The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a press release indicating that its executive director has attended the funeral of Michael Brown, the teenager who was shot to death by police in Ferguson, Missouri. According to the statement:
Nihad Awad
August 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is attending today’s funeral for Michael Brown, the unarmed African-American teenager who was shot to death by police in Ferguson, Mo.
‘I believe it is important for all Americans to show their support for racial equality and social justice and to be part of the national dialogue on these important issues,’ said Awad.
Last week, CAIR joined the NAACP and other civil rights groups in calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the shooting.
CAIR representatives also took part in a national American Muslim call-in discussion of the Michael Brown and joined almost 100 national civil rights groups, coordinated by The Leadership Conference and Civil and Human Rights, in calling for federal action to prevent discriminatory profiling.
Nihad Awad was cited last week in an IslamOnline article urging Americans to “value every precious life:”
Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, agreed, and said what’s happening in Ferguson is symptomatic of long-standing historical injustices that black people have suffered in America for decades.
“Our nation has been trying to heal for years, but there is a deep social history that has to be fixed by restructuring our perception of culture and showing respect to one another,” he said. “We have to value every precious life.”
Given his historical association with Hamas, Mr. Awad’s seeming attempts to reinvent himself as a spiritual leader strike us as disingenuous and hypocritical to say the least and his publicized attendance at the funeral in rather poor taste.
The GMBDW reported last week on what appears to be the growing effort by the US Muslim Brotherhood to gain increased legitimacy by associating itself with broader civil rights issues in the US.
