CAIR's
Damaging Influence Evident in Ilhan Omar Controversy
by Benjamin Baird
Special to IPT News
March 12, 2019
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 The Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) took the opportunity Thursday to applaud
a watered-down version of a House resolution originally intended to condemn U.S.
Rep. Ilhan Omar's recent spate of anti-Semitic outbursts. Instead, the
legislative measure emphasized both anti-Semitism and "anti-Muslim
discrimination and bigotry," effectively excusing Omar's disgraceful
behavior in recent weeks.
CAIR said it "welcome[d] changes to the resolution" that never
directly mentioned Omar or her very specific examples of anti-Semitism, but
offered a condemnation of bigotry in general. To the self-described
"Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization," Thursday's
anti-hate proclamation represents a political triumph earned from years of
demonizing Israel while promoting an overblown Islamophobia crisis.
CAIR officials took a victory lap following the resolution's passage,
absolving Omar of any wrongdoing by conflating her anti-Semitic statements
with "legitimate criticism" of U.S. support for Israel.
"All Americans should support statements denouncing anti-Semitism,
Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry," CAIR's press release reads. "Unfortunately, this
resolution was introduced to silence legitimate criticism of domestic
support for the discriminatory and segregationist policies of a foreign
government that receives billions of American taxpayer dollars."
Despite presenting itself as an innocuous Muslim civil rights
organization, records show that CAIR was created as part of a
Hamas-support network in America. Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood legacy
group which openly seeks Israel's destruction. The FBI severed formal
relations with CAIR in 2008, saying the group was not "an appropriate liaison
partner" until it could determine "whether there continues to be
a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS."
The policy remains in effect. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile,
designated CAIR as a terrorist group in 2014.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who was accused of anti-Semitism in
January for saying that senators opposed to the anti-Israel boycott
movement "forget what country they represent," joined Omar in celebrating the revised resolution.
"Today is historic on many fronts. It's the first time we have voted
on a resolution condemning anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation's
history," they wrote.
Likewise, the day before the resolution passed, CAIR darling Linda
Sarsour complained that Congress had never defended Muslim Americans from
harassment. "Democratic leadership were never swift to condemn ... or
put out resolutions condemning islamophobia (sic) and/or standing in solidarity
with Muslims on the record in Congress," Sarsour wrote.
That's not true. Congress has introduced several resolutions condemning
Islamophobia since Sept. 11, 2001. In October 2003, the House passed H.R. 234, "Condemning bigotry and violence against
Arab-Americans, Muslim-Americans, South Asia-Americans, and
Sikh-Americans." It called on law enforcement agencies "to work
vigorously to prevent discriminatory backlash crimes" against these
groups following the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.
The Senate adopted a similar measure that same year. and in 2015
the House introduced H.R 569 "Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful
rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States," after groups like CAIR warned of an impending anti-Muslim backlash
following the jihadist-inspired San Bernardino massacre. Apart from a few non-violent incidents, San Bernardino residents say
their worst fears about a backlash in their own community never
materialized
The FBI's 2017 hate crime statistics demonstrate that, like previous
years, American Jews are the most common victims of hate crimes.
Anti-Semitic attacks represent 58.1 percent of all anti-religious hate
crimes – more than three times the number of anti-Muslim incidents. And
yet, House lawmakers couldn't find the courage last week to take a stand
against anti-Semitism.
In the past month, Omar has attracted a hornets' nest of controversy by
spouting classic anti-Semitic tropes in successive, widely-condemned
incidents. First, the Minnesota Democrat tweeted,
"It's all about the Benjamins baby," using an age old crude
anti-Semitic charge to suggest that pro-Israel lobbyists pay to silence
criticism of the Israeli government. But just after issuing what seemed to
be a deflective apology, Omar told a progressive town hall audience that Israel's supporters
are guilty of dual loyalty, i.e. guilty of "allegiance to a foreign
country."
Omar's comments drew bipartisan condemnation from legislators, and even
upset some of her allies from the Muslim American left. Hussein Ibish, a
Progressive Muslim Union co-founder and Bloomberg columnist, described Omar's
remarks as "a disaster that reinforces divisive stereotypes about
supposed Muslim hostility to Jews." New York Magazine columnist
Jonathan Chait accused anti-Semites like Omar of "smuggling their
biases into criticisms of Israel."
