In one of its first public interviews, the new Washington D.C. Bureau of Islam Online (IOL), the Internet news portal associated with global Muslim Brotherhod leader Youssef Qaradawi, has published what was described as an “exclusive interview” with Conresswoman Eleanor Homes Norton (D-DC) concerning alleged discrimination against Muslims at U.S. airports. According to the IOL report:
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton believes discrimination against Arabs and Muslims at US airports has reached a critical point and needs urgent investigation and remedy. “I’m fed up and the American people are fed up of American citizens and others who are legally here being treated as if they were terrorists; simply when they do what the rest of us do like board a plane, with small children,” she told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview. Norton has asked for a hearing over the removal of nine members of a Muslim family, including two children, from a domestic flight to Orlando, Florida, on January 1 after some passengers overheard them chatting about the “safest” seats in the plane.
The IOL interview goes on to identify Congresswoman Norton as a member of the House Aviation Subcommittee and cites her remarks on what she calls a “a particularly troubling trend of discrimination against Arabs and Muslims”:
Congresswoman Norton, a member of the Aviation Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, says the hearing will not only look into the AirTrans case, but many similar complaints. “The record shows that there have been many issues of discrimination. This is not the first public incident by any means,” she asserts. “A hearing is designed to find the facts from the episodic reports that we’ve had across all the airlines. We need to get to the bottom of this.” Congresswoman Norton regrets a particularly troubling trend of discrimination against Arabs and Muslims. “We need a hearing because we keep seeing these incidents, especially for people of Arab or Islamic descent. “This is about the worst of the incidents.” US rights groups complain that racial profiling has been on the upswing since the 9/11 attacks.
Investigative research has indicated that hate crime statistics produced by “U.S. rights groups” such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), itself a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, are often manipulated to create the impression of increasing discrimination when, in fact, FBI statistics show no such trend. The distorted statistics are then employed by the U.S. Brotherhood in its arguments that the U.S. Muslim community is a victim of organized campaigns of discrimination.
An earlier post discussed the recent opening of the IOL DC office. The interview with a U.S. Congresswoman illustrates the opportunity for synergy on the part of the global Muslim Brotherhood as it seeks to influence U.S. policy, in this case employing it’s own news organization and the use of questionable statistics likely provided by U.S. Brotherhood groups.
It should be noted that Congresswoman Norton is also a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.