WHY DO THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE MEDIA STILL CARE ABOUT CAIR?

We’ve known since 9/11 that some Moslems want to kill us.  It would seem prudent to find out who they are, and how many of them there are.  These are people who politicize Islam into Islamism, a radical ideology akin to Communism and Nazism.  That’s why they’re called Islamists.

It may be even more important to learn which Moslems share our values and oppose the Islamists, and how many of them there are.

But the Obama administration and most in the news media are remarkably incurious.  In July, the American Islamic Leadership Coalition issued a policy statement which said U.S. counterterror strategy is too soft on Islamists.  The administration and the "mainstream" media ignored it.

Counterterror strategy should distinguish clearly between the religion of Islam and the political ideology of Islamism, emphasizing to Moslems around the world that "their faith is more secure in an environment that promotes and protects the freedom of each individual," the American Islamic Leadership Coalition said.

Perhaps liberals ignored that statement because they assume the Islamist Council on American-Islamic Relations  (CAIR) speaks for America‘s Moslems.  CAIR’s leaders have been invited often to the White House, and are quoted frequently in the news media.

America‘s Moslems don’t share that view, a Gallup poll published Aug. 2^nd indicates.  Just 12 percent of Moslem American men and 11 percent of Moslem American women said they think CAIR represents their interests.

Today (8/30), Reuters is reporting a Pew poll showing that only 6 percent of Moslems surveyed said there is a "great deal" of support for Islamic extremism in Moslem-American communities.  Another 15 percent said there is a "fair amount" of support for extremism among U.S. Moslems.

I love Reuters’ stupidly dishonest headline for their story on the Pew poll.  If 70 percent of American Moslems view Zero favorably, that’s nearly a 20 percentage point decline from the support he received from Moslems in 2008.

We should be reassured by the attitudes most expressed in the Gallup poll, which are supported by the Pew poll.  Ninety two percent of respondents said American Moslems don’t sympathize with al Qaeda. 

A higher proportion of Moslems (89 percent) than of Jews (75 percent) or Christians (71 percent) said that it is never justified "for an individual person or a small group of persons to target and kill civilians."  (The minorities said it is sometimes justified.)

Liberals gravitate to CAIR, I suppose, because it claims to be a civil rights organization, and has adopted the language of victimhood of which liberals are so fond.

"CAIR has established itself as the premier Moslem voice in the media," wrote Khurram Dara, a student a Columbia Law School, in the Buffalo Examiner.  "It seems that every time there is an instance of harassment, intolerance or increased suspicion of American Moslems, CAIR has a representative ready to address reporters and give a statement."

"There are many of us American Moslems who do not think the answer to fixing our image problem is to constantly issue press releases and file lawsuits," Mr. Dara said.  "There are many of us who are sick and tired of this civil liberties group prancing around in the media as the authority on the American Moslem perspective."

If more journalists actually practiced journalism, they would know that in some CAIR chapters there are barely enough members to write press releases and operate the fax machine.  CAIR’s membership fell from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006, the Washington Times reported.

"This is the untold story in the myth that CAIR represents the American Moslem population," said M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Navy veteran and a member of the American-Islamic Leadership Coalition.  "They only represent their membership and donors."

That CAIR speaks for only a handful of America‘s Moslems is a problem.  The larger problem is who it does represent.  CAIR’s chief donor is Saudi Arabia, where an especially intolerant form of Islam is practiced.

CAIR was founded in 1994 by Omar Ahmed and Nihad Awad, both of whom had ties to the terror group Hamas.  CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror funding trial of the Holy Land Foundation.

"From its founding by Moslem Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other leaders of the Moslem Brotherhood to support terrorists," Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg said in a court filing.

Founded in Egypt in 1928 and embraced by Adolf Hitler, the Moslem Brotherhood (Ikhwan) shares with al Qaeda the goal of establishing of a world wide Caliphate.  Al Qaida’s new leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, was a member of the Moslem Brotherhood. 

As a front group for the Ikhwan, CAIR resembles the German-American Bund of the 1930s in all but one respect — the German-American Bund had a lot of members.

The overwhelming majority of America‘s Moslems long ago rejected the ideology and goals of the Moslem Brotherhood, and spurned its front group.  But the welcome mat is still out for CAIR at the White House and in most newsrooms.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.