CAIR-TV

[Richpo64]

CAIR-TV

By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
The Washington Times | 9/6/2007

There is no more important front in the global conflict best described as the "War for the Free World" than the struggle to determine the nature and future course of Islam.

If Islamists seeking to impose their intolerant, repressive strain of the faith ? more a totalitarian political ideology (Islamofascism) than a religion ? on the rest of us (Muslim and non-Muslim alike) are able to prevail, we are condemned to the clash of civilizations forecast by Osama bin Laden.

If, on the other hand, Muslims who reject that ideology ? the anti-Islamists ? succeed in offering their co-religionists an alternative that is peaceable and allows full assimilation into freedom-loving societies like that of the United States, the prospects are very different. We then have allies who can help us defeat our mutual foes, the Islamofascists ? allies who may succeed in enlisting to our common cause the hundreds of millions of Muslims who want no more than the rest of us to live under a Taliban-style religious code the Islamists call Shariah.

Readers of this column may recall that the epochal contest between the Islamofascists and the anti-Islamists is the subject of a documentary movie, "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center," of which I was one of three co-executive producers. It describes the challenges facing courageous opponents of totalitarianism perpetrated in the name of the Muslim faith in Western Europe, Canada and the United States. The saga of this film illustrates how the West is generally failing to understand the stakes, let alone the vital role it must play, in this momentous struggle.

To recap: "Islam vs. Islamists" was one of two hourlong films my partners at ABG Films, director/producer Martyn Burke and renowned expert on Islamism Alex Alexiev, and I produced with some $645,000 in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the Public Broadcasting Service's "America at a Crossroads" series. Regrettably, PBS executives and their associates at Washington's WETA engaged in various shenanigans that resulted in neither film airing as part of that big-budget, highly promoted, nationally broadcast series.

Even more troubling than the effort to blacklist Mr. Alexiev and me for being "conservatives" were the repeated attempts made by PBS/WETA effectively to suppress the voices of the anti-Islamist Muslims who were the heroes of the film. When ABG Films refused to engage in a form of moral equivalence between those resisting Islamofascism and those who adhere to or apologize for it, we were told our film "failed to meet PBS standards," was "one-sided," "too long" and otherwise ineligible for broadcast on the public airwaves.

Interestingly, these defamatory and unfounded claims are among nine aspects of the skullduggery to which "Islam vs. Islamists" was subjected that are being investigated at congressional request by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Inspector General.

Thanks to an arrangement brokered by CPB with Oregon Public Broadcasting, however, the film has begun airing on roughly half of the PBS affiliates nationwide ? including such major markets as Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco. So much for the claim it did not meet PBS standards.

Meanwhile, most of the second hour, "Muslims Against Jihad," was broadcast by Fox News several times this summer as part of a special about PBS' suppression of the voices of these films' moderate Muslim protagonists. Millions of Americans have thus been exposed to the reality that all Muslims are not Islamists ? and that those who are not urgently need our help in challenging those who are.

How much that help is required was on display in a half-hour panel discussion aired on Aug. 23 following a broadcast of "Islam vs. Islamists" by WEDU, which styles itself as "West Central Florida's PBS Station." If the composition of this panel and the content of its views is any guide, WEDU might be more accurately described as CAIR-TV.

In contrast to a separate discussion produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting and distributed along with "Islam vs. Islamists" ? which featured one of the film's anti-Islamist stars, Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix, the WEDU panel was populated entirely by those hostile to Dr. Jasser and Muslims like him. Among the talking-heads was Ahmed Bedier, the executive director of the Tampa office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

When Mr. Bedier is not savaging anti-Islamist Muslims and the film-makers who, despite considerable adversity, brought their story to a national audience, he is denouncing the listing by federal prosecutors of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism case involving an Islamist fund-raising arm called the Holy Land Foundation.

