Posted on 11/11/2005 6:45:20 PM PST by strategofr
Steven Stalinsky is the director of the invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute. We missed his August 10 New York Sun column on the bogus terrorism fatwa issued by CAIR and friends. Stalinsky's column was "CAIR & Co.'s Fatwa" (subscribers only). The column remains timely for its exposure of CAIR's modus operandi (in the added italics), most recently deployed in connection with Michael Graham:
A much-heralded Fatwa or Islamic religious ruling "against terrorism" was issued on July 28 by Muslim academics in America and Canada. The edict was signed by 18 scholars from the Fiqh Council of North America and was endorsed by more than 120 Muslim groups. The Islamist organization Council on American-Islamic Relations was given the honor of officially releasing the statement.
"Bogus" is how Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project described the Fatwa on "The Counterterrorism Blog": "Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic Jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad ... In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate. In fact, officials of both organizations have been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups."
The Fatwa was heralded by major news outlets, which have grown accustomed to using CAIR's press releases without any scrutiny. In an interview with the Saudi weekly Ukaz in 1999, CAIR leaders discussed the organization's manipulation of the press under the headline "A Muslim America - Only a Matter of Time." One leader stated openly, "We control the media instead of the media controlling us." CAIR's founder, Nihad Awadh, described techniques utilized by the group's spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, to infiltrate the press: "You will be surprised to hear that all his articles do not go through censorship and correction in the big papers," Mr. Awadh said.
A CAIR leader added, "CAIR [exerts] today an organized and educated effort, using American media techniques and exploiting American legal loopholes...For example: One of the editors of the American monthlies attacked the Muslims...Answering these allegations, CAIR convened a press conference and recruited all Muslims to call the monthly in every communication method, and we paralyzed the paper's interests, and the man [the editor] was forced to apologize...We exploit this position whenever someone else rises up to attack Muslims, and present to him what happened to those before him, and then he retracts...This method has gained us great achievements and stops serious attempts to attack Islam."
A New York Times story about the Fatwa quoted CAIR, as well as Jamal Badawi, who was identified as chairman of the Islamic Foundation in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Mr. Badawi is influential not only in Canada but also in America. He has been a guest lecturer at Michigan's "The American Learning Institute for Muslims"; directs the Islamic Information Foundation, which seeks to promote better understanding of Islam by both Muslims and non-Muslims and is a federally registered charity in Canada and America; serves as a faculty member at St. Mary University in Maryland, and used to be a lecturer at Stanford University in California.
In an interview with the Saudi Gazette on June 24, 2005, while visiting the kingdom, Mr. Badawi said: "9/11 was un-Islamic," and "I strongly condemn the September 11 attacks ... whoever did it," adding, "It is not confirmed yet who is actually behind the attacks." In the Saudi Gazette story, Mr. Badawi discussed the difficulty in drawing up an "agreement on how terrorism should be defined" and said exploding cars in Iraq's markets and killing civilians should be included.
Mr. Badawi went on to make an outrageous claim - that America could be behind these attacks: "This has to be investigated as to who is actually behind this ... There have been allegations that I cannot confirm that people going to the market to buy vegetables are stopped in the name of inspecting their cars by [American] forces, their hands are tied and they are blindfolded. There have been cases and I want a clarification from American officials to these allegations. After inspecting their cars they are allowed to go and when the car reaches [the] checkpoint it explodes and they call them suicide bombers, perhaps the occupants of the car were not even aware that they are carrying a bomb in their car. Such incidents should be thoroughly probed."
Mr. Badawi was number seven of 18 to sign the Fatwa. Other signers have reported connections to terrorist organizations. If this is the best response leading American Muslim leaders can do to fight terror, then we have a problem in America.
Outfits like The New York Times are taken in by CAIR because, regretably, they see things pretty much the same way.
Liberals tend to not look at things in terms of right & wrong, or moral & immoral. Invariably they filter events through a prism that looks for strength & weakness, power & powerless, etc.
