Ohio Colleges Partner with Hamas-Founded CAIR
A group of six Ohio colleges in the Cleveland area are working together to help provide “new perspectives” about the Middle East and to confront “misinformation” about the region and about Islam specifically. However, the group has chosen a curious partner to represent the American Muslim community: the Muslim Brotherhood-founded and terror-supporting Hamas front group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
On Tuesday, the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies (NOCMES) will be hosting Naif al-Mutawa at the City Club of Cleveland for a talk on “Art, Narrative and Muslim Identity.” Later that evening he will appear at Baldwin Wallace College. Al-Mutawa is the CEO of the company that has produced the first series of comic books with Muslim superheroes. The colleges sponsoring NOCMES include Oberlin College, Cleveland State University, John Carroll University, Kent State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Case Western Reserve University, and Hathaway Brown (an all-girls K-12 private school).
The Tuesday talk is part of NOCMES’ “New Perspectives on Muslim and Middle East Societies” program funded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), which is funded partially by U.S. taxpayers through the State Department and the National Science Foundation. SSRC’s “Islamic Traditions and Muslim Societies in World Contexts” has awarded a grant to NOCMES funded by the Carnegie Corporation.
A video promoting the NOCMES “New Perspectives” project features Neda Zawahri, associate professor of political science at Cleveland State University. She states:
So when people first meet people from the Middle East they’re first afraid because, is this person going to be a terrorist or an Islamic fundamentalist? But to actually learn that they’re human beings just like them.
It is indeed curious that a video intended to promote a program intended to confront “misinformation” about Muslims and the Middle East would promote such a bigoted and misinformed view about Americans and Westerners in general. (Lest I be accused of taking Zawahri out of context, that statement is the only quote by her that the video itself provides.)
The NOCMES video also features Julia Shearson, identified as executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Ohio chapter. In 2008, Shearson was the most vocal defender of the gender policies at Harvard University which banned men from campus gymnasiums so that Muslim women would not need to have contact with them. Shearson defended the policy during appearances on CNN, Fox News, and other media outlets.
That is not the only connection between NOCMES and CAIR-Ohio. In fact, a flyer for Tuesday’s event at the City Club of Cleveland posted on the NOCMES website identifies CAIR-Ohio as one of NOCMES’ partners.
CAIR’s sordid history of terror support has been noted by Department of Justice prosecutors, who claimed the following during one federal case:
From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists.
According to the court testimony of FBI agent Lara Burns in the successful Holy Land Foundation prosecution (the largest terrorism financing trial in American history), the organization was a front for the terrorist group Hamas and was founded in 1994 by Hamas members specifically to support the terrorist group. CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator during that trial. The federal judge who tried the case, Jorge Solis, wrote an opinion unsealed in November 2010 stating:
The four pieces of evidence the government relies on, as discussed below, do create at least a prima facie case as to CAIR’s involvement in a conspiracy to support Hamas.
Judge Solis explored that evidence at length in his decision, ruling against CAIR in their bid to be removed from the trial’s list of unindicted co-conspirators. For this reason, the FBI severed all ties with CAIR in January 2009. In March 2011, FBI Director Robert Mueller reaffirmed this policy to the House Judiciary Committee, explaining:
We have no formal relationship with CAIR because of concerns with regard to their national leadership.
The CAIR-Ohio chapter that NOCMES has partnered with is among the most radical CAIR chapters in the country, with a long list of troubling episodes:
- In 1999, CAIR-Ohio rushed to the aid of Muhammad Al-Qudhaieen and Hamdan Al-Shalawi, the two men who the 9/11 Commission and the FBI identified as the 9/11 “dry run” hijackers. CAIR-Ohio president Ahmad Al-Akhras even made statements to Egyptian media attacking the airline for removing the men from the plane at the request of the pilot after they had repeatedly tried to enter the cockpit, claiming the men were being profiled.
- The keynote speaker for CAIR-Ohio’s 1999 annual fundraising banquet was al-Qaeda financier and CAIR national advisory board member Abdurahman Alamoudi, who pled guilty in 2004 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. The FBI had been watching Alamoudi since 1993, when they were told by an informant that he had served as the financial conduit between Osama bin Laden and the “Blind Sheikh” terror leader Omar Abdel Rahman. Not long after his appearance for CAIR-Ohio, Alamoudi was videotaped just steps from the White House leading an angry crowd in cheers supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
- In 2001, CAIR-Ohio held a fundraiser for the defense of cop-killer and regular CAIR speaker Jamil al-Amin, who was convicted of gunning down a Georgia deputy executing a warrant on al-Amin on weapons charges. In October 2009, the FBI said that Amin continued to lead his violent organization from the federal Supermax prison in Colorado.
