In this month’s episode of “CAIR to Comment?” everyone’s favorite civil rights organization once again ignores bigotry within its own ranks.
Earlier this month, we discovered several un-dated speeches by the popular imam Suhaib Webb, in which he makes his feelings on Jews, homosexuals, adulterers, and men who don skinny jeans quite clear. (Adulterers should be stoned to death, and skinny jean wearers are “cursed”, in case you wondered.) Despite CAIR’s longstanding relationship with Webb—and its insistence that it protects the rights of all Americans “regardless of faith"—CAIR refused to condemn Webb’s extremist statements.
Similarly, CAIR would not respond to questions about the shocking bigotry displayed by Zainab Arain, the group’s own Research and Advocacy Manager. Though Arain is the lead author of CAIR’s Islamophobia report, which repeatedly condemns anti-Muslim bias, she apparently has no problem sharing anti-Semitic propaganda on Twitter. Given that CAIR ignored our inquiries about Arain’s sentiments, we can only assume CAIR has no problem with Arain’s behavior either.
Finally, when we asked CAIR to condemn some especially anti-Semitic Facebook entries made by a senior Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) official Pervez Nasim, we received no response. Despite Nasim’s circulation of a video featuring well-known Holocaust-denier Ken O’Keefe spreading his usual canards about Jews controlling the U.S. government and media, and Nasim’s public claim that Israel makes “Nazis look more tolerant than Zionists,” CAIR appears to be undeterred from participating in ISNA’s annual conference this weekend.
Will CAIR ever shape up and stand by its stated values?
