CAIR Seeks to Censor Criticism of Terrorism

The Center for Security Policy condemns CAIR's campaign season attacks on candidates

The Center for Security Policy has released the results of an investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that reveals a clear pattern of intimidation to silence 2010 candidates and public figures who discuss jihad, Shariah and Islamic terrorism.

CAIR’s most recent attempt to intimidate Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., shows their commitment to censoring any criticism of the terrorist organization Hamas.

On June 14, CAIR accused Schumer of making statements that were “unconscionable, reprehensible and in blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life,” and demanded he retract them. Here's what Schumer said on June 9 :


CAIR’s recent defense of Hamas is part of a consistent pattern. In 1994, the year of CAIR’s founding, Executive Director Nihad Awad stated, “I am in support of the Hamas movement.”

In 2007 CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation, the largest terrorism funding case in American history in which defendants were convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. In January 2009, Fox News reported that the FBI was "severing its once-close ties” with CAIR amid “mounting evidence that it has links to a support network for Hamas.”

CSP’s investigation into CAIR’s intimidation and Summer of Censorship Campaign has revealed at least six cases of attempted political coercion since May:

• Called for the exclusion of the Reverend Franklin Graham from prayer services at the Pentagon and Capitol Hill
• Pressured GOP leaders to condemn the TV ads of Florida congressional candidate Dan Fanelli as “racist and Islamophobic”
• Demanded a probe of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for signs of “Islamophobic training”
• Urged GOP leaders to condemn statements made by Connecticut congressional candidate as “racist” and “Islamophobic”
• Intimidated organizers of the Tennessee Tea Party Convention and Representative Steve King, R-Iowa, to exclude prominent author, blogger and non-profit executive director Pamela Geller
• Accused Schumer of “blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life” for supporting the Israeli blockade of weapons to the Hamas regime in Gaza.

CAIR is paid by foreign groups, acts as their foreign agent in the U.S., and attempts to censor U.S. citizens who criticize Hamas, terrorism or apartheid Shariah doctrines.

We urge CAIR to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). A failure to register could subject them to criminal or civil penalties under the law.

The center has reported all of these cases to the Foreign Agents Registration Unit of the Department of Justice.

For full report on CAIR’s 2010 summer of censorship campaign go here.

For full documentation on CAIR’s actions relevant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, go here.

The center, and a growing number of national security experts, have concluded based on overwhelming evidence that CAIR should register under FARA and report their activities as a foreign agent to the American public.