Psssst: Israel Has A Quiet Victory--Pass It On...

I am on an email list with the New York Israeli Consulate, and received today a copy of an article appearing in Haaretz by Amir Reshef-Gissin, the head of the Foreign Ministry's Public Affairs Department.

Take a look.

Israel's quiet victory

Radical Islam increasingly perceived as strategic threat to West

The second Lebanon war is an up-to-date and clear example of the doctrine that modern war is decided not only on the battlefield. As gaps in the military power of the warring sides grow, the decision moves to the arena of media and consciousness.

The point is that apparently Israel fully appreciated the importance of hasbarah and the media, made every effort to win in this vital area--and yet still fell short.

An example of this is the Israeli spokespeople during the war. One of the myths associated with Israeli public relations efforts for generations is the centrality of the speakers: If only we find someone like Abba Eben or Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel would be able to win the battle over media coverage and public opinion.

Contending with images of Beirut

During the month of war, this myth fully collapsed: The State of Israel deployed coherent men and women featuring clear messages and boosted by the Israeli consensus who submitted to hundreds of interviews on dozens of TV channels.

In CNN alone, Israeli government spokespeople submitted to 400 minutes of interviews in the first two weeks of the war, constituting about 10 percent of the total airtime dedicated to the war.

On the other hand, Arab spokespeople were only interviewed for 30 minutes. Did the fact that Israeli spokespeople received so much more airtime than their opponents decide the outcome of the media war? The answer is negative. After all, the Israelis were not required to contend with their Arab colleagues, but rather, with the images of destruction and victims from Beirut.

And where were images of the suffering, hurting Israeli home front taken by dozens of foreign media crews operating from media centers set up by the Foreign Ministry in Haifa and the upper Galilee? They were cut due to editing considerations because they failed to match the narrative presented.

Yet despite this loss on the media battlefield, Reshef-Gissin claims there is still a fundamental victory that Israel has achieved:

All of the above is in plain view of the Israeli news consumer, but the most important things are hidden from view. The dust left behind by the military campaign along with the heavy price of those killed and kidnapped, the media fog and the waves of criticism, all combine to hide a fundamental Israeli achievement:

The decline of the narrative that argues that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and particularly the equation of Goliath (us) against David (them), are the exclusive reason for Middle Eastern instability.

To support this claim, he cites:

Public opinion surveys commissioned by the Foreign Ministry in recent weeks in the United States and leading European countries showed the maturity of the public's understanding of our new regional reality.

Indeed, the surveys showed wide identification of the two coalitions – the moderate one, which includes Egypt, Jordan, Palestinian leader Abbas and Lebanese PM Siniora, vis-à-vis the radical coalition of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas, and al-Qaeda too.

In the wake of the war, radical Islam is increasingly perceived as a strategic threat on the West that is not merely a reaction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is a new reality that is comfortable for Israel.

First of all, if in fact the narrative is changing and there is a perception that the issue is not just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but rather the threat of radical Islamism--is this new perception really the result of a "fundamental Israeli achievement," or merely the result of the fact that radical Islamists keep trying to blow up people?

Second, if the Israeli government really believes that Egypt and Abbas fall into the moderate camp, perhaps it is time for those clever Israeli PR people to perhaps define for us just what is a Moslem moderate.

Thirdly, if in fact "radical Islam is increasingly perceived as a strategic threat on the West that is not merely a reaction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," why are incidents of Anti-semitism also on the rise?

How quiet can a victory be--and still be a victory?

Technorati Tag: Israel and Islamism and Media.

In Canada, Orthodox Man Removed From Plane For Praying

On September 1, an Orthodox Jewish man started to daven on an Air Canada flight from Montreal to New York as the plane approached the runway. The flight was stopped and he was removed.

"He was clearly a Hasidic Jew," said Yves Faguy, a passenger seated nearby. "He had some sort of cover over his head. He was reading from a book.

"He wasn't exactly praying out loud but he was lurching back and forth," Faguy added.

The action didn't seem to bother anyone, Faguy said, but a flight attendant approached the man and told him his praying was making other passengers nervous.

"The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn't a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave," Faguy said.

Because the man did not speak either English or French, he was escorted off the plane so they could find a translator. Still, it is not entirely clear why he had to be removed, seeing that it was clear that he was Jewish and just praying.

...Air Canada Jazz termed the situation "delicate," but says it received more than one complaint about the man's behaviour.

The crew had to act in the interest of the majority of passengers, said Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stewart.

