Who Is Nihad Awad?

I just visited MN Publius for the first time to see what they were saying about the Kennedy-Klobuchar debate only to find that they didn't have anything posted on it. What I found instead was a post that can best be described as a puff piece on CAIR and CAIR's executive director Nihad Awad. Here's what they said about Awad:

So who is Nihad Awad? This is from his bio on the Pluralism Project:

Mr. Awad is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington DC-based grassroots membership organization which seeks to empower the North American Muslim community through political and social activism.

Mr. Awad helped found CAIR in June 1994, which has grown rapidly in the United States and Canada. CAIR's experts are frequently interviewed on national and international media such as CNN, BBC World Service, the New York Times and Washington Post while its trademark Action Alerts go nationwide by fax and worldwide on the Internet.

In 1997 Mr. Awad joined the Civil Rights Advisory Panel to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.

Mr. Awad conducts media seminars across the country to train Muslim communities in communication techniques. CAIR's publications on the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States have been featured on several talk shows and distributed to every member of Congress.

He helped CAIR carry out successful campaigns against major corporations, including Nike, and Simon and Schuster, resulting in the recall of products offensive to Muslims.

On civil rights he has been very active in helping Muslims claim their rights in the workplace, in well-known companies such as JC Penney, McDonald's, Sears, Office Depot, and many others.

CAIR has also distributed an "Employer's Guide" and an "Educator's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices," which are designed to prevent acts of discrimination, and more such guides are forthcoming.

CAIR publishes many useful materials including a "Media Relations Handbook" and something every Muslim should carry, the "Know Your Rights Pocket Guide," all of which are available by contacting the CAIR office.

That's a nice bit of PR work, actually. The thing is that there's lots of information that they didn't tell you about Mr. Awad's dark side so I'll make that my responsibility. Let's get started with filling in those blanks by referencing this FrontPagemag article:

Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who has been steadfast in his efforts to uncover the nexus of Hamas front groups in the U.S., was ruthless in his portrayal of CAIR as part of an international terror network. In his opening remarks, Senator Schumer stated that prominent members of CAIR, referring specifically to Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmed, have "intimate links with Hamas." Later, he remarked that "we know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism."

Even Senator Richard Durbin, who has made common cause with some of America's Wahhabi-backed groups, came down hard on CAIR. In his final comments he conceded that CAIR is "unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect," and requested that the committee seek the testimony of mainstream Muslim groups in its place in the future. CAIR's affinity for terrorist causes is well documented in the press. At a 1994 meeting at Barry University, Nihad Awad stated succinctly, "I am a supporter of the Hamas movement."

There couldn't be any doubt that CAIR, under Awad's leadership, is involved in supporting terrorists if even Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer speak as directly about CAIR's links to terrorist groups. That's just the beginning. Here's more:

"Israel is killing civilians and inflicting massive humanitarian suffering on both the Palestinian and Lebanese populations in order to achieve a political goal, which clearly fits the definition of state terrorism," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

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Besides Bedier, Sami Al-Arian has received much support from CAIR's Executive Director, Nihad Awad. Last February, Awad, along with Eric Vickers, a man that had called the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster "an act of divine retribution against Israel," spoke at a fundraiser for Al-Arian's release.

Just to fill in the blanks on al-Arian, here's what the Washington Times said about 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.

What kind of man is Nihad Awad if he's speaking at a fundraiser for a man indicted for raising money for a jihadist group like PIJ, a group widely known in the Arab community for achieving its "objectives by, among other means, acts of violence"? That isn't all that Awad said on al-Arian's behalf:

As stated by Nihad Awad, on Ahmed Bedier's January 6, 2006 radio program, "We're talking about Free Speech in America, and Sami Al-Arian, now, is being punished and penalized for his association and for his views on politics in the Middle East... Sami Al-Arian should not be the victim of political misunderstanding,"

Sami al-Arian isn't a "victim of political misunderstanding," He's a fundraiser for a terrorist organization. That Nihad Awad would believe al-Arian was innocent instead of checking into the indictment first tells me that he didn't want to have his statements cluttered with facts and evidence that al-Arian was a terrorist.

