Part VIII: CAIR Has Sponsored Islamist Meetings, Denigrated Muslim Moderates

By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)

CAIR has co-sponsored and taken part in multiple Islamist conferences in the United States, while at the same time condemning and seeking to censor more moderate Muslims.

Those actions are described in today's installment in IPT's comprehensive 10-part series on the group. Among the highlights:

• In May 1998, CAIR co-sponsored with IAP, HLF, MAYA and others a rally at Brooklyn College where speakers spewed anti-Jewish rhetoric.

Radical Egyptian cleric Wagdy Ghoneim -- denied entrance to Canada earlier in the year based on his membership in Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood -- told those attending that "…Allah says he who equips a warrior of Jihad is like the one makes Jihad himself," then led the audience in a song with the lyrics: "No to the Jews, descendants of the apes."

• Despite the fact that a meeting program lists CAIR as a co-sponsor, group officials consistently have denied any role in the event. "As executive director of CAIR, I had never heard of this event, let alone authorize[d] sponsorship for it," Nihad Awad said in 2003 Senate testimony. Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper not only denied CAIR involvement in the event, but added, "I don't even know if that [rally] happened."
• In October 2000, CAIR co-sponsored another rally, this one in Washington D.C., at which participants voiced enthusiastic support for Hamas and Hizballah.

Rally speaker Abdurahman Alamoudi said he had been "labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas," and asked, "Anybody supports Hamas here?" The crowd cheered. "I wish they would have added that I am also a supporter of Hizballah…anybody supports Hizballah here?" Alamoudi continued. The crowd cheered again.

Part VIII of our series is here, click here for the summary.

For the 7 previous installments on CAIR, click here.

Installments include:

Part I: CAIR's Origins
Part II: CAIR's Funding
Part III: The Suspect Ties of CAIR Officials, Fundraisers and Trainers
Part IV: CAIR and Hamas
Part V: CAIR and Terrorism: Blanket Opposition to U.S. Investigations, Equivocal Condemnations for Plots Against America
Part VI: CAIR Portrays "War on Terrorism" as Malicious "War on Islam"
Part VII: CAIR Denies the Challenges Posed by Radical Islamists

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