Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Radical Muslim Falsely Labels Israeli Official a War Criminal
Radical Muslim Falsely Labels Israeli Official a War Criminal
April 5, 2011
By Joe Kaufman <http://www.hudson-ny.org/author/Joe+Kaufman> When radical Muslims with ties to terrorist organizations label others as radicals, one can easily see the hypocrisy. That was the case earlier this month, when Hussam Ayloush, the Executive Director of CAIR-Los Angeles, branded a representative from Israel in a similar fashion. On March 5, 2011, Masjid Omar al-Farouk, the Islamic Institute of Orange County (IIOC), hosted an event in support of eleven members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), who were recently charged with unlawfully disrupting a February 2010 speech given by Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, at the University of California at Irvine (UCI). One of the featured speakers at the IIOC event, which was titled '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 had been involved with al-Talib, a publication of the MSA at UCLA. While Lekovic was Managing Editor of al-Talib, the magazine's July 1999 issue lauded Osama bin Laden <http://www.investigativeproject.org/redirect/1999-07_Al-Talib.pdf> as a "great Mujahid," a "philanthropist" and a "freedom fighter." Within that same al-Talib issue, a credit of "special thanks" was given to one of the other featured speakers for the IIOC affair, the head of the California chapter of CAIR, Hussam Ayloush. During his opening remarks, Ayloush took the opportunity to vilify both 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." In truth, Israel has never been charged with "war crimes," so Ayloush was recklessly spreading false information. That fact aside, those were strong words coming from someone with such an extremist history as Ayloush has, himself. As mentioned, Ayloush is a leader of CAIR or the Council on American-Islamic Relations. 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 was founded in June 1994 by three operatives from the American propaganda wing of Hamas, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). CAIR was established as being part of the American Palestine Committee, an umbrella organization led by then-global head of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzook, who was at the time located inside the United States. In 2007 and 2008, during two federal trials against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), the U.S. Justice Department named CAIR a party to the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. One of the ways CAIR raised money for Hamas was by telling its website viewers to donate to HLF. In December 2001, a photo of Ayloush shoulder-to-shoulder <http://www.americansagainsthate.org/Ayloush_CAIR-California_Dec_7_2001.html > with the Spiritual Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was placed on the homepage of CAIR-California's website. This was just 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. Ayloush falsely maligning Michael Oren as a "war criminal" is the epitome of 'the pot calling the kettle black.' Ayloush's past - and present - makes him the worst possible candidate to be voicing such lies. However, it follows a pattern from Islamist groups, including Hamas, who spew the same exact rhetoric. That the IIOC uses 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 <http://www.militantislammonitor.org> Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report. Source: Hudson Institute <http://www.hudson-ny.org/2013/radical-muslim-falsely-labels-israeli-war-cri minal>
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