They apportion their sympathy to whoever is weak/inferior/underdog, based on their worldview. So for them, it's as if being the weaker in a conflict imputes some nobility and moral rightness.
They relfexively side against the USA because it is powerful: to them, the weaker adversary is the one worth supporting, even if it leads them to make suicidal decisions.
CAIR is another apologistic arm of alQaida. If they ever publicly speak of an atrocity, it's after much goading and public pressure, and comes out as a half-hearted measure.
***K CAIR.
"Outfits like The New York Times are taken in by CAIR because, regretably, they see things pretty much the same way."
True. whether or not they are actually "taken in" is an interesting question. It goes to the heart of "doublethink". The question of whether people at the New York Times are lying or deceived has, to an extent, an indeterminate answer. I suppose the best answer is to say that they have successfully deconstructed the notion of truth, making the question irrelevant. The only relevant question to them is: "Does a given statement advanced their cause or not?"
"CAIR is another apologistic arm of alQaida."
Agreed. They have just launched a major lawsuit on Steve Emerson, one of the main anti-Islamacist Americans. I have been unsuccessfully looking for information about it, but finding much good stuff in the process, some of which I have posted here.
Yes, I was wondering to add that they are taken in because they want to be taken in.
Good post.
Yes, at least they say they are in favor of the weak and oppressed. It makes a good excuse. But, paradoxically, they have to become powerful in order to help the weak and oppressed, so they use that as an excuse to justify their power madness.
It's much the same paradox compressed in Marx's phrase, "the dictatorship of the proletariat." The weak have to become strong and brutal, or at least their privileged advocates do, who therefore call themselves "the vanguard of the proletariat."
That is their ultimate conflict. Also, some conflicts really force them to contort into strange positions in order for them to try and make sense out of it all.
Extreme liberalism/leftism is not a political philosophy, it is a mental disorder. That's what Dr. Savage says, and I'm with him.
"Good post."
Thanks.
LOL!
"It's much the same paradox compressed in Marx's phrase, "the dictatorship of the proletariat.""
Neat bit of analysis and saved me the trouble.
" to usurp and pollute,
our precious bodily fluids"
LOL!
MAY 17, 2003 : (COLUMBIA, SC : CAIR OPENS ITS NEWEST OFFICE) Last Saturday (May 17), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) opened its newest office in Columbia, S.C., a Southern city with strong Christian roots. The stated purpose of organizers was to discuss "the obligation of Muslims to participate in public affairs, CAIR's achievements and future goals of the organization."
Among those "future goals," according to a CAIR press release, is the elimination of references to "Judeo-Christian" when describing the heritage of the United States. Instead, CAIR and other Muslim groups prefer "Judeo-Christian-Islamic" or "Abrahamic." CAIR wants this new phrase used "in all venues where we normally talk about Judeo-Christian values, starting with the media, academia, statements by politicians and comments made in churches, synagogues and other places." Notice the absence of the word "mosques "in this statement. Muslim groups want Jews and Christians to tolerate them, but there is not a similar call for mosques to include Jewish and Christian beliefs.
You do not have to believe in conspiracies or be a bigot to realize something important is happening with this statement and in these political meetings.------"The threat among us ," TownHall.com , May 20, 2003 , Cal Thomas
""Abrahamic.""
As a Jew, this sends a chill up my spine. A man trying to use the Bible to help destroy all Jews. (Because yes, the reference to Ishmael "I will make him into a great nation" is there and Mohammed built on it, apparently, in the Koran.)
I am starting to re-orient myself to CAIR as my main focus. They are the Islamic dagger inside the US, aimed at our heart. they seek to attack us at our most vulnerable point---using our own freedoms against us, enlisting the support of the ACLU and all the Left.
Classic Leftist subversion tactics.
Perhaps we should co-ordinate a phone call/email blitz on CAIR
They should know what it is like to be overwhelmed with their tactics.
How 'bout it freepers? Anyone know their contact info? Use pay phones and long distance cards.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.