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Islamic Group Calls for 'Disciplinary Action' Against Michigan Professor



(CNSNews.com) - The Michigan chapter of a U.S. Islamic advocacy group Monday called for disciplinary action against a Michigan State University professor, who allegedly sent an Islamophobic e-mail to Muslim students.

The local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said engineering professor Indrek Wichman should face "appropriate disciplinary action" for sending a "Dear Moslem Association" message to the school's Muslim Students' Association with a list of charges, including a claim that Muslims rape "Scandinavain (sic) girls and women."

"It is unconscionable for a professor to use his university e- mail account to foster a hostile learning environment for Muslim students," said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid in a statement.

"The university needs to take appropriate disciplinary action in this case to demonstrate through its actions that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be tolerated on campus," Walid added.

According to CAIR, the email, dated Feb. 28, 2006, stated: "I counsul (sic) you dissatisfied, agressive (sic), brutal, and uncivilized slave- trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.'

"If you do not like the values of the West -- see the 1st Ammendment (sic) -- you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans," the email stated.

CAIR has met several times with university officials urging appropriate action in the case and to address the religious and racial tensions on campus, the group said in a press release. The university is reportedly considering a response to Muslim student concerns.

The Truth about Hamas--and Its Followers         


Over the past two years, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its Canadian affiliate, CAIR-Canada, have filed a series of lawsuits against journalists and others who have traced the connection between CAIR and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. Among the targets of these lawsuits have been the Web site Anti-Cair-net.org, the Canadian terrorism expert David Harris, and this newspaper and myself.

On April 12, CAIR-Canada settled its lawsuit against Harris. The lawsuit ended without retraction or apology by Harris. The suit against Anti-Cair-net was settled a few days earlier. Although the terms of Anti-Cair's settlement are confidential, Anti-Cair's Web site has likewise issued no retraction or apology. The words that triggered the lawsuit remain posted on the Anti-Cair site: Anti-Cair stands by its charge that CAIR is a "terrorist-supporting front organization . . .founded by Hamas supporters" that aims "to make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States."

The lawsuit against the National Post and myself was settled with an editor's note that likewise offered no apology or retraction.

The settlement of the Harris lawsuit should be of special interest to Canadians. David Harris is one of Canada's leading experts on terrorism: a former chief of strategic planning for CSIS and now president of the Insignis consulting firm. His views are regularly heard on television and radio. Now he has recovered his full freedom to speak and to alert Canadians to the dangers in their midst. This should establish once and for all that media organizations can broadcast his carefully chosen words without legal risk.

These lawsuits represented a very considerable gamble for CAIR and its Canadian branch. So long as they lasted, it's true, they inhibited media organizations' ability to speak about CAIR. But once they terminated, as they were bound to do, the full facts of the case would become matters of public record.

By coincidence, just as the Anti-Cair and Harris lawsuits were being shut down, Yale University Press released the most detailed study of the Hamas terror group ever offered to readers without a security clearance. The book is Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad; the author is Matthew Levitt, the chief intelligence officer of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and one of the world's leading experts on Hamas.

Levitt's book was excerpted on these pages a few weeks ago. The Post excerpts described Hamas's indoctrination of young people, Hamas' electoral strategy in the Palestinian Authority and the close co-ordination between Hamas' social-welfare projects, its terrorism and its overall ideological mission of building a global Islamic caliphate.

But Levitt also has a good deal to say about Hamas' operations in North America. "[U.S.] Federal investigators have uncovered a surprisingly large number of front organizations supporting Hamas in the United States," he observes, and proceeds to explain an intricate network of fundraising and ideological advocacy dating back to the 1980s. One Hamas front organization, the Holy Land Foundation, raised $57-million between its founding in 1992 and its final shuttering by the U.S. government in December 2001. Another Hamas front group, the Islamic Association for Palestine, engaged in advocacy and propaganda work.

The leadership of the Holy Land Foundation and the Islamic Association for Palestine in turn interlocked with the leadership of CAIR. CAIR's co-founder, Omar Ahmed, had previously co-founded the Islamic Association for Palestine. CAIR's executive director, Nihad Awad, is a self-described "supporter of the Hamas movement." Lower-level CAIR officials have been arrested and indicted on terrorism-related charges in the United States; one accepted deportation rather than face trial.

Nobody associated with CAIR-Canada has been charged with any criminal misconduct. Internal CAIR-Canada documents uncovered during CAIR's litigation against the National Post suggested, however, that 70% of CAIR-Canada's revenues were forwarded to CAIR in the United States.

Canada's new federal government has acted decisively against international terrorism. The Harper government has announced that aid to the Palestinian Authority will be suspended so long as it is governed by Hamas. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has added the Tamil Tigers to the list of prohibited terrorist organizations--a move Mr. Day has described as "long overdue." And the days when Prime Minister Paul Martin sought advice from CAIR-Canada have mercifully been left behind.

