Ohio Treasurer and US Senate candidate Josh Mandel accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations of being a front for terrorism.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, Mandel posted a link to an article that makes the accusation.
The article states:
Since its founding in 1993, the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has presented itself publicly as a benign Muslim American “civil rights organization.” From that time to this, however, the United States government has known that CAIR actually is an entity founded by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian franchise: Hamas, a group officially designated since 1994 as a terrorist organization.
The report is from the ‘Center for Security Policy.’ It has been called an anti-Muslim conspiracy group. The Southern Poverty Law Center claims the group is known for accusations that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated all levels of government.
Mandel says his other source for his belief that CAIR is a horrible organization is federal court filings.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are not legitimate governmental entities. Those are terrorist organizations,” Mandel said. “I am hopeful that under this new administration that the federal government will go after the Council for American-Islamic Relations and shut down the organization because I think there is quite a bit of ties out there between the Council for American-Islamic Relations and terrorist organizations.”
CAIR denies any ties to terrorism. On a website dedicated to refuting these accusations, CAIR says:
Because of CAIR’s high profile and very public record of principled advocacy of civil liberties, interfaith relations and justice for all people, a small but vocal group of anti-Muslim bigots have made CAIR the focus of their misinformation campaign. Internet hate sites then recycle these attacks using a template-like style without verifying the authenticity of the information.