CAIR's Coup

The Left have been silent from sustained delight. The Right have been silent from sustained fright. About what, you ask? Both have reacted characteristically about the concretes of the Michael Graham firing from radio WMAL in Washington, DC, and the real meaning. A number of us in the "blogosphere" have been raising hell since the stuff started in July 2005, and we have not hesitated to spell out the full meanings and the logical consequences.

After Michael Graham had been formally fired, some voices on the Right dealt briefly with Mr. Graham and the issue. Their dealings with Mr. Graham and the issue were perfunctory at best and incompetent at worst, as we reported on samplings we were heard and saw. All of these Constitution-touting, flag-wavers on the Right dropped or would not pick up the hot potato.

Mr. Lowry fiuratively jumped on this train in the last yard before it left the station, but he did come aboard. It looks like he is staying aboard. As a syndicated and recognized columnist, what he says receives credit as "authority" compared to what we say on the blogosphere. We just hope he stays aboard because this train is headed for disaster. We wish him Godspeed and a loud mouth.

Here are samples from his latest article:

CAIR’s Coup
By Joel Mowbray
FrontPageMagazine.com August 31, 2005


Though there is some disagreement between local talk station WMAL and fired mid-morning host Michael Graham over the details of his termination, one thing is not in dispute: the big winner is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which called for his ouster, yet has never specifically condemned Islamic terrorist organizations such as Hamas or Hezbollah.

In a year that started with it blasting away at the Fox television show “24”—because it had terrorists who were Muslims—CAIR has garnered more attention than ever before. Now with the firing of Mr. Graham, it has achieved perhaps its greatest feat yet—at least in perception, which is typically tantamount to reality.

And a stronger CAIR almost inevitably means a weakened culture of free speech.

Whether WMAL intended to or not, the station has handed CAIR arguably its biggest victory to date, and has certainly increased the legitimacy of an organization that deserves none.

It won’t just be radio talk hosts that will start feeling chilly when the topic of Islam arises. Television personalities, reporters, columnists, or anyone who works for a corporate interest that would bristle at being the target of a CAIR scare campaign would think twice before making even entirely defensible statements. It’s not inconceivable that media outlets could set up clear demarcation lines and declare certain subject matters or groups off-limits.

The threat of public controversy is apparently so strong that major media outlets—the top conservative talk station in the nation’s capital and the nation’s premier conservative publication—are fleeing from rather than fighting an organization replete with ripe targets.

Take your pick: CAIR’s radical roots essentially as an offshoot of a rabidly anti-Semitic organization long viewed as Hamas’ biggest political booster in the U.S., its co-founder Omar Ahmad praising suicide bombers who “kill themselves for Islam” in November 1999 (according to a transcript provided by the Investigative Project), or its repeated failure to specifically condemn radical Islam or terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, dismissing requests to do so as a “game.”

CAIR’s key to success in spite of its ugly history is an odd combination of finesse and noise. Realizing that it needs to pass itself off as moderate, CAIR has become the master of making even intelligent people believe that they’ve condemned something when they haven’t.

All of this information is available to media outlets subjected to a CAIR onslaught. None has yet to dig in and fight, however.

(All emphases by us)

Mr. Lowry is getting there. Although he has yet to identify the logical consequences of the Graham-WMAL-CAIR incident, he implies them. Be assured that the enemies of the First Amendment, including our own beloved Supreme Court of the United States, most assuredly will.

Americans' need to ensure that this is merely a won battle for CAIR and not a lost war for America.