The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a press release claiming that a “recent spike in hate rhetoric” surrounding the Boston Marathon bombings is related to what the organizations calls “a coordinated long-term effort by Islamophobic activists and groups to demonize Islam and marginalize American Muslims.” According to the CAIR statement:
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April 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today decried the wave of inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric following the Boston Marathon bombings and the revelation that the suspects in the case are Muslim. CAIR also noted that Americans of all faiths have rejected the call by a minority of extremists to stereotype Muslims and Islam. While at least two anti-Muslim hate attacks were linked to the bombings, CAIR says it has not received any reports of violent bias-motivated incidents since the suspects were identified. ‘We believe it is a positive sign that the vast majority of Americans have rejected the type of guilt by association advocated by extremist commentators seeking to exploit the tragic events in Boston to further their personal agendas,’ said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. ‘As a nation, we have learned to judge a person based on their actions, not on their faith or ethnicity.’ Awad said the recent spike in hate rhetoric comes in the wake of a coordinated long-term effort by Islamophobic activists and groups to demonize Islam and marginalize American Muslims.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) describes itself as “a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group and as “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.” CAIR was founded in 1994 by three officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine, part of the U.S. Hamas infrastructure at that time. Documents discovered in the course of the the terrorism trial of the Holy Land Foundation confirmed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood and that CAIR itself is part of the US. Muslim Brotherhood. In 2008, the then Deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood acknowledged a relationship between the Egyptian Brotherhood and CAIR. In 2009, a US federal judge ruled “The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas.” CAIR and its leaders have had a long history of defending individuals accused of terrorism by the US. government, often labeling such prosecutions a “war on Islam”, and have also been associated with Islamic fundamentalism and antisemitism. The organization is led by Nihad Awad, its longstanding Executive Director and one of the three original founders.
