CAIR Rep Removes Facebook Page After Hitler Posting Backlash
CAIR response fails to recognize larger bigotry problem within group.
May 27, 2016
On May 24th, following this author’s article about a highly
offensive posting made by an official from the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on her personal Facebook page, CAIR
issued a press release response repudiating the posting and the page was
deleted. While the response was appropriate, it failed to recognize the
larger bigotry problem inside CAIR, including the problem with the
contact person for the press release, itself.
CAIR was established in June 1994 as part of a terrorist umbrella group headed by then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook. In 2007 and 2008, CAIR was named by the US Justice Department a co-conspirator for two federal trials dealing with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. Since its founding, a number of CAIR representatives have served jail time and/or have been deported from the United States for terrorist-related crimes. In November 2014, CAIR, itself, was designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government.
Ruanne Zein, aka Ruanne Elmalawani, is the Orlando Outreach Coordinator for the Florida chapter of CAIR. On May 9th, less than three months after she began working for CAIR, Zein posted onto her Facebook page a graphic of a smiling Adolf Hitler with a sandwich in front of him along with the caption, “The best Kosher deli sandwiches are made in the Reichstag. I love the Jews!”
The image was a parody of something Presidential Candidate Donald Trump had tweeted regarding Hispanics, but regardless, it was highly offensive to Jews and all those who lost family during the Holocaust. Under Hitler’s German leadership, one-third of the world’s Jews were systematically murdered, and it was in the Reichstag (Nazi Parliament) where Hitler first called for the “annihilation” of Europe’s Jewry.
Following a FrontPage article this author wrote about the subject of Zein and her Hitler posting, CAIR repudiated the posting and Zein’s entire Facebook page came down.
The CAIR press release about Zein’s posting quotes CAIR-Florida CEO and Regional Operations Director as saying the following, “I am extremely disappointed with the repulsive post as it undermines everything we stand for as a Muslim Civil Rights organization and our culture at CAIR-Florida. We strive to build strong bridges with the Jewish community to combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Messages of this type have absolutely no space in our organization or staff.”
While the statement is welcome, it is extremely flawed, as CAIR-Florida has a much larger problem with anti-Semitism and bigotry than just Ms. Zein’s posting.
In July 2014, CAIR-Florida co-sponsored a pro-Hamas rally in Downtown Miami, where rally goers shouted, “We are Hamas,” “Let’s go Hamas,” and “Hamas kicked your ass.” Following the rally, the event organizer, Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, who is President of the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), one of the other co-sponsors of the Hamas rally, wrote in Arabic, “Thank God, every day we conquer the American Jews like our conquests over the Jews of Israel!” He signed it “Br. Sofian Zakkout.”
The contact listed at the bottom of CAIR’s press release regarding the Hitler image posting is CAIR-Florida’s Communications Director and Civil Rights Attorney Wilfredo Amr Ruiz. According to his CAIR-Florida bio, Ruiz also founded the AMANA chapters of Puerto Rico and Connecticut and is “currently acting as” AMANA’s legal adviser.
Apart from sponsoring pro-Hamas rallies, AMANA regularly promotes white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. In fact, the latest posting on AMANA’s Facebook page is an anti-Jewish David Duke video, titled ‘Will Israel Assassinate Obama?’ In July 2010, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned AMANA for posting onto its website homepage another anti-Semitic Duke video. The ADL described the video as being “venomous.” The video was posted right above an expose about Ruiz.
Though CAIR has repudiated its Orlando staffer Ruanne Zein’s posting, it has never done the same regarding the actions or associations of either Wilfredo Ruiz or Sofian Zakkout, someone who CAIR-Florida CEO Nezar Hamze has numerous dealings with and photos alongside.
However, what CAIR leaders have done is repeatedly shout “Islamophobia” or fear/hatred of Islam/Muslims, when there was none, as a way to silence their critics.
In fact, Ruiz is staring in a series of events made to discuss the topic of “Islamophobia.” Also participating with him are: Imam of Darul Uloom in Pembroke Pines, Florida, Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, who has blamed homosexuals for the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and who has refered to Jews and Christians as “perverted transgressors,” and Bassam Alhalabi, the founder of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), where the mosque’s website had an article up for three years calling Jews “people of treachery and betrayel” and discussing the murder of Jews.
