Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) reserved a room in the Capitol building for CAIR to hold their ‘Global Attitudes on Islam-West Relations: U.S. Policy Implications’ conference in. A spokesman for Pascrell said “we just see it as a simple room request.” And indeed it is, but when the group hosting the conference is CAIR it is anything but simple.
“It does happen all the time but usually it is the United Way or some constituent group or Mothers Against Drunk Driving, not a group with supposed ties to terrorism — in the Capitol no less,” a Hill staffer said.
There aren’t ‘supposed’ CAIR ties to terrorism. They are real and the group has yet to distance itself from the founders of the group, many of whom who have been indicted for terrorist activities or for funding terrorist groups.
“We know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat and vice chairman of the party’s Senate conference. He also criticized the group for having “intimate links with Hamas.”
Even if we throw out CAIR’s ties to terrorism, we’re still left with a group who cries out Islamophobia anytime anyone points out the group’s weak positions with respect to Islamism and jihadism. CAIR’s spokesman Ibrahim Hooper stated CAIR sought to usurp the U.S. Constitution and replace it with the rule of Islam, but that the group wished to do so through education and not violence.
Thus far, only Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has taken a tough stance against the group when she withdrew an award given to CAIR official Basim Elkarra, “citing concern over the group’s relationship with terrorist groups.”
Meanwhile the group is still counted on for quotes through this nation’s media when it comes to what moderate Muslims believe, even though CAIR is hardly moderate. It is a slap in the face to the true moderates, and Pascrell’s perhaps unknowing sanctioning of CAIR’s platform raises questions about why our elected congressmen do not know more about groups operating in the United States.
Jim Lynch has written a letter to his congressman, and Ed Morrisey has more. Also read Robert Spencer’s latest in how CAIR threw a fit with regard to the Secular Islam Conference and remember, that’s the group that will hold a conference in the Capitol.
Right Truth linked with Say, WHAT?
Panther6170 - 
Tom Killebrew - 
Emm Bayoumi - 
lyndsey -
I think this is a horrible idea. What is Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. thinking letting these terrorists into the White House. It’s bad enough that Bush invites them to events. Somebody needs to educate Mr. Pascrell.
I think we should be investigating them, not bending over for them.
Comment by Debbie — Monday, March 12, 2007 @ 2:32 pm UTC
It’s the full government across party lines. Only Boxer has actually done something after she was given information about CAIR, showing at least she will look at it. Other politicians do not, for whatever reason.
Schumer’s said something against CAIR and Rick Santorum has too, but that’s about it. It’s sad really.
Comment by Chad — Monday, March 12, 2007 @ 2:39 pm UTC
I also remember a couple others mentioning Islam, but I don’t remember them mentioning CAIR. That group is trouble. Did they bother to attend the Secular Islamic Conference? Did they even support it? No way. That’s because they are not ‘moderates’, they are terror supporters.
Comment by Debbie — Monday, March 12, 2007 @ 8:00 pm UTC
Now it’s Hezbollah and Hamas in the White House, “Democrats arrange official meeting with pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah group in U.S. Capitol,”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/12/ap/politics/main2561584.shtml
Comment by Debbie — Tuesday, March 13, 2007 @ 9:19 am UTC
Nah, the pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah group is CAIR. That’s how a Republican authored letter stated the disappointment with CAIR using the Capitol basement room.
It’s not either group actually going to the Capitol. Even the fringe groups within the DNC wouldn’t go there. It would be political suicide.
Comment by Chad — Tuesday, March 13, 2007 @ 2:01 pm UTC