Muslim Public Affairs Council fails to silence Emerson

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), an organization identified by the Department of Justice as a Muslim Brotherhood front, wants to silence a leading authority on Islamist terror worldwide and its support network in America – Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project.

Condemnation by MPAC and its like is hardly new for Mr. Emerson.   If anything, such criticism powerfully affirms the wisdom of Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), chairman of the Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in extending the invitation for Steve Emerson to testify on 31 July on the highly topical subject of "Foreign Aid and the Fight Against Terrorism and Proliferation: Leveraging Foreign Aid to Achieve U.S. Policy Goals."

In a press release issued yesterday, the Brotherhood front declared that unnamed "officials close to the subcommittee including congressional watchdog groups" believed that "Emerson does not have the necessary expertise on foreign aid or foreign policy to testify at such a hearing."   The release adds that "Washington, D.C. insiders suspect that this hearing is a careless move on the part of the subcommittee and Congressman Sherman and will add to preexistent anti-Muslim hate-mongering."

This is a classic Brotherhood play:  Pretend that they have standing – as representatives of large numbers of Muslims or the cognoscenti – to vilify those most knowledgeable about the Islamist networks’ global operations in the hope of discrediting, or at least silencing, the latter.   They often do so by throwing up a smokescreen of "Islamophobia" and "anti-Muslim hate-mongering" in the expectation that timorous politicians and members of the press will be so fearful of appearing to be insensitive and/or politically incorrect that they will refuse to learn about the threat we face and, therefore, unwittingly facilitate the Brotherhood’s stated mission of "destroying the United States from within."

The MPAC broadside against Rep. Sherman goes on to express concern "that testimony from Emerson will lead to reckless policy-making. This will undermine U.S. interests of achieving peace and stability in the Muslim world."   Such a statement is preposterous on its face.   The danger the Brotherhood justifiably perceives is that Mr. Emerson will succeed in shaping the sorts of policies that are urgently needed: informed and decisive efforts to counter MPAC and its sister front organizations in the United States and the insidious effect they have had in increasing our national vulnerability to the Islamofascist onslaught, at home and abroad.

Far from heeding MPAC’s calls for Rep. Sherman to "balance the bias of Emerson or cancel the panel," Chairman Sherman should be commended for his leadership on this and many other fronts.   The Center for Security Policy looks forward to a hearing on Thursday that offers the prospect of a measure of balance to what has generally been undue influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and its apologists in the halls of Congress and elsewhere in official Washington.