The Council on American Islamic Relations — CAIR — is something of a Hamas front group that is unfailingly described as a civil rights organization. This is an old story that is well told in Andrew McCarthy’s 2010 book The Grand Jihad in a chapter (chapter 8: “The Americans Don’t Know Anything”) that is excerpted in the 2014 NR column “The Roots of CAIR’s Intimidation Campaign.” Discover the Networks covers CAIR here, including a link to Daniel Pipes’s “Is CAIR a terror group?”
The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and CAIR have a familial relationship that has nothing to do with “civil rights.” CAIR denies it is anything else. It should come as no surprise, however, that CAIR executive director Nihad Awad celebrated October 7:
“I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their lands that they were not allowed to walk in,” Awad said. “And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves. And yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense.”
Now comes Senator Tom Cotton with a request that the IRS take a look at CAIR’s 501(c)(3) status. The IRS might be a little late to CAIR, but better late than never. Senator Cotton is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He has a pretty good idea of what’s happening here.
The Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo covers Senator Cotton’s letter in this story. The quote of Awad above celebrating October 7 comes from Kredo’s story.
Jewish Insider also covers the letter and quotes CAIR’s statement responding to it:
Tom Cotton’s baseless demand that the IRS target a nonprofit organization based on debunked conspiracy theories is a political stunt straight from the McCarthy era and an un-American tactic carried out to shield the Israeli apartheid government from criticism.”
I’ll take that as a concession.