Reminiscent of 2015, Islamist lobbyists won the day. Teaming up with a
consortium of far-left activists and Muslim advocacy groups, 19 CAIR
officials signed on to a letter asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to
"pass a resolution that equally condemns antisemitism and
Islamophobia." Signatories included CAIR-Los Angeles Executive
Director Hussam Ayloush, who wrote that the Middle East would be "better
off" if Israel were "terminated," and CAIR-San Francisco
director Zahra Billoo, who maintains that Israel does not have "a right to
exist."
Despite the hateful prejudice expressed by these petitioners, Pelosi and
the House caved.
Congress ultimately condemned anti-Semitism — but not without
acknowledging anti-Muslim bigotry and white supremacism. Omar was never
mentioned. Pelosi engaged in her own bigotry, the soft form exhibited by
low expectations, by arguing that Omar, an elected member of Congress on
the House Foreign Relations Committee, "did not understand the words
she was saying."
By reducing Omar's bigoted remarks to "legitimate criticism"
of Israel — the Middle East's sole liberal democracy — CAIR is normalizing
the same offensive behaviors that inspired the House resolution.
It's a mind-set that is deeply rooted among many Islamists. CAIR co-founder
and Executive Director Nihad Awad advanced a common anti-Semitic theme when
he applied otherworldly characteristics to Jews as a world power.
"[T]he Jews through their Zionist machinery have power over all the
agencies and organs of the United States government," he wrote in an
anti-Semitic pamphlet issued prior to founding CAIR
 CAIR, an Islamist
nonprofit which despises Israel and revels in Islamophobia, represents Omar's base.
She has helped CAIR raise money in the past and is scheduled to appear at a CAIR-Los Angeles fundraiser
later this month. She will share the podium with Hassan Shibly, the chief
executive of CAIR's Florida chapter and an outspoken anti-Semite in his own
right who has refused to condemn Hamas and vilified "Israel [and] its supporters" as the
"enemies of God and humanity." It comes as no surprise, then,
that Shibly would whitewash Omar's blatant anti-Semitism, cheering the
congresswoman last week for "expanding the overdue conversation
on why [the] US has enabled Israel to commit massive crimes against
Palestinian civilians."
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members also reportedly played an instrumental role in forcing the Democratic
establishment to revise Thursday's House resolution to emphasize
Islamophobia and white supremacism. CBC chairman Cedric Richmond, D-La.,
who boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2015 speech
before a joint session of Congress, co-sponsored the legislation and appealed to his
colleagues to incorporate all forms of bigotry.
The prevailing anti-Semitic attitudes embraced by far-left members of
Congress did not emerge overnight. This hatred was born out of a lasting courtship between some members of the Congressional
Black Caucus (CBC) and CAIR, which regularly exchange dignitaries to attend each other's conferences
and fundraisers.
The caucus maintains ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a
vociferous anti-Semite who has referred to Jews as "termites" and
to Adolf Hitler as a "very great man." Back in 2005, 20 CBC
lawmakers were photographed getting cozy with the black nationalist, and
caucus affiliates like Rep. Danny Davis have openly praised Farrakhan's
"visionary leadership."
"When members of the CBC shielded Omar from questions following her
anti-Semitic comments, who could be remotely surprised?" asked Erielle Davidson, senior contributor at the
Federalist. "The irony of the feigned shock from various corners
is that Omar is not an aberration or an exception to CBC members—she is
the rule."
With exceptional political reach on Capitol Hill, CAIR has persuaded
Congress to minimize or excuse examples of anti-Semitism while enunciating
anti-Muslim bias. Through an increasingly critical alliance with a far-left
Democratic caucus, the Islamist front group has popularized its odious
brand of hatred and found willing adherents among influential members of
Congress.
Benjamin Baird is a writer for Islamist Watch, a project of the
Middle East Forum. He is a graduate of Middle Eastern studies from the
American Military University, a member of the Association for the Study of
the Middle East and Africa, and a U.S. Army infantry veteran of Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Related Topics: Benjamin
Baird, Ilhan
Omar, anti-Semitism,
CAIR,
Nancy
Pelosi, House
resolutions, Rashida
Tlaib, Linda
Sarsour, Hussam
Ayloush, Nihad
Awad, Hassan
Shibly, hate
crimes statistics, Congressional
Black Caucus, Cedric
Richmond
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