Tuesday, March 08, 2011

CAIR Director Accused of Sectarian Incitement against Congressional Advisor


Hamid Ghoriafi

"Diaspora and moderate Muslim NGOs condemn pro-Hamas CAIR's extremism"

Washington, DC, London, Hamid Ghoriafi, al Siyassa

The campaign of incitement waged by Nihad Awad, director of CAIR, against Professor Walid Phares, a Congressional adviser, is full of lies and misrepresentations. It was executed at the request of the Iranian regime after Phares appeared in an American movie, “Iranium”, released two weeks ago. In that movie, Phares called on the Obama Administration and the international community to expedite a regime change in Tehran by supporting the democratic Green revolution in Tehran leading to the crumbling of the Khamanei-Ahmedinijad regime. Phares' call via public opinion and members of Congress came while the US Administration is studying new strategies for the region, in light of the successive revolutions in the Arab world. Reacting to Nihad Awad's letter to Representative Pete King inciting against Phares, the American-Lebanese Secretary General of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution in Washington DC, Tom Harb, said that "the main mission of Nihad Awad in Washington is to incite against liberal Arabs and moderate Muslims. For Awad, he falsifies history and fabricates facts in order to incite sectarian strife in Lebanon and within the Lebanese communities worldwide. Awad's campaign against Phares has no other goal than to incite against this American-Lebanese public figure who has participated in the making of important international resolutions related to Lebanon and other Arab countries. This incitement aims at harming him and provoking physical attacks against him, which incitement could fall under US and international (criminal) legal responsibility.” Harb added that "this Hamas-Hezbollah faction acts like a militia within a liberal democracy."

And from Miami, the President of the World Maronite Union, Sheikh Sami el Khoury, said the attack by Nihad Awad and his faction against Phares is an attack against American civil society in general and against the Maronite community in the United States in particular.

On his part, the director of the Council for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia in Washington, Ali al Yammi, said: "We were shocked by Nihad Awad's statement but we were not surprised by it, because we knew the man well and we knew of his positions. For he and his faction claim representing the Arab-Muslim communities without their consent and without anyone mandating them to perform this representation. No one mandated them to send letters to Congress and other entities in the name of millions of American Muslims who do not share their sympathies to Hamas and Hezbollah."



In this regard, Rep Pete King (R-NY), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in the US House of Representatives, has rejected the allegations of the Iranian-backed Palestinian lobby with allegiance to Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon. They blocked Walid Phares, also an advisor of the anti-Terrorism Caucus in Congress, from offering his testimony in a future hearing regarding extremism and radicalization, in light of the successive popular revolutions in the region. Mr. King asserted in a statement obtained by al Siyassa, that US citizen Phares "is a writer, a scholar, and an expert in the Jihadi and Salafi currents, and we've asked him to advise our committee and me in preparation for the hearings regarding Jihadi extremism and terrorism worldwide."

King added in his statement, widely read in Congress, that Phares helped him significantly until now. In the past, Phares “would testify when we needed him to, particularly on ideological and strategic issues, and not as a representative of a particular community. As Dr. Phares is Christian, he told us he will not testify as a representative of the Muslim community, and we thanked him for this but we told him that this will not stop us from calling him to testify in this subject when it is needed."

King added that he will invite Phares to testify soon. But he decided to start the first session with voices from the American Muslim communities to learn their opinion regarding radicalization and who instigates it within these communities. Thus Phares will be called to testify in following hearings. King was making these statements in the wake of organized campaigns on the internet waged by the president of the so-called "Council of Islamic American Relations" (CAIR). Of Palestinian background, Nihad Awad, one of the major supporters of the Hamas Movement, is campaigning to force Rep King, an influential lawmaker in Congress and in Government, to stop Phares from testifying in the forthcoming hearing on extremism and radicalization.

Leading experts in Washington, including Steve Emerson, describes CAIR as "an entity of the Muslim Brotherhood using the American political system to protect the interests of radical forces operating within American society." Emerson said the head of this organization (CAIR), Nihad Awad, was a member in an organization supportive of Hamas while he was in Texas in the 1990s and before he moved to Washington to take the command of a lobby operating for Hamas, and before Hezbollah's lobby merges under his wing."

John Guandolo, a former special agent in the Washington D.C. office of the FBI and a current expert in "Brotherhood movements" in America, said in briefings in Congress that CAIR is partially funded from overseas and work on intimidating and deterring anyone who unveil facts about terrorism and ideological extremism via political and legal attacks.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Hamid Ghoriafi is a Middle Eastern journalist and analyst and writes for al Siyassa.

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