While the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) presents itself as “America's largest Muslim civil liberties organization,” it is actually only glancingly interested in civil liberties. Whenever a public official dares to utter even the mildest negative word about Islam, including opposition to jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women, CAIR kicks up as much of a brouhaha as it possibly can, demanding apologies, resignations, and even reeducation classes for everyone who might have been tainted with the offender’s “Islamophobia.”
In accord with Sharia prohibitions of any criticism of Islam, CAIR works hard to make sure that Islam critics are silenced and punished, if not by firing than by public stigmatization and demonization. But suddenly, this unsavory gang has discovered a new respect for the freedom of speech.
Right Angle News Network reported Friday that CAIR “is demanding that charges be dropped against three Muslims who vandalized a church in Texas, claiming that ‘graffiti is the language of the unheard’ and that vandalizing the church was their First Amendment right.”
It all started back on Sept. 5, when the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office filed hate crime charges against two Muslims and leftist, Raunaq Alam, Afsheen Khan and Julia Venzor, for spray-painting “F**k Israel” on the wall of the Uncommon Church in Euless, Texas. One can only imagination the howls of rage that would issue from CAIR top dogs if, say, “F**k Iran” were graffitied onto the wall of a mosque, not that such a thing would likely happen or ever should happen, but in the present case, CAIR officials suddenly discovered that the freedom of speech they’ve been working so hard to suppress for all these years is actually a grand thing. It might have helped also that CAIR has ties to Hamas, and the graffiti was expressing hatred and contempt for Israel.
At the same time, however, Mustafaa Carroll, Executive Director of CAIR-Texas DFW, made sure that nobody got the crazy idea that CAIR was endorsing the vandalism of a church. He declared: “Although we strongly condemn the vandalism of this church and believe that those responsible should be held accountable for this crime, Texas prosecutors are going beyond the law attempting to criminalize political speech by conflating criticism of the Israeli government with religious hatred.”
It’s a stretch to see “F**k Israel” as “criticism of the Israeli government," as if Alam, Khan and Venzor were engaging in sober, measured, carefully reasoned criticism of the Jewish state’s conduct of its defensive war against Hamas, but CAIR officials have never been shy about stretching.
Carroll continued: “Our state’s hate crime laws were meant to protect vulnerable communities, not shield foreign governments from critique. We can and should condemn the vandalism of a house of worship without criminalizing speech.” CAIR’s condemnation of the “vandalism of a house of worship” is, like everything else the organization does, inconsistent and self-serving. Back in 2012, when Pamela Geller and I put up posters defending Israel in New York City subways, a CAIR official, Cyrus McGoldrick, applauded the vandalism of the posters, and another CAIR wonk, Christina Abraham, called for more such vandalism.
Related: Leftists Claim the Free Speech House Is On Fire, But Who Was the Arsonist?
That was many years ago, however, and now Imran Ghani, Director of Operations of CAIR-Texas Houston, asserts that “vandalizing a church property goes against the tenants [sic] of Islam; however [you knew there was going to be a ‘however,’ didn’t you?], manipulating Texas’ hate crime laws to punish criticism of a foreign government will further erode public confidence in expressing their freedom of speech: a lose-lose for all Americans.”
Yeah, good thing we have Hamas-linked CAIR out there defending our freedom of speech. Will it remember its newfound appreciation for the First Amendment the next time some elected official suggests that maybe, just maybe, Islamic teachings might illuminate the motive of a guy who kills people at a synagogue while screaming “Allahu akbar”? Not on your life. The next jihad terror attack will see CAIR top dogs reverting to their familiar role of insisting that jihad violence has nothing, nothing whatsoever, to do with Islam, and that anyone who suggests otherwise is a racist, bigoted Islamophobe whom all decent people should shun.
The fact that the jihadis themselves are the ones who make the connection between their actions and Islam makes no difference to CAIR. Like its leftist allies, CAIR wants you to deny the evidence of your senses and see reality only as it wishes you to see it. And that’s why, despite its impressive record of victories against the freedom of speech, CAIR is fighting a losing battle. Ultimately, reality cannot be denied or concealed.
