Hamas-linked CAIR Texas leader: "If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land"

Jihad Watch

The mask slips. "'We are above the law of the land,'" by John Griffing in WND, March 3 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A leader for the Texas branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations has told a crowd at a rally for Islam that members of the faith really shouldn’t be bound by American law.
“If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,” said Mustafa Carroll, the executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth CAIR branch, a keynote speaker as the recent rally.
The event was a rally in Austin, a part of the nationwide effort to hold “Muslim Capitol Day” events.
CAIR itself has been under investigation for its documented ties to terrorist organizations in the past. Some details revealed by Daniel Pipes are that:

• CAIR funded the Holy Land Foundation, which was used to funnel money to Hamas. President Bush shut down Holy Land Foundation, which CAIR called “unjust” and “disturbing.”
• CAIR denied Osama Bin Laden was behind 9/11, even though Bin Laden said so on camera.
• CAIR demanded removal of a billboard in Los Angeles in 1998 that described Osama bin Laden as “the sworn enemy,” saying that this description was “offensive to Muslims.” [Osama had by this point released his Declaration of War on the United States.]
• CAIR called the conviction of the 1993 WTC bombers “a travesty of justice.”
• CAIR called the conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh who planned to blow up New York City landmarks, a “hate crime.”
• CAIR labeled the extradition order for suspected Hamas terrorist Mousa Abu Marook “anti-Islamic” and “anti-American.”

CAIR also had on its advisory board Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the attempted 1993 WTC bombings. It was the same Siraj Wahhaj who was asked to deliver the “Juma,” or invocation at the Democratic National Convention for President Obama. He also once remarked, “It is my duty and our duty as Muslims to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Quran.”
According to the website about the event, Muslims from around Texas went to the Capitol in Austin to “promote civic and political activism throughout the wider Muslim community.”
The organization reported, “One major issue discussed was the recent House and Senate bill proposals involving the implementation of ‘anti-Shariah’ legislation, where the First Amendment rights and freedoms of Muslims would ultimately be hindered.”
Critics allege that Shariah prohibits other faiths from free exercise when enforced, and would actually invalidate the American First Amendment, unless practitioners were Muslim.
Carroll’s statement was similar to a statement made by CAIR Chairman Omar M. Ahmad, who is on record saying, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran…should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”
Carroll began joking about the widespread concern surrounding Shariah, the religious code that governs all Muslim civil and political life, saying, “We tried to downplay Shariah, because we didn’t want to give the other side any excitement for being here.”
He dismissed critics who express concern about Shariah as simply “anti-foreign,” telling the audience, “When you even say the word Shariah, people get nervous. We are not advocating for Shariah. We are not trying to make Shariah the law of the land.”
Carroll claimed that all Muslims want is the “right to practice our faith.”
But he also said, “If you understand Shariah, the foundation of our faith…how we treat our neighbor, how we treat our parents…how we participate in society, all of that is part of Shariah.”
Carroll is on record defending Hamas, considered by many to be a terrorist group.
“I think you can only blame Hamas for so long. It takes two to tango. And I think, you know, that what we’ve heard for a number of years is this terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, was not just Hamas,” he’s said.
And at CAIR’s Dallas banquet in 2007, Carroll said, “Look at the true cause of the terrorism. It’s not somebody is reading a book, reading a Quran, and then go out and say, ‘Well, the Quran told me to blow this up. I’m gonna blow it up.’ The cause, the root cause of terrorism is oppression. The root cause of terrorism is oppression.”...