Or Mr. Bedier is mounting a vehement public defense of two Egyptian students at the University of South Florida, Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed and Yousef Samir Megahed, caught in South Carolina last month transporting pipe bombs across state lines. Mr. Bedier's response was vintage CAIR, portraying the arrested men as victims of racial profiling, bias and discrimination. "We believe that there's an overreaction that [is] happening here just because of their Middle Eastern and Muslim backgrounds."

In the past, Mr. Bedier insistently made similar claims about Sami al-Arian, the University of South Florida professor who ultimately pleaded guilty to providing services for the terrorist Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization. It is unlikely to be purely coincidental that Mr. Mohamed reportedly rented a room in a house used by Mr. al-Arian to run his front organization, the World Islamic Studies Enterprise.

What is going on in Tampa, enabled in part by uncritical media outlets like WEDU, is going on all over America. It is time we stop promoting the Islamists and their friends ? and start helping those Muslims who are ours.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is the founder, president, and CEO of The Center for Security Policy. During the Reagan administration, Gaffney was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy, and a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Senator John Tower (R-Texas). He is a columnist for The Washington Times, Jewish World Review, and Townhall.com and has also contributed to The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, and Newsday.

[Henny]

Racist Group Linked to PBS 'Moderate Muslims' Documentary

RACIST GROUP LINKED TO PBS 'MODERATE MUSLIMS' DOCUMENTARY

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 6/28/07) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the producers of a PBS-sponsored documentary on "moderate Muslims" to repudiate their alleged ties to a racist group that seeks to impose prison terms for "adherence to Islam" and that questions whether women and African-Americans should be allowed to vote.

David Yerushalmi, the president and founder of the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), recently published an online article in which he claims to be the attorney for Frank Gaffney, Alex Alexiev and Martyn Burke, the producers of the controversial PBS documentary "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center."

SEE: The Convergence Between the PC Elite and the Jihadists
http://www.saneworks.us/The-Convergence-between-the-PC-Elite-and-the-Jihadists-article-457-11.htm

The taxpayer-supported documentary linked to the founder of SANE has been criticized as agenda-driven and biased. An article in the Arizona Republic newspaper quoted the executive producer for the PBS series that funded the documentary as saying the film had "serious structural problems (and). . .was irresponsible because the writing was alarmist, and it wasn't fair." (4/10/07)

In February of this year, SANE offered a policy proposal that states in part:

"Whereas, adherence to Islam as a Muslim is prima facie evidence of an act in support of the overthrow of the US. [sic] Government through the abrogation, destruction, or violation of the US Constitution and the imposition of Shari'a on the American People. . .It shall be a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam."

SEE: A SANE Act to Deal with the Islamic Threat to America's National Existence
http://www.saneworks.us/SANE-Immigration-Proposal-article-379-1.htm

Other articles on the SANE website make racist statements such as:
"There is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote."

SEE: On Race: A Tentative Discussion, Part II
http://www.saneworks.us/On-Race-A-Tentative-Discussion-Part-II-article-64-25.htm

Another SANE article states: "Is there something unique about the Black American (or, at least the Black New Yorker) that leads him to murder so disproportionately and to most often kill and victimize his own? Do we see patterns of Black culture that arise out of Africa and the wanton murder of blacks by blacks there? Why have the colonized blacks of the African continent, after having acquired their freedom and independence, so willingly slaughtered their own and live in despicable disease and squalor despite a land of enormous riches while Indians of the Indian sub-continent have successfully moved from British rule to democracy and relative civility even in a country that still maintains social inequalities as a fact of their culture?"

SEE: Murders in New York City and the Race Card
http://www.saneworks.us/Murders-in-New-York-City-and-the-Race-Card-article-53-9.htm

"The producers of 'Islam vs. Islamists' should cut all ties to this racist group and repudiate its hate-filled agenda," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "American taxpayers should not be forced to fund, even unknowingly, those who promote religious and racial intolerance."

