What a Tangled Web

When I came across an older Steve Emerson post on the Counterterrorism Blog, it jogged my memory on a couple things, like:

The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) issued a fatwa against "terrorism and extremism", a 'fatwa' that "the Council on American, Islamic Relations (CAIR) organized the press conference, stating that several major U.S. Muslim groups endorsed the fatwa."

Emerson's conclusion is that the fatwa was bogus. Here's the logic behind his opinion:

Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate.

In fact, officials of both organizations have been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups and Islamic extremist organizations. One of them is an unindicted co-conspirator in a current terrorist case; another previous member was a financier to Al-Qaeda.

I recalled Hugh Hewitt repeatedly asking a guest from CAIR to denounce specific Muslims to no avail. The guest, whose name I forgot, kept on telling Hugh that he didn't think it was his job to denounce people. Rep. John Dingell made a similar-sounding statement yesterday on the subject of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

CAIR promotes themselves as a civil rights organization and as a moderate Muslim organization. Based on what I've found, I'd call them more of a PR firm for militant Islamic groups. Here's why I say that:

• CAIR has championed and defended officials of Islamic terrorist groups including Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian , Palestinian Islamic Jihad fundraiser Fawaz Damra, and the radical Egyptian cleric Wagdy Ghoneim.
• CAIR has repeatedly attacked the prosecutions of Islamic terrorists arrested and/or convicted since 9-11 and has attacked the government's freezing of Islamic terrorist fronts as part of a "war against Islam" by the United States.
• CAIR has led protests against the deportation of radical Islamic clerics who have called for Jihad or who have been fundraisers for Hamas.
• CAIR has asserted that the indictment of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami al-Arian on conspiracy to murder more than 100 people was "politically motivated" and instigated by "the attack dogs of the pro-Israeli lobby."

Let's take a look at the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an organization that Al-Arian was the head of in North America. As you can imagine, PIJ isn't a moderate Muslim organization. Here's something that I found during the search:

In the Western world, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is the organization usually meant by the term "Islamic Jihad", due to the widespread media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Although other groups may claim Islamic Jihad as their name, the particular name Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) is the one used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Pasdaran, as a cover name for state sanctioned terrorist operations.

Here's what I found out about Sami al-Arian's conviction:

• In court papers unsealed Monday, al-Arian admits to raising money and lending support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• He admits to knowing that the PIJ "achieved its objectives by, among other means, acts of violence."
• And he admits that he has been lying about it since the allegations first emerged in 1995. "Defendant is pleading guilty because defendant is in fact guilty," reads the agreement al-Arian signed.

Among the things that al-Arian involved himself with was an organization called the Islamic Committee for Palestine. Here's how he was introduced at an event in 1991:

In 1991, a lecturer introducing Al-Arian at a conference in Cleveland, Michigan called the Committee "the active arm of the Jihad movement in Palestine."

That's a creative way of saying that Al-Arian helped raise funds for terrorists. By the way, there's an "armed wing" of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. It's known as the Al-Quds brigades. Here's what they're about:

The PIJ's armed wing, the Al-Quds brigades, has claimed responsibility for numerous militant attacks in Israel, including suicide bombings.

The bottom line to all this is that CAIR purports to be a voice for moderate Muslims in its press releases but is tied into a string of violent terrorist groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al-Quds Brigade. Those groups aren't the types of groups I'd associate with moderation, tolerance and openmindedness. Rather, I'd say those groups were the face of violent Islamic terrorism.

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Originally posted Wednesday, August 2, 2006, revised 03-Aug 12:02 AM

July 2006 Posts

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