Opinion Editorials, July 2015

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CAIR Urges Repudiation of 'Reckless' Anti-Muslim Proposals by Rand Paul, Wesley Clarke, Franklin Graham | Video: CAIR to Meet with 'Muslim-Free Zone' Gun Shop Owner

Video: CAIR Members to Meet with Gun Shop Owner Who Declared Store a 'Muslim-Free Zone'
Video: Florida 'Muslim Free Zone' Business Owner Agrees to Study Quran with CAIR Rep
CAIR Letter to DOJ Requesting Probe of 'Muslim Free Zone' Businesses in Florida and New Hampshire
CAIR-MA: Muslims Did Speak Up (Boston Herald)

I was shocked to read Joe Fitzgerald's opinion column in the Herald on Saturday ("Silence is deafening from Muslim community after shootings," July 18). The only thing that's been "deafening" about the response, both nationally and locally, has been its volume. � Dr. John Robbins, executive director, Council on American-IslamicRelations, Massachusetts chapter
CAIR-CT: Connecticut Muslims Mark End of Ramadan with Joyous Celebrations

According to Mongi Dhaouadi, the Executive Director of the Connecticut Council on American Islamic Relations, there are around 100,000 American Muslims living in Connecticut. "Connecticut is a special place," Abdi said. "People here have a sense of unity."
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAIR Urges Repudiation of 'Reckless' Anti-Muslim Proposals by Rand Paul, Wesley Clarke, Franklin Graham

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/21/15) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today urged national political and religious leaders to repudiate the "reckless" immigration and internment camp proposals made recently by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), former NATO Commander Gen. Wesley Clark and Christian evangelist and missionary Franklin Graham.
Paul suggested restrictions on immigration and visitation from Muslim-majority countries and reintroduction of the discredited NSEERS program. Clark called for internment camps for "self-radicalized" Americans and Graham recommended a ban on all Muslim immigration to the United States.
Their anti-Muslim proposals trended online and across the media over the past weekend in reaction to the deadly shootings that took the lives of five service members and injured one law enforcement officer in Chattanooga, Tenn.

SEE: CAIR Condemns Killing of Marines in Tennessee, Offers Condolences

"It is utterly irresponsible for public officials, retired civil servants or faith leaders to use a national tragedy like the shooting that took place in Chattanooga to offer irresponsible immigration or internment camp proposals or to reintroduce failed immigrant registration programs that turn back the clock in our nation's history," said CAIR Government Affairs Manager Robert McCaw. "We call on other political and religious leaders to repudiate these reckless proposals and to take a stand against such reactionary anti-Muslim bigotry."
He compared the proposals to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and to the Chinese Exclusion Act and the National Origins Act of 1924, which banned immigration from China and from east Asia respectively.
McCaw noted that it was careless for all three thought leaders to offer such offhand bias-motivated policy recommendations that have serious and long lasting national security implications without having a complete understanding of the facts surrounding the shooting that is still being investigated by the FBI.

Details of the anti-Muslim immigration and internment camp schemes proposed over the weekend:

* Sen. Rand Paul Supports Increased Immigrant Restrictions for Muslims & Reinstitution of Much Criticized National Security Entry Exit Registration System (NSEERS) Program

"I'm going to have our subcommittee and maybe committee in Homeland Security look into whether or not we could reinstitute this NSEERS [National Security Entry Exit Registration System] program�it was entry-exit program that was heightened scrutiny for 25 predominantly Muslim countries that have significant jihadist movements and anti-American sentiment in their country," Paul said in an interview. "We need increased scrutiny on those countries before those people come to our country to visit or permanently. We have to have heightened scrutiny."

CAIR notes NSEERS was set up in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, required nonimmigrant men and boys from predominantly Muslim countries to report to an immigration office to be photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed. Those targeted by the NSEERS program were also required to leave the United States through specified ports. Anyone who failed to comply with the program faced arrest and deportation.