Does "more than one complaint" as opposed to "a number of complainst" or "many complaints" mean that there were just two complaints? If, as implied by Air Canada's statement, there were no more than a handful of complaints, then how was removing the man "in the interest of the majority of passengers"?

The part I find most interesting is the end of the article:

The Jewish group B'nai Brith Canada has offered to help give Air Canada crews sensitivity training.

Is there a need for sensitivity training?
Maybe...

Antisemitism remains at high levels in Canada League for Human Rights releases 2005 data

Posted On 03/22/06
Antisemitism remains at high levels in Canada League for Human Rights releases 2005 data

Ottawa, March 22, 2006 – The League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada today released its 2005 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, an annual study on patterns of prejudice in this country. In total, 829 incidents were reported in 2005, representing a marginal decrease of just 3.3% compared to 2004 when an increase of 46.7% was documented. The number of antisemitic incidents in 2005 marks the second highest total in the 23-year history of the Audit. Since 2001, the total number of incidents has increased almost three-fold.

-----

NOTICE TO CANADIAN CITIZENS BORN IN JERUSALEM

B’nai Brith Canada is seeking a reversal of Canada’s passport policy, which denies Canadian citizens born in Jerusalem the right to have Israel noted in their passports as their country of birth. An application for judicial review of the Government’s policy has been filed by David Matas, B’nai Brith’s Senior Legal Counsel.

One thing for sure--someone does.

Meanwhile, on June 6

Canadian Terrorists Planned To Behead Prime Minister

From the DNC’s Associated Press:

Family members and friends of 15 Canadians charged in an alleged terror plot make their way through media as they leave court in Brampton, Ont., Canada, on Tuesday June 6, 2006.

Canada plot allegedly involved PM attack

By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Some of the 17 Muslim men accused of plotting terror bombings in Canada also planned to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead the prime minister and other leaders, according to accusations revealed Tuesday by the lawyer for one of the suspects.

But before the police raid...

Raid officers learned about Muslim traditions

By COLIN FREEZE

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Before the raids came the sensitivity training: Tactical-squad Mounties learned how to properly handle Korans prior to arresting 17 terrorism suspects on the weekend.

And that's not all. The RCMP also made sure there were clean prayer mats on hand for their suspects when they were sent to jail cells.

I would be very curious to know if Air Canada has taken B'nai Brith Canada up on their offer.

Technorati Tag: Canada and Air Canada and Jew and Sensitivity Training.

Does CAIR Want To Raise Your Taxes?

Think about it.

World Net Daily, among others, notes that

Ibrahim Hooper, the future CAIR spokesman, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on April 4, 1993: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."

Under Moslem law, non-Muslims pay a tax called jizya. According to Wikipedia:

In states ruled by Islamic law, jizya or jizyah is a per capita tax imposed on non-Muslim adult males, known as dhimmis.

...In practice the word is applied to a special type of tax, levied on those who did not accept Islam, and applied for the benefit of the Muslim community.

...The imposition of jizya upon non-Muslims is mandated by the Qur'an 9:29:

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold forbidden that which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

And Hooper is not alone. According to Daniel Pipes:

as reported by the San Ramon Valley Herald, CAIR Chairman Omar M. Ahmad told a crowd of California Muslims in July 1998, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."

And CAIR is not the only one that wants to put in practice the Moslem law that would impose the jizya. Imam Zaid Shakir, an American Muslim leader, is quoted by the New York Times as saying:

"Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country," he said.

What are the chances of that happening?

In the US, we may forget Islam's past history of global conquest.
We may even ignore the Islamists' goal of world domination.
But higher taxes?
No red-blooded American will allow that!

Crossposted at Israpundit

Technorati Tag: Israel and CAIR and Jizya and Islamists and Dhimmis.

When The West Bank And Gaza Were The 4th Fastest-Growing Economy In The World

Typically, when depicting the situation of the Palestinian Arabs, critics of Israel--as well as the media itself--paint an accurate picture of the deplorable situation that Palestinian Arabs have been subject to: if you are referring to Gaza under Egypt.

In Who Ruined Gaza, Ephraim Karsh reminds us:

During their 19-year occupation of the Gaza Strip (1948-67), the Egyptians ruled the area with an iron fist, keeping the local population in squalid, harshly supervised camps, where they could serve as a rallying point for anti-Israel sentiment. Life expectancy was low, malnutrition, infectious diseases, and child mortality were rife, and the level of education was low. Palestinians were denied Egyptian citizenship and were subjected to severe restrictions on travel and work, with unemployment among refugees running above 80%. "The Palestinians are useful to the Arab states as they are," Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser candidly responded to a Western reporter in 1956. "We will always see that they do not become too powerful. Can you imagine yet another nation on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean?"