- Just a few months before 9/11, CAIR-Ohio attacked the mayor of a Columbus suburb after an Israeli flag was flown on the city hall flag pole in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
- In 2006, CAIR-Ohio hosted Siraj Wahhaj as the keynote speaker at its annual fundraising dinner. Wahhaj had been named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial.
- Around the same time, three CAIR-Ohio executives showed up at the home of a combat veteran and former Marine to harass the man because they didn’t like the bumper stickers on his truck. At least two of the involved CAIR officials later boasted about the incident to local media.
- In 2007, CAIR-Ohio President Ahmad al-Akhras was found promoting an upcoming event for notorious 9/11 denier David Ray Griffin.
- Al-Akhras, who also served as CAIR’s national vice chairman, reportedly sent his high school-aged daughter Jana on a Hamas support convoy across the Middle East in December 2009, where the group met with several Hamas leaders and was greeted by several designated terrorists. His daughter was interviewed by al-Jazeera during the trip.
- Since the NOCMES event is occurring in Cleveland this week, it is worth noting the annual fundraising banquet for CAIR-Cleveland (led by Julia Shearson) held three years ago in April 2009 featured as its keynote speaker former Hamas fundraiser Monzer Taleb, who was personally named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial. He was described in court documents as a member and “artistic head” of the Muslim Brotherhood Palestine Committee dedicated to supporting Hamas. Videos entered into evidence during the trial by federal prosecutors show Taleb at Hamas fundraisers singing “I am from Hamas”, and singing with a group glorifying the killing of Jews.
NOCMES’ decision to not only promote but to partner with the Hamas front and terror-supporting CAIR reinforces racist and Islamophobic stereotypes about the Muslim American community. It also underscores the radical, pro-Islamist sympathies of Middle East studies at the supporting institutions. That this effort is being sponsored by state-supported educational institutions ought to be a concern for all Ohio taxpayers.
(This article was sponsored by Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.)
And those colleges cannot say they had no other choice: the American Islamic Forum for Democracy fights against islamists, radicals, and supporters of terrorism and was present at a recent rally in N.Y. to support the NYPD !!!!!!!
http://aifdemocracy.org/
I am a retired Army paratrooper and Ranger….sure wish CAIR would show up at my house to ‘harass’ me; a dream come true. Citizens of Ohio – throw out that gutless Boehner – I know from all of the fine soldiers I served with from Ohio that you can find a Patriot who will stand up for your interests that Speaker Boehner ignores, until election time, when he surprisingly cares about you all of a sudden. Mr. Zangpo is correct, there are muslim groups against terrorists, but they are ignored by the media who follow our president’s lead of “Hug a Hamas”….wake up America!
Tyipical Liberal, nothing more than useful idiots.
That bigoted, misinformed remark by Neda Zawahri really set me off. Her e-mail address is just a click away? Too tempting. My reaction has been sent. She must be made to know is that sensible people are onto her and her ilk.
If only CAIR and other groups would work together among their fellow Muslims to help provide “new perspectives” about the United States, Israel and the West. After all, it’s not as though departments of Middle Eastern studies in American universities aren’t already fully in the tank for the Islamists.
While shopping in Costco one hot summer day, I had the opportunity to observe a (typical?) American Muslim family. He was dressed comfortably in shorts, tee shirt and sandals. She was dressed in the full hijab and jilbab (pitch black–made me hot just to look at her). He walked ahead pointing to various items as he passed. She followed pushing their two children and dutifully loading the cart with the items he pointed to. Human beings? Yes, of course. Just like us? Not hardly.
As a Baldwin-Wallace alum (BA & MBA), I am appalled by the college’s embrace of CAIR. Good luck getting any future donations from me, B-W.
Remember the “Prescott Bush is evil because he did business with nazis” meme? you know, even though many many others did as well…
Well, take names and make sure to shove this stuff in peoples faces when Europe is eaten out from the inside by the muslim cancer in the not too distant future..
“…to help provide “new perspectives” about the Middle East and to confront ‘misinformation’ about the region and about Islam specifically.”
Misinformation? I don’t believe misinformation is the problem here. I think that even the less than astute American is more than informed enough. Despite what CAIR might wish to tell us about what Islam is, they cannot quite manage to make themselves heard over the roar of what too many of Islam’s own adherents themselves have been screaming at the world. Islam has spoken for itself and everywhere on the planet where the Islamic world bumps up against the non-Islamic, they’ve delivered a deadly message indeed.
