On CAIR's Amicus Curiae Brief :: Understanding Islam

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August 20, 2007

On CAIR's Amicus Curiae Brief

Topics: Understanding Islam

The amicus curiae brief filed by CAIR in the Holy Land Foundation trial is indeed a curious document, in that it purports to object to the government's public identification of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator of the Holy Land Foundation prior to trial, while as Powerline notes, the government has on the contrary introduced substantial evidence linking CAIR with the Holy Land Foundation at trial:

CAIR's motion and accompanying brief seem to be moot. CAIR waits until the final paragraph of its 55-page brief to confront this problem, arguing that the identification of unindicted co-conspirators is simply unconstitutional. The rules of evidence that authorize the introduction of co-conspirator hearsay into evidence apparently need to be rewritten to suit CAIR.

And as CAIR would have it, all of these examples of CAIR meeting with Hamas, or praising terrorist activities, has nothing to do with it. For example, it seems that despite a previous denial, the executive director of the CAIR - which regards itself as the leading U.S. Muslims civil rights group, even participated in a three-day summit of members of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. As WND puts it:

CAIR is a spinoff of the defunct Islamic Association for Palestine, or IAP, launched by Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook and former university professor Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Awad served as the IAP's public relations director.

And CAIR founder Omar Ahmad, also an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case - allegedly told a group of Muslims they are in America not to assimilate but to help assert Islam's rule over the America. However, Daniel Pipes goes a step further and writes that court documents name the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) as being among "individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations."

In a precedent setting revelation, the government's trial brief sets forth in great detail incontestable evidence linking CAIR to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to documents seized from co-conspirator Ismail Elbarrasse, there is a straight line of associations going from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and terminating with the Islamic Association for Palestine, CAIR's immediate antecedent.

With this evidence and much more supporting the government's case one would be quite accurate to call CAIR's position ludicrous and audacious.

Counterterrorism Blog's "CAIR's legal gambit," makes it abundantly clear that CAIR's position is indeed a poor one (hat tip - Powerline). CTB points out, CAIR first opened for business with a $5,000 donation from the Holy Land Foundation, and so CAIR is understandably concerned that its association with the Holy Land Foundation might give people the right idea about the organization. As CAIR explains in its brief:

[T]he public 'outing' of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator fundamentally undercuts their [sic] central mission to protect Muslim-Americans' civil rights and foster an atmosphere of acceptance of Muslims in American society. Any message that CAIR tries to deliver to the American public, will be undercut by the insinuation that they are a criminal terrorist organization. The American public and the media which CAIR uses to deliver its message will no longer believe in the veracity of such message because CAIR will be perceived as a terrorist front organization.

As Powerline aptly notes, "One can only hope."

And for CAIR to claim that it represents mainstream American Muslims is about as accurate a statement as the KKK saying that it represents all of white America, and just as ridiculous. CAIR is a terrorist organization and it has a very dangerous agenda for America.

Posted by Abdul at August 20, 2007 11:45 AM

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