Nihad Awad certainly knew that Sami al-Arian was the founder of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the organization that assassinated Egytpian President Sadat in 1981. That leads me to wonder how Awad could say with a straight face that al-Arian was "a victim of political misunderstanding"?

The only conclusion you can draw from Awad's willingness to speak out about al-Arian's victimhood is that he's a pathological liar who didn't flinch in defending a terrorist whose organization assassinated a head of state.

Let's dig a little further into 'the real Nihad Awad':

Shortly after September 11, 2001, while the world grieved over the attacks on America, and under it a call for donations. It read, Nihad Awad and CAIR took advantage of the suffering by placing on their website a picture of the World Trade Center in flames"What you can do for the victims of the WTC and Pentagon attacks," and by clicking on "Donate to the NY/DC Emergency Relief Fund" one was unsuspectingly sent directly to the website of the Holy Land Foundation. A week later, the wording of the site was changed, as visitors to the site were directly told to "Donate through the Holy Land Foundation." The link was on CAIR's website up until the beginning of December, when the information mysteriously disappeared.

On December 4, 2001, the reason for the disappearance was apparent, as the Holy Land Foundation's assets were blocked by the United States government for funneling money to Hamas. According to the White House website, "The U.S.-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development [provided] millions of dollars each year that [was] used by HAMAS."

That's the most damning proof of CAIR's, and therefore Awad's, involvement with Islamic terrorists. CAIR, with Awad's direction, played on America's generosity in a time of incredible pain by posting a picture of the burning World Trade Center towers, then directing people to donate to the "Donate to the NY/DC Emergency Relief Fund", knowing that the money was going to the Holy Land Foundation, where the money would be sent to Hamas. Here's what the State Department memo says about freezing the Holy Land Foundation's assets:

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has suspended the tax-exempt status of three charities because of their links to terrorist networks.

In a November 14 news release, Treasury said that contributions to the three charities, Benevolence International Foundation, Global Relief Foundation, and Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, would no longer be deductible for federal tax purposes.

"We will continue to use all available means to fight the financial war on terrorism," Pam Olson, Treasury's assistant secretary for tax policy, said in the news release. "Organizations found by the United States government to support terrorism should not be exempt from federal income tax, and contributions to those organizations should not be deductible for federal tax purposes."

Let's review what Nihad Awad knew:

• He knew that these donations were going to Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation.
• He knew that the money that Americans were donating weren't going to help victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
• He knew that donations, instead of helping the terrorists' victims, were supporting terrorists.
• He knew that Americans would give freely to charities that purported to help the terrorists' victims. In fact, he counted on that giving nature to fund Hamas terrorists.

When you put this picture together, it's obvious that Nihad Awad knowingly played on America's sense of generosity to fund the very type of people who had killed almost 3,000 American innocents. It's obvious that Nihad Awad knowingly lied to the American people. Some might say he misled people. I don't see the difference, frankly.

Based on this information, I've concluded that this man's hands are red with the blood of terrorists. What he did in 9/11's aftermath is unconscienable. I'm no lawyer but I'd have to believe that what he did in 9/11's aftermath is within whispering distance to outright fraud. AT MINIMUM.

If you're mad as hell and you aren't going to take it anymore, consider this CAIR press release:

"The Holy Land Foundation denies allegations that it provides any financial support to terrorist groups or individuals. The foundation is a humanitarian organization that has worked to serve the needy both at home and abroad since 1989. We feel the Holy Land Foundation has been unfairly targeted in the nationwide smear campaign to undermine Muslims and the institutions that serve them.

The Treasury Department can't afford to make the mistake of freezing the assets of a charity unless it's got proof that it's supporting terrorists. CAIR's defending HLF is disturbing, especially considering the verifiable fact that it raised money for Hamas in the aftermath of 9/11.

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Posted Wednesday, September 20, 2006 3:52 AM

August 2006 Posts

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