Posted on 03/07/2003 8:13:57 PM PST by Stultis
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
MUSLIMS ADDRESS TERRORISM IN NATIONAL AD CAMPAIGN
CAIR ad says terrorism is "not condoned by Islam or any other religion"
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/7/03) - The issue of religiously-motivated terrorism will be addressed in the fourth installment of a national advertising campaign designed to foster greater understanding of Islam and to counter what ad sponsors say is a rising tide of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the United States.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, launched the year-long "Islam in America" campaign February 16 with an ad on the New York Times editorial page.
The first three ads featured examples of ethnic diversity in the American Muslim community, a Muslim Girl Scout troop in California and a Muslim woman explaining why modest Islamic attire is both liberating and empowering.
The text of the latest CAIR ad reads:
"Over the course of history, many religions have fallen victim to violent interpretations.
"The texts and teachings of all faiths are vulnerable to manipulation and abuse by violent extremists. Terrorism is a tactic employed by deluded individuals or groups to advance an ideological or political cause. It is not condoned by Islam or any other religion.
"American Muslims condemn all acts of terrorism and we are as outraged as our fellow Americans by atrocities committed in the name of God and our religion.
"Islam, Christianity, Judaism and many other faiths share the basic values necessary to create a world where tolerance and peace prevail. We have an opportunity to build bridges between our faiths and challenge those who attempt to repeat history by dividing humanity along religious and ethnic lines.
"It's up to people of conscience to seek and embrace the truth."
"We often hear that Muslims have not condemned terrorism enough since the 9/11 attacks. This advertisement is designed to address that issue and show clearly Islam's and the American Muslim community's strong opposition to acts of violence against civilians, whether they are committed by individuals, groups or states," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.
Awad noted that the ad's message is consistent with the long-standing and repeated condemnation of terrorism by all major American Muslim organizations.
The weekly CAIR ads, each explaining one aspect of Islam, are being distributed to Muslim communities around America for placement in local newspapers. All the advertisements previously published in the New York Times are available at: http://www.americanmuslims.info/archive.asp
CAIR is America's largest Islamic civil liberties group. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 15 regional offices nationwide and in Canada. Since its founding in 1994, CAIR has defended the civil and religious rights of all Americans.
A couple other things A Wad has said:
[...] CAIR and AMC in particular would not be chosen as representatives by many Muslims. In fact, there are those in American Muslim communities as well as law enforcement who consider CAIR and the AMC to be part of the problem, because both have been seen as tacitly -- if not explicitly -- supportive of extremist groups guilty of terrorism.Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of CAIR, refuses to outright condemn Osama bin Laden. "We condemn terrorism, we condemn the attack on the buildings," Hooper said. But why not condemn bin Laden by name, especially after President Bush has now stated that he was clearly responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks?
"If Osama bin Laden was behind it, we condemn him by name," Hooper said. But why the "if" -- why qualify the response? Hooper said he resented the question. And what about prior acts of terror linked to bin Laden? Or that bin Laden has urged Muslims to kill Americans?
Again, Hooper demurred, saying only that he condemns acts of terror.
Both groups also refuse to outright condemn Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. In fact, leaders from both groups have, in recent years, been quoted defending or exhorting organizations that the U.S. State Department classifies as "foreign terrorist." [...]
CAIR was particularly critical of the conviction of Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman, whom U.S. authorities deemed the ringleader of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and who was convicted with nine followers in October 1995 of conspiring to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel along with other New York City landmarks.
CAIR went so far as to include the court conviction of Abdul-Rahman on a list of "hate crimes against Muslims." And CAIR's founder, Nihad Awad, wrote in the Muslim World Monitor that the World Trade Center trial, which ended in the conviction in 1994 of four Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, was "a travesty of justice." According to Awad -- and despite the confessions of the terrorists from the 1993 attack -- "there is ample evidence indicating that both the Mossad and the Egyptian Intelligence played a role in the explosion." (Awad -- who met with President Bush last week -- has been more circumspect in his comments after this World Trade Center bombing.) [...]
Hooper's comments about Hamas and Hezbollah are even more qualified than they were about bin Laden. "If someone carries out terrorist acts, they should be labeled as a terrorist," he says. "If they don't, they shouldn't." Pressed to address these two terrorist groups by name, Hooper said, "If Hamas kills innocent civilians we condemn them. But I'm not going to condemn legitimate resistance to Israeli occupation."
CAIR, Hooper continues, has never even mentioned the word Hamas as an organization, so why should they start now? But that, of course, doesn't include all the mentions of Hamas that CAIR's leaders have made -- including CAIR founder Awad's 1994 declaration that before the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority he "used to support the PLO," but that now he was "in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO."
Hamas, meanwhile, has claimed credit for the murders of countless Israeli civilians. Middle East scholars believe that Islamic fundamentalists don't consider many victims of terrorist attacks "innocent," which is how they can defend Hamas as not killing innocent people. Hooper, however, refused to answer questions exploring that theory.
"What you're trying to get me to say is the Palestinians don't deserve to live in peace and freedom," Hooper says -- though neither the Palestinians nor Israel had been mentioned. Questions about whether CAIR would condemn organizations by name unequivocally, instead of qualifying the condemnations, were just "word games from the pro-Israel lobby," Hooper said. Instead, Hooper said that the very questions were the problem, and part of a Zionist conspiracy. "This is a game they play," Hooper said, referring to the pro-Israel lobby. "They give me a long list of people to condemn and if you don't give sufficient condemnation you're a terrorist. We would condemn any person or any group that kills innocent civilians. But it's not my duty that when the pro-Israel lobby says 'Jump' I say 'How high?'"
Nothing. Despite what some here will claim, there have been a number of heartfelt and genuine condemnations or repudiations of terrorism by Muslims, and I have posted many of them here on FreeRepublic.
When they don't we bitch when they do we bitch.
I am bitching in this case because this "condemnation" is NOT genuine. See the message I posted immediately following yours. It is my opinion that all Americans should defend and protect genuinely moderate Muslims. Part of this process involves denouncing radical and hypocritical elements of the "wahhabi lobby" like CAIR that attempt to hijack, control and distort the meaning of being an American Muslim.
I quote from the Koran. "Kill them wherever you find them... Strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme".
Read 'em and weep.
I would like to see some grass roots muslim group untainted by terrorist ties say the same thing, and I would welcome it. Some do. But many moderate muslims are silenced by the same Saudi money flowing to about 80% of the mosques in the U.S. Moderation begets you excommunication.
CAIR is a front for Saudi Arabian wahabbists. Al-Quaeda is a front for Saudi Arabian wahabbists. One lies, the other bombs. Wahhabists fund both.
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