The Council On American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a press release calling on Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani to drop well-known critic of Islamist Daniel Pipes over his support for a group designated as terrorist by the U.S. government. According to the release:
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Daniel Pipes, who recently signed on to Giuliani’s campaign as a foreign policy advisor, is a vocal supporter of the terror group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Earlier this year, Pipes even participated in a foreign rally for MEK leader Maryam Rajavi. …MEK has been designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” since 1997. In 2003, that designation was amended to include the group’s aliases – the National Council of Resistance (NCR) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).”
Supporters of Dr. Pipes are citing a 2003 New York Times article on the MEK stated that the group’s terrorist designation was “a goodwill gesture toward Iran’s newly elected reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami” and that “the MEK has continued to protest worldwide against its listing, with the overt support of some US political figures.” Whatever the merits of the case for or against the MEK, critics of CAIR, including Dr. Pipes, have used U.S. terrorist designations as prima facie cases against groups such as Hamas which makes it difficult now to defend against these accusations by CAIR. However, it should be noted that CAIR has generally opposed almost all anti-terror efforts by the U.S. government and has extensive links to the Hamas and U.S. Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure in the U.S.