By Art Moore
WND investigation seen as example of 'alarming level of anti-Islam hate'
Citing the impact of the WND Books expose "Muslim Mafia" as an example of rampant "anti-Islam hate in our nation," the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on President Obama yesterday to address what it calls an "alarming" problem.
CAIR – which has filed suit against "Muslim Mafia" co-author P. David Gaubatz and his son for an undercover investigation of the group's terrorist ties – distributed a list of "anti-Islam incidents" that included "a call by far-right members of the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate Muslim interns on Capitol Hill as 'spies.'"
"President Obama is in the best position to address the alarming level of anti-Islam hate in our nation and to urge religious and political leaders to speak out in support of tolerance and mutual understanding," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.
As WND reported, Reps. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., John Shadegg, R-Ariz., Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Paul Broun, R-Ga., formally asked the House sergeant at arms in October to investigate evidence from "Muslim Mafia" that CAIR is conspiring to plant "spies" inside Congress targeting sensitive security-related committees. In another letter, to Attorney General Eric Holder, the House members ask the Justice Department to reveal to Congress members why CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-finance case in U.S. history.
Last month, the four lawmakers were joined by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in a letter urging the Internal Revenue Service to investigate CAIR to determine whether the Muslim group's lobbying activities on Capitol Hill violate its nonprofit status.
"Muslim Mafia" uncovered confidential CAIR memos revealing that in one year alone, CAIR officials made 72 separate trips to Congress to lobby against the Patriot Act. The same year Congress met fewer than 150 days.
U.S. prosecutors believe CAIR, while claiming to be a civil-rights group, is actually a front group for Hamas and other terrorists. The Justice Department stated in September 2007 during its prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation in Dallas that CAIR "has been identified by the government at trial as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization, a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew."
CAIR said its annual national report on the status of American Muslim civil rights, released this month, showed an increase in bias-related incidents in 2008.
CAIR has claimed since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that Muslims in the U.S. have suffered a sharp rise in anti-Islamic abuse.
The group's 2005 abuse report, blamed a purported increase in anti-Muslim harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment on the Internet and talk radio.
But FBI data actually has shown the number of incidents is dramatically shrinking.
The 2006 total of 156, for example, was a 68 percent drop from 2001.
Moreover, incidents against Muslims were just a fraction of overall hate crimes. In 2006, 66 percent of religiously motivated attacks targeted Jews, while just 11 percent were against Muslims, even though the Jewish and Muslim populations are similar in size.
In its letter to Obama, CAIR cited recent incidents in Florida in which a cross with the message "Christian nation, Christian community" was planted at the site of a planned mosque and an anti-Islam Christmas display was set up by a local church.
Other incidents listed were "a spate of vandalism incidents at mosques nationwide" and "anti-Islam remarks by Christian evangelist Franklin Graham."
CAIR's director Awad said Obama himself has been "targeted by anti-Muslim hate despite the fact that he is Christian," noting a Colorado car dealer recently put up a billboard depicting the president as a "turban-wearing militant."
Awad pointed to recent remarks made to a Muslim and Arab-American gathering in Michigan by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in which he said the Justice Department will return to its "traditional" role of ensuring civil rights. The president has signed a spending measure that will give the Justice Department's civil rights division 102 new staff members, many of whom will be assigned to hate-crimes investigations.
CAIR said it began airing a new public service announcement called "I am Muslim, I am American" yesterday on the CBS Super Screen in New York City's Times Square.
FBI steps in
CAIR's suit against the Gaubatzes claims they stole sensitive material from the group's Washington office under false pretenses. But lawyers for the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case this week that contends CAIR has no claim because it does not legally exist.
A federal judge in Washington issued a restraining order Nov. 3 barring the Gaubtazes from further use or publication of the material – 12,000 pages of documents along with audio and video recordings – and demanding that they return it to the Muslim group's lawyers. But the FBI stepped into the case Nov. 23 with a warrant to examine the papers and recordings, apparently as part of its concern about CAIR and its terrorist links to Hamas. The bureau cut off ties to CAIR after the Islamic group was named an unindicted terror co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case.
"Muslim Mafia," by David Gaubatz and "Infiltration" author Paul Sperry, asserts CAIR is acting as a front for a conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood – the parent of al-Qaida and Hamas – to infiltrate the U.S. and help pave the way for Saudi-style Islamic law to rule the nation.
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