The U.S. Muslim Brotherhood has reacted to four House Republicans who accused the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) of trying to plant spies on Capitol Hill and called for investigations into the group and its activities. According to a statement by the Islamic Society of North America:
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is shocked that four Republican Congressmen found it fit to make serious allegations against a Muslim advocacy group by borrowing passages from a book authored by two well known Islamophobes, and that some of them went out of their way to promote an anti-Muslim book during a national news conference. US Representatives Trent Franks (AZ), Sue Myrick (NC), John Shadegg (AZ), and Paul Broun (GA) accused on Wednesday the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) of planting “spies” on Capitol Hill and called on federal officials to investigate the organization. While we believe it is the obligation of every American and every Congressman to ensure that national security is not harmed, this must be done without tarnishing the reputation of law abiding fellow Americans or smearing an entire religious community. We are particularly troubled that the four Congressmen took their clues from a book by two well known anti-Muslim writers, Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry. Sperry authored in 2005 an alarmist book that accused Muslim Americans of infiltrating Washington, and attacked Islam as a violent religion. Similarly, Gaubatz has in the past targeted Islam and Muslims, called Islam an “evil ideology,” and worked for a racist group that sought to make “adherence to Islam” punishable by a 20-year prison term. ISNA encourages political engagement of Muslim Americans and believes that the Congressmen’s public announcement creates unduly suspicion of Muslim activists and interns, and is antithetical to the American democratic tradition that calls on all Americans, regardless of their religious affiliations, to participate in public life and governmental work. We expect our lawmakers to champion democracy rather than raise suspicions against minorities, which only leads to paranoia and increased hostility. President Obama has encouraged an atmosphere of openness and diversity for which we commend him, and we ask all lawmakers to join him in his endeavors for true dialogue. ISNA finds it unacceptable for members of Congress to side with the World Net Daily, an Islamophobic group and the publisher of the book promoted by the four Congressmen, in its attack on the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). We believe that this raises suspicions and discourages the involvement of Muslims in the American political process. It is very critical for Muslim American voices to be heard on Capitol Hill. We call on the GOP leadership to reject all efforts that aim at fostering anti-Muslim climate by members of their party, and to distance themselves from the campaign led by the World Net Daily and their anti-Muslim pundits.
In a similar statement, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) said:
This week, four Republican members of Congress, Rep. Sue Myrick, Rep. John Shadegg, Rep. Paul Broun, and Rep. Trent Franks, called on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Sergeant-at-Arms to investigate a national Muslim American civil rights organization, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), for encouraging young Muslim Americans to intern in Congressional offices. By encouraging community members to engage in the civic process and engage in advocacy like most other major Washington, DC organizations, CAIR is being accused by these right-wing lawmakers of trying to plant “spies” into Congressional offices. In a bizarre McCarthy-era like press conference, the four lawmakers quoted various excerpts from a yet-to-be released Islamophobic publication entitled, “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.” The publication is co-authored by Dave Gaubatz, an individual who has repeatedly attacked members of Congress and the President for trying to implement sharia (Islamic law) in the United States. It is unfortunate that four members of Congress from the party of Abraham Lincoln have used their official government capacity to characterize Muslims’ civic engagement as evidence of espionage and subversion. This accusation goes beyond the work of one organization; it is an affront to the countless number of patriotic Muslim Americans serving at all levels of government and civil society. This type of reckless behavior casts a phony net of suspicion on young Muslim Americans serving in various government offices. …This type of behavior by four House Republicans will only embolden the extremists. The lawmakers are making a mockery out of our legislative process with empty and hollow conspiracy theories. It is hypocritical of them to accuse Muslim organizations of subversion on America, while they themselves apparently sent a spy to infiltrate the national office of CAIR so they could get a copy of an internal memo. The four members of Congress should be reminded of the words of President John Adams when he addressed America’s relationship to Islam, “The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.” Muslim Americans will continue to engage in the civic process and serve their country at all levels. Those who insist on choosing fear as a tool of exclusion will not hinder our country and the sacred involvement of its citizens in the civic process.
Documents released in the Holy Land Trial have revealed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as identifying the organization itself as being part of the U.S. Brotherhood. A recent post discussed an interview with the Deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in which he confirms a relationship between his organization and CAIR. Investigative research posted on GMBDW had determined that CAIR had it origins in the U.S. Hamas infrastructure and is an integral part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood with a long history of support for fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and terrorism. As discussed in previous posts, It appears that the FBI has recently ended its long-standing relationship with CAIR.
A Hudson Institute report has identified CAIR, ISNA, and MPAC as important components of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, often acting in concert. It should also be noted that Jamal Badawi, one of the most important leaders of the U.S. Brotherhood, has also served on boards of both ISNA and CAIR (Canada). MPAC, in turn, was established as the Political Action Committee of the Islamic Center of Southern California whose key leaders likely had their origins in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Since that time, MPAC has functioned as the political lobbying arm of the U.S. Brotherhood. The Hudson report has also documented that all of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations were were established as “front” organizations:
The U.S. Muslim Brotherhood (MB, or Ikhwan) has said that its goal was and is jihad aimed at destroying the U.S. from within. The Brotherhood leadership has also said that the means of achieving this goal is to establish Islamic organizations in the U.S. under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since the early 1960s, the Brotherhood has constructed an elaborate covert organizational infrastructure on which was built a set of public or “front” organizations. The current U.S. Brotherhood leadership has attempted to deny this history, both claiming that it is not accurate and at the same time that saying that it represents an older form of thought inside the Brotherhood. An examination of public and private Brotherhood documents, however, indicates that this history is both accurate and that the Brotherhood has taken no action to demonstrate change in its mode of thought and/or activity.
Note: GMBR will review the book in question when a review copy becomes available. Meanwhile, the Investigative Project has reviewed the book here.