The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) awarded the extremist group “Code Pink,” the “Community Organization of the Year” award at its 20th Annual Banquet September 27.
The choice was not surprising, considering that the two groups share many of the same goals. Code Pink, which ironically bills itself as a grassroots organization of “women working for peace,” has a history of supporting Hamas and the brutal Iranian regime as well as being anti-American.
CAIR, for its part, is an entity of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, according to the U.S. Justice Department. More specifically, as confirmed by Muslim Brotherhood documents, CAIR is part of the Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a secret body that was established to push the agenda of Hamas and the overall Islamist cause.
Code Pink, known for its theatrical and outrageous street protests, was originally established in 2002 to agitate for an end to American military involvement in Iraq. The group made its first trip to Iraq in 2003, at which time Code Pink leader Jodie Evans praised the government of Saddam Hussein for providing “a good education and health care system, food for everyone.” At the same time, Evans accused America of “destroy[ing] any form of infrastructure that could have held the country together.” Evans also observed, “What’s cool about the resistance is that the Iraqis don’t back down.”
Two years later, Code Pink helped that “resistance.” Evans and fellow Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin, travelled to Iraq as part of delegation of “peace groups” and delivered $600,000 in cash and medical supplies to the families of insurgents fighting against American forces in Fallujah.
Code Pink activities supporting terrorists did not end in Iraq. In 2006, the organization’s leaders travelled to Venezuela to meet with Hugo Chavez, that country’s brutal and murderous dictator. After the trip, Evans blogged, “He was a doll. Generous, open, passionate, excited, stimulated by the requests and happy to be planning with us.”
Fellow Code Pink leader Benjamin was also enamored with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Benjamin, who lived in Cuba for a time said life in Cuba was so idyllic that it “made it seem like I died and went to heaven,” (even though she was deported for writing an article published in a communist newspaper that the government disapproved of).
In 2008, Code Pink leaders met with then-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York City. Following that meeting, Benjamin and Evans accepted an invitation by Ahmadinejad to visit Iran as his guests. Again, the two had nothing but praise for Iran’s leaders, which ironically coincided with the Iranian regime’s hanging of Fatemeh Haghighatpajou, who was put to death for defending her daughter from a rapist.
At the Democratic National Convention in 2008, Code Pink demonstrated for “Peace with Iran.” Code Pink demonstrators maintained that Iran had fulfilled all of their obligations. “They are doing what they can. They’ve already had the inspectors they need,” a Code Pink demonstrator maintained.
“Iran isn’t threatening anyone. They haven’t threatened another country in over 260 years,” said another.
This is despite the fact that then-president Ahmadinejad vowed at the “World Without Zionism” conference in 2005 (as well as numerous other times) that “his eminency Imam Khomeini ... said that the occupation regime of Qods [Israel] must be wiped off from the map of the world, and with the help of the Almighty, we shall soon experience a world without America and Zionism, notwithstanding those who doubt.”
When asked if peace takes two partners, another Code Pink demonstrator replied, “Not with the United States being the biggest bully on the planet.”
“Not only that, it’s not our job to worry about a bunch of mullahs threatening people,” said yet another Code Pink protester.
The next year, Code Pink led an international delegation to Gaza, where they delivered tens of thousands of dollars in “humanitarian aid” and were feted at a five-star hotel owned by Hamas.
In 2013, Code Pink, still billing themselves as a pro-peace women’s group, held a demonstration in conjunction with the Interfaith Peace-Builders in Washington, D.C. Code Pink demonstrators screamed on the streets of Washington, D.C., calling for a new, violent uprising against Israel, “Long live the intifada... intifada, intifada!” (In the previous intifada, over 1,000 civilians were killed in shootings and suicide bombing on Israeli streets, buses, cafes and hotels.)
The same year, Code Pink took part in a protest in Yemen against U.S. drone attacks on terrorists. The protest was in conjunction with the Islamic organization, al Karama, whose founder and president, Abdul Rahman al-Naimi, was listed by the Treasury Department as a “specially designated global terrorist.” Al-Naimi is suspected of funneling $600,000 to al Qaeda in Syria.
Most recently, Code Pink led protest against Israel for defending themselves from a barrage of 3,621 rockets and mortars fired by Hamas into Israeli population areas after Hamas militants kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers.
At the protest, Code Pink leader Benjamin said, “I think it is horrible that the Israeli state does not value the lives of Palestinian people.”
Code Pink’s history of activism for the Islamist cause dovetails with CAIR’s. In 2007, the Justice Department branded CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, another U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity found guilty of financing Hamas. The designation was upheld by a federal judge in 2009. The FBI subsequently ended its use of CAIR as an outreach partner, citing evidence linking it to Hamas.
In yet another terrorism trial in 2007, federal prosecutors stated in a court filing:
“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”
The ongoing extremism of CAIR is evident in its suspicious money transfers, use of Islamist radicals for fundraising, defense of the Jamaat ul-Fuqra terrorist group and the statements of its chapter leaders. CAIR officials recently questioned whether to honor U.S. soldiers on Memorial Day, compared the U.S. military to the Taliban and criticized American nationalism.
Even though CAIR’s history paints a clear picture of the extremist nature of the organization, its public support for a group like Code Pink exposes its agenda for all to see.
It’s time for the public and government officials to wake up to the fact that CAIR is not the “Islamic civil liberties group,” it purports to be.