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Steven Emerson,
Executive Director
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January 26, 2017
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CAIR:
Cruz's Muslim Brotherhood Bill Not About Terrorism
by John Rossomando • Jan 26, 2017
at 1:12 pm
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Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's bill seeking to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a
terrorist group is discriminatory leaders of the Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR) claimed at a press conference Wednesday.
"We believe it has little to do with national security or
terrorism," CAIR's spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.
He sees Cruz's bill as part of a two-step strategy to designate the
Muslim Brotherhood and attack groups and their leaders who
"Islamophobes have falsely labeled as linked to the Muslim
Brotherhood."
Hard evidence, however, links CAIR and other American Islamist groups to
the Brotherhood.
A phone book introduced at 2008 Holy Land Foundation
(HLF) Hamas fundraising trial revealed that CAIR Executive Director Nihad
Awad and fellow CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad belonged to the Muslim
Brotherhood's Palestine Committee. This committee came into existence as part
of the Muslim Brotherhood's plan to support Hamas in America.
U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis noted in a 2009 ruling that the HLF
trial evidence provided "at least a prima facie case as to CAIR's
involvement in a conspiracy to support Hamas."
Awad defended the Muslim Brotherhood at the press conference, saying it
has been "part in parcel of the democratic process" that it
believes in democracy. Banning it for ideological reasons "is nothing
short of shooting ourselves in the foot as the biggest democracy or the
strongest democracy in the world," Awad said.
Cruz's bill would direct the secretary of state to tell Congress whether
the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria for designation as a foreign
terrorist organization. President Trump reportedly is considering an executive order
accomplishing the bill's objectives.
CAIR also protested Trump's proposed executive order curtailing immigration and
visas from majority Muslim countries such as Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria, Yemen and Iran. With the exception of Iran, all of these countries
have barely functioning central governments and are in the midst of raging
civil wars. It also contested President Trump's order halting the processing of
Syrian refugees and ordering the creation of safe zones inside Syria for
them.
Awad cast the orders as anti-Muslim and bigoted.
"Never before in our country's history have we purposely as a
matter of policy imposed a ban on immigrants or refugees on the basis of
religion or imposed a litmus test on those coming to this nation,"
Awad said. "The orders will tarnish our image in the Muslim world,
making us seem uncaring and hard-hearted."
It's not exactly without precedent. Early 20th century immigration
laws barred those belonging to ideological subversives and polygamists from coming to
the U.S. Ottoman authorities protested the latter for curtailing Muslim
immigration to the United States.
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