for not confronting the Council on American-Islamic Relations forcefully enough on its track record. Here is just a pre-2006 list of what that wonderfully "moderate" Islamophobia-hunting organization has done (there are so many articles on this disgraceful organization to draw from):
So with all of this (and I only listed pre-2006 misconduct from CAIR), I really think Donald Trump should apologize for not talking more openly about this group's subversion and malfeasance. It really is a shame that he is failing to do this.
(Also a footnote: the government of the UAE designated CAIR a "terror group" in 2014 because of its ties to terrorist groups. The UAE government must be viscerally Islamophobic for doing that.)
- Shortly after it was founded in 1994, CAIR called the guilty verdict in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case "a travesty of justice" and proof of the all-pervasive Islamophobia in American society
- In 1994 CAIR condemned the conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh, for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks, as a "hate crime"
- CAIR advisory-board member Siraj Wahhaj was named in 1995 as one of the un-indicted co-conspirators in the scheme to blow up New York City sites in 1993
- In August 1998 CAIR condemned the targeting of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa
- In October 1998 CAIR demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as "the sworn enemy"
- In 1998 CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, declared that the Qu'ran should be America's highest authority. He is also quoted as saying that Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion, but to be dominant.
- In November 1999, at a Muslim youth rally in Chicago, Omar Ahmad praised suicide bombers: "Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam - that is not suicide."
- After 9-11 CAIR called for donations: under a picture of the flaming Towers the hyperlink took donors to the website of the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity whose assets were frozen soon thereafter by the Treasury Department. On July 27, 2004, a federal grand jury in Dallas, Texas, returned a 42 count indictment against the HLF that included conspiracy, material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and money laundering.
- A week later CAIR called on people to donate to the Global Relief Foundation, another Islamic charity from Illinois, whose assets were also frozen in December 2001, and which has provided assistance to know Islamic terrorist groups.
- CAIR called the closure of the Holy Land Foundation "unjust" and "disturbing"
- CAIR claimed the closure of the Global Relief Foundation was due to the racial profiling of a group that "had established a track record of effective relief work"
- In 2002 CAIR embarked on a campaign to place a package of pro-Islamic books and CDs in thousands of American libraries. It claimed the program was not subsidized from abroad, but kept quiet about a donation from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud - which gave a Wahhabi seal of approval on the materials.
- In 2003 CAIR complained about the FBI surveillance of mosques but remained mute when it was revelaed that the Al-Farooq mosque in New York was complicit in collecting funds for al-Qaeda. Undeterred, it has continued to demand amendments to the USA Patriot Act to protect Muslims from eavesdropping.
- After the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid, Ibrahim Hoopser said a Muslim convert in Florida who allegedly had her hijab pulled by Spanish tourists was also "a victim of terrorism". Adolf Ali, head of CAIR Florida, insisted that Florida should reinstate the electric chair for "kuffars [infidels] accused of causing offense to Muslims"
- In April 2005, the founder of the Texcas chapter of CAIR, Ghassan Elashi, was found guilty of supporting terrorism. He was the third CAIR-connected figure to be convicted on federal terrorsim charges since 9-11.
So with all of this (and I only listed pre-2006 misconduct from CAIR), I really think Donald Trump should apologize for not talking more openly about this group's subversion and malfeasance. It really is a shame that he is failing to do this.
(Also a footnote: the government of the UAE designated CAIR a "terror group" in 2014 because of its ties to terrorist groups. The UAE government must be viscerally Islamophobic for doing that.)
