The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) regained its 501(c)(3) tax exemption after it was revoked for failure to file tax returns.  The group was also accused credibly of ties with Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, although not of providing it with material support such as money or weapons.

The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas. While the Court recognizes that the evidence produced by the Government largely predates the HLF designation date, the evidence is nonetheless sufficient to show the association of these entities with HLF, IAP, and Hamas.

The purpose of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is to promote donations to genuine charitable, educational, religious, and humanitarian activities that benefit our society.  It is difficult to see how promotion of illegal activities, and verbal support for terroristic violence, conforms to this purpose. As reported by WorldNet Daily,

“If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,” said Mustafa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth CAIR branch.

It is difficult to see how a seditious statement of this nature is consistent with any kind of charitable, educational, humanitarian, or legitimate religious mission.  Advocacy of the overthrow of the Constitution's Bill of Rights makes matters even worse.

Omar Ahmad, CAIR's chairman, announced in July 1998 that "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."

... Ihsan Bagby, a future CAIR board member, stated in the late 1980s that Muslims "can never be full citizens of this country," referring to the United States, "because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country."

This makes CAIR the equivalent of an organization like the German-American Bund, which was outlawed on December 11, 1941, the day Nazi Germany declared war on the United States.

CAIR Supports Terroristic Violence

It is a felony only to provide material support for terrorists, and this means weapons, money, and/or training.  It is not illegal to advocate for terrorists verbally or in writing, although one can question whether an organization that does this should benefit from tax exempt status.

October 12, 2001: Ghazi Kankan, executive director of CAIR's New York office at the time, defended Hamas's targeting of Israeli civilians. He told the Jewish Week that, like Hamas, he considered all Israelis over the age of 18 to be "military" because "they are all reserves."

During a panel discussion at Barry University in Florida, Nihad Awad said: "I used to support the PLO, and I used to be the President of the General Union of Palestine Students which is part of the PLO here in the United States, but after I researched the situation inside Palestine and outside, I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO."

CAIR also hosts, on its own website, an article called "The Zionist Attack on Jewish Values" by Lawrence Davidson, professor of Middle East history, West Chester University.  The last two paragraphs, which advocate boycott, divestment, and sanctions, are highly instructive.  Davidson is also popular with the Electronic Intifada and Intifada-Palestine.com, where he talks about the "Israeli lobby."  CAIR has therefore self-identified as an enemy of Israel, and a friend of Islamist terrorists.

All this evidence indicates that CAIR is a problem reminiscent of the German-American Bund, and an enemy of the United States Constitution.  Its members should remember that the many rights they enjoy in the United States includes the right to renounce their citizenship and leave.  If they believe in statements like "Freedom Go to Hell" and "Islam will dominate the world," there are plenty of countries in the Middle East and Central Asia where they would feel far more at home.

Remember that the last ideology that said it would dominate the world came with a swastika.  The owner of this page, incidentally, included a post favorable to Osama bin Laden, and right below it a cartoon (copyrighted) that complains of media bias that depicts Muslims as terrorists.  This is known as "tripping over one's own taqqiya."  Although the Nazis also said openly that they were going to dominate the world, they were at least smart enough to lie intelligently.

The takeaway is, however, the fact that CAIR officials have made similar statements.  This makes the organization a problem, and we need to watch it carefully for anything it might do to deserve permanent revocation of its tax exemption.  Here is the form one uses to file an official complaint with the IRS.  Remember, though, that the organization must actually do something that violates its tax-exempt status; mere dislike of its activities does not qualify.  Until this happens, public opprobrium is the best recourse, and CAIR's invitation to Al Sharpton has just put it on record as an anti-Semitic hate group.  Racism is somewhat less credible only because CAIR's membership includes Caucasians.

Al Sharpton: the Klan with a Tan

As reported by The Clarion Project:

Reverend Al Sharpton, host of PoliticsNation on MSNBC and former presidential candidate, will be the keynote speaker at the annual fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity with an extremist history.

CAIR’s 20th Annual Banquet will be held on September 27 in Arlington, Virginia and also features Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).

Keith Ellison compared the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the Reichstag fire, and hinted that the U.S. government might have been involved.  "The fact is that I'm not saying September 11 was a U.S. plan or anything like that because, you know, that's how they put you in the nut-ball box – dismiss you."  Moran made a "Jews control America" statement prior to the Iraq war.

If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should.

Al Sharpton is, however, even worse.  If somebody made the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan his keynote speaker, it would be pretty clear what his organization thought of black people and Jews.  CAIR has similarly made its opinion of Jews perfectly clear, and if its membership did not include Caucasians, racism also would be on the table.  Sharpton's history speaks for itself.

• In 1988, Sharpton and his entourage falsely accused citizens of Wappingers Falls, NY, of raping Tawana Brawley.  Sharpton was later convicted of defamation (civil tort) as a result.
• In 1991, Sharpton helped provoke the Crown Heights riots, in which a rampaging mob murdered a Jew.  Sharpton has used anti-Semitic language like "diamond merchants" to describe Jews.
• In 1995, Sharpton's National Action Network paraded around a Jewish-owned store, Freddy's Fashion Mart, while screaming about "bloodsucking Jews," "cracker lovers," "don't give the Jew a dime," and "white interloper," the last from Sharpton himself.  A deranged individual acted on this hate speech by setting the store on fire, and killing seven workers.

The fact that CAIR, despite its full knowledge of Sharpton's history, invited him to be its keynote speaker self-identifies the organization as an anti-Semitic hate group.  Its other actions self-identify it as an enemy of the Constitution's Bill of Rights, and a friend of Islamist terrorism.

William A. Levinson is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.