When Gaza passed into Israel's hands, however, the situation there improved dramatically:

During the 1970's, in fact, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world ahead of Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. Although GNP per capita grew somewhat more slowly thanks to the rapidly expanding Palestinian population, the rate was still high by international standards, with per-capita GNP expanding tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from US$165 to US$1,715 (compared with Jordan's US$1,050, Egypt's US$600, Turkey's US$1,630, and Tunisia's US$1,440).

Under Israeli rule, the Palestinians also made vast progress in social welfare. Life expectancy rose from 48 in 1967 to 72 in 2000 (compared with an average of 68 years for all the countries of the Middle East and North Africa). Israeli medical programs reduced the infant-mortality rate of 60 per 1,000 live births in 1968 to 15 per 1,000 in 2000. (In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, by comparison, the rate was 64, in Egypt 40, in Jordan 23, in Syria 22). And under a systematic program of inoculation, childhood diseases such as polio, whooping cough, tetanus and measles were eradicated.

No less remarkable were advances in the Palestinians' standard of living. By 1986, 93% of the population in the West Bank and Gaza had electricity around the clock, as compared with 21% in 1967; 85% had running water in dwellings, as compared to 16% in 1967; 84% had electric or gas ranges for cooking, as compared to 4% in 1967; and so on for refrigerators, televisions and cars.

Finally, during the two decades preceding the intifada of the late 1980's, the number of enrolled schoolchildren in the territories grew by 102%, though the population itself had grown by only 28%. Even more dramatic was the progress in higher education. At the onset of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, not a single university existed in these territories. By the early 1990s, there were seven such institutions, boasting some 16,500 students, as compared with six in Israel itself. Illiteracy rates dropped to 14% of those over age 15, compared with 69% in Morocco, 61% in Egypt, 45% in Tunisia, and 44% in Syria.

But things changed dramatically once again under Arafat, once he took control.

War is by its nature a destructive endeavour, and Arafat's terror war was no exception, inflicting great damage on Israel but also eradicating the fragile fabric of civil society that had been developing in the territories during the decades prior to his arrival. Unemployment increased from 10% to an average of 41% during 2002, and the proportion of the population that was poor rose from 20% to over 50%. Private investment and trade fell dramatically.

When Arafat came to power in 1994 he described the situation of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza in the worst possible terms. He claimed, "There is no ill from which Gaza does not suffer."

Of course, the only real ill and true impediment facing Palestinian Arabs--is their 'leadership.'

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and West Bank and Karsh.

From Zero To Zoroastrian In Iran

Over at The Corner--the blog for The National Review--John J. Miller quotes from Wednesday's New York Times about the future of Zoroastrians:

“We were once at least 40, 50 million — can you imagine?” said Mr. Antia, senior priest at the fire temple here in suburban Chicago. “At one point we had reached the pinnacle of glory of the Persian Empire and had a beautiful religious philosophy that governed the Persian kings.

“Where are we now? Completely wiped out,” he said. “It pains me to say, in 100 years we won’t have many Zoroastrians.”

There is a palpable panic among Zoroastrians today — not only in the United States, but also around the world — that they are fighting the extinction of their faith, a monotheistic religion that most scholars say is at least 3,000 years old.

A little later, Michael Ledeen responds:

Thanks to John Miller for the latest silliness from the NYT, which seems not to know that there is a vast Zoroastrian revival under way in Iran. As I have written from time to time, Islam is very unpopular in Iran nowadays (mosques are empty for Friday prayers; a few weeks ago there were less than a dozen people in the main mosque in Shiraz, according to an ayatollah friend of mine), but Zoroastrianism is surging. Just look at the fire festival for No Rooz, the ancient new year celebration, which the regime has been unable to quash.

Assuming Ledeen is right, so what?

First, I assume that anything that weakens the hold Islam has on Iran, and distracts the Iranian leaders, can only be a positive thing--both for the US and Israel.

Also: Can Iran realistically expect to reach its goal of becoming the leading Islamic power if it is in reality nothing more than a 97-pound Islamic weakling?

Technorati Tag: Israel and Iran and Zoroastrianism.