If CAIR truly wishes to build strong bridges with Jews and others, it needs to start by tearing down the bigotry that has poisoned the organization since it began over two decades ago. Repudiating Ruanne Zein’s posting is nice but does little to end the culture of hate within its own ranks and partnerships.
CAIR was established in June 1994 as part of a terrorist umbrella group headed by then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook. In 2007 and 2008, CAIR was named by the US Justice Department a co-conspirator for two federal trials dealing with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. Since its founding, a number of CAIR representatives have served jail time and/or have been deported from the United States for terrorist-related crimes. In November 2014, CAIR, itself, was designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government.
Ruanne Zein, aka Ruanne Elmalawani, is the Orlando Outreach Coordinator for the Florida chapter of CAIR. On May 9th, less than three months after she began working for CAIR, Zein posted onto her Facebook page a graphic of a smiling Adolf Hitler with a sandwich in front of him along with the caption, “The best Kosher deli sandwiches are made in the Reichstag. I love the Jews!”
The image was a parody of something Presidential Candidate Donald Trump had tweeted regarding Hispanics, but regardless, it was highly offensive to Jews and all those who lost family during the Holocaust. Under Hitler’s German leadership, one-third of the world’s Jews were systematically murdered, and it was in the Reichstag (Nazi Parliament) where Hitler first called for the “annihilation” of Europe’s Jewry.
Following a FrontPage article this author wrote about the subject of Zein and her Hitler posting, CAIR repudiated the posting and Zein’s entire Facebook page came down.
The CAIR press release about Zein’s posting quotes CAIR-Florida CEO and Regional Operations Director as saying the following, “I am extremely disappointed with the repulsive post as it undermines everything we stand for as a Muslim Civil Rights organization and our culture at CAIR-Florida. We strive to build strong bridges with the Jewish community to combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Messages of this type have absolutely no space in our organization or staff.”
While the statement is welcome, it is extremely flawed, as CAIR-Florida has a much larger problem with anti-Semitism and bigotry than just Ms. Zein’s posting.
In July 2014, CAIR-Florida co-sponsored a pro-Hamas rally in Downtown Miami, where rally goers shouted, “We are Hamas,” “Let’s go Hamas,” and “Hamas kicked your ass.” Following the rally, the event organizer, Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, who is President of the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), one of the other co-sponsors of the Hamas rally, wrote in Arabic, “Thank God, every day we conquer the American Jews like our conquests over the Jews of Israel!” He signed it “Br. Sofian Zakkout.”
The contact listed at the bottom of CAIR’s press release regarding the Hitler image posting is CAIR-Florida’s Communications Director and Civil Rights Attorney Wilfredo Amr Ruiz. According to his CAIR-Florida bio, Ruiz also founded the AMANA chapters of Puerto Rico and Connecticut and is “currently acting as” AMANA’s legal adviser.
Apart from sponsoring pro-Hamas rallies, AMANA regularly promotes white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. In fact, the latest posting on AMANA’s Facebook page is an anti-Jewish David Duke video, titled ‘Will Israel Assassinate Obama?’ In July 2010, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned AMANA for posting onto its website homepage another anti-Semitic Duke video. The ADL described the video as being “venomous.” The video was posted right above an expose about Ruiz.
Though CAIR has repudiated its Orlando staffer Ruanne Zein’s posting, it has never done the same regarding the actions or associations of either Wilfredo Ruiz or Sofian Zakkout, someone who CAIR-Florida CEO Nezar Hamze has numerous dealings with and photos alongside.
However, what CAIR leaders have done is repeatedly shout “Islamophobia” or fear/hatred of Islam/Muslims, when there was none, as a way to silence their critics.
In fact, Ruiz is staring in a series of events made to discuss the topic of “Islamophobia.” Also participating with him are: Imam of Darul Uloom in Pembroke Pines, Florida, Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, who has blamed homosexuals for the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and who has refered to Jews and Christians as “perverted transgressors,” and Bassam Alhalabi, the founder of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), where the mosque’s website had an article up for three years calling Jews “people of treachery and betrayel” and discussing the murder of Jews.
If CAIR truly wishes to build strong bridges with Jews and others, it needs to start by tearing down the bigotry that has poisoned the organization since it began over two decades ago. Repudiating Ruanne Zein’s posting is nice but does little to end the culture of hate within its own ranks and partnerships.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment