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Is this the face of moderate Islam?
Joel Mowbray has the goods on CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper in today's Washington Times (thanks to Nicolei).
Appearing on Fox News recently, the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Ibrahim Hooper, said that in 20 years worth of trips to mosques, "I've never heard violence preached; I've never heard anti-Semitism or anti-Americanism preached."When asked in a subsequent phone interview with this columnist if his statement also holds true for any Muslim events, conferences and rallies he has attended, Mr. Hooper said it did and added, "In fact, if I had heard that I would have called them on the carpet and asked them why they're saying such hate-filled, divisive things." (In a follow-up conversation, Mr. Hooper said he did "not include rallies.")
Mr. Hooper's claims, however, are somewhere between disingenuous and just plain dishonest.
At a now-infamous Washington rally on Oct. 28, 2000, then-president of the American Muslim Federation Abdurahman Alamoudi shouted to a cheering crowd, "We are all supporters of Hamas." In the second phone interview, Mr. Hooper acknowledged being there but claims he did not hear Mr. Alamoudi.
In the media frenzy that followed, though, neither CAIR nor Mr. Hooper publicly criticized Mr. Alamoudi's avowed support of the terrorist organization.
Less than a year later, Mr. Hooper joined roughly a dozen leaders of various Muslim groups in staging a "sit in" in front of the State Department in June 2001. During the event, American Muslim Council Director Ali Ramadan Abu Zakouk "preached violence" by labeling the mass murder of innocent civilians in suicide bombing attacks as a "God-given right."
"The question of resistance to occupation is a God-given right. And the occupied people can use any means possible for them. They have no limitation," Mr. Zakouk explained. Mr. Hooper was listed as the contact person for the press release sent out in advance of the "sit in," though he first claimed he "did not remember" and later that he "did not hear" Mr. Zakouk's defense of suicide bombings.
Videotape footage of the event (provided by the Investigative Project), however, clearly shows Mr. Hooper standing barely a few feet behind Mr. Zakouk as the comments were made.
Without video or a published record noting his participation, it is impossible to know what other pro-violence, anti-American or anti-Semitic propaganda Mr. Hooper has personally witnessed. But there are plenty of examples of reprehensible rhetoric spouted either by CAIR officials or at CAIR co-sponsored events — any of which Mr. Hooper, as longtime CAIR spokesman, would almost surely be aware of.
At the Islamic Association of Palestine's third annual convention in Chicago in November 1999, CAIR President Omar Ahmad gave a speech at a youth session praising suicide bombers who "kill themselves for Islam." "Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam — that is not suicide. They kill themselves for Islam, " he said.
The executive director of CAIR's New York chapter has made similar comments that would likewise fall under the heading of "violence preached." At an interfaith event shortly after September 11, CAIR-NY's Ghazi Khankan started with the obligatory disclaimer that "those who attack civilians are wrong," but then he explained that any Israeli adult was a "soldier" and thus not a civilian.
Mr. Khankan rationalized as follows: "Anyone over 18 is automatically inducted into the service and they are all reserves. Therefore, Hamas, in my opinion, looks at them as part of the military." Driving home the point that it's OK to blow up any Israeli adult, Mr. Khankan added, "Those who are below 18 should not be attacked." (When asked about this speech — but not being told who gave it — Mr. Hooper said, "I condemn it.")
CAIR co-sponsored a May 1998 New York conference titled, "Palestine: 50 Years of Occupation," where one of the guest speakers taught participants a song that included lyrics: "No to the Jews, descendants of the apes."
Mr. Hooper insists that CAIR was not a co-sponsor of the event and added, "I don't even know if that happened." But an e-mail sent out to a Muslim e-mail list the day before the event clearly identifies CAIR as one of the 11 co-sponsors — and audiotape of the conference (provided by the Investigative Project) recorded the anti-Semitic song.
Even when given the opportunity by journalists to "call on the carpet" designated terrorist organizations, Mr. Hooper demurs.
When asked by The Washington Post in November 2001 if he would condemn Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Mr. Hooper responded, "It's not our job to go around denouncing." Asked by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in February 2002 to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah, Mr. Hooper called such questions a "game" and explained, "We're not in the business of condemning."
Asked in an America-Online-sponsored chat in August 1998 who was responsible — the terrorists or America — for the East Africa embassy bombings, Mr. Hooper wrote that, although he condemned the bombings, "a great deal of what happened is responsible due to misunderstandings on both sides."
When it comes to "misunderstandings," though, Mr. Hooper's record leaves none as to whether or not he has heard or directly knows of plenty of violence and anti-Semitism preached by Muslim leaders.
