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Zogby Then and Now
IPT News http://www.investigativeproject.org/752/zogby-then-and-now The resignation two weeks ago of Mazen Asbahi, Sen. Barack Obama's Muslim outreach coordinator, sparked outrage among several self-appointed leaders of the "organized" Muslim and Arab community. Ahmed Rehab, mouthpiece for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claimed Asbahi was "a victim of what I would call the anti-Muslim smear and fear campaign." Not to be outdone, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), issued a press release titled, "In Atmosphere of Islamophobia, Obama Volunteer Steps Down Amidst Personal Attacks," which "urged both presidential campaigns to rise above post-9/11, anti-Muslim hysteria." Now comes James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), on the Huffington Post website, in a post titled, "It's a Damn Shame," to make similar charges. Zogby mentions Asbahi's connections to various organizations, ignoring the fact that they are Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups (including Asbahi's time on the board of directors of a fund operated by an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas-fundraising case) and laments:
For the moment, never mind that Zogby's post was picked up verbatim by the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood, http://www.ikhwanweb.com/, (see: It's a Damn Shame). In a better world, that fact alone should trouble the editors of the Huffington Post. Also ignore for the moment Zogby's complete whitewash of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the first organization in the U.S. founded by the Muslim Brotherhood. While obviously not every member of the MSA is radical, the MSA is certainly not merely an "established and respected religious/social group." For a sampling of what's heard at MSA conferences, see what an MSA leader told his audience at an event at Berkeley last year:
Established and respected indeed. But back to Mr. Zogby. Let's take a look at his track record in a very similar case. Before 9/11, various leaders of the "organized" Muslim community had become very politically active, notably Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council. In October 2000, the IPT video taped Alamoudi at a rally across the street from the White House where he announced his support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Naturally, politicians who had received campaign contributions from Alamoudi immediately returned it. Zogby, for his part, cried foul. According to a report at the time in the New York Daily News:
So according to Zogby, returning money from a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah is "shameful hysteria," and, of course, "McCarthyism." Maybe the term "Islamophobia" wasn't invented at the time, but Zogby's remarks back then track what he's saying now, and are in line with Rehab's "anti-Muslim fear campaign" comments as well. Of course, Alamoudi, despite Zogby's vocal support, and despite being a victim of "shameful hysteria," is serving a 23 year prison sentence for terrorism-related crimes including recruiting operatives to assassinate the then-Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. No one is comparing Mazen Asbahi to Alamoudi, but Zogby's reaction to both cases is highly instructive. Rather than take a critical look at Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups like the MSA or AMC, Zogby just screams "racist" and "bigot," and then prays that the person he's publicly defending isn't a bagman for a Libyan dictator or associated with an Al Qaeda assassination plot. It's up to the editors of the Huffington Post if they want to publish material that the editors of the Muslim Brotherhood's website find appealing and useful. But Zogby's shameless propaganda and, yes, hysteria, were exposed during the Alamoudi affair. Why should anyone listen to him now? Related Topics: Elections / Campaigns, Muslim Students Association (MSA), The Muslim Brotherhood Reader comments on this itemPost-9/11 Anti-Muslim Hysteria Submitted by Proud Infidel, Aug 19, 2008 11:17 "In Atmosphere of Islamophobia, Obama Volunteer Steps Down Amidst Personal Attacks," which "urged both presidential campaigns to rise above post-9/11, anti-Muslim hysteria." The MPAC is dead wrong on this one. It's not about post-9/11 anything. It's about the continued force-feeding of Islam's radical agenda on America. It's about terrorist supporting and radical Islam supporting groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Student's Association (MSA), and numerous others that are "friends" and off-shoots of the Muslim Brotherhood who have a clear agenda of establishing an Islamic state in America. It's about baseless lawsuits against anything that radical Muslims deem to be offensive to them with the goal of limiting our constitutional rights such as free speech. It's about CAIR's goal of making America guilty on all counts and Muslims the victims in all counts. And it's about Islam's claim that it can never be a democracy and that Muslims cannot be true Americans under a democracy, thus the push for an Islamic state.
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