This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3784

Boston Globe Religion Column Errs In Posting MPAC/CAIR Propaganda

December 29, 2008

Boston Globe Religion Column Errs In Posting MPAC/CAIR Propaganda

By WILLIAM MAYER

December 28, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a filing by Michael Paulson in the Boston Globe's religious section [see, Articles of Faith, December 28, http://www.boston.com:80/news/local/articles_of_faith/2008/12/us_muslim_group.html] statements by MPAC [Muslim Public Affairs Council] and CAIR [Council on American Islamic Relations] regarding Israel's long-postponed, much needed move to end Hamas' incessant jihad against the Jewish state, were included.

There are a number of serious difficulties appended to such a practice.

One of these is that neither of these groups speak for Islam on a religious basis, hence their inclusion is inappropriate. Both CAIR and MPAC are political organizations, CAIR bills itself as a "civil rights" group and MPAC self-identifies as an "institution which informs and shapes public opinion."

More fundamental however is the nature of both of these groups.

CAIR can no longer escape it closely being linked to Islamic terrorism, having been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the recently concluded, successful prosecution of Hamas terror funder the Holy Land Foundation, a fraudulent Muslim charity which funneled at least $12 million to Hamas. One of those found guilty in this case was Ghassan Elashi, the founder of the Texas Chapter of CAIR.

It's hard to imagine a more clear connection between a domestic organization and Islamic terrorism.

MPAC similarly serves as a mouthpiece for radical Islam.

In a September 11, 2001 radio broadcast originating in Los Angeles, a statement attributed to MPAC reads, "If we're going to look at suspects we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what's happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies," and others, equally guilty of fraudulently operating under the mantle of moderation. [source, New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6D91F3EF931A15753C1A9679C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/F/Firestone,%20David]

MPAC has been an ardent supporter, along with CAIR of confessed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Sami Al-Arian, "The Muslim Public Affairs Council today welcomed the release of former professor Sami Al-Arian from federal custody...Since his arrest five years ago, Al-Arian's case has become an example of what many American Muslims perceived to be numerous post-9/11 political persecutions of individuals using tactics that amount to little more than guilt by association..."

About MPAC, noted Middle East historian Daniel Pipes has stated that its goals include, "Impeding counterterrorism efforts and forwarding an Islamist vision of America..." [source, http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2004/07/the-difference-between-cair-and-mpac.html]

In testimony delivered before the House Foreign Relations Committee just yesterday, noted terror authority Steven Emerson observed about MPAC's co-founder and Executive Director Salam Al Marayati, "Marayati has repeatedly justified the actions of Hizbollah before the Department of State invited him as a speaker. In November 1999, on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Marayati responded to accusations that he supports Hizbollah, "If the Lebanese people are resisting Israeli intransigence on Lebanese soil, then that is the right of resistance and they have the right to target Israeli soldiers in this conflict. That is not terrorism. That is a legitimate resistance." [source, Steven Emerson Testimony, U.S. House Committe On Foreign Affairs, http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/eme073108.pdf , pg. 4]

In a piece about MPAC just published today by the left-leaning UK Telegraph we read:

"The Muslim Public Affairs Commitee (MPACUK) is appealing to its supporters to track down the Muslim researchers who worked with the think tank Policy Exchange on a project to expose the sale of hate literature in British mosques.

Under the heading "The Hunt for 8 Sufi Zio-Con Frauds", http://mpacuk.org/content/view/4245/34 [pasted below], the MPAC website claims that the researchers were members of "Sufi underground cults" who teamed up with the Zionists to discredit Islam. And it adds:

Who are they, what are their backgrounds ... MPACUK will dig deeper and expose every last detail of the Sufis who tried to destroy their own community.

If you know who they are - please write in and we will expose these men and women for all the Muslim community to see. Write in now and let us do what the incompetent idiots in the Mosque should be doing, protecting our community.

Let us do what, precisely? I wonder if this sinister announcement of a manhunt will persuade the BBC to stop sucking up to MPAC, whose spokesman Ashgar Bukhari says that any Muslim killed fighting Israel goes straight to paradise. Probably not." [source, [source, MPAC launches a witchhunt against 'Zio-Con' Muslims, http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/12/28/mpac_launches_a_witchhunt_against_ziocon_muslims]]

So we are left with the Boston Globe's "religion" column featuring what can only be described as pro-Hamas propaganda by two organizations which serve as mouthpieces for Islamic radicalism. Complicated by the fact that neither of these two tainted groups are even nominally religious, having their twisted viewpoints being featured alongside those of recognized Jewish and Christian leaders such as Pope Benedict XVI, is a serious case of journalistic malpractice, one which brings the Globe in perfect allignment on the matter with its parent company the New York Times. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=globeid=12.28.08%2Ehtm

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3784