Policy study demonstrated, Islamic law (sharia) is present already in the U.S. legal system in a significant way.

The data presented in the “Shariah Law and American State Courts: An Assessment of State Appellate Court Cases” study documented a total of 50 cases from 23 different states involving a “conflict of law” between sharia and American state law. Sharia-based legal conventions or decisions from 16 foreign countries had been brought to bear upon these 50 cases.

Muslim Americans, many of whom came to the U.S. to escape the oppressive rule of sharia in their home nations, are no less deserving of the protections of American law than other Americans born into the privilege of living in a free country where faith and state are kept separated by law.

Liberty-and-equality-protecting legislation like Michigan’s House Bill No. 4769 already has been passed in Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana and Tennessee and has been introduced in more than 20 more states, including Michigan. Emails, letters and phone calls from constituents in these states to state legislators can help to ensure passage for such measures. Residents of Michigan can contact their state representatives here.

Ironically, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper himself supports the intent behind this legislation when it serves his purposes. When a Muslim woman working in Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport for Aerotek, a local staffing agency for Air France, was told she could not wear her hijab to work because it was against Air France's uniform policy, Hooper was quoted as saying:

“Our position is that no company doing business in America has the obligation to enforce discriminatory foreign policies on American employees,” he said. “A discriminatory dress code implemented in France does not supersede American laws protecting the religious rights of American citizens.”

Mr. Hooper, we couldn’t agree more. Perhaps you could mention this to the folks in Michigan.

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Clare Lopez is a senior fellow at RadicalIslam.org and a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on the Middle East, national defense and counterterrorism. Lopez served for 20 years as an operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) presented Hatem Bazian, chairman of American Muslims for Palestine, with an “Empowering American Muslims” Award on November 17. The group’s honoring of an Islamist that spews anti-American rhetoric is in line with the worldview espoused by its executive director, Zahra Billoo, especially since Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense against Hamas started.

In 2004, Bazian seemed to endorse the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and violence in Israel by praising the “uprising in Iraq” and “intifada in Palestine.” In the same speech, he urged Muslim-Americans to follow in their footsteps by launching an intifada in the U.S. to “change fundamentally the political dynamics here.” Aware of the incendiary nature of his remarks, he eerily said, “They’re gonna say some Palestinian [is] being too radical—well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet.”

According to Kashmir Media Service News, Bazian said in June, “The United States wants India to balance China, because if there is a conflict with China, we always like that the darker people fight our war and the more these people die is better for the officers because racism can be manifested across many sectors.”

He also accused the U.S. government of persecuting the Muslim-American community. He said, “In the post 9/11 era there is [a] strategic and systematic process of targeting the Muslim leadership of organizational structures by eliminating the existing leadership that has developed over the last 40 years…”

A board member of Bazian’s organization, Osama Abu Irshaid, defends Hamas’s rocket fire into Israel as “legitimate resistance.” He used to be the editor of a publication by the Islamic Association for Palestine, a Muslim Brotherhood front that advocated for Hamas when it was in existence.

[ad] As we reported, AMP’s conference this month features over a dozen Islamist speakers, most of which are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and have spoken in support of Hamas. Its conference logo shows the state of Palestine replacing Israel.

In addition to leading American Muslims for Palestine, Bazian is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, America’s first Muslim college. Another co-founder is Imam Zaid Shakir, a cleric whose extremism RadicalIslam.org has thoroughly documented.

The award was given at CAIR-SFBA’s 18^th annual banquet, which also featured Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, director of outreach for the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque. A 2002 Customs and Border Protection report said the mosque was “operating as a front for Hamas operatives in the U.S.” In 2001, Abdul-Malik endorsed attacks on Israeli infrastructure.

The honoring of Bazian is predictable given the activism of CAIR-SFBA’s Executive Director, Zahra Billoo. According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, she was an adviser to the Muslim Students Association West from 2005 to August 2010. The Muslim Students Association was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood. During her time at MSA West, outrageous extremism was preached by speakers it booked.

In February 2011, CAIR-SFBA’s website featured a poster for an event that said, “Build a Wall of Resistance; Don’t Talk to the FBI.” The graphics on the poster portrayed the FBI in dark ways. The poster was removed after it got negative attention.

The Israeli operation against Hamas prompted a furious series of tweets by Billoo, including one on November 21 that explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel when she  retweeted:

"From the river to the sea, Palestine WILL be free [referring to the entire width of Israel which spans from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea]."

November 20, she compared Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel to fighting off a rapist:

“#LiesImTiredofHearing: Apartheid Israel is only defending itself. That is as true as a rapist who invades your home may defend himself.”

Here are some more:

“#LiesImTiredofHearing: Zionism is not racism. It is.”

“#LiesImTiredofHearing: Apartheid Israel takes measures to avoid killing civilians.”

On November 20, she retweeted a message that read:

“So Israel has ‘unleashed the gates of hell’ on #Gaza, so let the gates of hell be unleashed on Israel on the Day of Judgement. #Pray4Gaza”

The phrase “gates of hell” is a quote from Hamas after the operation began.

On November 15, she retweeted from the same person the following:

“Israel ‘defending’ itself is analogous to Nazi Germany defending itself from Jewish uprisings.”

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In Billoo’s world, Hamas’s attacks on Israel are just as legitimate as “Jewish uprisings” were against Nazi Germany. That’s the mindset that’s behind the misleading press releases by groups like CAIR that are demanding U.S. action against Israel for trying to stop rockets from falling on its civilians and condemning the Senate for its "obsession with Israel's unequivical [sic] 'right to self-defense.' "

Ryan Mauro is RadicalIslam.org's National Security Analyst and a fellow with the Clarion Fund. He is the founder of WorldThreats.com and is frequently interviewed on Fox News.