| Washington, DC – Congressman Bill Shuster expressed his extreme disappointment with House Democratic Leadership due to their decision to reserve a room in the US Capitol building for a meeting with CAIR, the “Council on American-Islamic Relations” to discuss US foreign policy in the Middle East.
“The Democrat leadership in the House is walking a very fine line between a political stunt designed to undermine the President and our military and abetting the enemy,” Shuster said. “It’s striking to see the Democrats embrace a front group for terrorists during the same week they plan to announce their plan to retreat from the War on Terror.”
CAIR was organized in 1994 to serve as an advocacy group for Muslims in America. However, since it’s founding, CAIR has tread a fine line between advocacy of Muslim interests and advocacy in support of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Recently, CAIR vocally supported the six Imams who were removed from US Air flight 300 after they aroused passengers’ suspicions due to their behavior. CAIR decried US Air for following accepted post 9/11 security protocols. Other examples of CAIR’s radical history include:
· Omar Ahmad, CAIR’s co-founder praised suicide bombers: "Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam, that is not suicide,"..."They kill themselves for Islam" (The Washington Times, 3/16/04);
· Nihad Awad, CAIR’s Executive Director and scheduled presenter at the Democrat-sponsored meeting said, “I am in support of the Hamas movement,” at a symposium at Barry University in March 1994;
· Ahmed Bedier, the Executive Director of CAIR’s Tampa Chapter, said in 2004, “Catholic priests pose more of a terrorism threat by having sex with young altar boys than those who flew planes into the World Trade Center." (Letter, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, 11/9/06);
· Senior CAIR employee Randall Todd “Ismail” Royer, pled guilty and was sentenced to twenty years in prison for participating in a network of militant jihadists centered in Northern Virginia. He admitted to aiding and abetting three persons who sought training in a terrorist camp in Pakistan for the purpose of waging jihad against American troops in Afghanistan.
“To fully understand the global rise in fundamentalist Islam, we need to engage in an honest dialogue with leaders of the Muslim community in America,” Shuster said. “However, the Democrats’ decision to extend an open invitation to CAIR, an organization that supports Hamas and Hezballah, applauds suicide bombers, and employed a number of terrorist financiers and supporters is beyond comprehension.”
“CAIR has failed to prove that is not in league with radical Islam. Time and again the organization has shown itself to be nothing more than an apologist for groups bent on the destruction of Israel and Islamic domination over the West,” Shuster said.
“The Democrats’ decision to put CAIR in a staring role at a meeting to discuss US policy towards the Middle East shows that they fundamentally fail to grasp the nature of the enemy we face. They should cancel the meeting and call on CAIR to fully disclose the group’s ties to known terrorists.” |