Now, with these libel cases closed, Canadians can freely join a larger conversation, not just about terrorism, but about the larger problem of ideological extremism from which terrorism emerges. Canadians owe David Harris thanks for winning that freedom. Now Canadians owe him something even more urgent: their attention to his words and warnings.

CAIR Backs Down from Anti-CAIR

In a stunning setback, the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ defamation suit against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR has been dismissed with prejudice.

The Anti-CAIR website, www.anti-cair-net.org, reports a “mutually agreeable settlement,” the terms of which are confidential. However, Whitehead notes that he issued no public apology to CAIR, made no retractions or corrections, and left the Anti-CAIR website unchanged, so that it continues to post the statements that triggered CAIR’s suit. Specifically, CAIR had complained about Whitehead calling it a “terrorist supporting front organization … founded by Hamas supporters” that aims “to make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States.” It also objected to being described as “dedicated to the overthrow of the United States Constitution and the installation of an Islamic theocracy in America.”

That clears the decks; no additional actions are pending between these two parties. In brief, Whitehead won a sweet victory, while CAIR suffered a humiliating defeat.

 

CAIR initially filed suit in a Virginia Circuit Court on March 31, 2004, claiming six of Whitehead’s statements were false, that Whitehead made them “with knowledge of their falsity,” and that the statements were actionable because “they impute the commission of a criminal offense.” CAIR further claimed injury to its “standing and reputation throughout the United States and elsewhere,” and sought $1 million in compensatory damages, $350,000 in punitive damages, plus legal fees and interest.  It did so despite Whitehead’s telling a reporter “I haven't got any [money].”

 

The original five statements as quoted in CAIR’s complaint were:   

·        “Let their [sic] be no doubt that CAIR is a terrorist supporting front organization that is partially funded by terrorists, and that CAIR wishes nothing more than the implementation of Sharia law in America.”

·        CAIR is an “organization founded by Hamas supporters which seeks to overthrow Constitutional government in the United States and replace it with an Islamist theocracy using our own Constitution as protection.”

·        “ACAIR reminds our readers that CAIR was started by Hamas members and is supported by terrorist supporting individuals, groups and countries.”

·        “Why oppose CAIR? CAIR has proven links to, and was founded by, Islamic terrorists. CAIR is not in the United States to promote the civil rights of Muslims. CAIR is here to make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States and convert our country into an Islamic theocracy along the lines of Iran. In addition, CAIR has managed, through the adroit manipulation of the popular media, to present itself as the ‘moderate’ face of Islam in the United States. CAIR succeeded to the point that the majority of its members are not aware that CAIR actively supports terrorists and terrorist supporting groups and nations. In addition, CAIR receives direct funding from Islamic terrorists supporting countries.”

·        “CAIR is a fundamentalist organization dedicated to the overthrow of the United States Constitution and the installation of an Islamic theocracy in America.”

 

In January 2005, Whitehead’s counsel, Reed D. Rubinstein of Greenberg Traurig LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, submitted 327 discovery requests of CAIR; I have posted this important, well-informed discovery document at http://www.danielpipes.org/rr/3511_1.pdf. Whitehead sought extensive information regarding CAIR’s finances, its relationship to Hamas, its ties to Saudi Arabia, and ties to other Islamists.

 

Signs of CAIR’s problems came in June 2005, when – perhaps realizing how much was available in the public record about its activities, perhaps wishing to curtail some of the discovery process – it amended its complaint by dropping nearly all of its original claims. The amended complaint alleged only two brief statements to be false and defamatory:

·        “Let their [sic] be no doubt that CAIR is a terrorist supporting front organization.”

·        CAIR “seeks to overthrow constitutional government in the United States.”

(For an analysis of this amended complaint, see Sharon Chadha and my article, “CAIR Founded by ‘Islamic Terrorists’?”)

 

In anticipation of a court hearing regarding discovery, Rubinstein filed papers in the Virginia Circuit Court in October 2005 and December 2005 alleging extensive links between CAIR’s organizers and control group with Hamas and other foreign and domestic Islamists. Among other things, these papers alleged:

·        CAIR’s lineage goes back to a key Hamas leader (Musa Abu Marzook), and that CAIR has long been connected with, and “exploited” the 9/11 attacks to raise money for the Holy Land Foundation, a Hamas front group.

·        CAIR is heavily supported, financially and otherwise, by suspect Saudi and UAE-based individuals and groups.

·        CAIR states that the U.S. judicial system has been “kidnapped by Israeli interests,” and claims that anti-terror law enforcement action against the Holy Land Foundation was “an anti-Muslim witch hunt” promoted by “the pro-Israel lobby in America.”

