AFDI asks WMATA not to cave in to pressure from Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood group CAIR

NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A prominent national human rights organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), is asking Americans to act now in defense of the freedom of speech.

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is on a jihad against free speech, trying to obstruct the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) pro-Israel ad campaign in Washington, D.C.

Said AFDI Executive Director Pamela Geller: "CAIR thugs are calling in all their cards in the media and the beltway: the millions that the Saudis have given to CAIR have been spread, and spread thick. Hamas-linked CAIR has demonized America on official television of the bloody Islamic Republic of Iran, so it is not surprising that it would resort to tried and true Nazi-like tactics of repeating lies and defamation about the defenders of America's freedoms. Like Hitler and Goebbels, Hamas-linked CAIR is trying to dehumanize its enemy and drive us completely out of the public discourse."

Geller continued: "We won't go. Not because of intimidation and lies from Hamas-linked CAIR. It is no accident that Hamas-linked CAIR objects to the word "savage" being used of jihadis, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt used it of Nazis."

CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR's cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements. Its California chapter distributed posters telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI.

Hamas-linked CAIR's attempt to defame AFDI and dictate to New Yorkers what messages they can and cannot see is consistent with its long record of pro-jihad duplicity, deception and thuggery. One member of this unsavory gang has even previously called for these ads to be defaced. Although it has received millions of dollars in donations from foreign Islamic entities, it has not registered as a foreign agent as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), despite spreading Islamic supremacist propaganda within the United States.

Although it presents itself as a civil rights group, CAIR actually has numerous links to hateful and violent Islamic supremacist and jihad groups.

CAIR founders Omar Ahmad and Niwad Awad (who still serves as CAIR's executive director) were present at a Hamas planning meeting in Philadelphia in 1993 where they and other Hamas operatives conspired to raise funds for Hamas and to promote jihad in the Middle East. CAIR has steadfastly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups.

Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror:

• Ghassan Elashi, founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, in 2009 received a 65-year prison sentence for funneling over $12 million from the Islamic charity known as the Holy Land Foundation to the jihad terrorist group Hamas, which is responsible for murdering hundreds of Israeli civilians
• Mousa Abu Marzook, a former CAIR official, was in 1995 designated by the U.S. government in 1995 as a "terrorist and Hamas leader." He now is a Hamas leader in Syria.
• Randall Royer, CAIR's former civil rights coordinator, in 2004 began serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding al-Qaida and the Taliban against American troops in Afghanistan and recruiting for Lashkar e-Taiba, the jihadist group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai jihad massacres.
• Bassem Khafagi, CAIR's former community relations director, was arrested for involvement with the Islamic Assembly of North America, which was linked to al-Qaida. After pleading guilty to visa and bank fraud charges, Khafagi was deported.
• Rabih Haddad, a former CAIR fundraiser, was deported for his work with the Global Relief Foundation (which he co-founded), a terror-financing organization.

In 1998 Omar Ahmad, CAIR's co-founder and longtime Board Chairman, said: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

After he received unwelcome publicity as a result of this statement, Ahmad denied saying it, several years after the fact. However, the original reporter, Lisa Gardiner of the Fremont Argus, stands by her story.

CAIR's spokesman Ibrahim Hooper once said: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."

Washington deserves better. ACT NOW for FREEDOM:

1. Use the WMATA contact form to write to WMATA Board Chair Catherine Hudgins thanking her for affirming the freedom of speech by accepting the District Court's order to allow the ads to run.
2. Also ask the WMATA asking them to protect the free speech rights of opponents of jihad violence and hatred by protecting the ads from being defaced.
3. If you see Hamas-linked CAIR thugs defacing or obstructing view of these ads, tweet us the location at @atlasshrugs, or email us at [email protected]
   • Go to the sites where CAIR's hate cadres are leafleting and express your support for the ads.
   • Tweet a photo of your efforts for us to share.

If you have other ideas, write to [email protected]. It's time to organize and reclaim Washington as a city that stands for freedom against lies and oppression.

SOURCE American Freedom Defense Initiative