The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) worked hard to get His Fraudulency President-select Joe Biden into the White House, and now it’s time for payback. On Tuesday, the sinister organization that the establishment media routinely presents as a benign human rights group released what it called “a detailed agenda detailing policy changes that the Biden-Harris administration should pursue within its first 100 days in office to restore the rights of Americans Muslims and advance justice for all.” “Restore the rights of American Muslims”? What rights have they been denied? If you said “none,” you’re correct, but CAIR’s wishlist emanates from the bizarro world of the group’s relentless efforts to secure coveted victimhood status for Muslims in the U.S.
The report is impressively detailed, identifying “33 new initiatives and policy reforms designed to protect and respect the rights of all U.S. citizens and residents, including Muslims, that the new administration can start to implement the first day in office.”
This is so much eyewash, as there is nothing among these 33 demands that is designed to protect and respect the rights of anyone but Muslims, but this sort of thing plays well with the media, and so it’s always worth throwing in. For example, one of the demands is “Support the free speech of all Americans and the right to boycott without government interference.” Another demands an “end the U.S. Department of Education’s attempts to suppress free speech on college campuses, including attempts to target Middle Eastern studies courses and punishing Palestinian student activists.”
These are not calls for the support of the freedom of speech as such. CAIR’s support for the freedom of speech here is stated only in connection to protesting Israel. When it comes to criticism of Islam, CAIR’s commitment to the freedom of speech suddenly weakens. It also demands the removal of “alt-right and Islamophobic online resources” from “existing vetting practices,” which is essentially a call for the removal of material that speaks honestly about the motivating ideology behind jihad terrorism. All such material was removed years ago, so it’s unclear what CAIR spokesman Ibrahim “Honest Ibe” Hooper is in a lather about here. But free speech? Not really high on CAIR’s agenda at all.
“CAIR’s agenda,” CAIR notes proudly, “is being endorsed by the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, the largest coalition of several leading national, regional, and local Muslim organizations and institutions harnessing the collective strength of American Muslims for the greater good of all.” That makes it all the more disquieting that the list of demands includes these:
1. Fundamentally reform the federal government’s unconstitutional Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), commonly referred to as the “terrorism watchlist.”
2. Dismantle the TSA’s secretive Quiet Skies passenger tracking program, its international counterpart Silent Partner and other rules-based lists, that operate without Congressional oversight to single out law-abiding Muslim travelers for official harassment and extrajudicial consequences without due process.
3. Oppose and defund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS”) 2020 “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention” (“TVTP”) grant program, the successor of DHS’s previous Countering Violent Extremism (“CVE”) grant program.
4. End the FBI’s use of informants to spy on American Muslim communities.
5. Reject any new domestic terrorism statutes.
Consider all these demands in light of the fact that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman, Omar Ahmad, as well as Hooper, have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.)
Even worse, CAIR chapters frequently distribute pamphlets telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement. CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush in 2017 called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. CAIR’s national outreach manager is an open supporter of Hamas.
This list of demands also features some of CAIR’s usual victimhood mongering: “Ensure American Muslims and other minorities, like all other Americans, have equal access to the COVID-19 vaccine and federal and state aid available to those impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.” Of course, there is no need for such a demand, as no one anywhere is contemplating denying Muslims or anyone else equal access to the vaccine.
The next demand makes the remedy for this alleged discrimination clear: “provide more funding to American Muslim clinics.” Ah yes, no problem is so big that a little cash won’t solve it.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 21 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.
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