The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is doing its best to prove what the FBI and DOJ under George W. Bush warned Congress and the public. Namely, they are a pro-terrorism, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organization.
How else to explain their reaction to a pair of billboards placed alongside Chicago highways by a Pakistani Muslim group with the hopes of fighting noth terrorism and Islamophobia.
The billboards, which read “Muslims to Muslims: See Something. Say Something. Save Innocent Lives,” were paid for by the Association of Pakistani Americans of Bolingbrook. (Bolingbrook is a Chicago suburb.)
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“We are trying to tell average Americans this is who we are, and we do not condone (terrorism),” said Talat Rashid, founder of the group, who also is a member of Bolingbrook’s Planning Commission and was the suburb’s 2003 Citizen of the Year. “If we see anyone in our community that is off track, we will let the authorities know.”
It seems like a noble goal, but not everyone agrees. Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago branch of CAIR says there is no data that proves that Muslims don’t speak up when they see suspicious activity. He thinks the billboard will foster Islamophobia toward the Muslim community.
Understand where Rehab is coming from. CAIR was named as a Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas front group by the FBI. The U.S. Attorney’s Office named the group an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation federal criminal trial which showed that the group was not only created by, but raised funds for, Hamas. One of the key pieces of evidence in the Holy Land case was a wiretap recording that put CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad, at a Philadelphia meeting of Hamas leaders. Participants hatched a plot to deceive Americans and disguise payments to Hamas as it launched a campaign of terror attacks. CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad joined Hamas big shots at the summit.
It is, thus, not too much of a stretch to understand why Rehab doesn’t want people to speak out.
“I’m in the business of countering Islamophobia. I know that work needs to be done,” Rehab was quoted as saying. “I just don’t think that cementing a misperception on a billboard is going to help.
Actually, “saying something” goes against the CAIR philosophy. Consider as evidence the poster below, which was used to announce a February 2011 CAIR event at the East Side Cultural Center in Oakland.
The event was titled “FBI Raids and Grand Jury Subpoenas: Know Your Rights and Defend Our Communities.”
Now to be fair, once the sign became news, Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR said, “I think it’s subject to misinterpretation. We decided out of extreme caution to take it down.”
Misinterpretation? What could be misinterpreted? Did they mean build a fence of resistance instead of build a wall? Ultimately, this is the same double-speak CAIR pulls over the eyes of mainstream media news hosts when they claim that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.
Let’s face it: If CAIR gave a rat’s ass about stopping terrorism or Islamophobia, it would be doing all it could to support the efforts of the Association of Pakistani Americans of Bolingbrook. Instead CAIR is objecting to the billboards much the way the group often does when the FBI arrests a terrorist.
Cross-posted at The Lid