[Henny]

 'Stop the Madrassa' leader David Yerushalmi also linked to controversial
                            PBS program on Islam

    NEW YORK, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The New York chapter of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today called on a group
opposed to an Arabic language public school in New York to purge its ranks
of racists and extremists after revelations of a key leader's apparent
anti- Semitic views.
    The Jewish Week newspaper reports that David Yerushalmi, an advisory
board member and counsel of the "Stop the Madrassa" group, has condemned
democracy in the United States and, "in comments that evoke classical
anti-Semitic stereotypes, says he finds truth in the view that Jews
'destroy their host nations like a fatal parasite.'" ("Stop the Madrassa"
is fighting to keep the Khalil Gibran International Academy from opening
September 4.)
    SEE: Tables Turn On Arab School Critics (The Jewish Week)
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=14445
    In June, CAIR called on the producers of a PBS-sponsored documentary on
"moderate Muslims" to repudiate their alleged ties to another group headed
by Yerushalmi that advocates imposing prison terms for "adherence to Islam"
and that questions whether women and African-Americans should be allowed to
vote.
    Yerushalmi, the president and founder of the Society of Americans for
National Existence (SANE), published an online article in which he claims
to be the attorney for Frank Gaffney, Alex Alexiev and Martyn Burke, the
producers of the controversial PBS documentary "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices
from the Muslim Center" currently airing on more than 20 PBS stations
nationwide.
    SEE ALSO: Wash. Times Promotes Hate Group that Would Outlaw Islam
(CAIR) http://www.cair.com/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=510&theType=AA
    In a March 2, 2006, article for The American Spectator, Yerushalmi
wrote: "Muslim civilization is at war with Judeo-Christian civilization . .
.The Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our
enemies."

[Richpo64]

Civil rights group partially funded by Saudi Wahhabi establishment


The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) describes itself as a "non-profit, grassroots membership organization ? established to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America," to protect Muslims from hate crimes and discrimination, and to present ?an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public.? According to the Council's Director of Communications, Ibrahim Hooper, "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP." As of June 2007, CAIR claimed 32 branch affiliates in the United States and one in Canada.

CAIR was co-founded in 1994 by Ibrahim Hooper, Nihad Awad, and Omar Ahmad, all of whom had close ties to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was established by senior Hamas operative Mousa Abu Marzook and functioned as Hamas? public relations and recruitment arm in the United States. Awad and Ahmad had previously served, respectively, as IAP's Public Relations Director and President. Ibrahim Hooper was also an employee of IAP. Thus it can be said that CAIR was an outgowth of IAP.

CAIR opened its first office in Washington, DC, with the help of a $5,000 donation from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), a self-described charity founded by Mousa Abu Marzook. In May 1996, CAIR coordinated a press conference to protest the decision of the U.S. government to extradite Marzook for his connection to terrorist acts performed by Hamas. CAIR characterized the extradition as "anti-Islamic" and "anti-American." Shortly after 9/11, the CAIR website featured a picture of the World Trade Center in flames and below it a call for donations that was linked to the HLF website. When President Bush closed HLF in December 2001 for collecting money "to support the Hamas terror organization," CAIR decried his action as "unjust" and "disturbing."

From its inception, CAIR has sought to portray itself as a moderate, mainstream organization, and as early as 1996 its officials became frequent guests at State Department and White House events. In the aftermath of 9/11, when the Bush administration tried to reassure American Muslims that Islam was not the target of the war on terrorism, CAIR officials were prominent among the invitees. CAIR was the main Islamic group to gain U.S. media access in the post-9/11 period, providing the ?Muslim view? of the terrorist attacks and of America's response to them. As self-acclaimed Muslim spokesmen, CAIR officials typically refused to ?simplify the situation? by blaming Osama bin Laden for the attacks on America. Moreover, while they were eventually induced by journalists to condemn Palestinian suicide terror in a pro forma manner, they hedged their disavowals by describing it as an understandable response to Israeli brutality.

Contending that American Muslims are the victims of wholesale repression, CAIR has given sensitivity training to police departments across the United States, instructing law officers in the art of dealing with Muslims respectfully.

