Mayor Pam Iorio has decided to halt proclamations of an annual day in Tampa for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization that says it seeks to defend the civil rights of Muslims in the U.S., but has been accused of terrorist links.
Iorio has proclaimed a “CAIR Day” each fall since 2005. The organization has an active chapter in Tampa.
Among other activities, the group has defended Youssef Megahed, a University of South Florida student arrested in 2007 on explosives charges along with another student who was accused of aiding terrorists. Megahed was acquitted but is now subject to deportation proceedings.
Iorio, who didn’t return calls for comment, said through a spokeswoman the mayor’s decision was based on her own research on the group. She made the decision after at least two interest groups contacted the city about the matter.
The mayor’s spokeswoman said in an e-mail that Iorio sought additional information based on a request from the Tampa Jewish Community Center and Federation.
Also, Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate, a South Florida group that has waged a public relations campaign against CAIR, said he made a request dating from last year asking her to drop the proclamation.
Kaufman, of Coral Springs, who described himself as an anti-terrorism researcher and writer, contends that CAIR is linked to the radical Middle Eastern organization Hamas.
In response, a spokesman for the Tampa CAIR organization Thursday called Kaufman “an anti-Muslim extremist,” and said it’s regrettable that Iorio made her decision at Kaufman’s suggestion and without consulting CAIR. Spokesman Ramzy Kilic said the group will seek a meeting with her to discuss it.
Kaufman said he began calling Iorio’s office after her most recent proclamation in November, 2008, and sent information about CAIR to Santiago Corrado, Iorio’s neighborhood liaison.
Kaufman said he was told this week by Corrado that Iorio won’t rescind any past proclamations, but won’t issue any more.
Iorio’s press spokeswoman Liana Lopez confirmed her decision in a statement:
“Concerns were raised about the city’s proclamation regarding CAIR Day,” said Lopez. “The mayor followed up on those concerns by seeking additional information. She determined that the city would no longer issue a CAIR Day proclamation.”
Lopez said Iorio won’t comment further on the matter.
“It’s unfortunate that our honorable Mayor Pam Iorio has succumbed to the pressure of an anti-Muslim extremist such as Joe Kaufman,” who “has a long history of seeking to marginalize and disenfranchise the American Muslim community and its institutions,” said Kilic.
He said the decision was “somewhat of a surprise—we’ve had a good relationship with the mayor in the past.”
Kilic said the organization has requested the declaration from Iorio each year since 2005, to be read at its annual fundraising dinner. Iorio and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor attended that event in 2005.
CAIR accuses Kaufman of links to the hardline Israeli militant group Kahane Chai, or Kach, which the U.S. State Department has labeled a terrorist organization, and says Kaufman has participated in Muslim-bashing activities.
Kaufman denies any such activities and says the alleged link with Kach was only because he mistakenly included a link to the group’s Web site on a political campaign Web site of his own 10 years ago. He said he removed it and denounced the organization when he learned of the error.
The FBI, meanwhile, said earlier this year that it severed its relationship with CAIR because of evidence linking the organization, at least in the past, with Hamas.
In an April letter to Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., FBI congressional liaison official Richard Powers said the agency took the step because CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of another organization accused of funneling money to Hamas.
Powers said the decision was not intended as “a wholesale judgment of the organization and its entire membership,” but that “until we can resolve whether there continues to be a relationship between CAIR or its executives and Hamas, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner.”