To see Joe farah's recent columns, click on the pic of him and his cheesy mustache *here*:
Ah, Joe- if you only had the face and legs of Ann Coulter....
Posted on 05/18/2002 6:19:13 AM PDT by Mom_Grandmother
WND BACKROOM
Saturday, May 18, 2002
FARAH VS. CAIR
On May 9, WorldNetDaily Editor Joseph Farah debated on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" an official of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group working on behalf of Muslims in the U.S. For those familiar with CAIR, you know the group loves to promote its appearances in the major media through its broadcast e-mailings. See if you can figure out from the following Fox News transcript why no mention was ever made of this debate in CAIR's alerts:
HANNITY: And still ahead tonight, TV talk-show host Jerry Springer will join us, and you may see a side of him you've never seen before.
But, first, the Council on American Islamic Relations released a report saying Muslims living in the U.S. have faced greater discrimination and violence over the past year. But some Arab-Americans say they've never been the victims of discrimination and don't think it is as widespread a problem as Arab-American groups would lead you to believe. So who should we believe? We're joined by Jason Erb -- he's the government relations director on the Counsel of American Islamic Relations -- and Joe Farah, our good friend, from worldnetdaily.com, the editor.
All right. Jason, let's start with you. I read big portions, an outline of the report that you have here. You say it's increased threefold over the previous year.
JASON ERB, CAIR: That's correct.
HANNITY: You, obviously, attribute it to 9/11. Tell us what you find.
ERB: Well, as you said, what we found is that there's been a threefold increase in complaints that we've received over last year and that there's been a 43-percent increase in actual cases of discrimination against Muslims and Arabs in the United States.
This is an annual report that we put out. This isn't the first time that we've done it. It's not a response to September 11th, and, in fact, not all of the September 11th cases are in here. This is just part of our normal fare. This is one of the bedrocks of our organization, which is civil rights.
HANNITY: Yeah. Joe Farah, you wrote a great column on worldnetdaily, "The Professional Arab-Americans," and you even went as far as to raise the question, why do we need an Arab-American anti-discrimination committee anyway, and you talk about your own life.
JOSEPH FARAH, WORLDNETDAILY.COM EDITOR: Exactly, Sean.
HANNITY: Explain that.
FARAH: Well, yeah. You know, I'm the only Arab-American here, and here we are debating discrimination against Arab-Americans, and I'm the guy who's going to tell you I don't think it exists. I mean, except for rare pockets, it is just simply not as widespread as CAIR would have you believe.
And, frankly, this report has all of the substance and meaning of a peace promise by Yasser Arafat. If you look at the methodology of this report, Sean, what you find is that it's based on 1,500 complaints that C.A.I.R. itself solicited over its Web site and presumably through other means...
HANNITY: Yeah. Joe, let me...
FARAH: ... and...
HANNITY: Go ahead. Go ahead.
FARAH: ... and most of them are simply so trivial as to be embarrassing. Like CAIR includes some of the e-mails that it's received. Nasty e-mails are now signs of discrimination against Muslims in this country. Well, that's standard...
HANNITY: By the way, I get a lot of that.
FARAH: Yeah. Me, too. I get thousands of them.
COLMES: We'll have some at the end of the show.
Hey, Joe, look, are we to believe that just because you personally have not experienced discrimination as an Arab-American, that is our test case? You're -- your anecdotal experience should be what we determine to be scientific evidence that it doesn't happen?
FARAH: No. You don't have to believe me, Alan, but what I -- what you shouldn't believe is this report because it's based on a lot of very flimsy evidence.
COLMES: All right. Jason, will you respond to that charge that this is based on flimsy evidence?
ERB: Sure. Sure. I mean, first of all, I want to state that Americans are a very tolerant people, very accepting of other cultures and of immigrants. We're a nation of immigrants. So that's not the case, that the majority of Americans are intolerant or biased.
Our experience after 9/11 was that most Americans were -- tried to reach out to the Muslim neighbors, tried to protect their Muslim neighbors from a worse backlash. What we are seeing in the United States...
FARAH: Well, you know, Jason...
ERB: Can I finish, please? In the United States...
FARAH: Sure.
ERB: ... what you have is the Bill of Rights protects the civil rights of individuals, and so we're monitoring the civil rights abuses of individuals in this country.
COLMES: All right. Joe...