CAIR further claims that U.S. foreign policy is dictated largely by Zionist extremists. As Evan McCormick of the Center for Security Policy puts it: ?By convincing moderate Muslims that they are being targeted unfairly by the Bush administration's [anti-terror] policies, CAIR incites fear in members of that demographic. If innocent Muslims are then convinced that they will be the target of government action, then they have no incentive to reject an extremist ideology that resists the government?s anti-terror policies. ... This is the essence of CAIR?s strategy: shock moderate Muslims about the motivations of the U.S. Government, turn them into post-[9/11] victims, and then recruit them as supporters for your political agenda when they are ripe for the taking.?

read the rest:

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6176

[Christians4LessGvt]

"an Arabic language public school in New York"

what?
yes that will certainly help promote assimilation

[Henny]

yes that will certainly help promote assimilation

Surge in students studying Arabic outstrips supply of teachers

By Tali Yahalom, USA TODAY
A shortage of Arabic-language teachers across the country is shedding light on a classic economics question: What happens when there is plenty of demand and not enough supply?
Since 9/11, the number of students interested in the Middle Eastern language has been skyrocketing. More than 20,000 people in the USA enrolled in an Arabic-language higher-education program in 2006, double the number who signed up from 1998 to 2002, according to projections from a study the Modern Language Association expects to release this fall.

"Other languages will show an increase (in the fall report), but the only language that might be as dramatic as Arabic might be Chinese," says association executive director Rosemary Feal.

Interest has also trickled down to the pre-collegiate level as secondary schools and summer language camps surface across the country.

But generating student interest and enrollment is not the problem.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: UT | Provo | Arabic-language | Arabic language | Resource Center
"There's definitely more demand for courses than there are qualified instructors," Feal says. "There's no doubt."

Education experts agree that Arabic is a difficult language to learn, more so than French or Spanish, the traditional alternatives.

Not surprisingly, the student dropout rate is high.

"We estimate that 20,000 students are studying Arabic at the collegiate level, but not even 5% are likely to graduate with functional speaking proficiency," says R. Kirk Belnap, director of the National Resource Center at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

In an attempt to fix the problem, programs are sprouting to provide Arabic lessons to younger students.

More than 100 public, Islamic and other private schools nationwide now offer pre-collegiate Arabic-language programs of three to five sessions a week throughout the academic year, according to the National Capital Language Resource Center.

Doing so does not come without risks, however. New York City this week opened its Khalil Gibran International Academy, which requires that its students study Arabic language. But the school has been greeted with protests by some who consider it a training ground for radical Islam. Others defend the school and say it helps meet the need for more Arabic speakers in the USA.

This summer, STARTALK, a BYU-sponsored summer camp, offered a full session in Arabic for the first time in its 46-year history. This move represents further measures by the National Security Language Initiative ? President Bush's 2006 effort to allot $114 million toward the study of Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu ? to increase the learning of "critical" foreign languages. Minnesota's Concordia Language Villages recently completed its second annual Arabic language camp.

Whether creative and younger classrooms are the solutions is yet to be determined. The dropout rate at the K-12 level is 75%, says Dora Johnson of the Center for Applied Linguistics, an organization based in Washington, D.C., that researches and promotes the teaching and learning of languages.

But despite these numbers, academics say that there is potential for improvement.

"I don't think they're frustrated," University of Texas Arabic professor Mahmoud al-Batal says of his "self-selected" Arabic students. "This is a national challenge for us. The most important thing is to provide teacher training for all those involved ? and (create) more programs (overseas) and intensive programs in the U.S."

Concordia's director, Christine Schulze, adds: "Arabic is a language in great demand in many areas of society. ? People are more interested, curious and want to reach out."

[Richpo64]

>>yes that will certainly help promote assimilation<<

I've heard both sides of this issue and I'm not sure that this is a problem.

[Amianthus]

I've heard both sides of this issue and I'm not sure that this is a problem.

I'm not opposed to the school per se. I just find it weird that they cannot provide the curriculum when asked about it. Last I heard, they still have been unable (unwilling?) to provide a course outline for their curriculum to their detractors, who have been asking for it for months.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Madrassas are not really schools by US definition. Their main objective is to get the students to memorize the Koran, which is hardly anything resembling a school curriculum, just as memorizing the KJV Bible is not a school curriculum.

