Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Wilfredo Ruiz: CAIR/Hamas FL Media & Outreach Director Feeds Hamas Talking Points To Guillible Media Unchallenged
Wilfredo Ruiz: CAIR/Hamas FL Media & Outreach Director Feeds Hamas Talking Points To Guillible Media Unchallenged
Media Complicit In Broadcasting CAIR/Hamas Pro Jihad Propaganda - Despite Knowing Their Anti Israel Stance
November 17, 2023
In a recent television interview with WPBF News in South Florida, CAIR official Wilfredo Ruiz refused to answer a question about Hamas's intentions toward Israel. On the wall behind him, he displayed a map of Israel with an old-fashioned key next to it. This image is part of the "key and deed" mythology adhered to by extremists in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who hope one day to achieve Israel's destruction and return to their family homes. By displaying this image during the interview, Ruiz obliquely expressed support for Hamas's eliminationist agenda even as he refused to answer the question directly. The meaning of the image was apparently lost on the reporter. (Screenshot from WPBF's website.)
CAIR Leaders Shill for Hamas in American Media, Reporters Cooperate
November 7, 2023
As Israel continues to respond with force to the heinous October 7th attack perpetrated by Hamas terrorists who raped young women, kidnapped children, and burned families alive, television journalists try to demonstrate their objectivity by soliciting responses from Muslim leaders in the United States. In their effort to be evenhanded, they speak with leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization with deep and enduring ties to Hamas, the designated terrorist organization that perpetrated the October 7 massacre.
CAIR is an offshoot of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was founded by Hamas operatives using seed money from a Hamas charity called the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), whose leaders were convicted in 2008 of providing material support for Hamas. As documented by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, CAIR was listed as a unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF trial as part of a campaign to "advance the Hamas agenda within the United States."
Moreover, two CAIR founders, including its current national director, Nihad Awad, took part in a 1993 meeting with Hamas members in Philadelphia. The following year, Awad, publicly stated, "I am in support of the Hamas movement." In 2014, when the local CAIR chapter co-sponsored a rally in downtown Miami, protesters repeatedly chanted "We are Hamas" and "Let's go Hamas." Nevertheless, CAIR's well-known links to Hamas do not disqualify its leaders from being trusted journalistic sources.
The problem is particularly evident in the CAIR stronghold of South Florida where Islamists have made inroads in local schools and where politicians appear at Islamist events. For example, a number of Tampa TV stations featured Abdullah Jaber, Executive Director of CAIR-Florida, in numerous interviews. He suggested in an interview broadcast on 10 Tampa Bay (WTSP) that Israel is ultimately responsible for the violence against its citizens because it is the "occupier." To Tampa's Fox News affiliate, Fox 13, he legitimized Hamas's massacre of Israeli civilians by casting Israel as a "colonizer."
Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, CAIR-Florida's Media and Outreach Director also received sympathetic coverage, appearing on CBS 4 Miami (WFOR), ABC 10 Miami (WPLG), ABC 25 West Palm Beach (WPBF) and Telemundo.
He told WFOR that Israel is committing the crime of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians living in in Gaza. He was given little effective pushback from the hosts, who seemed unable to challenge him with the facts of Palestinian rejectionism.
When queried by a WPBF reporter about Hamas's intentions, Ruiz said he was offended declaring, "I'm a Muslim but I'm not a terrorist." Ironically enough, during the interview, a map of Israel hung on the wall behind Ruiz, with the word "Palestine" written under it and a key next to it. By displaying a key on the wall during the interview, Ruiz is obliquely expressing support for Hamas's agenda — even as he complains of being asked about the group's intentions.
In another interview, Ruiz declared that associating all Muslims or Palestinians with Hamas organization is "dangerous." But even as he distanced himself from Hamas Ruiz promoted support for the war it started by posting a graphic collage on his Facebook page containing several photos of dead terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), ludicrously referring to their deaths as "war crimes." After the interview, Ruiz posted fake newsfrom Al Jazeera (and Hamas), falsely attributing the attack on the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza to Israel, when it was fired by PIJ in an attempt to kill Israeli civilians.
While the problem is particularly pronounced in South Florida, it is evident elsewhere. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR-Los Angeles, told KCAL that the war had been "provoked" by Israel. Ahmed Rehab, the Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, accused Israel of committing "genocide" against Palestinians during a press conference.
Reporters should stay well away from CAIR, Sean Durns, senior research analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), told Focus on Western Islamism.
The media has long provided cover for CAIR, a faux civil rights organization with a long history of both extremism and antisemitism," he said. "Reporters should note that CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terrorism finance trials in U.S. history and several CAIR employees and lay leaders have been arrested and/or deported on terrorism related charges."
Joe Kaufman is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative.
Beila Rabinowitz, director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
https://islamism.news/news/cair-leaders-shill-for-hamas-in-american-media-reporters-cooperate/
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