CAIR reports, others disagree

Muneer Awad, speaking for OK CAIR Last Thursday, September 19, the Oklahoma chapter of the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization released a report titled, "Legislating Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States," which proposes that anti-Islam groups received more than $119 million in funding between 2008 and 2011.  No comparisons to their own funding from the Muslim Brotherhood were included.

The new report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) identifies 37 organizations dedicated to promoting anti-Islam prejudice in America. CAIR's second report asserts an "Islamophobia network" in the United States and expose its funding.

Adam Soltani with others "Through the publication and distribution of this report on Islamophobia, and how it impacts our state and country, it is our hope that we can shed some light on the realities of this damaging trend and its impact on our social discourse on Islam and Muslims," said Adam Soltani, Executive Director of CAIR Oklahoma. "Islamophobia is as real a threat to peaceful coexistence, just as racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and other issues that seek to create division and confusion in society," Soltani added.

CAIR has sponsored presentations in Christian Churches and media events which generate coverage.  For example, last year at about this time a Muslim woman asserted a Tulsa bank policy offended her.  Click here for the report with video from NewsOn6.com. The woman did not want to be identified, but according to the story, she reached out to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. They say Valley National Bank is discriminating against not only Muslims, but people of all religions. CAIR also does not include information from the David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin book, "The New Leviathan" which details obscenely disproportionate amounts of "Left-Wing" money in politics and how it shapes American government and "threatens America's future." CAIR in Oklahoma did not speak to condemn massacres of Christians in Egypt (promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood), or attacks, beheading, rape and forced conversions to Islam in Pakistan, Syria, Nigeria and elsewhere around the world.

More can be found on Bare Naked Islam including a sickening graphic of the beheading of a Christian that refused to convert to Islam. Warning, this is very disturbing video. Also at the Bare Naked Islam site is a report that the recent Nairobi Islamic terror attack was led by a white female Muslim convert, the widow of one of the identified 7/7 London bombers.  Click here for that report. CAIR's findings highlighted in Oklahoma include:

* The U.S.-based Islamophobia network's "inner core" is currently comprised of at least 37 groups whose primary purpose is to promote prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims. An additional 32 groups whose primary purpose does not appear to include promoting prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims, but whose work regularly demonstrates or supports Islamophobic themes, make up the network's "outer core."

* In 2011 and 2012, 78 bills or amendments designed to marginalize Muslims and vilify Islamic religious practices were introduced in the legislatures of 29 states and the U.S. Congress. Sixty-two of these bills contained language that was extracted from David Yerushalmi's American Laws for American Courts (ALAC) model legislation. While the bias motive behind the bills is clear, the presence of an actual problem that needed to be solved was not -- even to the legislators introducing the measures. In at least 11 states, mainstream Republican leaders introduced or supported anti-Muslim legislation.

* There were 51 recorded anti-mosque acts during the period covered by this report, 29 in 2012 and 22 in 2011. Two notable spikes in anti-mosque acts occurred in 2011-2012: May 2011 (7 acts), likely related to the killing of Osama bin Laden, and August 2012 (10 acts), probably all in reaction to the massacre of six Sikh worshippers by a white supremacist in Oak Creek, Wis. By comparison, in June 2010, CAIR published "CAIR: Who we are," a review of 1,999 CAIR press releases and action alerts spanning 1994-2008. In that report we noted: "Since 1994, CAIR has detailed at least 64 acts of destruction and defilement of Islamic places of worship--including shootings, vandalism, arson, and bombings."

CAIR's report also notes that anti-Muslim trainers serving law enforcement and military personnel were dealt a significant blow in late 2011 and that Islamophobic rhetoric remains socially acceptable. In 2011, after significant pressure from CAIR and other organizations that included crucial reporting by Wired.com's Spencer Ackerman, federal authorities initiated steps to remove biased and inaccurate material about Islam from law enforcement training materials. Studies and a lack of consequences for most candidates for public office who engage in anti-Muslim rhetoric reveal an unfortunate societal tolerance for prejudicial speech directed at Muslim. CAIR names individuals, institutions and groups that were at the center of promoting Islamophobia in America during the period covered by the report.

Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) The "worst" list includes (retired) Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin, Zuhdi Jasser, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Herman Cain, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), David Yerushalmi, Former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), Walid Shoebat and the Forum for Middle East Understanding, the Clarion Fund, David Caton and the Florida Family Association, and Lowes. CAIR also names those that deserve recognition for contributions to pushing back against Islamophobia in 2011 and 2012.

Christian Syrians protest genocide The "best" list includes Rais Bhuiyan; New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R); Senator Dick Durban (D-Ill.); media and interest groups exposing Islamophobia in counter terrorism training received by federal, state and local law enforcement (specifically Political Research Associates, Washington Monthly, Wired, CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°" and National Public Radio); the Democratic Members of the House Homeland Security Committee, plus Reps. Mike Honda and Judy Chu; the Islamic Circle of North America's Defending Religious Freedom Understanding Shariah Campaign; those involved in the opening of the Murfreesboro Mosque; and groups exposing the Islamophobia Network (specifically People for the American Way, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for American Progress - all fundamental in President Obama's administration). This is CAIR's second report on Islamophobia in the United States. The first, "Same Hate, New Target," was published in 2010 and argued that anti-Islam sentiment is a manifestation of problems minorities have faced in the U.S. throughout its history. To read CAIR's full report, click here.