Portions of the program were suspended in 2011 and in 2012 the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General called for a full termination of NSEERS as the "database that supports this program is obsolete" and it "does not provide any increase in security." CAIR and civil liberties organizations criticized NSEERS as being highly discriminatory and biased in its design and application.

SEE: CAIR Welcomes DHS Decision to Drop NSEERS Program

* Rt. General Wesley Clark Calls for Internment Camps for "Self-Radicalized" Americans:

In a MSNBC interview:

". . .I do think on a national policy level we need to look at what self-radicalization means because we are at war with this group of terrorists. They do have an ideology. In World War II if someone supported Nazi Germany at the expense of the United States, we didn't say that was freedom of speech, we put him in a camp, they were prisoners of war" and ". . .if these people are radicalized and they don't support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principle fine. It's their right and it's our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict." SEE: A Frightening Proposal to Intern Muslim Citizens

Internment camps held more than 10,000 innocent Japanese-American men, women and children during World War II. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 offered an official U.S. government apology and granted reparations to Japanese Americans interned, without due process, during the war.

With Clark's "self-radicalized" quote being coded language for American Muslims, CAIR notes that with growing anti-Muslim sentiments and hate crimes across the nation it is important to remember that the U.S. government internment of Japanese-Americans in camps was one of the greatest injustices our nation has ever committed against innocent Americans and that such a crime must never be repeated again.

* In a widely circulated Facebook post calling to block the immigration of Muslims to America Franklin Graham wrote in part that:

"Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized--and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War 2, we didn't allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now? Do you agree? Let your Congressman know that we've got to put a stop to this and close the flood gates."

In addition to Graham's statement being Islamophobic and anti-Muslim, CAIR notes that it is also factually incorrect as the United States brought German prisoners of war to work on farms and other labor projects who were often treated better than African-American soldiers.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

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CAIR Calls on GOP Presidential Candidates to Decline Invite to Hate Group's N. H. Event

Video: CAIR Rep Hassan Shibly on HuffPost Live to Discuss 'Muslim Free Zone' Businesses in Florida
Video: CAIR Seeks DOJ Probe of 'Muslim Free Zone' Business in Florida
CAIR: Florida Gun Shop Owner Declares Store Muslim-Free Zone
CAIR: Public Scrutiny Sparks Conversation About Racial Tensions in Tampa

"The kind of problems that we're facing in the microcosm of Tampa Bay and nationally are falling on local communities with limited resources to start addressing these issues," said Laila Abdelaziz, legislative and government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "It is really time for systemic policy conversations that address the socioeconomic problems that create injustice in our communities."
Houston's Latino Muslims Gather for Annual Eid Celebration (La Voz)

CAIR Calls on GOP Presidential Candidates to Decline Invite to Hate Group's N. H. Event
Cruz, Jindal, Santorum already confirmed to attend event featuring appearance by anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 7/20/15) --

 The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on Republican presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC), Gov. Scott Walker (WI), former governor Mike Huckabee (AR), former governor Rick Perry (TX), Dr. Ben Carson, and Donald Trump to decline their invitations to a "national security forum" taking place this weekend in New Hampshire sponsored by an anti-Muslim hate group and featuring conspiracy theorist John Guandolo, who claims the CIA director is a "secret Muslim."

The New Hampshire event is co-hosted by Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy, which is part of the "inner core" of America's Islamophobia network. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that tracks hate groups in America, named Gaffney as part of the nation's "Anti-Muslim Inner Circle."

SEE: National Security Action Summit Coming to New Hampshire
CAIR Islamophobia Monitor: Center for Security Policy

While CAIR is also urging presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA) and former senator Rick Santorum (PA) to cancel their scheduled appearances at the hate group-backed summit, the civil rights group said those candidates all have a well-documented track record of seeking the endorsement of anti-Muslim hate groups or of making disparaging statements about Islam and Muslims, and are therefore likely to attend.

