A press release from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, has announced that two of its leaders attended a reception hosted an interfaith reception hosted by Saudi King Abdullah in New York. According to the announcement :
Representatives of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) yesterday joined leaders of other religious communities at a reception, hosted by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in New York City, designed to promote interfaith understanding. The king is in New York to take part in a Saudi-initiated United Nations interfaith meeting calling for a united front to combat terrorism and promote tolerance. CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad and Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper joined representatives of the Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, and other faith communities at the groundbreaking event. King Abdullah began the discussion with a speech encouraging interfaith dialogue and stressing that God asks members of all faiths to show compassion and mercy. “The time has come to say ‘enough’ to violence, to senseless killing and to the usurpation of the rights of others,” said King Abdullah. He took questions and heard comments from interfaith leaders following his remarks. In his comments to King Abdullah, CAIR’s Awad stressed the importance of implementing dialogue through practical initiatives such as this week’s U.N. interfaith meeting. Representatives of CAIR also took part in recent conferences on interfaith dialogue in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and Madrid, Spain.
An extensive research report has detailed the ties between CAIR and Saudi Arabia which include Saudi funding for CAIR programs. The same report discusses CAIR’s origins in the Hamas infrastructure in the U.S. and the group’s long history of support for fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and terrorism. Since that report was published, court documents have demonstrated that CAIR is a part of the Palestine Committee of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.