And to those who would point a finger at America, to those who would say that her foreign policy is to blame for the Islamist violence against America, I ask you to explain to me whose foreign policy is responsible for for Islamist violence in:
Saudi Arabia,
Yemen,
Qatar,
United Arab Emirates,
Egypt,
Israel,
Syria,
Lebanon,
Ethiopia,
Russia,
Sudan,
Morocco,
Kenya,
Kurdistan,
Majorca,
Spain,
Germany,
England,
Tanzania,
Jordan,
France,
Italy,
Bali,
Indonesia,
Scotland,
Malaysia,
Sweden,
Turkey,
Greece,
Uzbekistan,
Austria,
Tajikistan,
Chechnya,
India,
Iraq,
Iran,
Philippines,
Australia,
and Uganda?
And who knows how many other places that I missed? Why can’t we get past the political correctness and speak plainly about what is plainly the problem. The problem is not American foreign policy towards Islamic nations, it’s not U.S. support of Israel nor is it Israel itself, it’s not cartoons published in Sweden, it’s not a book written by Salman Rushdie, and it’s not a ban of the burqua in France. It should be painfully obvious by now that the problem is that(for whatever reasons that it exists) Muslims seem to have a hard time playing nicely with everyone else.
Well, you say, “not EVERY Muslim is a terrorists!”. True, but damn near every terrorist has been a Muslim. And, with the current worldwide pandemic of Islamic murder and mayhem, I think it not imprudent to treat all Muslims as potential Islamist Typhoid Mary’s and to watch them very, very, closely. Is that fair to suspect all Muslims? No. It’s absolutely unfair. But it’s even more necessary than it is unfair!
But we can’t watch them and closely as the conditions warrant, because we’re too busy squandering our security resources doing strip searches of our small children and feeling up little old blue-haired grannies from Des Moines.
Let me help you with a few more countries
Malaya
Afghanistan
Russia
Nigeria
Somali
Libya
Bahrain
Pakistan
Algeria
Tunisia
Serbia
Cyprus
Argentina
USA
Australia
Indonesia
Wow, how careless of me to overlook those. I was in a hurry to eat dinner. Thanks!
Irony—Police Shut-down Event Promoting U.S. Constitution. Thomas More Law Center Files Lawsuit against Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI); Allegan Officials
ANN ARBOR, MI – In the middle of an event to extol the virtues of the U.S. Constitution and “American Laws For American Courts,” the audience learned first-hand how easy it is to lose their freedom of Speech and Assembly.
Amid shouts of “What about free speech?” from the audience, the Allegan Police Department ordered the event shut-down. School officials notified police that they had received a letter complaining about the event from Dawud Walid, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI). The letter asked the school to disallow the event despite an existing contract. CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism funding trial in U. S. history, U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation.
As a result, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR- MI), its Executive Director, the City of Allegan, the Allegan Police Department and the School District were named as defendants in a thirty-four page civil rights lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan, this morning. The claims included constitutional and contract violations. [Click here for copy of federal complaint]
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center commented, “It’s amazing how much clout CAIR has with the political establishment of both parties in Lansing and throughout Michigan and the nation. This, despite the fact that CAIR has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, and the FBI’s former chief of counterterrorism, noted that CAIR, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups.”
Continued Thompson, “Press accounts make it clear that an indictment naming CAIR as a defendant in the Holy Land Foundation trial was squelched by Attorney General Holder’s office despite vehement objections by FBI agents and the federal prosecutors in Dallas.”
The TMLC federal lawsuit was brought on behalf of State Representative David Agema; a chapter leader of ACT! for America, Elizabeth Griffin; Allegan County Commissioner, Willis Sage; and Mark Gurley, one of the event sponsors.
The event in question, entitled, “Constituting Michigan – Founding Principles Act” took place on January 26, 2012 at an Allegan High School auditorium which had been rented by Willis Sage.
The purpose of the event was to inform the public about the importance of honoring the United States Constitution, to recognize the internal threat to America posed by radical Muslims and the dangers to our free society caused by the imposition of Sharia law.
At first the Allegan police chief police indicated he shut down the event because of threats to one of the speakers, Kamal Saleem; however, shortly thereafter, the chief admitted to a reporter that there was no specific threat to the event and no real danger at all. In fact, no specific threats of violence relating to the event were received by the City of Allegan, its police department, the Allegan Public School District or Allegan Public High School.
Police gave as their reason, the appearance of one of the featured speakers, Kamal Saleem, a former Muslim terrorist who converted to Christianity. Saleem has spoken at numerous high schools and universities, Christian churches and Jewish temples across the nation. He has also spoken at the U. S. Air Force Academy, Michigan’s State Capital, and Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. At no time before the Allegan event or afterwards has an event where he has spoken been shut down by law enforcement.
Sage notified the Allegan police chief ten days before the event and invited him to check out the background of Saleem, which he never did.
Erin Mersino is the TMLC attorney handling the case.
