A group known as United Voices has announced that it holding a three day “Civics and Political Summer School for Young Leaders” in early August. According to the announcement:
2009 Capitol Leadership Academy Tampa-A 3-Day Civics and Political Summer School for Young Leaders
Starting August 03, 2009 08:30 AM Ending August 05, 2009 01:30 PM
Capitol Leadership Academy is a three-day intensive summer program to introduce young minorities to the political process, civic engagement and community organizing.Participants will meet with and learn from campaign managers, community leaders and elected officials. Hands on, engaging approach with experienced professional instructors.
Participants will learn:
– How an idea becomes a law
– The foundations and principles of our government
– How to organize a political campaign for an issue or a candidate
– Coalition building to win issues
– How to lobby politicians and hold elected officials accountable
The announcement describes United Voices as:
… a non-profit, non-partisan civic engagement organization dedicated to increasing minority participation in the political process. United Voices recently hosted the largest candidate forums in the Tampa Bay Area and organized a GOTV campaign, which reached thousands of voters.
An earlier post discussed the controversy surrounding another event held by United Voices known as “Florida Capitol Day” which noted that the group’s director, Ahmed Bedier, was the former executive director of the Tampa office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
A report recently issued by the Hudson Institute discusses the origins of CAIR and its founders/leaders in both the Palestine Committee of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and the U.S. Hamas support infrastructure. A letter from the FBI posted on the Investigative Project website indicates that that the recent decision by the Agency to sever formal relationships with CAIR was based on evidence that CAIR leaders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad were tied to the Palestine Committee. Both men were known to have attended a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia that was taped by the FBI and which was attended by many members of the Palestine Committee and IAP. Investigative research posted on GMBDW had determined that CAIR has a long history of support for fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and terrorism.