CAIR Attacks Me

On Yom Kippur this year I had the honor of speaking at the Temple of the Arts in Los Angeles, and the Council on American Islamic Relations is not pleased. They distributed a press release stating that my Jihad Watch website is a “hate site” that is “notorious for its depiction of Islam as an inherently violent faith that is a threat to world peace.” The organization called on the Temple to feature a speaker of its own choosing. “We would be glad to suggest the names of credible Muslim scholars who can offer Temple Shalom’s congregation a perspective on Islam that is not tainted by hatred and bigotry,” CAIR-LA’s Hussam Ayloush said.

One would think that a statement charging someone with “hatred and bigotry” and protesting a talk he gave would be filled with bigoted statements from the talk. However, CAIR’s press release they don’t quote a single thing that I actually said at the Temple of the Arts. They couldn’t quote anything that I said there because I didn’t say anything hateful. Then they must have quoted what I said at my website, or in one of my books, or articles, right?

Wrong. There is not a word I wrote in all of CAIR’s press release. Hussam Ayloush has had plenty of chances to collect “hate speech” from me. I have debated him at FrontPage magazine. But he quotes not a word I wrote there. I have debated him on the Dennis Prager Show. But he refers to nothing I said there. I have written an article about a talk he gave. But he doesn’t quote a syllable of that.

I have written five books, seven monographs, and scores of articles about Islam and terrorism. Nary a quote from any of them.

All CAIR could do was quote other people — mostly some unmoderated comments posted at my website. I had seen none of them before I saw CAIR’s release. I don’t have the resources to monitor the comments, and the discussion there is freewheeling. All kinds of people post, and all perspectives are represented. I wonder why CAIR didn't quote these posts, all of which can be found at Jihad Watch:

• "Islam is for just treatment of all; never for the tyranny of the majority."
• "The Prophet Muhammad - the Final Messenger of God, may God bless him and give him peace…"
• "Islam does not demand the destruction of Israel, Beth. Islam demands that justice be done."
• "Muhammed(pbuh)who was: the man amongst men, he became the man in Mecca, then Medina, then the Arab Pensula, now the world./the prophet amongst prophets/the genius amongst geniuses/He created a religion allied to way of living and integrated that into our very souls...nothing can touch it."

Why does CAIR want the world to believe that I am not responsible for the comments I have just quoted, but I am responsible for the anti-Muslim comments they quote in their press release? Obviously because they want people to believe that I agree with those that they quoted. Yet they cannot establish this in any way: after all, if they could have found hateful statements in my own writings, they most certainly would have publicized them.

Am I really an Islamophobe? The word itself is trumped-up and politically manipulative. Am I anti-Muslim? Let Ayloush prove it. I challenge CAIR: if I have said anything actually false about Islam, produce it. From my own words, not those of others. And prove that it is false.

This CAIR press release is yet another example of that organization's attempt to stifle free speech about Islam and terrorism in the United States, and to intimidate into silence those who dare to step out of line. Well, they got National Review, which withdrew a book about Muhammad from sale after CAIR protested. And they got Fox's 24, compelling the drama to tone down its depiction of Islamic terrorists. And they got ABC, which fired talk show host Michael Graham after he said some things about Islam that CAIR didn’t like. But they're not going to get me.