Posted by Robert at March 17, 2004 12:33 PM
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Ghazi Khankan did indeed make the statements. In addition to heading the NY chapter of CAIR, he's the interfaith director of the Islamic Center of Long Island, Westbury, NY. The Pres. is Dr. Faroque Khan. Khan is the head of the NY chapter of American Muslim Alliance. Faiz Khan, same mosque, has ties to the Muslim Student Association, (they sponsor fundraisers for Jamil al abdullah cop-killer), and Yahiya Emerick is the publisher of hate filled anti-Semitic, anti-Christian textbooks, "What Islam is all About". Emerick is also a teacher at the Crescent School, same address as the Islamic Center of Long Island, and has openly proclaimed his support for America under Islamic rule. The Archdiocese of Rockville Center has a strong relationship with this group and frequently sponsors inter-religious dialogues. Most notably, this mosque has been cited by Congressman Peter King as being most uncooperative after the 9/11 attacks, preferring instead to focus on muslim "victimization". The leaders have made a number of inflammatory statements. King cut off ties with the Islamic Center around 9/13/2001. CAIR and AMA co-sponsored the "no to the Jews, descendents of apes and monkeys" rally at Brooklyn College, May 24, 1998. Waggy Ghuneim was the radical Egyptian cleric who led the crowd in its hate song.
Posted by: milford at March 17, 2004 1:02 PMAdditionally, Faroque is a frequent speaker at Islamic Society of North America conferences, he is listed as one of the wise men of the council and is program planner for ISNA's annual conference,; his e-mail address is listed as the contact.
Posted by: milford at March 17, 2004 1:10 PMI had an email exchange with Hooper a couple years ago, and he is very adept at not answering direct questions. He's a snake, and CAIR is a dangerous organization. If you don't currently receive the ACAIR mailings, please go to google (I can't recall the URL for ACAIR), and type in ACAIR. AJ Whitehead is, like Mr. Spencer, doing a wonderful job.
Posted by: Doug at March 17, 2004 2:50 PMPerhaps Hooper would volunteer to take a job filing papers for the translators at MEMRI. Or volunteer to work for the FBI or NSA and wear a wire. I'm sure they could point him in the right direction. Or he could record and transcribe the chat sessions at any number of websites that he could learn of through Little Green Footballs.
Hooper is simply a liar and an active and knowing enabler of mass murderers. Or else the least sentient being in all the history of life on earth.
There is nothing else to say about Hooper.
What possible motivation could any news oganization have for inviting him to speak and failing to expose him?
In the middle of World War II, a great book appeared. It was Under Cover, by John Roy Carlson (the pseudonym of an Armenian-American, Garabedian, who later wrote the splendid From Cairo to Damascus). The book went through more than 20 printings, and had a great effect on American public opinion. As "George Panganelli," Garabedian became a freqent attender of antisemitic and pro-Nazi groups, ranging from assorted White Russians to Margaret Dumont-like ladies with lorgnettes, to the Lindbergh variety, to the assorted nativist, Father Coughlin, and other veins tapped by the Nazis -- Fritz Kuhn of the Bund (which was holding rallies in Madison Square Garden right up until the war), Pelley's Silver Shirts, George Sylvester Viereck. Surely there is someone born into Islam, who has turned from it, and who can report on what really is uttered in those khutbas, what is planned and plotted, and who all the fellow-travellers are -- no, on second thought, there is no real need to monitor the mosques (though they should be monitored). It is all there, in Qur'an, hadith, and sira (the biography of Muhammad), it is all on-line at Muslim websites, it is all there out in the open. No need to go Under Cover -- what is needed is for many more people in the U.S., and Europe, and elsewhere in the Infidel world to actually believe the evidence of their senses. Yes, there really is hostility to all Infidels at the center of Islam. Yes, there really is something called the Jihad, which does not go out of existence, but only dies down when the wherewithal to pursue it is taken away. Yes, there really is a doctrine called taqiyya, or kitman, which means that Muslims everywhere lie about the tenets of their faith, and are religiously-sanctioned in so doing. Yes, there really has been, over 1350 years, the subjugation of non-Muslims, their murder, or forced conversion, or slow asphyxiation (and slow conversion) everywhere that Islam was triumphant. Yes, there really is conquest through da'wa and demography -- and that is why, sooner or later, either Islam will take over Western Europe, or there will have to be mass expulsions of Muslims (or mass conversions of them out of Islam) if Western civilization, which, after all, is worth saving, is to continue to exist. Just imagine a world where the political, economic, and above all intellectual failure that Islam has been, in fact were no longer limited to the current dar al-Islam, but were allowed to seize Spain, France, Italy, Holland, Germany. Just imagine if a second Golden Horde were to take over and impose Muslim rule on Russia -- and who would first be suppressed if not the frothy, amusing, highly un-Islamic Aleksandr Pushkin? What will happen to the paintings and sculptures in the Uffizi, in the Louvre, in the Prado, in the Alte Pinakothek, in the National Gallery, in the Rijksmuseum? What will the teaching of history be like? What will happen to the nuclear arsenals of France, Great Britain, NATO? Will American tourists recdeive the same kind of murderous welcome they now receive everywhere in the Muslim countries of the Middle East -- so that our own European heritage will be cut off from us?
