DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: C.A.I.R. IS SUSPECT & HAS BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING

Vocal Islamic advocacy group becomes an object of mistrust
The Council on American Islamic Relations says it protects civil liberties. Yet debate rages about its funding and its motives.
By Neil Macfarquhar,
New York Times

With violence across the Middle East fixing Islam smack at the center of the U.S. political debate, an organization partly financed by donors closely identified with wealthy Persian Gulf governments has emerged as the most vocal advocate for American Muslims -- and an object of wide suspicion.

The group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), defines its mission as spreading the understanding of Islam and protecting civil liberties. Its members appear frequently on television and are often quoted in newspapers, and its director has met with President Bush. Some 500,000 people, including many journalists, receive the group's daily e-mail newsletter.

Yet a debate rages behind the scenes in Washington about the group, commonly known as CAIR, and its financing and motives. A small band of critics have made a determined but unsuccessful effort to link it to Hamas and Hezbollah, which have been designated terrorist organizations by the State Department, and have gone so far as calling CAIR an American front for the two.

In the latest dustup on Tuesday, CAIR held a panel discussion on Islam and the West in a Capitol meeting room despite demands by House Republicans that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, not allow the event. The Republicans referred to CAIR as "terrorist apologists."
In December, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California issued a routine Certificate of Appreciation to the CAIR representative in Sacramento, but she quickly revoked it when critics assailed her on the Web with headlines like "Senators for Terror."There are things there I don't want to be associated with," Boxer said later of the revocation, explaining that her California office had not vetted the group sufficiently.

CAIR and its supporters say its accusers are a small band of people who hate Muslims and deal in half-truths. Boxer's decision to revoke the Sacramento commendation provoked an outcry from organizations that vouch for CAIR's advocacy, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the California Council of Churches.

"They have been a leading organization that has advocated for civil rights and civil liberties in the face of fear and intolerance, in the face of religious and ethnic profiling," said Maya Harris, the executive director of the ACLU of Northern California.

Joe Kaufman, who Boxer's office said first drew her attention to CAIR's troubled reputation, founded a website that tracks what he calls the group's extremism, cairwatch.com. Other critics include the Investigative Project, a conservative group that attempts to identify terrorist organizations, and the Middle East Forum, a conservative research center that says its goal is to promote U.S. interests in the region.

"You can't fight a war on terrorism directly when you are acting with a terror front," said Kaufman, who advocates shutting down CAIR.

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