CAIR and Negative Stereotypes of Muslims. How CAIR Does Nothing to Dispel These Images in the Minds of Americans

CAIR grates at my skin like sand and burrs in my shoes. Annoying thorns and particles to civilization that are around that you want to pick out, yet can’t seem to get rid of as they to your fingers, almost always leaving behind a reminder. That’s CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations that is constantly floating one theory or another, one grating reminder of how they are pretending to protect the civil rights North American Muslims. Their latest theory is that there is an ‘ “Anti-Muslim” Hysteria.’

Do Americans hold negative stereotypes about Muslims such as (1) Islam encourages oppression of women; (2) Islam teaches violence and hatred; (3) Muslims value life less than other people; (4) Muslims teach their children to hate unbelievers.

Why might Americans hold such beliefs? Steven Stalinsky at FrontPageMag.com, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15802 give us a few good reasons.

1. The charge that Islam encourages oppression of women: In the Middle East, the beating of women is sanctioned regularly on Arab TV shows ( see www.memritv.org); polygamy is legal and women are often forced into marriages; in Saudi Arabia, women have almost no rights and cannot go out in public without a male relative, or even drive a car; In Jordan, honor killings are sanctioned by law; In Egypt, many young girls are forced to undergo female circumcision (genital mutilation); A few weeks ago, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh (great grandson of Vincent Van Gogh) was murdered, allegedly by a man with Moroccan-Dutch citizenship, following a documentary he made about the treatment of Muslim women.

To extend this charge, I would add that women both Afghanistan are still in peril as Taliban remnants are putting pressure on them to continue wearing the burqa and remain in the home. During the recent elections, women were targeted, violently discouraging them from voting. It showed great courage to show participate in the election process.

Women in Iraq are being assaulted in the streets, kidnapped and held for ransom. They are afraid to denounce their assailants for fear of retaliation and fear of Sha’ria should and Iraq become an Islamic republic in the future.

2. The charge that the Muslim religion teaches violence and hatred: The world’s three leading mainstream Sunni Muslim figures all espouse violence and hatred.

Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman, Al-Sudayyis is the Saudi government-appointed imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Themes of his sermons are characterized by confrontation toward non-Muslims. Al-Sudayyis calls Jews “scum of the earth” and “monkeys and pigs” who should be “annihilated.” Other enemies of Islam, he says, are “worshippers of the cross” and “idol-worshipping Hindus.”

Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi is head of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s most prestigious establishment. Under Tantawi’s leadership, Al-Azhar has declared jihad against the U.S. repeatedly, and has called for suicide attacks against American forces in Iraq as recently as August (2004). He has called Jews “apes and pigs.” CAIR invited Tantawi to speak in D.D. at its 10th annual dinner last month.

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi is considered the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and increasingly influences European Muslims through his roles as head of both The European Council for Fatwa and Research and The International Council of Muslim Clerics. He has called for Islam to conquer Europe, expressed support for support of suicide attacks, and most recently issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to attack U.S. troops.

There you have it. A few of the many influential that constantly drum the same themes of violence and hatred into the heads of the Umma, the world-wide organization of the brotherhood of Muslims. They indict themselves with their own words.

3. The charge that Muslims value death more than life: A Palestinian textbook published during the Oslo accords teaches 2nd graders, “As much as you love life, we love death – and desire for it.” Leading Muslim clerics often refer to the love of death. Chief Palestinian Authority cleric Sheikh Ikrimeh Sabri, who is the spiritual leader of Islam’s third holiest mosque, explained in 2001, “As much as you love life, the Muslim loves death and martyrdom.”

How can you counter their words? They extend the meaning of these words by their actions. Belsan, Madrid train bombings, the Twin Towers, are all graphic reminders of how much they love death as opposed to our love of life.

4. The charge that Muslims teach their children to hate unbelievers: A look a education systems in the Arab world reveals widespread incitement to hatred against non-Muslims. Examples include a Saudi textbook for 8th grade students quoting the Koran that Jews and Christians were cursed by Allah and turned into apes and pigs. Another Saudi textbook for 5th graders instructs the students that the only true religion is Islam, adding, “The whole world should convert to Islam and leave its false religions, lest their fate will be hell.” Even though Saudi Arabia claims it no longer teaches hatred its schools, this is not true.

Education of little ones is their time bomb. Instead of raising up the ethical and spiritual as heroes for the young, the Islamists are creating future generations of human bombs that love violence and death. In the classroom, the teachers, using rote, drill the lessons of death: how to create a bomb; how to assemble a rifle; how to get around security. The walls of classrooms are lined with the pictures of homicide bombers and slogans of death instead of pictures of great scientists or humanitarians. In all honesty, it would be a miracle if these children turned out to be something other than killers and monsters.

Muslims all over the world are teaching their children that Infidels are less and worthy of enslavement or death. They are bigots and they are also racists as we have seen in the treatment of Black African Muslims at the hands of Arab Muslims.

CAIR doesn’t address these charges or any other charges. Instead, in typical fashion, they put the onus back on the victims or on those making the charges or even questioning. Muslims have perfected a system of self defense called taqiyya and kitman, holy lying and deception. CAIR uses kitman strategies to deflect the questioner and any charges made against Muslims. Muslims tend not to discuss Islam with non-believers, telling them that they can’t understand anything about Islam or Muslims until they convert. “Come to learn about Islam and you will understand all.” Da’wa is the calling of Infidels to Islam, but in the going learn, one becomes enmeshed in the kitman traps perfected and laid over centuries of practice.

CAIR’s executive director Nihad Awad explained one positive development about the poll results: "The majority of Americans are open-minded and receptive" to learning more about Islam, including CAIR's efforts to teach Islam to Americans. It should be noted that in an interview on November 16, 2001, Awad triumphantly told the Saudi newspaper 'Ukaz that "34,000 Americans have converted to Islam following the events of September 11, 2001." 'Alaa Bayumi, Director of Arab Affairs for CAIR, also wrote in Al-Hayat the same week, adding “The Americans are showing increasing willingness to convert to Islam since September 11…”

CAIR associates with and promotes those with questionable motives, some of whom are indicted for terror activities and, by their words are shown to be misogynists, bigots, and racists. Thus, Americans are not only “correct to oppose objectionable practices and ideologies in the Arab and Muslim world that lead to terrorism and hatred,” they should be wary of CAIR, as “CAIR has failed to do so.”

Daniel Pipes has an extensive file on CAIR. http://www.danielpipes.org/search/?searchtext=CAIR&submit=1&submit=Search