It is nonsense to keep denying all this, nonsense not to expend at least as great an effort, to wake up Europe, and to make common cause with all Infidels -- the Hindus of India, the Buddhists of Southeast Asia, as well as Christians and Jews -- before things get worse. Iraq is now a sideshow; the men, materiel, and poltical capital being expended on it to bring "democracy" is at this point a waste; there are much bigger fish to fry.
Posted by: Hugh at March 18, 2004 8:02 AMIn the middle of World War II, a great book appeared. It was Under Cover, by John Roy Carlson (the pseudonym of an Armenian-American, Garabedian, who later wrote the splendid From Cairo to Damascus). The book went through more than 20 printings, and had a great effect on American public opinion. As "George Panganelli," Garabedian became a freqent attender of antisemitic and pro-Nazi groups, ranging from assorted White Russians to Margaret Dumont-like ladies with lorgnettes, to the Lindbergh variety, to the assorted nativist, Father Coughlin, and other veins tapped by the Nazis -- Fritz Kuhn of the Bund (which was holding rallies in Madison Square Garden right up until the war), Pelley's Silver Shirts, George Sylvester Viereck. Surely there is someone born into Islam, who has turned from it, and who can report on what really is uttered in those khutbas, what is planned and plotted, and who all the fellow-travellers are -- no, on second thought, there is no real need to monitor the mosques (though they should be monitored). It is all there, in Qur'an, hadith, and sira (the biography of Muhammad), it is all on-line at Muslim websites, it is all there out in the open. No need to go Under Cover -- what is needed is for many more people in the U.S., and Europe, and elsewhere in the Infidel world to actually believe the evidence of their senses. Yes, there really is hostility to all Infidels at the center of Islam. Yes, there really is something called the Jihad, which does not go out of existence, but only dies down when the wherewithal to pursue it is taken away. Yes, there really is a doctrine called taqiyya, or kitman, which means that Muslims everywhere lie about the tenets of their faith, and are religiously-sanctioned in so doing. Yes, there really has been, over 1350 years, the subjugation of non-Muslims, their murder, or forced conversion, or slow asphyxiation (and slow conversion) everywhere that Islam was triumphant. Yes, there really is conquest through da'wa and demography -- and that is why, sooner or later, either Islam will take over Western Europe, or there will have to be mass expulsions of Muslims (or mass conversions of them out of Islam) if Western civilization, which, after all, is worth saving, is to continue to exist. Just imagine a world where the political, economic, and above all intellectual failure that Islam has been, in fact were no longer limited to the current dar al-Islam, but were allowed to seize Spain, France, Italy, Holland, Germany. Just imagine if a second Golden Horde were to take over and impose Muslim rule on Russia -- and who would first be suppressed if not the frothy, amusing, highly un-Islamic Aleksandr Pushkin? What will happen to the paintings and sculptures in the Uffizi, in the Louvre, in the Prado, in the Alte Pinakothek, in the National Gallery, in the Rijksmuseum? What will the teaching of history be like? What will happen to the nuclear arsenals of France, Great Britain, NATO? Will American tourists recdeive the same kind of murderous welcome they now receive everywhere in the Muslim countries of the Middle East -- so that our own European heritage will be cut off from us?
It is nonsense to keep denying all this, nonsense not to expend at least as great an effort, to wake up Europe, and to make common cause with all Infidels -- the Hindus of India, the Buddhists of Southeast Asia, as well as Christians and Jews -- before things get worse. Iraq is now a sideshow; the men, materiel, and poltical capital being expended on it to bring "democracy" is at this point a waste; there are much bigger fish to fry.
Posted by: Hugh at March 18, 2004 8:02 AMThank you, Hugh, another, yet really impassioned post. We can feel your anger.
Hooper is an evil, silver-tongued liar. He has seduced many in the mainstream. I don't know what it will take to make them see what he really is. Believe me, I've tried. Of course, then, I'm called a "bigot" and an "Islamophobe" for my efforts. The big lie is repeated often. Soon no one will remember the truth.
Posted by: epg at March 18, 2004 9:46 PM
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