One thing CAIR deserves credit for doing is successfully portraying itself as a minority rights group that fights for the rights of the Muslim minority in America. Any criticism of Islam is effectively translated into a racist attack birthed by Islamophobia that the liberal media (like CNN) is always quick to echo and amplify.
Using CAIR’s standard, its leaders and members are victims of racism and not racists themselves. Certainly, in order to maintain any semblance of credibility in this area, CAIR would immediately jettison any one of its leaders for expressing racist views, right?
Uh, not so much.
Enter Dawud Walid, Executive Director for CAIR Michigan. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has unearthed some recordings of Dawud that reveal racist tendencies:
“Who are those who incurred the wrath of Allah?” CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid asked in a May 25 sermon at the Islamic Organization of North America mosque in Warren, Mich. “They are the Jews, they are the Jews,” he answered himself in Arabic.
Is it not racist to claim that an entire race of people has incurred your god’s wrath? Isn’t CAIR an entity that prides itself on “interfaith dialogue”? How can a prominent leader with such a group not be excommunicated from a group that preaches tolerance of all faiths?
Paging Nihad Awad…
In another sermon, Dawud addressed the pseudo-issue of Islamophobia:
“One of the greatest social ills facing American today is Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim bigotry. And if you trace the organizations and the main advocates and activists in Islamophobia in America, you will see that all those organizations are pro-Israeli occupation organizations and activists,” Walid said. “You will see every single last one. Do you know why? Because one of the leading Islamophobes by the name of Daniel Pipes, said the political empowerment of American Muslims is a direct threat to Israel.”
Isn’t a phobia an “irrational” fear? If so, how irrational is it for Jews to fear a religion that sports Dawud Walid as one of its leaders?
There’s more, revealed courtesy of twitter:
When the Quran describes a slaughter of Jews at the hands of Muhammad’s army, it isn’t an indication of anti-Semitism, he said in a Detroit speech in January.
The Jews had it coming.
“Did Muhammad order the killing of Jews?” Walid asked in a Twitter post promoting the video. In response, an Islamist follower wrote, “Yes he did and I agree with it…Well isn’t treason a sentence to death.”
Rather than oppose a hateful perspective, Walid merely corrected the follower and reinforced the anti-Jewish sentiment. Muhammad “didn’t order it. Sa’ad ibn Mu’aadh [one of his followers] ordered that punishment. It was a correct one.”
Let’s recap, shall we?
Islamophobia is an irrational fear of Islam. If you’re a Muslim who listens to CAIR’s Executive Director in Michigan, however, it’s ok to hate all Jews and such hatred does NOT equate to anti-Semitism. However, if you identify Islam’s hatred for the Jews, you’re being Islamophobic.
Got it?
Good.