Bringing Islamic Extremists Into Our Schools

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | April 17, 2003 | Joe Kaufman

[SJackson]

A little over a year ago, I found myself on a radio program discussing the ramifications of September 11, 2001 with the Florida Director for CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), Altaf Ali. Sometime during the show, I had asked him whether or not he thought the people that died in the collapse of the World Trade Center were innocent. I thought the media was delinquent in their questioning of certain Islamic groups after 9/11, giving them softball questions that any idiot could answer, like "How do you feel about the attack?" Answer: "We're against violence that targets innocent people." I wanted to know, once and for all, if any of these mainstream Muslim organizations, his included, believed that these people were in fact the "innocent" people they spoke of in their generic answer(s). I assumed these groups did not believe this to be the case.

And of course, my assumption was proven correct. Myself and the host, who was no longer willing to be impartial because of this, had to ask this question literally ten times, before Mr. Ali begrudgingly, against his own conscience, answered in the affirmative, yes, the people that died in the towers were innocent.

After this, Altaf was notably upset. He said he felt we were ganging up on him (After wavering on that question what did he expect?), so he decided to leave the show early. But before leaving, while he thought I wasn't paying attention, he swiped my notes; he put them under his black binder, so I couldn't see. "Those are mine," I said, to which he said the opposite, that they were his. "I was reading from those notes." That's my yellow highlighter that I highlighted them with," I replied, to which he begrudgingly, against his own conscience, gave me back my notes. Noticeably peeved, I asked a very inappropriate question, "Mr. Ali, does your religion tell you that it's okay to lie?"

Deception by Islamic extremists is part of the process. This particular group, CAIR, is widely reported as having been the creation of the Texas-based Islamic Association for Palestine or IAP, which is a front for the terrorist group Hamas and an organization that the United States has taken action against in its war on terror. Yet CAIR goes around masquerading as a civil rights organization, as an organization that fights against discrimination.

This, in turn, has caused people to use the term "moderate" to describe CAIR. Daniel Pipes, who was recently appointed by our government to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, calls CAIR "Moderate friends of terror." CAIR, which worked hard to block this appointment, says Pipes is an "Islamophobe," but as Jonathan Tobin, a commentator for Jewish World Review, wrote, CAIR has "taken on the task of smearing anyone who speaks out against these groups (Hamas and Islamic Jihad) or investigates their activities."

Subsequent to knowing all of this, you could imagine my surprise when I viewed a program that was produced by the Broward County School Board, which prominently featured Altaf Ali. The program dealt with "diversity awareness," and late last month, it was shown in every Broward County public school.

And not only did it feature Mr. Ali, but it also included Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, the spiritual leader of Darul Aloom. If you don't know (you probably don't), Darul Aloom was the mosque where Jose Padila, the one suspected of plotting to explode a ''dirty bomb'' in the United States, worshipped. It was also the mosque where Imran Mandhai and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan are said to have plotted attacks on a National Guard Armory in Hollywood and electrical substations in Miami Shores.

And if you thought things couldn't get much worse, think again. Now, Altaf Ali from CAIR has been brought on by the Diversity & Cultural Outreach department of the Broward County School Board to provide diversity training to school personnel. And get this, I was told it includes teaching about anti-Semitism.

I feel like I'm living in an episode of the Twilight Zone! CAIR and other groups like it, such as the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), have successfully pulled the wool over the public's eyes. If you are as concerned as I am, that our schoolchildren are learning from those that would otherwise cause our country a great deal of harm, then do your part and contact the head of the School Board's Diversity & Cultural Outreach department, Maria Rodriguez, at: (954) 768-8124. As our President told us after 9/11, be vigilant.

Joe Kaufman is the Chairman of Citizens Against Hate and the co-founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of South Florida. Copyright 2003 Joe Kaufman (joe4rep.com)

[Tailgunner Joe]

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