More on Plaintiffs
State Representative David Agema is an elected State Representative for the 74th District serving in Michigan’s House of Representatives. He is a sponsor of HB 4769 entitled “Restriction of Application of Foreign Laws Act” (based on the American Laws for American Courts Model Act), which bans the use of foreign laws including Sharia law, by courts and administrative bodies of the State, when those laws conflict with fundamental rights protected by the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Michigan. Defendant Walid, is an outspoken opponent of HB 4769.
Elizabeth Griffin is a chapter leader for the organization, ACT! for America, a non-partisan, non-sectarian organization whose mission is to give Americans concerned about national security, terrorism, and the threat of radical Islam, a powerful, organized, informed and mobilized voice. Griffin promotes the “Constituting Michigan – Founding Principles Act”, which would require Michigan public schools to teach the history and Constitution of the United States. Griffin also guides and mentors chapter leaders for various chapters of the ACT! for America organization, as well as educates concerned Americans about the threat of Islamic Sharia law to our system of law in the United States.
Willis Sage is a County Commissioner for the County of Allegan, Michigan. Sage is the author of the “Constituting Michigan – Founding Principles Act,” which would require Michigan public schools to teach the history and constitution of the United States. He organized the event and rented the room at Allegan High School where the free speech event was held.
Plaintiff Mark Gurley was a sponsor of the event and paid for the airfare of Kamal Saleem. He is also an advocate of HB 4769, “Restriction of Application of Foreign Laws Act” (based on the American Laws for American Courts Model Act), sponsored by Plaintiff Agema.
Defendants’ pretextual claim that the free speech event needed to be shut-down for safety reasons subverts the true cause for halting the free speech event: complying with the demands of CAIR.
The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, as well as a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America. The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c) (3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at http://www.thomasmore.org.
Neda Zawahri is clearly a hate monger who pretends she wants to help, but really intends on inciting racial violence for ulterior motives. just like Al Sharpton, who has participated in demonizing innocent victim Zimmerman. They turn the tables and cry racism and hope the true victims are attacked. It is sick, psychopathic and they are greedy and get speaking fees and extort monies in many ways!
Islam is a religion based on managing conquered populations. It was spread by the sword, from day one. Christianity was spread by the Word in the Eastern Med, for the first 300 years of it’s existence. Which is better adapted to play well with others?
“Kill the infidel” seems pretty clear to me. “Convert or die” also seems straight forward. So I’m not sure exactly what value more information could have. Given the basic tenets of Islam there doesn’t seem to be much room for misunderstanding. Of course one could always question the countries where Islam is the dominate religion…….wait no, that’s forbidden. Maybe interviews with some women……………no, forbidden also.
Hmmmmm. I wonder if the Women’s Studies programs at these universities will be creating new core classes “My Burka and me”, “The Koran a guide for the obedient woman” or perhaps “Illiteracy Saves Lives”.
Yeah, they’re trying to pick up the (you know what) by the clean end again. Good luck with that.
If you don’t think American foreign policy has shaped most major events in the Middle East over the past half century, you are drinking the propaganda punch a little too much.
It not a matter of opinion, but one of historical fact. Our presence in the Middle East is not a stabilizing one. Iran, Iraq, Bin-Landen, all of these issues can be traced back to American involvement at some level in history.
Do people ever question why Iran is controlled by a radical theocratic regime? Could it be perhaps that covert CIA operations in 1951 overthrew the first democratically elected leader in Iran’s history and re-throned a totalitarian dictator?
What I find ironic is seeing am image of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein in 1983 as we lend aid to Iraq providing them with training, intelligence, weaponry, and biological weapons to fight the now “radical” Iran. We did the exact same thing with Bin Laden when he was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 80′s.
American foreign policy in the Middle East over the past 50 years has been pretty simple: Protect oil production and transport at all costs. Even if that means stopping the democratic process and supporting dictators.
Listen to your own intelligence community, blowback is real.
The well established narrative –the 79 “revolution” which brought the theocracy into power in Iran– is alas propogated despite being false. Mossadegh would have turned out to be a less than stellar leader given his personal shortcomings but history has been kind to his reputation because of the coup. To continue to pass the buck and blame the US for what happened in ’79 is simplistic and dangerous in that it hinders one’s ability to learn some useful, applicable, lessons. Ironically (and there seems to be much of that lately in the M.E.) many Iranians who were old enough to remember, miss the Shah’s rule; and Savak’s record doesn’t hold a candle to the RG’s modus operandi vis-a-vis dissension all in the name of “Allah”
Islam is a supremeicist ideology masquerading as a religion that does not need to be enjoined but is an evil that needs to be dealt with decisively. Islam is here in America to destroy us-read the Muslim Brotherhood manifesto. Look at Europe and see how their manifesto is working out there. Once they get the numbers here in America, their pre violent actions will turn violent and your lack of knowledge about our enemy will be very painful for you and those around you. Educate yourselves about Islam. Education is not forming alliances with CAIR or other Muslim organizations.