ERB: So, even if it's a relatively small number, it's important to monitor it and to make sure that we're able to trace it.
COLMES: Joe, let me -- let me show you what's been -- I -- some of these comments I find so outrageous.
For example, when John Ashcroft said, "Islam's a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity, a faith in which God sends his son to die for you."
Pat Robertson saying, "Islam's not a peaceful religion that wants to coexist. They want to coexist until they can control, dominate, and, if need be, destroy."
And then Saxby Chambliss saying of Georgia -- he told cops in Valdosta that officials should just turn the sheriff loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line.
Do you find these comments troubling, discriminatory, biased?
FARAH: Alan...
(CROSSTALK)
COLMES: ... the kind of thing we don't want to see in this country?
FARAH: Alan, you're doing the same thing that C.A.I.R. does. You're pulling...
COLMES: What am I doing?
FARAH: You're pulling a few quotes together out of thin air and turning that into an indictment of America, and, you know, the nice words that Jason just said about Americans and America, none of that is in their 50-page report, not a -- there's not even a sentence suggesting that Americans are very tolerant of Muslims and so forth. I read all 50 pages...
ERB: That's not true. It mentions that Americans...
FARAH: ... and it is a sheer indictment...
ERB: ... that Americans tried to reach out to Muslims. It's in the report. I...
FARAH: And with good reason.
(CROSSTALK)
ERB: ... to go and read it.
FARAH: With good reason, Jason, because your organization has an agenda way beyond this idea of stopping discrimination against Muslims. The agenda of CAIR is to turn America into an Islamic republic. That's the vision of...
COLMES: Joseph -- let's get back on topic here, Joseph.
ERB: That's absolutely ludicrous.
FARAH: No, that's not ludicrous.
COLMES: Let's return to what's non-ludicrous. Joe, do you deny...
FARAH: Let me give you...
COLMES: Hold on, guys. Joe, can you deny...
FARAH: Let's talk about...
COLMES: Joseph, can you deny there's been passenger profiling?
FARAH: Let me give -- because, you know, this study doesn't mean anything if the source of the study, the people who put it together, are so biased.
Listen to a quote from Omar Ahmad, the chairman of CAIR, in 1998. "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."
Now let me ask you, Jason, do you...
ERB: That's a quote that's taken out of...
FARAH: ... stand behind that statement by the chairman?
ERB: That's a quote that's taken out of context completely and, no, we view the Constitution as the highest law in this country, and what we're asking...
HANNITY: Wait a minute, Jason.
ERB: Excuse me. What we're asking is that the Constitution actually be applied to all the citizens.
HANNITY: I want you to respond to what Joe said here. Joe pointed out Islam should be the only accepted religion on earth, what he said. I want to know -- I want you to condemn what that member of your organization said.
ERB: That's not what he said, and Islam is a religion...
FARAH: Well, why don't you tell us what he said? How was it taken out of context?
ERB: Well, I wasn't there. First of all...
FARAH: It's been widely circulated.
ERB: Look, what I've come here to talk about is the...
HANNITY: No, no, no.
ERB: ... status of...
HANNITY: We want to know if there's an agenda behind this. Answer Joe's question.
ERB: I've told you that there's -- I answered his question.
HANNITY: Tell us how it's taken out of context. Joe read it verbatim. How was it taken out of context?
ERB: Relax. I answered his question. I said, no, that's not our agenda. I said that the Constitution is the highest law in this land.
HANNITY: Did he say it or not?
ERB: It's something that we are trying to...
HANNITY: Did he say that or not?
ERB: I don't know. I'm sorry. I wasn't there.
HANNITY: So you don't know if it was taken out of context. You're just going -- your gut feeling tells you, but you don't know for sure.
ERB: No, but I know him Omar Ahmad myself, and I know that that's not the way he views...
HANNITY: Joe, give me a source.
ERB: ... the world.
HANNITY: Joe.
FARAH: This was -- this statement was made at a rally in California in 1998. It's been widely circulated. I've seen it -- this quote in dozens and dozens of publications. I have not seen it repudiated by CAIR anywhere, and...
HANNITY: All right.
ERB: That's ridiculous. I'm repudiating it right now. I'm repudiating it right now. This is not...
FARAH: Well, tell us what he said.
ERB: This is not...
