Free Republic

<p>Amid protests from a Muslim civil liberties group, local police training officials have called off an anti-terrorism course for officers scheduled for Monday in Lombard that was to have been taught by an instructor the group regards as anti-Muslim.</p> <p>The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations had called for the cancellation of the class, “Islamic Awareness as a Counter-Terrorist Strategy,” arguing instructor Sam Kharoba is unqualified to teach about Islam and has depicted the religion as inherently violent.</p>

Illustrating that the jihadist enterprise transcends all borders, American Islamist groups typically preoccupied with remaking the U.S. have been leaving their fingerprints on the campaign to exchange secular authoritarianism for religious authoritarianism in the Middle East. As these organizations labor stateside to nudge the governing class to embrace Arab Islamists at the expense of liberals — prompting Egyptian intellectual Essam Abdallah to lament that "the most dramatic oppression of the region's civil societies and the Arab Spring … is led by the powerful Islamist lobbies in Washington" — several of the groups' past and current officials have emerged as key...

The ads, sponsored by the group Stop of Islamization of America, appeared on 25 Chicago cabs this summer. Beside pictures of young women who were allegedly killed by their Muslim fathers for refusing an Islamic marriage, dating a non-Muslim or becoming "too Americanized" was the message: "Is your family threatening you?" Pamela Geller, a leader of Stop the Islamization of America, previously told the Tribune that Muslims are increasingly taking over schools, financial institutions and the workplace. Geller said the ads were directed at "Muslims girls in trouble, living in fear of their lives, struggling to find resources to help."...

Chicago, IL) The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), a.k.a. CAIR-Illinois, in a ‘hit piece’ against top counter-terrorism expert Steven Emerson dated May 1st, described the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, as a “world-renowned Muslim scholar.” This, while al-Qaradawi, on a number of occasions, has personally stated his support for suicide bombings and for attacks against American troops. As well, al-Qaradawi is known to be a fervent anti-Semite, a trait that CAIR-Chicago’s Executive Director, Ahmed Rehab, has exhibited from time to time.

On Wednesday, January 18, I received an e-mail from someone identifying himself as “Ahmed.” He wrote to me that he was a “Muslim activist” and that he wanted me to come on his radio show to discuss my work, or, in his words, “to give [my] side of the story.” In doing a simple web search on his e-mail address, it turned out that this individual was none other than the Director of Communications for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ahmed Rehab. While I didn’t know his motives in contacting me, I had recalled when...