Author: Rachel Neuwirth
Publication: ChronWatch
Date: August 20, 2003
In late July, I contacted Ibrahim
Hooper, spokesman and director of communication at the Council of
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). When he returned my call,
he presented his point of view about the Arab-Israeli conflict and
militant Islam. When I reminded him about CAIR's record of
openly supporting Hamas, Hizbullah, and other organizations deemed
by the government to be terrorists, he replied by telling me that
"CAIR does not support these groups publicly." But Hooper must have
realized that he had said too much: he lost his composure and I suddenly
found myself listening to a dial tone!
To make sure that I had not misunderstood
him, I called him back. His response? ''Call me tomorrow morning.''
Then he hung up the phone again.
Instead of calling Mr. Hooper the
next day, however, I sent him an e- mail and told him that his comment
kept haunting me and that I believe I was owed an explanation.
In my quest to comprehend CAIR's position regarding the Middle East
peace process, I posed the following six questions, hoping for a
clear response:
1. Does CAIR accept the right of
Israel to exist as a Jewish state in its historic, biblical homeland,
whose ''final'' borders should be negotiated between the state of
Israel and representatives of Palestinian Arabs who have renounced
violence?
2. Does CAIR condemn Hezbullah as
a terrorist organization?
3. Does CAIR deem Hamas, Islamic
Jihad Tanzim, Al-Aqsa Brigades, Fatah, and other such
groups as terrorist organizations, without making a distinction between
their political and military wings?
4. Does CAIR unconditionally condemn
suicide/homicide bombing?
5. Does CAIR condemn all violence
against civilians?
6. Does CAIR agree that a final
resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict can be achieved only through
political negotiations, with no threat of a return to violence?
After a few days, there was still
no response from Mr. Hooper; so I called him again to clarify what
he meant about not publicly supporting terrorist groups and to get
his reaction to my six questions. However, all he said was
that he will have peace when I quit calling him!
This led me to research CAIR further.
CAIR was founded in 1994 by two
former officials of the Islamic Association for Palestine, a group
that former FBI counter terrorism chief Oliver Revell acknowledged
was formed as a front for the Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas.
One of CAIR's official founders and its executive director, Nihad
Awad, openly expressed support for Hamas, Hizbullah, and numerous
other Arab/Islamic terrorist organizations.
Mr. Hooper has defended Saudi financial
support of Palestinian suicide bombers. In spite of this, much
of America's present political establishment embraces CAIR as a legitimate,
mainstream, Muslim-American organization.
FBI Director Robert Mueller and
other top FBI officials have met with CAIR, even though CAIR seems
to be more opposed to the FBI's efforts to fight terrorism
than to the terrorists themselves, as reported by Michael Waller
in Insight magazine:
Taking a closer look at the facts,
CAIR can be characterized only as an extremist group.
On June 26, Senator Jon Kyl, R-AZ,
chaired hearings on ''Terrorism: Growing Wahhabi Influence in the
United States'' before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Technology, and Homeland Security. According to the testimony
of Stephen Schwartz. director of the Islam and Democracy Program
at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, CAIR is financed
by and maintains open and close relations with the Saudi government
whose goal, we now know, is to spread the autocratic Wahhabi brand
of Islam which aims to rule the world. CAIR has claimed that some
70 percent of American Muslims want the Wahhabi teaching in their
mosques:
CAIR also claims to be a (Muslim)
civil liberties organization. As CAIR's spokesman should Mr. Hooper
not, then, offer an explanation as to why militant Islamists appear
to be indifferent to the civil liberties of non-Muslims?
If Mr. Hooper is the communication director of CAIR, why is he so
unwilling to communicate what he meant when he said that, publicly,
CAIR does not support terrorist groups?
If CAIR truly stands for equality,
freedom, tolerance, and democracy for everyone, it should be calling
for the dismantling of terrorist groups. But never have I heard
any CAIR spokesperson denounce terrorism except in a twisted, elusive
manner that seeks to blame those who speak out against the terrorists'
militant brand of Islam.
As an American, Mr. Hooper should
make the elimination of hate and incitement his objective.
It is apparent, from our interaction, that Mr. Hooper may not really
believe in the American system. This was indicated by his infamous
statement in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune in
which he declared, "I wouldn't want to create the impression that
I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic
sometime in the future."
Hopefully, Mr. Hooper will take
a few minutes out of his busy schedule to respond to my very
simple questions and explain his comment that CAIR doesn't support
terrorist groups "publicly." Surely my questions are not that
difficult to answer -- unless, of course, CAIR actually supports
terrorist organizations and/or is supported by them and simply doesn't
want the public to know it.
(Rachel Neuwirth is a freelance
writer who lives in Los Angeles)