CAIR refused to respond to Anti-CAIR’s discovery requests in its November 2005 response to Rubinstein. For example, it did not admit that Hamas murders innocent civilians, it refused to disclose the identities of its Saudi donors, it declined to answer whether it aims to convert American Christians to Islam, and it avoided questions about the anti-Semitic and anti-American activities of its founder and executive director, Nihad Awad, including his communications with Hamas terrorists, speeches supporting suicide bombings, and advocacy of violence against Jews.

 

In March 2006, shortly before a scheduled court hearing to decide on several of Whitehead’s requests (compelling CAIR to disclose its financial data, to answer questions about its relationship with Hamas and other Islamists, and to provide information regarding its leaders’ activities and intentions), the case was settled and then dismissed with prejudice by stipulation (meaning, the plaintiff has agreed to forever drop all of the claims that were in, or could have been in, the complaint).

 

Asked about these developments, CAIR’s spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, confirmed to the New York Sun that the libel case was dismissed at the request of both parties and added that “It was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.” Asked if he implied that Whitehead had paid the organization to drop the case, Hooper replied, “We filed the suit.” Asked the same question again, Hooper repeated the same answer.

 
cont'd

Comment:

 

(1) I had a role in this story, for it was my article, “Why Is CAIR Suing Anti-CAIR?” published only a week after CAIR’s initial filing, that brought this case to Reed Rubinstein’s attention and led to Greenberg Traurig LLP’s serving as Whitehead’s wonderfully capable, pro-bono legal counsel.

 

(2) In that initial article, I expressed puzzlement why CAIR would voluntarily expose itself to discovery. Did it file this case expecting to steamroll Whitehead, whom CAIR may have perceived as an easy target, and thereby intimidate its critics? What seemed early on to be a mistake by CAIR is now confirmed as such; it ran into a litigation buzz-saw, and it seems to have cut and run. CAIR preferred the ignominy of walking away from the case it initiated rather than open to public scrutiny its finances, its list of supporters, and the beliefs and intentions of its key leaders.

 

(3) CAIR’s November 2005 brief to the court contains several statements of note:

·        “CAIR has established a status of enviable prestige within highest echelons [sic] of the ‘Washington establishment’” (p. 3). That is correct and it neatly sums up Sharon Chadha’s and my extensive analysis in “CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment.”

·        CAIR “stands up for America and speaks out against terrorism in pronouncements to the general public, thereby earning the enmity of the very terrorists Whitehead claims CAIR supports” (p. 6). Sounds good, but CAIR did not provide any evidence in its brief of such “enmity.”

·        “CAIR has communicated with various members of the United States Senate concerning” both the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation. (pp. 27-8) This comes as news. One wonders what information on these two terrorism-funding groups CAIR provided.

·        CAIR states that it “advised Frontpagemag.com of possible legal action concerning a doctored photograph it employed to illustrate an article“ written by Whitehead (p. 28). It’s amusing that CAIR, which itself famously doctored a photograph, accuses FPM of doing this; in fact, FPM merely posted a graphic, as it often does, one showing Hooper with Hamas figures in the background.

(4) Hooper stated the case settled for “an undisclosed amount” but did not disclose in which direction that amount went. The terms being confidential, one can only speculate. Perhaps CAIR desperately wanted out of the burdensome, embarrassing, and harmful case it foolishly had initiated? Rubenstein hinted as much when he observed that CAIR became more disposed to settle in late 2005, when a judge was considering what CAIR would have to divulge about its financing and its ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. Rubenstein told the New York Sun that the lawsuit “would have opened up CAIR’s finances and their relationships and their principles, their ideological motivations in a way they did not want to be made public.”

 

(5) According to CAIR’s own analysis of Whitehead’s initial statements, they “impute the commission of a criminal offense” by CAIR, in that these suggest CAIR “actively supports” terrorists, and advocates the “overthrow” of the U.S. Constitution in favor of Islamic law. It bears noting that none of these words were found to be false, they were not retracted, and they remain posted on Anti-CAIR’s website.

 

(6) The collapse of this lawsuit, combined with the even more recent ending of two other CAIR legal actions (versus Cass Ballenger and David Harris), suggests that CAIR is no longer the plaintiff in any court cases; more broadly, what I in 2004 called its pattern of growing litigiousness seems finished.

 

(7) With CAIR’s hopes of defeating its opponents in the legal arena at least temporarily defeated, the next step for those of us in North America unwilling to live under Islamic law is to thwart the organization’s social and political ambitions. I am doing my part by announcing today the establishment of “Islamist Watch,” a new project to combat the ideas and institutions of nonviolent, radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries.