Simple attention can be Islam's worst nemesis

Raymond Ibrahim writes on Pajamas Media about how CAIR tried to stifle his free speech at Seattle's Everett College, and only ended up helping him:

Here’s another, more personal, anecdote of how attention can backfire on Islamists (complete details here). After Seattle’s Everett Community College invited me to come and speak on May 5, one Jaffar (“Jeff”) Siddiqui, who has a long history of trying to quash free speech on Islam, began pressuring the college to cancel my talk, including by writing a letter — titled “Don’t Invite Bigots!” — to its president. [...]

To CAIR’S chagrin, the college refused to cave in, pointing out that my appearance was “consistent with the belief that students be exposed to a variety of views.”

Now, consider how CAIR caused an otherwise local event to snowball into something detrimental to its cause — simply by complaining about it, that is, drawing attention to it:

For starters, much media attention followed — attention that would never have been if not for CAIR’s howling — including a featured story for MSNBC on whether Islam is a “Terror threat or peaceful religion?” The over 3,000 comments on this report alone reveal that, as “leftist” as MSNBC is, many of its readers are aware of the Islamist agenda; others wonder why CAIR is so scared of free speech.

Moreover, that CAIR cried wolf yet again — and was ignored — not only embarrassed but publicly belittled CAIR’s influence. A community college defying Islamist threats and intimidation must surely shine as an example for other institutions that may actually be interested in promoting diversity of views —institutions that would never have even known that bullies like CAIR could be so easily ignored, if not for all the attention CAIR itself created.

In short, politically active Islamists must walk a fine line, must choose their fights carefully: if they scream bloody murder to silence free speech — scream “racist,” “hater,” “Islamophobe” — they risk bringing unwanted attention that backfires on them; yet if they sit back and do nothing, they risk having more and more people speak up and expose them.

Either way — whether CAIR or its un-stifled opponents make the noise — the result is the same: Americans, wondering why Islam is always in the spotlight, begin inquiring; some become acquainted with reality, and go on to discuss it with friends and family.

This is something some people on the left don't always consider either - if they start drawing attention to what they don't like, and go miles out of their way to be irrational about it, the result is that it can backfire upon them. What the people who see this silly show of theirs can do in response is to research what Islam and the Koran are like, and can then form an opinion, and overall, realize that the Islamists have something to hide.

All CAIR and others like them are doing is just giving a bad impression of themselves, especially if they're not willing to engage in an honest debate.