Thirty years have passed since the Iranian revolution and 29 years since the first Islamist murder in the U.S.—that of ‘Ali Akbar Tabataba’i in a Washington, D.C., suburb. More than seven years ago, America received a wake-up call, on September 11, 2001, about radical Islam.

However straightforwardly evil these events, they left U.S. authorities mostly baffled by extremism among American Muslims. 

One disturbing example of this confusion has involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Almost from CAIR’S founding in 1994, the FBI has worked with the organization, which successfully presented itself as the “Muslim NAACP,” letting CAIR train bureau personnel and serve as a liaison to the American Muslim community.

CAIR concentrated on terror-related law enforcement such as sensitivity in investigating extremist suspects and allegations of profiling. 

Now, at last, the FBI-CAIR relationship has changed. In a letter dated March 9, 2009, FBI Assistant Director John Miller wrote to U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va) confirming that the bureau has “suspended any formal engagement with Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) field offices around the country.” He explained that this adjustment “comes in part as a result of evidence gathered through FBI investigation and presented in connection with the Holy Land Foundation trial. CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case.”

Miller referred to the Holy Land Foundation, or HLF, having been convicted of terror financing in November 2008. CAIR and its allies in the “Wahhabi lobby” reacted aggressively to the FBI’s decision to distance itself from CAIR. Ten extremist Muslim groups announced on March 17, 2009, that they are “considering suspending outreach relations with the FBI” based on vague claims that “American mosques and Muslim groups have been targeted.” CAIR’s supporters included American Muslims for Palestine, the Islamic Circle of North America, and the Muslim Students Association, as well as the leading pro- Iranian Muslim element in America, the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County, Ca.

American Muslims Commend FBI for Rejection of CAIR We, the undersigned American Muslims, have long known the true character of CAIR and its allies. Therefore:

• We observe that they denounce “terrorism” in general terms but not the specific actions of Islamist groups like Hamas or Hezbollah. They denounce violence but not the ideologies behind it.
  

• We observe their commitment to radical aims, their attempts to chill free speech by calling critics of radical Islam “Islamophobes,” and their false, ugly accusations against moderate American Muslims who disagree with their agenda. 

• We reject any claim that CAIR and its supporters are legitimate civil liberties advocates or appropriate partners between the U.S. government and American Muslims.

• We congratulate the FBI for adopting a firmer attitude toward CAIR, as a defense of Americans of all faiths from the menace of radical Islam, including Muslims of allbackgrounds—Sunni, Shia, Sufi, secular, etc. 

• We call on the U.S. Department of Justice to affirm and continue this decision. 

• We call on the entire United States government to follow suit in rejecting relations with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Dr. Kemal Silay, President, Center for Islamic Pluralism, www.islamicpluralism.org

Supna Zaidi, Assistant Director, Islamist Watch, www.islamist-watch.org
M. Zuhdi Jasser, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, www.aifdemocracy.org

Imaad Malik, Fellow, Center for Islamic Pluralism
Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, International Quranic Center, www.ahl-alquran.com

Khalim Massoud, reformislam@gmail.com
Nawab Agha Mousvi, American Muslim Congress and Center for Islamic Pluralism

Kiran Sayyed, Council for Democracy and Tolerance, http://cfdnt.com/
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, Executive Director, Center for Islamic Pluralism
Shia.Protest@yahoo.com

Dr. Jalal Zuberi, Southern U.S. Director, Center for Islamic Pluralism
Center for Islamic Pluralism