Debunking Some Myths About Israel And The War In Lebanon

Emanuele Ottolenghi, in an article for the National Review, writes about the myths created as a result of the Lebanon War:

Every war generates its myths, and the recent war in Lebanon is no exception. This war's myths are that Israel lost and Hezbollah won; that this was due to Israel's reluctance to take casualties; and that Hezbollah's victory in turn shattered the image of Israel's military invincibility.

He goes on to discuss the myth that Hezbollah won the war--and if this topic interests you, go and read the article.

What interests me is what he writes about other myths about Israel that have been produced by the war:

What of the myth of Israel's invincibility that this war supposedly shattered, and the myth that it was Israel's reluctance to absorb casualties that caused Israel to balk?

Ottolenghi describes the wars--both conventional and non-conventional--that Israel has fought: from 1948 to the present, including both Intifadas. He also describes some of the enormous losses that Israel suffered in the process. Nevertheless:

There is a pattern, then: Each war brings Israel a new challenge. Each time, it takes Israel time to absorb the blow, understand its nature and mechanisms, and then make elaborate corrections and improvements to its combat doctrine. Israel has lost battles in the past. It learned from its mistakes and it improved its fighting capabilities the next time around. In this worn-out recent war with Hezbollah, Israel's performance was no different from that in past wars. At a heavy price, it inflicted a severe, but not decisive, blow to Hezbollah. It will now learn how to fight better next time around.

As for the myth that Israel can no longer put up with the casualties that she must put up with to survive:

If this were true, how could we explain Israel's victory in the second Intifada? Over 1,000 civilians were shredded to bits by Palestinian terror. Yet, Israeli society soldiered on — literally. In the latest round of fighting, it was Israel's leadership that balked at the risk of casualties, not the country, which from left to right was united in an unprecedented support for a more comprehensive and aggressive campaign to finish off Hezbollah once and for all. Israel's home front did not break down, despite a month spent in shelters in the North, and the severe shortcomings of its logistical machine and those who were in charge of it. Israelis proved their resilience and their stubborn will to stay and put up a fight, for when the real volley of missiles comes in from further afield.

Israel's army is resourceful.
Israelis are resilient.

But what about Israel's political leadership?

Apparently, it is still mything.

Crossposted at Israpundit

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hezbollah and Hizbollah and Lebanon.

Terrorists for Israeli Soldiers: A Convergence On Appeasement

Now that Olmert's Convergence plan is off the table for the time being, the rumors persist that he is involved in other ways to deal with terrorism: trading for the lives of kidnapped soldiers with the release of prisoners.

Leaving aside just which and how many prisoners/terrorists would be released, the plan--rumor or not--is already having its effect.

According to World Net Daily:

Palestinian terror organizations are currently training in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to carry out operations aimed at kidnapping Israeli soldiers, said a terror leader whose group in June abducted Israeli Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

The leader thanked the international community for what he said was its recognition that kidnappings of Israeli soldiers are not considered terrorism but "military operations that bring very big results."

He told WorldNetDaily the "best way" to gain the freedom of thousands of Palestinians being held in Israeli jails, including convicted terrorists, is by more kidnappings of Israeli soldiers.

"We are now planning and training for the next kidnappings. Even if [Israel] releases hundreds of prisoners in exchange for Shalit, we still have thousands more to liberate. More Israeli soldiers must be abducted," said the terror leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity amid reports Israel is considering releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit.

Thanking the international community for recognizing that the kidnappings of Israeli soldiers are not considered terrorism but "military operations that bring very big results."

Nice touch.

Meanwhile, the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers seems to be so successful that it has attracted new groups:

A previously unknown group, which said it is based in the Golan Heights,
threatened Wednesday to abduct Israeli soldiers to swap them for Syrian
prisoners in Israel.

In a statement faxed to foreign news agencies in Damascus, a group calling itself the Men of the National Syrian Resistance threatened to "take the necessary measures" to secure the release of 16 Syrians jailed in Israel.

...Referring to Hezbollah, whose July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers sparked a 34-day war with Israel, the statement said: "The Lebanese model, the model of Hezbollah, is not so far from us concerning implementation and preparations to release our detainees."

The implications of all this for Israel's going into Gaza and Lebanon to force the release of the kidnapped soldiers is not good:

According to government spokesmen, Israel's harsh military response to the kidnappings in Lebanon and Gaza has taught our enemies that from now on, there will be a heavy price to pay for kidnappings.