Parents who feel this is an adequate education should leave the US along with their kids. People need to be educated to function in our society, and the Koran does not do this, as Math, English, Science, Arithmetic and pretty much ever other useful academic subject is simply not contained within the Koran.

Even a cab driver or a 7-11 clerk needs a better education than this.

[Henny]

Madrassas are not really schools by US definition. Their main objective is to get the students to memorize the Koran, which is hardly anything resembling a school curriculum, just as memorizing the KJV Bible is not a school curriculum.

Parents who feel this is an adequate education should leave the US along with their kids. People need to be educated to function in our society, and the Koran does not do this, as Math, English, Science, Arithmetic and pretty much ever other useful academic subject is simply not contained within the Koran.

Even a cab driver or a 7-11 clerk needs a better education than this.

Madrassa is literally the Arabic word for "school." The idea that it means "Islamic school" is a terrible misconception.

In the Middle East, even Christian children go to "madrassa" every day. In other words, they go to school (they are not forced to go to Islamic schools).

My niece and nephew went to a Catholic madrassa in Amman, Jordan. See where I'm going with this?

[Xavier_Onassis]

But the traditional madrassa is a Koran-memorization only school, at least in much of the Muslim world.

If they teach useful subjects like English, math, and such, then they should reveal their curriculum to the authorities, as all schools must do.

[Richpo64]

>>In the Middle East, even Christian children go to "madrassa" every day. In other words, they go to school (they are not forced to go to Islamic schools).<<

Are there any Christians left in the Middle East? I know there are some in Israel. Other than that, how many?

[Henny]

>>In the Middle East, even Christian children go to "madrassa" every day. In other words, they go to school (they are not forced to go to Islamic schools).<<

Are there any Christians left in the Middle East? I know there are some in Israel. Other than that, how many?

I think the CIA World Fact Book would give that information. I can't say country by country, but there are a lot in Jordan and even more in Lebanon.

I can speak more authoritatively on my experience living in Jordan.

There are Christians spread throughout, but oftentimes they form their own communities, such as in Madaba, the historical Byzantine community. (Madaba is a stop on the King's Highway, which you can read more about here: http://www.atlastours.net/jordan/kings_highway.html)

I visited many cathedrals while living there and they are breathtaking. The ones that are still open for worship (i.e.: not being renovated or archealogically explored) are still filled to capacity on Sundays.

For Epiphany last year I went with a group to Bethany Beyond Jordan to visit Jesus' Baptism site, and there was a very large service there for the Holy Day.

Jordan is officially a Muslim country, but only Muslims are governed by Islamic law, and it only relates to personal issues (marriage, divorce, etc.) The rest of the legal system is adapted from French Civil Code. Christians are governed by their own religious laws. As an Islamic country, their weekends differ from ours - Friday and Saturday off, Sunday back to work. However, it is national law that any Christian wishing to worship, be it either on a Sunday, a Holy Day or Christian holiday, be paid by their employer for time missed. Most companies throughout the country close for Christian holidays (Christmas, Easter).

[Henny]

>>In the Middle East, even Christian children go to "madrassa" every day. In other words, they go to school (they are not forced to go to Islamic schools).<<

Are there any Christians left in the Middle East? I know there are some in Israel. Other than that, how many?

These results even surprised me.

Christians in Middle East & Egypt, Current CIA Factbook:

Egypt    8,000,000 - 10% of population

Jordan    400,000 - 6% of population

Lebanon    1,500,000 - 39% of population

Israel    130,000 - 2% of population - includes Palestinian territories

Syria    2,000,000 - 10% of population

Iraq    900,000 - 3% of population (Current as of July, 2007)

Kuwait    250,000 - 10% of population

Bahrain    64,000 - 9% of population

United Arab Emirates    90,000 - 2% of population (CIA not entirely sure - many Hindu immigrants from India living here)

Yemen    None listed       

Oman    None listed       

Saudi Arabia    None listed