When radical Muslims with ties to terrorist organizations label others "radicals" -- as happened last month when the Executive Director of The Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles, Hussam Ayloush, falsely branded a representative from Israel "a war criminal" -- we have a problem:
The accusation took place at an event that supported eleven members of the Muslim Students Association [MAS], who had recently been charged with unlawfully disrupting a speech given in 2010 by Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, at the University of California at Irvine.
One of the featured speakers at the event, which was hosted by Masjid Omar al-Farouk, of the Islamic Institute of Orange County (IIOC) on March 5, 2011, and entitled, "Stand with the Irvine 11: Community Town Hall and Action," was Edina Lokovic, the Director of Policy and Programming for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).
Before coming to MPAC, Lekovic was Managing Editor of al-Talib, a publication of the Muslim Students Association at UCLA. She held that post when al-Talib's July 1999 issue lauded Osama bin Laden as a "great Mujahid," a "philanthropist" and a "freedom fighter."
In the same issue of al-Talib , a credit of "special thanks" was given to one of the other featured speakers for the IIOC affair, the Executive Director of the California chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations [CAIR], Hussam Ayloush.
During his opening remarks, Ayloush took the opportunity to vilify both Ambassador Oren and the entire nation of Israel. He stated, "[Michael Oren] chose – immorally – to represent a government that is engaged in war crimes, and he had no problem representing that and getting paid for it. I mean, he himself is a war criminal."
As Israel has, bluntly, never been charged with "war crimes;" Ayloush was , in falsely maligning Michael Oren as a "war criminal, " at best, recklessly and maliciously spreading false information about Oren -- just the most recent instance of "the pot calling the kettle black," coming as they did, from someone with a history such as Ayloush's, especially in his capacity as a leader of CAIR.
While no legitimate entity has ever accused Ambassador Oren of being a war criminal, there is much evidence linking CAIR to the terrorist organization Hamas, CAIR, however -- founded in June 1994 by three operatives from the American propaganda wing of Hamas, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) -- was established as part of the American Palestine Committee, an umbrella organization led by then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook, at the time in the United States.
As one of the ways CAIR raised money for Hamas was by telling its website viewers to donate to HLF, the U.S. Justice Department named CAIR a party to the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. during two federal trials, in 2007 and 2008, against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF),
Earlier, a photo of Ayloush shoulder-to-shoulder with the Spiritual Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was placed on the homepage of CAIR-California's website in December 20001, fully two years after al-Qaradawi had been banned from entering the United States. Al-Qaradawi has incited violence against Jews, endorsed suicide bombings, called for homosexuals to be put to death, voiced his support for various terrorist organizations, called for the destruction of the state of Israel, and sanctioned attacks against U.S. troops abroad.
Although Ayloush's past – and present – make him the worst possible candidate to be voicing such lies, this rhetoric follows a pattern from Islamist groups, including Hamas, who use the same tactic.
Tthe IIOC, using people like Hussam Ayloush and Edina Lekovic to promote their cause, puts a radical taint on the face of the Irvine 11's defense, and does little more than assist in proving their guilt.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
