Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California recently rescinded a "certificate of accomplishment award" to Basim Elkarra after learning that he is an official of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The move by the leftwing senator signals a shift in how CAIR -- a controversial US-based Muslim interest group and an alleged funder of Palestinian terror-- is perceived in the US.
Despite CAIR's façade of legitimacy, complete with an expensive Washington, D.C. address and non-profit tax status, it has been revealed that CAIR has deep and complex ties to international terror organizations.
Closer inspection of CAIR, especially after 9/11, have shown a different face of the organization to the one that promoted campaigns such as "Explore the Quran". Four CAIR officials have been charged with ties to terror and there is growing belief that the organization has its roots in the Islamic Association for Palestine, a front for Hamas.
According to Senator Boxer's press spokeswoman, the senator was apparently concerned about CAIR's history and claims that the organization "gives aid to international terrorist groups."
Nihad Awad, the Executive Director of CAIR has declared his support for both the PLO and Hamas on numerous occasions. CAIR's Director of Community Relations in 2003, Bassem Khafagi, was arrested for his connections to a terror-financing front group with ties to Iraq and al Qaeda. Siraj Wahhaj, a CAIR Advisory Board Member in 2003, is considered an unindicted person who may have been a co-conspirator in the attempt to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993.
Awad denied charges that CAIR has any links to terror groups and said that CAIR members or officials who have been convicted of terror-related charges had only loose ties to the group. He called the allegations of ties to terrorism a "deliberate smear campaign" by individuals who refuse to hear criticism of the Israeli government.
"We feel that the same crowd who is pushing these smears against CAIR is the same crowd as the neocons that pushed us into the Iraq war," he said.
Awad has not said whether he condemns Hamas for its terrorist activities in Israel or whether we considers it a terrorist group, as the US government does. He said, "I'm not going to play the game of the pro-Israel lobby just so they can put words in our mouth. Our position is very clear."
CAIR demanded a meeting with Boxer after receiving news that she rescinded the award. The group called on her to withdraw the action one CAIR official called "Islamophobia."
Senator Boxer stood by her decision to withdraw Elkarra's award saying, "To praise an organization because they haven't been indicted is like somebody saying, 'I'm not a crook,'" Boxer says. "I'm going to take a lot of hits for this. But I'm just doing what I think is right."
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