CAIR Issues U.S. 'Travel Advisory'

CAIR, the Washington D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, puts itself forward as a civil rights advocacy group. Always on the lookout for any 'infringement' on the rights of Muslims' in the United States and Canada, this time it is telling Muslims planning to travel to attend an upcoming conference the weekend of December 23, 2005, to be "prepared to have their rights violated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for 'special security checks and fingerprinting based solely on their attendance at both religious events." Why else would they advise Muslim travelers to carry with them a 'border incident report?'

Being on the lookout for incidents of alleged violations against Muslims is part what CAIR is all about. A spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for Hamas, CAIR is actively agitating and fundraising in the United States. Several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.

The travel advisory with the handyincident report form goes along with CAIR's "Pocket Guide:Your Rights as an Airline Passenger:

" You have the right to complain about treatment that you believe is discriminatory." Who's to know what any given person will find to be discriminatory at any given moment? In any case, the 'victim" is to complain about the treatment:

1) Ask to speak to a supervisor.
2) Ask if you have been singled out because of your looks, dress, race, ethnicity, faith, or national origin.
3) Ask for the names and ID numbers of all persons involved in the incident.
4) Ask witnesses to give you their names and contact information.
5) Write down a statement of facts immediately after the incident. Be sure to include the flight number, the flight date, and the name of the airline.
6) Contact CAIR to file a report. If you are leaving the country, leave a detailed message, with the information above, at 202-488-8787. Ask to speak to the “Civil Rights Department.” You may also file a report on-line at www.cair-net.org.

In the past, the bulk of media reports by CAIR and the ACLU focused on the "degrading experience which was termed a 'hassle' or worse." All travel today is "a hassle" because Islamic terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers with weapons smuggled on board 747s and continue to threaten the use of airlines as bombs in the name of their religion. Those hijackers weren't and contemporary bombers aren't Methods, Presbyterians, Buddhists, Rastafarians, or even Egyptian Copts or Maronite Christians from the Middle East that might have a legitimate beef because of centuries of discrimination by Muslims. No, they were, and continue to be, Muslims.

The continued discomfort of all Americans, including Muslims is because of the activities of Muslims, activities that are mandated in the Koran and ahadiths, books that give accounts of the life of Mohammed. Mohammed's seventh century activities mirror those of today's Muslims. Mohammed was a contentious man. He took offense at everything and today's Muslims are following suit. For this reason, Muslims traveling to this conference are prepared, already believe that they will be given discriminatory treatment by airlines and American border officials and thus will be hypersensitive to any perceived discriminatory infraction. And CAIR is making the ability to complain and push forward the Islamic agenda.In the past CAIR has used such 'incidents' to chill criticism of Muslims and Islam and to remove the spotlight of surveillance that accompanies Muslims now that we are engaged in the misnamed "War on Terror."

Why are American officials concerned about this weekend's upcoming conference in Toronto that is billed since 2003 as "promoting a strong message of building friendships and alliances between Muslim and non-Muslim communities?" Is it because of their faith as CAIR and most Muslims proclaim? Perhaps the reason is that in the past such events "have been used to provide cover for pro-terrorist operatives."

The two-day conference in January 2003 advertised Sheik Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais as the main speaker. The previous year, al-Sudais, the chief cleric of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, reportedly prayed to Allah to "terminate" the Jews whom he called "the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, prophet killers ... pigs and monkeys." The sheik also has characterized Jews as "evil," "evil forefathers," a "continuum of deceit," and full of "tyranny" and "treachery."

The same conference featured Zulfiqar Ali Shah, the former president of the Islamic Circle of North America, an organization linked to Jama'at-I-Islami, a fundamentalist Pakistani group that calls bin Laden the "hero" of the Islamic world and raises millions of dollars for global jihad.

Some writers and commentators, such as Daniel Pipes, a specialist on Islam, have supported the U.S. government policy, arguing it's a matter of national security. Controlling the border flow, he said, is absolutely necessary and of "paramount importance."

Pipes has compiled an interesting miscellaney on the activities of CAIR since the 1990s. A recent example documents the December 8, 2005 acquittal of Sami Al-Arian and his commentary:

CAIR leader: "Nothing immoral" about Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Ahmed Bedier, communications director for CAIR's Florida office, made a revealing statement on Dec. 8, speaking on a local television program in Tampa, Florida, WTVT's "Your Turn with Kathy Fountain." As reported by Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate, the exchange went thus:

Fountain, asking about Sami Al-Arian: "If he was associating with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, doesn't that seem immoral, in your opinion?"

Bedier: "To a certain degree. Now, before 1995 there was nothing immoral about it."
Kaufman notes that, prior to 1995, Palestinian Islamic Jihad took credit for five terrorist attacks, resulting in the murders of eight innocent people.

Comment: CAIR's true colors come out unpredictably like this from time to time. (Dec. 13, 2005) Dec. 14, 2005 update: Kaufman documents CAIR's shenanigans after he exposed Bedier's embarrassing statement. First, it edited out the statement. Second, it removed the entire video. Third, Americans Against Hate posted the entire video. Finally, CAIR restored the full version of the video on its website. As Kaufman points out, noting the hijab added to a photograph, "CAIR has a history of doctoring material on its website."

It seems that non-Muslims all the world have much more to complain about Muslims than the other way around. Throughout the centuries Muslims have pressed their own agenda with such vigor through violence and conquest that complaining non-Muslims lost the spirit. Conquest from within is our Achilles heel and CAIR and other Muslim groups and individuals are right there to administer the fatal blow.

And finally -- Hugh Fitzgerald at JihadWatch.org offers his insight on CAIR:

CAIR is not a civil rights group. It is a Muslim pressure group. It attempts to deflect criticism of Islam and of Muslims, to push aggressive Muslim demands for changes in the laws and customs of this country, and attempts to prevent the adequate monitoring of those whom, there is good reason to believe, form the population pool from which terrorists -- and others pushing for the Jihad in any number of ways -- come.

Why should that earn it the title, or why should anyone accept its own description, as a "civil rights" group? Does CAIR believe in pluralism and the priinciples of the American Constitution? Apparently a number of its former and present officials believe that Islam is superior to all other belief-systems, and eventually it is right, it is natural, it is just, for Islam to dominate and in dominating, to transform America.

Let's start with a simple question. What are the universal ideals to which CAIR adheres, if any? Are they ideals that all Americans might subscribe to? If CAIR believes in pluralism, and individual rights, does it believe in them only for the United States? And if so, for how long? Or does it believe that these principles should be pushed in Islamic countries as well, and does CAIR intend to make sure, in this "greater understanding" of Islam and the West that it so pines for, to push for changes all over the Muslim world?


Finally, does CAIR think it might be helpful to demonstrate its commitment to freedom of conscience if it were to issue a statement insisting that those born into Islam, or who have converted to Islam, have as much right to leave Islam as anyone else does, any other belief-system? Constantly emphasizing the rights of Muslims, not to be free from surveillance, but to be free to exercise their rights as individuals, including the right not to be Muslims, given what we all know is the treatment so often meted out to apostates, from social ostracism up to, and including, death, this would be a helpful statement. Helpful for those who, born into Islam, might wish to leave it. Helpful to show the full-throated commitment of CAIR to American civil liberties, to the Bill of Rights, to regarding people as individuals and not as communal members.

Let's see.

Sometimes we have the answer before the question.