CAIR defends Ohio Al-Qaeda suspect

It’s finally come out of the closet: the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is defending a suspected al Qaeda member.

Islamist Christopher Paul (pictured) was arrested this week in Ohio and charged with "providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction," according to AP.

In what by now has become a pattern, CAIR immediately came to the alleged terrorist’s defense.

CAIR cloaks its support for Islamist terrorists as part of civil rights mission to ensure that the accused are treated fairly. The organization claims to oppose terrorism, though most of the anti-terrorist statements on its website refer only to the 9/11 attacks.

A leader of CAIR’s Columbus, Ohio, chapter, Ahmad Al-Akhras, says he knows the al Qaeda suspect and says the federal allegations about Paul are out of character. "From the things I know, he is a loving husband and he has a wife and parents in town," Al-Akhras says. "They are a good family together."

Al-Akras president of CAIR in Ohio, and is on the CAIR national board.

Another Islamist terror suspect, Nuradin Abdi, is awaiting trial for plotting to blow up a Columbus shopping mall. Authorities have linked Abdi to Paul.

Al-Akras knew Abdi, as well. After Abdi’s arrest in 2004, the Ohio CAIR leader said, "What we know about him is unlike how he is portrayed."

As is the CAIR pattern, Al-Akhras expressed concern about a backlash against the "Muslim community" over the latest Islamist arrest, and made no reported statement about his commitment to help the authorities root out terrorists from within that community.

"People start wondering and questioning, what is happening and why now?" he said in the AP report. "When something like this pops up, it creates some anxiety among the members of the Muslim community. … We hope nothing bad will happen and everything will be clear."

AP paraphrases Al-Akhras as saying that CAIR will "work to make sure that Paul’s constitutional rights are granted." Last year, the ACLU awarded CAIR-Ohio with its Liberty’s Flame Award in recognition of the group’s civil rights work.