Israel Matzav

US State Department financing CAIR international outreach

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Pa) isn't the only one seeking to legitimize CAIR, the Hamas front that was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case in the US. The US State Department is also seeking to legitimize them.

Meanwhile, CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid is back from his second consecutive government-financed travel to Mali to "build religious and cultural ties between American religious and civic leaders with Malian counterparts."

According to a transcript posted on his own web site, Walid told his Malian hosts that "America has evolved to be one of the world's most tolerant societies regarding religious expression and practice."

But State Department money also financed Walid's trashing of American treatment of American Muslims. "Since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, American Muslims have been subjected to increased discrimination from racial and religious profiling by law enforcement, a rise in hate crimes, work place discrimination, to the recent trend of some citizens and elected officials protesting the construction of new mosques. Late last year, an Imam named Luqman Ameen Abdullah was shot 21 times including twice in the back during a raid by law enforcement agencies based upon an investigation of his mosque, which ended up proving no links to terrorism or treason,"Walid said in Bamako, Mali.

As he has done since the Abdullah shooting last October, Walid failed to tell his audience that Abdullah fired first as FBI agents moved in to arrest him. Four other people who did not fire as agents advanced were arrested unharmed. That went unmentioned, too.

His harsh message should come as no surprise to anyone who pays attention to what Walid says. Like other CAIR officials, he routinely casts law enforcement agents as waging an unregulated witch hunt on Muslims, or worse, hinting that Abdullah was unarmed when agents gunned him down in cold blood.

The trip was organized by Michigan State University, Walid said, but funded by the federal government. Here's more of his diplomacy:

"I stated that Muslims in America have many challenges from Islamophobia to unjust government policies that profile us," he told the Detroit News. "However, we have interfaith partners that stand in solidarity for fairness and justice with Muslims and that this is an American tradition. I also mentioned the shooting of Imam Luqman and discussed the case with some leaders."

Read the whole thing. There's more about Walid's trip from Debbie Schlussel here.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:29 AM