Arkansas Legislature Takes a Stand Against CAIR

On Monday, February 18, the Arkansas House of Representatives sent a strong signal to law enforcement agencies within its borders to beware of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Representative Brandt Smith, the House Majority Whip authored HR1006 which calls on law enforcement to suspend contact and outreach with CAIR. The resolution was adopted by the House with overwhelming support.

The resolution was conceived due to CAIR’s nefarious ties and history, and especially because of the multiple CAIR directors, employees and members who have been convicted on terrorism and terrorism-related charges over the years.

The text of the resolution appears below:

WHEREAS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has suspended all formal contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) due to evidence demonstrating a relationship between CAIR and Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization of the United States Department of State; and

WHEREAS, in United States of America v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest successful prosecution of terrorism-financing in our country’s history, CAIR was identified as an associate of the Muslim Brotherhood and was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial; and

WHEREAS, CAIR opened its first office in Washington, D.C., with the help of a grant from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a charitable organization that was closed by the United States Department of the Treasury for funding jihadist terrorist organizations; and

WHEREAS, United States ally, the United Arab Emirates, officially designated CAIR as a terrorist organization in 2014; and

WHEREAS, in March 2011, Muthanna al-Hanooti, a director within CAIR, was sentenced to a year in federal prison for violating United States sanctions against Iraq under Saddam Hussein; and

WHEREAS, in 2006, the co-founder of CAIR’s parent organization, Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), Sami Al-Arian, was sentenced to 57 months in prison on terrorism charges for financing Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated foreign terrorist organization; and

WHEREAS, in 2004, CAIR-Northern Virginia director Abdurahman Alamoudi pled guilty to terrorism-related financial and conspiracy charges, which resulted in a 23-year federal prison sentence; and

WHEREAS, in 2009, Ghassan Elashi, who served as a founding board member for CAIR’s regional chapter in Texas, was sentenced to a total of 65 years in prison after being convicted of 10 counts of conspiracy to provide, and the provision of, material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization; 11 counts of conspiracy to provide, and the provision of, funds, goods and services to a Specially Designated Terrorist as determined by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; 10 counts of conspiracy to commit, and the commission of, money laundering; 1 count of conspiracy to impede and impair the Internal Revenue Service; and 2 counts of filing a false tax return; and

WHEREAS, Randall Todd (Ismail) Royer, who served as a communications specialist and civil rights coordinator for CAIR and trained with and set up an internet-based newsletter for Lashkar-I-Taiba, an al Qaeda-tied Kashmir organization that is listed on the United States Department of State’s international terror list, was also indicted on charges of conspiring to help al Qaeda in the Taliban battle American troops were fighting in Afghanistan and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on April 9, 2004; and

WHEREAS, in September 2003, CAIR’s former community affairs director, Bassem Khafagi, pleaded guilty to 3 federal counts of bank and visa fraud, and agreed to be deported to Egypt after he had funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and had published material advocating suicide attacks against the United States, illegal activities that took place while he was employed by CAIR; and

WHEREAS, Rabih Haddad, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based CAIR fundraiser, was arrested on terrorism-related charges and was deported from the United States due to his work as Executive Director of the Global Relief Foundation, which in October 2002 was closed by the United States Department of Treasury for financing al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations,

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS:

THAT the House of Representatives encourages law enforcement to suspend contact and outreach with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.