CAIR Issues Target List of Philanthropists

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) – a group that reliable information has linked to the terrorist group Hamas —  has issued a new report that lists by name 1,096 philanthropic foundations it accuses of being “the funders of 39 Islamophobia network groups between 2014-2016.” “Hijacked by Hate: American Philanthropy and the Islamophobic Network” was released by  CAIR on 6 May 2019 with an announcement that mainstream charitable foundations were contributing millions of dollars to a set of 39 so-called “anti-Muslim hate groups” which allegedly “advance anti-Muslim and anti-Islam animus in America.” The report relied on financial data collected from available online sources such as Guidestar, which provides 990 tax forms, and the Foundation Directory Online database, to track funding channels and links.

It may be noted that CAIR, in a classic hijacking of the English language, calls “Islamophobia” “anti-Muslim racism.” Of course, as neither Islam nor Muslims identify with any specific race but rather are inclusive of all races, the messaging is somewhat muddled. The verbal gymnastics here are obviously intended to enable a claim of victim status for what is, in fact, a doctrinally based political system of conquest and domination.

The clear intent of the report and the list is to provide a target list of philanthropic organizations to be shamed, shunned, and ultimately pressured into divesting from support of those groups deemed by CAIR to be “Islamophobic.” The report’s Executive Summary even offers the named foundations a face-saving way out, suggesting that they have been “exploited or used by donors who seek to anonymize their contributions to anti-Muslim special interest groups.” After all, according to the report, these are “mainstream American philanthropic institutions whose missions are antithetical to xenophobia and social polarization.”

And which are these “special interest groups”? In addition to the foundations listed in this report, CAIR also offers a helpful set of profiles of 18 organizations that donated more than one million dollars to the named philanthropic organizations over a two-year period between 2014-2016. Among those so named are the Sheldon Adelson Family Foundation, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Schwab Charitable Fund, and theVanguard Charitable Endowment Program. Others who donated lesser amounts are likewise named, including the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg Family Foundation, the Marcus Foundation, Lynda and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Irving Moskowitz Foundation, and many others. The David Horowitz Freedom Center, CAMERA, Brooke Goldstein (author of the Center’s monograph, “Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech”) and her Lawfare Project, the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI), the Middle East Forum, and the Center for Security Policy/Secure Freedom come in for special mention as “Top Funders of Islamophobic Activity”, among many others as well.

The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is called “a key anti-Muslim lobbying and propaganda group” because it organized a set of four National Security Action Summits in 2015 and  co-sponsored a September 2015 rally in Washington, DC to call attention to the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and other allegations.

The CAIR report’s authors also complain about activities of stalwarts among the counterjihad ranks like Brigitte Gabriel and her ACT! For America organization, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, and the Center for Security Policy’s own legal counsel, David Yerushalmi. Their supposed offense? Calling out Islamic Law (shariah) as antithetical to the U.S. Constitution and expressing concern about its creeping influence in American society. Under Islamic Law, that offense actually has a name: it is called “slander”, which is legally defined in Islamic Law thusly: “Slander (ghiba) means to mention anything concerning a person [Muslim] that he would dislike.” In this way, even (or rather especially) speaking truth about what shariah really is and really says in ways that accurately inform its intended targets becomes “offensive.”

And finally, the CAIR report cites a series of legal initiatives that are supported by the Center for Security Policy and others which are intended to counter the influence of shariah in the American legal system and hold to account those who provide material support for Islamic terrorism. These initiatives inaccurately are termed “anti-Muslim,” when in fact American Laws for American Courts (ALAC), for example, is intended solely to prioritize the application of U.S. law over any other alien, non-U.S. law in U.S. courts. Andy’s Law is another example of legislation wrongly called “anti-Muslim” in the CAIR report. Andy’s Law is a legislative initiative designed to provide for civil liability on the part of third parties for death and injury as a result of providing material support to Islamic terror.

“Hijacked” is merely the latest in an ongoing series of CAIR screeds that try vainly to take aim at honorable philanthropic foundations contributing patriotically to organizations at the forefront of the counterjihad movement in America. The bottom line is that CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood front groups exposed by the Department of Justice as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation HAMAS terror funding trial are jihadis that seek to fulfill their doctrinal obligation to impose Islamic Law the world over. They flail haplessly at the growing pushback against shariah from across the spectrum of American society because they know they are losing to the expanding awareness among the public about that objective. Although it is worthwhile briefly to take note of the nefarious smear tactics that this HAMAS branch attempts to employ, this report, like those that went before it, ultimately is headed for oblivion.