However, this response has not persuaded the Lebanese and Gazans to release the soldiers without getting something in return. In exchange for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in Lebanon, and Gilad Shalit, in the Gaza Strip, Israel will have to release hundreds of prisoners to Lebanon and the territories.

On the issue of whether Hezbollah won the war in Lebanon, there is debate back and forth.

Does anyone doubt that if Olmert trades prisoners/terrorists for Shalit, it will be an unqualified victory for Hamas and Palestinian terrorists?

Technorati Tag: Israel and Hamas and Olmert and Goldwasser and Regev and Shalit.

A Thought About Bush's 'National Strategy for Combating Terrorism' and Hamas

It's after 1am in the morning, and I cannot begin to figure out the nuances of Bush's new "National Strategy for Combating Terrorism" as he described it on Tuesday.

Austin Bay has scanned parts of the document, posts some of the content and has some thoughts.

Personally, when I read stuff like...

Deny terrorists the support and sanctuary of rogue states. The United States and its allies and partners in the War on Terror make no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor terrorists. Any government that chooses to be an ally of terror has chosen to be an enemy of freedom, justice, and peace. The world will hold those regimes to account. To break the bonds between rogue states and our terrorist enemies, we will work to disrupt the flow of resources from states to terrorists while simultaneously working to end state sponsorship of terrorism.

and

The United States currently designates five state sponsors of terrorism: Iran, Syria, Sudan, North Korea, and Cuba. We will maintain sanctions against them and promote their international isolation until they end their support for terrorists, including the provision of sanctuary. To further isolate these regimes and persuade other states not to sponsor terror, we will use a range of tools and efforts to delegitimate terrorism as an instrument of statecraft. Any act of international terrorism, whether committed by a state or individual, is reprehensible, a threat to international peace and security, and should be unequivocally and uniformly rejected. Similarly, states that harbor and assist terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists, and they will be held to account.

...I naturally think of Hamas, Fatah, and the PA.

News such as...

Palestinian terror organizations are currently training in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to carry out operations aimed at kidnapping Israeli soldiers, said a terror leader whose group in June abducted Israeli Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

...not to mention of course the firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli cities from areas directly under the control of Hamas--who was behind the kidnapping of a soldier--does seem to fall under the category of "terrorism as an instrument of statecraft."

I've read some positive reviews of Bush's speech, but in just over a month, on October 15, will be the 3rd anniversary of the murder of 3 Americans by Palestinian Arabs terrorists when they blew up a US diplomatic convoy in Gaza. To date, the murderers are free.

If all of Bush's talk has no practical application for Palestinian Arab terrorists, then Bush need not have bothered.

Technorati Tag: Israel and President Bush and Palestinians and Hamas and Fatah and Palestinians.

Catch The Wave With The Bagel Blogger

I only just now found out about the cool graphic that the Bagel Blogger made for linking to this week's Haveil Havalim #85:


Thanks Mr. Bagel!

Go check out what else Mr. Bagel has to offer

Technorati Tag: Israel.

The Next Time CAIR Screams Discrimination...

Power Line links to a

ludicrous news story comes from Agence France-Presse: an article titled "US Muslims plagued by discrimination after 9/11 attacks."

The AFP piece alleges that:

Discrimination and harassment by law enforcement have come to plague American Muslims in the years since the terrorist attacks of September 11.

There have been suspicious looks, slurs, physical attacks, extra screening at airports and arrests on groundless charges.

And it seems to be getting worse.

"Suspicious" does seem to be the operative word when it comes to these claims.

The FBI tracks such attacks under the label of 'hate crime'. What exactly is a 'hate crime'? :

A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.

The FBI breakdown of the hate crime attacks in 2004 based on anti-religious bias, shows that the Jews are far and away the majority victim of religion-based hate attacks.

Bias motivation	Incidents	Offenses	Victims	Known offenders
Anti-Jewish	954	1,003	1,076	330
Anti-Catholic	57	57	68	37
Anti-Protestant	38	43	48	28
Anti-Islamic	156	193	201	124
Anti-Other Religion	128	140	147	68
Anti-Multiple Religions, Group	35	37	39	14
Anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.	6	7	7	3
Total religion:	1,374	1,480	1,586	604

As Daniel Pipes notes, Jews constitute 69% of the victims of such attacks, while Moslems constitute 11%.

Clearly, the fact that the threat to Jews is greater is not helped by CAIR itself (some of whose board members have been convicted of having connections to terrorist groups) when in August it hosted a forum for Mearsheimer and Walt on the influence of the 'Israel Lobby'.

