My Withdrawal From CAIR Event; Update

On April 22^nd, I was at a meeting with Nihad Awad, the head of CAIR National, but more of that later.

I was a table captain at the up-coming CAIR (Council on Islamic American Relations) fundraiser and was well on my way to having two tables filled until CAIR National appeared to support the Tomahawk bombing of Syria and within the same period, another CAIR chapter had made vile statements against a Shia spiritual leader. For years, CAIR has appeared to hold a position of supporting causes that had Sunni Muslims as victims and at best, remained silent on causes where Shia Muslims were the target. This time, it was too much for me; I told CAIR-WA that unless steps were taken to reject these clear acts of sectarian bigotry, I would resign my role as table captain for the fundraiser. At that point, a CAIR board member labeled my call as “blackmail” and suggested I resign anyway so I did. Since my resignation was public (FB April 12^th), I was criticized by some Muslim friends that my actions hurt CAIR and I should not have helped destroy CAIR. This reminded me of a story (Hadith) about the prophet Mohammed:

• “Help your brother whether he is an oppressor or an oppressed person”, said the Prophet. A companion asked: “Messenger of Allah, I will help him if he is an oppressed person, but please tell me how I am to help if he happens to be an oppressor?”. The Prophet answered: “Check him from doing injustice, because preventing him from committing aggression is a help to him”. (Ibn  Malik)

Who Does CAIR Care For?

There have been a few organizations that watch out for rights of people, some are small organizations and some are very large and their size generally determines how they behave and how effective they are.

The large organizations have a huge backing of the people they serve; Jews have ADL, AIPAC, AJC and a host of others, all of which have the backing with time effort and money, from Jews of America and Jews around the world. Blacks have the NAACP which has the backing of African Americans. All these organizations are large enough that they do not need to pander to anyone even. They do cultivate relationships with political leaders but from a position of parity and strength, they command respect and they serve their constituencies very well.

The smaller organizations are continually looking to be recognized, they work hard and eventually, they get to a position of influence where they start to become noticed, that is when they also start to be attacked by those who hate the organization’s constituents. Sometimes, these smaller organizations change focus from representing a constituency to seeking popularity, they stop “making waves”, they get along, they avoid “controversy”. In effect, they become bland and trade the influence they had, for brief spots in the limelight with political leaders. These organizations then lose their credibility with their constituent groups, but they are welcomed by the politicians who can say they are on good terms with the minority (Arabs, Muslims etc.,) without actually being required to do anything worthwhile for the minority.

Anti-Muslim Protest by Brown-Shirt Wannabes

The introduction to the CAIR video shown in Salon .com reads:

“On Sunday February 13, 2011 ICNA Relief (an American Muslim  relief organization) held a dinner event in Yorba Linda, CA to raise money for women’s shelters and to help relieve homelessness and hunger un the US“.

 

The rest of the short video is a series of clips of people called to gather, by ACT! for America, Tea Party and Pam Geller’s group, whose name I forget, plus other fringe idiots posing as REAL American patriots. The actual ICNA event was scheduled from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., but the so-called “protestors, were asked in Brown-Shirt publicity fliers, to come at 2:00 p.m.

According to Adel Syed, the Government Relations officer at CAIR LA, b y about 3:00 p.m., there were already about 400 people gathered and growing.

Letter to Dr. Beyer: Don’t Invite Bigots!

Dear Dr. Beyer,

 

I am shocked to note that you are providing a platform to the Hate-Islam group, “Middle East Forum” (MEF) in order to “Balance” a simple forum on what it means to be a Muslim in America. This is not unlike inviting members of a local Nazi Party in order to “balance” a talk on Jews and Judaism or, inviting someone from the KKK to “balance” a talk on Blacks in America on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.