HANNITY: All right. Let's move on. We only have a few seconds. Go back to this idea of an Islamic...
(CROSSTALK)
ERB: ... has entered into this...
HANNITY: Joe...
ERB: ... has never made any pronouncements about this.
HANNITY: Islamic republic. In the final 20 seconds, what do you mean by that? You said that...
FARAH: What do I mean?
HANNITY: Yeah. You said the group's trying to...
FARAH: It's not my words. These are the words of the CAIR chairman. He wants to push America so that the highest law of the land is the Koran. That means Islamic republic to me.
ERB: That's the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard.
FARAH: And all your civil rights go out the window.
ERB: That's a mischaracterization.
HANNITY: Jason, thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
ERB: ... what we were here to talk about was civil rights.
HANNITY: And Joe. Thank you, both. Appreciate your time.
* * * * *
This jerk doesn't mention one word of the open hostility, hate and anger openly aimed at American Jews. Remember the article about SFSU where they were screaming at the Jewish students "Hitler didn't finish the job" and "Get out or we will kill you."
Farah mopped the floor with him.
That's because in his mind, that event isn't nearly as important as the way some feelings were reportedly hurt by derogatory e-mails, or Pat Robertson's TV appearance. What a self-centered, self-serving idiot! Fundamental Islam is at least as bad as virulent Communism was, and we need to recognize it, and restrict its access to our shores and institutions.
I can't get in the World Net Daily web site this morning. I get a microsoft page instead. Is anybody else having this problem?
To see Joe farah's recent columns, click on the pic of him and his cheesy mustache *here*:
Ah, Joe- if you only had the face and legs of Ann Coulter....
The fun times are just getting underway.
Here's a happy thought from Middle East expert Daniel Pipes:
Islamists constitute a small but significant minority of Muslims, perhaps 10 to 15 per cent of the population. Many of them are peaceable in apearance, but they all must be considered potential killers.
How does 400,000 to 800,000 -- in our country -- potential killers sound?
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
If this is true (I pray it is not)how in the world could a person fight this without coming off as a "racist" or anti-Islamic and maybe harming innocent people. Do you think our government wants this to be an Islamic Republic and if not, how the hell do they intend to stop it without a civil war here on our own soil. Sure would like some sane answers to those questions from the top.
That is a good point, and one we face now, and the Israelis--in this sense, our canary in the mine--have faced for some years. You can't work in the sewer without becoming dirty yourself. Its a nasty job, but if we don't do it, it won't get done, or it will get done toIf this is true (I pray it is not)how in the world could a person fight this without coming off as a "racist" or anti-Islamic and maybe harming innocent people. us, if you get my drift.
Common sense seems to be dead. We kill untold billions of harmless cells in medicine to get at the few that might be cancerous. That's OK. We spend millions per statistical life saved to eat wormy apples (if you remember the Alar scare). That's not OK (with me, at least). And, we are incapable of closing our borders and profiling the likely problem children, because some of the innocents might be included. What is wrong with this picture? Let's get our priorities straight and know who we are. The Islamists know who they are, in a diseased and false way. Do we?
If this is true (I pray it is not)how in the world could a person fight this without coming off as a "racist" or anti-Islamic and maybe harming innocent people.
That is a good point, and one we face now, and the Israelis--in this sense, our canary in the mine--have faced for some years. You can't work in the sewer without becoming dirty yourself. Its a nasty job, but if we don't do it, it won't get done, or it will get done to us, if you get my drift.
Common sense seems to be dead. We kill untold billions of harmless cells in medicine to get at the few that might be cancerous. That's OK. We spend millions per statistical life saved to eat wormy apples (if you remember the Alar scare). That's not OK (with me, at least). And, we are incapable of closing our borders and profiling the likely problem children, because some of the innocents might be included. What is wrong with this picture? Let's get our priorities straight and know who we are. The Islamists know who they are, in a diseased and false way. Do we?
Until or unless our fearless leader admits this to himself there is not much the average citizen can do without coming off as some sort of far, right-wing whacko and by then it may be too late. He seems to be pre-occupied with believing that "Islam is a religion of peace" and maybe it was at one time, but when parents are proud of their children committing suicide in the name of Allah all over the world, that is when bells go off and red flags start waving. Just what will it take besides buildings falling with thousands in them for our president to admit that something is wrong with this picture?
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