SEE: Islamophobia in the 2016 Presidential Election

"We are seeing the attempted mainstreaming of anti-Muslim hate and bigotry in the 2016 Republican presidential primary by Islamophobic hate groups and by the desperate candidates who seek their endorsement," said CAIR Government Affairs Manager Robert McCaw. " We are calling on all serious Republican candidates who believe they can unite the nation to decline invitations from hate groups that seek racial, religious and social division."

He noted that Republican presidential candidates who do attend the hate group-backed forum will be sharing center stage with John Guandolo, a disgraced former FBI agent who regularly attacks the U.S. government, claims that the director of the CIA is a secret Muslim agent for the Saudi government and says that American Muslims "do not have a First Amendment right to do anything."

SEE: Islamophobia.org Profile on John Guandolo

Backgrounder on Frank Gaffney and the Center for Security Policy
Frank Gaffney's paranoia regarding Muslims has generated criticism from a multiplicity of sources.
The FBI said a Center for Security Policy report is based on "outdated information" and "overstated" any threat Muslim observances pose to America.

Gaffney is a key promoter of the bizarre conspiracy theory that Muslims in public service are infiltrating the government on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
He has questioned "whether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States," claimed the Missile Defense Agency logo is part of a "worrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam," claimed an aide to Hillary Clinton was a secret Muslim Brotherhood operative, and was a key witness for the plaintiffs in a controversial lawsuit seeking to block construction of a Tennessee mosque. He has also promoted the false belief that President Obama is a Muslim.
SEE: Southern Poverty Law Center's Profile on Frank Gaffney
His staff attorney, David Yerushalmi, has advocated outlawing the practice of Islam in America and is the key promoter of anti-Islam bills in state legislatures nationwide.
CAIR details Gaffney's and the Center for Security Policy's role in America's Islamophobia network in its report, "Legislating Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States."
Legislating Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States
David Keene, former president of the National Rifle Association, said Gaffney is "tiresomely obsessed" with his "weird belief" that anyone who does not agree with him is a dupe of America's enemies.

Frank Gaffney's conspiracy theories regarding Muslim infiltration of all aspects of American life are so overblown that he was banned from attending the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011 after accusing its top leadership of being infiltrated by Islamists.
SEE: Frank Gaffney Was Barred From Participating In CPAC

Gaffney was a key witness for the plaintiffs in a controversial lawsuit against a mosque being built in Tennessee, where he promoted the notion that mosques want to "destroy western civilization from within."
Gaffney on CNN: Mosques Want 'To Destroy Western Civilization From Within' (VIDEO)
Backgrounder on John Guandolo
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes John Guandolo as "a disreputable character, who regularly attacks the U.S. government, claims that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency is a secret Muslim agent for the Saudi government and says that American Muslims 'do not have a First Amendment right to do anything.'"

CAIR Islamophobia Monitor: John Guandolo
Video: Islamophobe John Guandolo Claims CIA Director John Brennan is a Secret Muslim

Virginia's Rappahannock Regional Criminal Justice Academy rescinded its earlier approval of in-service training credits for state law enforcement scheduled to attend a training Guandolo was conducting in Culpeper, Va., after being made aware of his anti-Islam rhetoric.

SEE: Virginia Agency Pulls Accreditation for Anti-Muslim Training

A sheriff in Kansas decided not to partner with a citizens group sponsoring a Guandolo training after being informed of his conspiracy theories. When a journalist at Kansas' Wichita Eagle covered the controversy, Guandolo accused the reporter of material support of terrorism.

SEE: Kansas Sheriff Won't Partner on Training by John Guandolo

A number of Arizona police departments decided not to send officers to one of Guandolo's trainings.

CAIR: Arizona Police Departments Drop Out of Islamophobic Training

Guandolo left the FBI shortly after reports surfaced that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a key witness in a corruption trial targeting a member of Congress.

SEE: FBI Kept Quiet About Sexual Relationship Between Agent, Star Witness in Jefferson Trial

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CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT:

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR Communications Coordinator Nabeelah Naeem, 202-488-8787, 202-341-4171, [email protected] 
 
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Ave, S.E., Washington, D.C., 20003  

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