But Daniel Pipes goes a step further. He examines an annual report put out by CAIR entitled Unequal Protection: The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States 2005 which the media used as the basis at the time to come out with headlines about the dramatic rise in anti-Moslem hate crime.

Only one problem, according to Pipes:

We examined in detail some "examples of anti-Muslim hate crime reports received by CAIR in 2004," on p. 43, plus some "samples" on p. 53 and discovered a pattern of sloppiness, exaggeration, and distortion:

1. CAIR cites the July 9, 2004 case of apparent arson at a Muslim-owned grocery store in Everett, Washington. But investigators quickly determined that Mirza Akram, the store's operator, staged the arson to avoid meeting his scheduled payments and to collect on an insurance policy. Although Akram's antics were long ago exposed as a fraud, CAIR continues to list this case as an anti-Muslim hate crime.

2. CAIR also states that "a Muslim-owned market was burned down in Texas" on August 6, 2004. But already a month later, the owner was arrested for having set fire to his own business. Why does CAIR include this incident in its report?

3. CAIR lists the March 2005 lawsuit filed by the Salmi family for the firebombing of their family van as one example of a hate crime report it received in 2004. However, the crime named in the lawsuit occurred in March 2003, was already reported by CAIR in 2003, and should not have been tabulated again in the 2004 report.

4. CAIR reports that "a home-made bomb exploded outside of the Champions Mosque in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas," staking its claim on eyewitness reports that on July 4, 2004, "two white males" were seen placing the bomb. We inquired about the incident and found that Spring's sheriff department could not locate any police files about an explosion. Further inquiries to the mosque and an e-mail to CAIR both went unanswered. There is scant evidence that any crime even occurred.

5. CAIR notes that "investigators in Massachusetts are still investigating a potential hate-motivated arson against the Al-Baqi Islamic Center in Springfield." However the case was long ago ruled a simple robbery, news that even CAIR's own website has posted. The Associated Press reported on January 21, 2005, that prosecutors determined the fire was set by teen-age boys "who broke into the Al-Baqi mosque to steal money and candy, then set the fire to cover their tracks." The boys, they clarified, "weren't motivated by hatred toward Muslims."

6. CAIR describes what happened to a Muslim family in Tucson, Arizona: "bullet shots pierced their home as they ate dinner in October 2004" and two months later their truck was smashed and vandalized. But the only evidence that either incident was motivated by hate of Muslims is the Dehdashti family itself, not the police. Detective Frank Rovi of Pima County Sheriff's Department, who handled the shooting investigation, said that according to the neighbors, the desert area by the Dehdashti house was often used for target practice. Neither incident was classified as a hate crime and both cases were closed by February 2005, long before the CAIR report went to press. [emphasis added]
   

Of twenty "anti-Muslim hate crimes" in 2004 that CAIR describes, at least six are invalid – and further research could likely find problems with the other fourteen instances.

Pipes goes on to give further examples.

In a follow-up post, Pipes notes that NPR did a segment on the problems with the methodology used by different groups in general to track and report bias attacks. The audio of the report is available from the NPR site. The reporter, Mike Pesca, notes 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.

Pipes also has a post that refers to 2 posts by Michelle Malkin back in 2003--Myth of the Muslim hate crime epidemic and More Muslim hate crime myths about false accounts of hate crimes against Moslems.

The plague that the AFP report refers to is actually a plague of falsely attributed hate crimes that CAIR does not admit--let alone denounce--even after the deceit is revealed. According to The American Thinker last month:

To date, so far as I can tell, not only has CAIR not apologized for falsely accusing non-Muslims of hatred and bias in the respective communities where these hate crime hoaxes occurred, but the press releases on CAIR’s website go uncorrected even after the truth is revealed. For instance, a press release related to a staged hate crime in McAllen, Texas still appears today without any correction or update whatsoever, even though multiple media outlets, including even the New York Times, had debunked the incident as a hate crime hoax perpetrated by the “victim” almost two years ago.

The staging of hate crimes continues in July 2006--as the same article from The American Thinker describes in detail.

Besides the issue of hate crimes being staged, CAIR itself has dabbled in the kind of fake photography that would make Reuters proud. As reported in Jihad Watch on September 15 of last year, hijabs were photoshopped onto 2 women--and a man--at an interfaith vigel.

Photoshopped Photo	Actual Photo

CAIR does know how to keep itself busy.

Technorati Tag: CAIR and Islamophobia and ReutersGate.