veiled4allah: CAIR is all-American veiled4allah: CAIR is all-AmericanAll comments are copyright their authors
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Subject: Re: CAIR is all-American
I am glad that CAIR is standing up to public criticism. There are too many organizations that are being smeared on a regular basis and not doing anything about it. ISNA is one of these organizations. A local station to Indianapolis, which is next door to Plainfied, Indiana where ISNA is located, did a two part series "investigating" ISNA's ties to terrorism. http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=1518794Maybe its just me, but I am tired of people who are afraid to pull up their own drawers in the morning for fear that an Al-Qaida cell is going jump out of them. I am sure that if we really took the time and had the energy we could go jumping down any number of religious and social institutions in the US who are illicitly funded by folks from strange and non friendly countries around the world.
Subject: Re: CAIR is all-American
As salaamu 'alaykum,I agree that sometimes it is necessary to fight back and preserve our rights and reputations, but one has to think carefully. In that process a few things tha might not occur right away should be kept in mind.
First, it is impossible to respond to every allegation people make, especially if you are a well known organization. If you tried, you'd spend your time doing nothing else.
Second, if one spends too much time defending oneself or responding to allegations, one is letting their enemies define the terms of the discussion. This is being reactionary. As Muslims we need to proactively put forward what we are about -- if people know what we are about, they will not believe the allegations they hear. If people just hear allegations against us and our denials of those allegations, how are they going to know who to believe?
Third, we are in a small minority in this country. Even when we work with others, our views on many issues are not the majority view. There is nothing wrong with this. We have to work to change the way people are programmed to think by the society. One of the best ways to do this is to gain sympathy by being unfairly attacked and persecuted and remaining steadfast -- sometimes not even defending oneself -- but giving out a message about truth. Don't be about yourself be about truth -- that's what inspires people.
Look at the Civil Rights movement here in America -- better yet look at the Makkan period in the life of the Prophet (saw).
This is just material for people to think about. It is not meant to suggest that CAIR is wrong to sue or that I disagree with anyone else's comments.
May Allaah guide us and forgive us for our lack of organized work in His cause.
Salaam,
Abu Noor al-Irlandee
Subject: Re: CAIR is all-American
As-salaamu alaykum,Those are all good points. This accusation against CAIR has been made a thousand times in the media. They do not respond to it each one of those times. Usually they just ignore it. However, it may be that some harm has been caused that we are not yet aware of that led them to take this action now.
One other thing to keep in mind is that, given the number of people who are spreading this smear about CAIR, they had their choice of who to sue. They didn't sue everybody. Most likely, they sued the person that they thought they had the best chance of winning against.
I believe that they are correct. This smear is beginning to do harm to CAIR and limiting the effectiveness of what CAIR can do in the larger society. It needs to be confronted head-on. Those who make these claims need to bring their witnesses and their evidence and let it be judged by an impartial court. They need to understand that if their accusations are not true, they must no longer continue making them. The line must be drawn somewhere and I think this is a good place.
Subject: Re: CAIR is all-American
As salaamu 'alaykum,Good points, and again I want to repeat that I was not trying to criticize CAIR or say that what they did was incorrect. I was trying to point to larger issues about Muslims in this country.
As you know, the CAIR case will most likely not really be a time where an impartial court will finally decide whether the allegations are true. The Congressman who slandered CAIR has many defenses, and it is highly unlikely as far as I can tell that he will argue at the trial that his allegations were true. He will likely argue that he believed them to be true, or they didn't cause harm to CAIR, or they were opinions protected by the first amendment, or by his role as a congressman, etc.
I don't know who will win, and maybe the issues will be out on the table but I don't really think the role of the court is to finally decide whether the allegations are true or not.
Having said that, I do think that taking the action of suing over the allegation is something that will show people CAIR has confidence in its innocence of such charges and something they can point to in the future when allegations are made.
Salaam,
Abu Noor al-Irlandee
Subject: Re: CAIR is all-American
CAIR sells out. Just look they get condemn it when the Mujahid Palestinian is martyred and kills 20 Zionists. They condemn it when the Mujahid Iraqis fight back. But CAIR is very good in defending our Muslim Ummah in the United States in the Courts,and etc. So they are not entirely bad, I like CAIR, and if we just diss every Muslim orginization we may be dissing alot of good people and God will ask us about this on the day of Judgement. Anyway, I fear that CAIR fears Americans and the public opinion too much.Subject: Re: CAIR is all-American
Omar, I'm sorry to keep picking on you but I find it a bit rich for you to complain about CAIR "selling out" when you come to my blog and tell me to give upon a candidate (Kucinich) who stands up against the war on Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the Israeli occupation and go along with a candidate (Dean) who wants to continue the U.S. occupation of Iraq, promotes a hawkish policy against Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, and, oh, he says something a little different to Jewish groups about Israel than he does to Arab-American groups.Maybe CAIR is just being "pragmatic" like you are.