CAIR Exec's Telling Interview
IPT News http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/767 In a recent interview with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islam Online website, and reported by the BBC Middle East Monitoring Service, the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR), Executive Director Nihad Awad reflected on "interfaith dialogue," the Bush administration, the upcoming presidential election, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Asked about the prospect of a new U.S. president, and whether American Muslims regret support for George W. Bush in 2000, Awad's answer offers a disturbing window into his soul.
How noble. It shouldn't surprise anyone to see Awad give an interview with a Brotherhood-linked website. After all, the Brotherhood's deputy chief, Mohammed Habib, recently acknowledged in an interview that there is a relationship between his group and CAIR. That's what federal prosecutors in the Hamas financing case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) have said for more than a year, naming CAIR as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's "Palestine Committee." That is less than thinly-veiled code for Hamas. Awad's former employer, the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), was also named in the same document as part of the Brotherhood's Palestine Committee, and has been named by two federal judges as a Hamas front group. Incidentally, prosecutors reiterated CAIR's role in the conspiracy last week, introducing their Second Supplemental Trial Brief for the upcoming case, which stated:
The prosecution sees CAIR as a sister-organization to the chief financial front group for Hamas in the U.S., and not without reason. In the days after the horrific 9/11 terror attacks, CAIR used its website to solicit funds for HLF, sending visitors who clicked on a button which read, "Donate to the NY/DC Emergency Relief Fund," to the HLF website. In other words, CAIR used the occasion of the worst terror attack on U.S. soil to direct its constituents to send money to a Hamas-front group. Before founding CAIR, Awad, in his capacity as Public Relations director for IAP, famously wrote a letter to the American Muslim periodical, The Message, excoriating the publication its use of the word "Israel." Awad wrote that he hoped it was merely "the result of an oversight," and that the magazine would "return to the terminology ‘Occupied Palestine' to refer to that Holy Land." That, along with Awad's on the record support for Hamas, is the prism through which one should look at CAIR and its long-time Executive Director, despite CAIR's self-description as nothing more than a "prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group." During Awad's interview, in response to a question about whether religious symbols could be used to influence politics, Awad said:
Now, as noted above, Awad doesn't even believe there should be a country called Israel – that all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is nothing more than "Occupied Palestine." And as a supporter of Hamas, or "the Islamic resistance," Awad's exhortation that "the religious roots" of the conflict should be remembered is rather telling. A look at the Hamas Charter amply demonstrates how members of the Muslim Brotherhood view the "religious roots" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Hassan al-Banna is the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Nihad Awad and CAIR, as noted above, are a part. Hamas' Charter continues to expound on the "religious roots":
And:
Incidentally, this "religious" prophecy is followed not only by Hamas. Another branch of the American Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Society of North America, included this passage on its website until IPT reporting forced them to take it down, although a version still exists on the webarchive. Back to Awad's interview. When asked whom he favors in the Presidential election, he responded:
By "recent statements," Awad is referring to Senator Obama's June 4 speech before the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee in which he voiced strong support for Israel and an undivided Jerusalem as Israel's capital city. Obama later backtracked after a chorus of outcries from the Arab and Muslim world. Similarly, the Obama campaign has had several high profile instances which have ruffled the feathers of the organized Muslim leadership in the U.S.: one in which his staff moved several women wearing traditional Islamic headscarves from a campaign rally so they would not be pictured behind the candidate, and another in which Obama's Muslim outreach coordinator resigned because of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. While Awad is clear that his sympathies lie with the Democrats this year, it is not clear how receptive the party will be to many of his views, including those on the separation of church (or religion in general) and state:
Of course, in the Muslim world, there is very little separation from religion and state. And Nihad Awad's long time partner, CAIR Chairman Emeritus Omar Ahmed, is on record (see page 99) as stating that the Koran should be "the highest authority in America, and the Islam the only accepted religion on earth." Americans should be very wary when any CAIR official expounds on matters involving the relationship between religion and state. Related Items
Reader comments on this itemSwear words Submitted by number 6, Sep 21, 2008 13:48 Oh if only I could use swear words without having my comment reject it. Only those words express how I feel about this [censored] mother[censored].
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