Ground Zero Mosque: Another Opportunity For CAIR's Wild Accusations As It Chills Debate

Ibrahim Hooper, of CAIR, is bringing up the specter of Islamophobia in connection with opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque.

Given the political right's hate-filled and hysterical response to all things Muslim, one has to ask whether American Muslims face a future in which they will no longer be treated as equal citizens.

The best example of the right's campaign to deprive American Muslims of the civil liberties enjoyed by citizens of other faiths is the neo-McCarthyite response to a planned Islamic cultural center in New York City.

This is to be expected from CAIR--after all, Daniel Pipes has noted that in response to the prosecution of World Trade Center bomb plotter Omar Abdel Rahman and the arrest of Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, CAIR started leveling charges of hate crime.

CAIR appears to instinctively jumps on any such attempt by Americans to safeguard their interests.

Exaggerating Islamophobia and exploiting the charge is nothing new for CAIR.

Back in 2006, I blogged about this:

o For 2005 the FBI report on bias attacks indicates that 68.5 were anti-Jewish while only 11.1 were anti-Islamic. In other words, when it comes to bias attacks--Jews are far and away the group that is in greater danger and more in need of protection

o For 2004, the FBI report indicated that 67.8 were anti-Jewish and 12.7 showed anti-Islamic bias. This indicates that the trend shows that while anti-Jewish bias attacks were slightly up--anti-Islamic attacks actually went down.

o An investigation by Daniel Pipes of the anti-Islamic bias attacks reported by CAIR in 2004 showed "sloppiness, exaggeration, and distortion." Two of the claims were actually cases of arson by Moslem store owners themselves, using the story of anti-Islamic bias to cover what they had done. The American Thinker describes a third such case. 

Other reported attacks lacked evidence or were actually reported by CAIR twice. Further incidences of falsified accounts of Muslim hate crimes going back to 2003 can be found on Michelle Malkin's blog: Myth of the Muslim hate crime epidemic and More Muslim hate crime myths. A report on NPR investigating the reporting of bias crimes in general noted that

any bias incident, from a Muslim being yelled at from a passing car, to a Muslim being profiled on a plane, can wind up in CAIR's report

Investor's Business Daily wrote about anti-Muslim hate crimes for 2006



More recently, the FBI reported Hate Crimes in 2008

	Incidents	Offenses	Victims
anti-Jewish	1,013	1,055	1,145
anti-Muslim	105	123	130

But contrast this with what CAIR claimed for the year 2008:

"In 2008, Muslims continued to face barriers to their full and equal participation in American society. Certain individuals and institutions persisted in profiting by smearing Islam. American Muslims continued to fear profiling, surveillance and undue scrutiny by law enforcement and other authorities."

CAIR and its affiliate chapters nationwide processed a total of 2,728 incidents in 2008. That figure represents a three percent increase in reported cases from 2007 (2,652 reports) and an 11 percent increase over cases reported in 2006 (2,467 reports). It is the highest number of civil rights cases ever recorded in CAIR's annual report. (Note: The higher number of cases is due in part to inclusion of a new category of cases related to mailed, faxed and e-mailed threats and hate messages.)

According to CAIR's study:

* The occurrence of reported civil rights complaints increased at mosques and Muslim organizations, rising from 564 cases in 2007 to 721 cases in 2008. This represents a 28 percent increase from 2007 to 2008.[emphasis added]

Obviously, what NPR reported still holds true: "any bias incident, from a Muslim being yelled at from a passing car, to a Muslim being profiled on a plane, can wind up in CAIR's report"

The pattern of false hate crimes continues. Ryan Mauro, an intelligence analyst with the Asymmetric Warfare and Intelligence Center, writes:

Over the recent Fourth of July weekend, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) interviewed attendees of the 47th annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention about their experiences in dealing with “Islamophobia.” Shortly afterwards, on July 6, CAIR called on the FBI to investigate an act of arson at a Georgia mosque, saying that hate crimes were increasing because of a “vocal minority in our society promoting anti-Muslim bigotry.” The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) referred to it as one of the “incidents of Islamophobia [that] are on the rise in this country.” However, police later arrested a Muslim suspect.[emphasis added]

Nor is this phenomenon limited to the US:

A Muslim community leader in London named Noor Ramjanally reported that he had been kidnapped by members of the quasi-fascist British National Party; he also said that he had received death threats and his home had been firebombed. His claim receivedwidespread attention, causing him to boast, “I have got the whole UK Muslim community behind me now.” Ramjanally later was arrested for faking the crime. Furthermore, last year in Australia, a prominent imam, Taj Din al-Hilali, told police that his mosque had been vandalized. When confronted with the security tape, which shows that he is the one who kicked in the door, he insisted that it had been manipulated.

Based on its past, it is only natural to see CAIR exploit the Ground Zero Mosque controversy in order to increase its exposure in the public eye, as it attempts to chill debate rather than encourage dialog.

After all, that is what CAIR does.

Technorati Tag: Ground Zero Mosque and CAIR.