The Roots of CAIR

This is an excerpt from an excellent article entitled The Muslim Brotherhood's US Network:

Following a 1993 Philadelphia meeting of Hamas leaders and activists in which the need to engage in propaganda efforts was discussed, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded in Washington DC. Its stated mission is to “enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Although these objectives sound innocuous enough, the Muslim Brotherhood (of which many of CAIR’s founders were members) often uses terms like these as euphemisms for more insidious actions. A Brotherhood memo written in 1991 makes reference to a “dictionary” that the Ikhwanis (the core group of the Muslim Brotherhood) use to decipher the true meaning of their words, which are put in quotation marks in written documents.

The fact is that CAIR was created by Ikhwanis for influencing the U.S. government, Congress, NGOs, and academic and media groups. The Brotherhood identified the media as “stronger than politics,” highlighted the importance of training activists to present a “view of the IAP” that would be acceptable to Americans. One of CAIR’s founders, Omar Ahmad, explicitly suggested the need for “infiltrating the American media outlets, universities and research centers.”

...The Holy Land Foundation trial documents also proved that CAIR was part of the Muslim Brotherhood linked network created to help Hamas in the U.S. Even though it has portrayed itself to be a civil rights group, and is often described as such by the mainstream press, its top leadership is made up of the IAP and the UASR principals mentioned earlier. Despite public denials, CAIR leaders have been heard expressing their support for Hamas both in public and on FBI surveillance tapes. CAIR has received support from, and lent support to, Hamas financial conduits in the United States. Several CAIR officers and employees have been indicted on terrorism-related charges.

This line, in particular, struck me with a lot of impact: "The Brotherhood highlighted the importance of training activists to present a “view of the IAP” that would be acceptable to Americans."

That's what we need to do as well. We need to educate the public, but try to do it in a way that is acceptable. We need to tell them the truth, but tell it in a way it can get through to them, in a way that takes their already-existing point of view into account and doesn't ignore it, but gently alters the point of view.

Right now, CAIR is out-finessing the anti-jihadists. That's got to stop.