CAIR Renews Protests against Free Speech at U.S. Army War College

By Raymond Ibrahim, AMERICAN THINKER

True to form, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) — also known as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the largest terrorist funding case in U.S. history, and a designated “terrorist organization” for nations allied to America — is again protesting my forthcoming appearance to the U.S. Army War College, urging the latter to “reconsider its decision and disinvite Ibrahim,” since my presentation will no doubt be “hypocritical, ahistorical and hateful.”

This, of course, is all déjà vu — a repeat of events from eight months ago. As CAIR itself notes in it new press release, which came out on Feb. 21, 2020:

.Last summer, CAIR and its allies launched an online campaign highlighting Ibrahim’s Islamophobic views and their negative impact.

Led by CAIR-Philadelphia and MPower Change, and supported by Community Responders Network, About Face, and Common Defense, the campaign drew more than 1800 signatures and received widespread support from its interfaith allies.

The referenced “petition” (see it here) was essentially a hysterical screed; it claimed that if I — a “racist” and “enabler of white nationalism,” despite my Egyptian heritage — am given a chance to speak before an already “racist” U.S. military, American servicemen would get so riled that they would start murdering Muslims (see near end of petition).

It is somewhat interesting now to learn that this CAIR/MPower petition received a mere 1,800 signatures — despite its insistence that its followers sign it.  By contrast, the much more reputable National Association of Scholars, which sent a petition in my support to the White House, received three times as many signatures (5,349), many from well-respected scholars and academics affiliated with numerous universities.

Back to CAIR’s new press release.  It boasts about how:

Last year, the college postponed a similar speaking engagement with Ibrahim in response to widespread criticism [as seen based on the numbers above, this is false]. In response to postponement of his 2019 lecture, Ibrahim restated his bigoted claim that “Islamic terrorism and ‘extremism’ are intrinsic to Islam, and have been from its first contact with Western civilization in the seventh century.”

Yes, I restated this fact (not a “claim”) because it is true — whether or not CAIR whines, and whether or not I speak here or there.  Temporal circumstances have no bearing on the articulation of transcendent truths.

CAIR continues:

Ibrahim’s writings advance a discredited theory known as the “Clash of Civilizations” and argues that “Islam and the West” have been engaged in a centuries-long war. The lecture is based on Ibrahim’s 2018 book “Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West.” That book promotes the unsubstantiated thesis that Islam, since its beginning, has “terrorized the West.”

For the record, my lecture revolves around my book, per the War College’s request — hence why CAIR regularly targets it, including by saying it presents an “unsubstantiated thesis.”  Here one must ask: if it is so “unsubstantiated,” why then does CAIR fear it so much?  Does CAIR have such a low opinion of the intellectual capacity of the U.S. Army War College and its students as to expect them to believe anything they are told, without adequate evidence?

Or could it be that CAIR is terrified at just how well documented and substantiated the book’s thesis is — so that, once made known, there is no rebutting it?

For example, in none of CAIR’s and its allies press releases and screeds — past and present — do they once highlight a certain passage or excerpt in their lengthy complaints to support the accusation that the Sword and Scimitar “is based on poor research. The reason is simple: although long hidden, the history presented in the book — and which will be presented in condensed form at the War College lecture — is ironclad, verifiable, and beyond well documented; with about a thousand endnotes in the 352-page book, it is heavily based on primary sources, many of which are Muslim, and from eyewitnesses.

And this history makes abundantly clear that Islamic terrorism and “extremism” are indeed, to reiterate, intrinsic to Islam, and have been from its first contact with Western civilization in the seventh century; think of the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (“ISIS”) but on an exponential scale — and for over a millennium — bombarding every corner of Europe, and even America, before it could elect its first president.

That is precisely what CAIR is afraid of.

At any rate, because CAIR concludes its press release by urging its followers “to call the U.S. Army War College at 717-245-3972 to register their concerns,” so too do I conclude by saying that, if you disagree with CAIR, call that same number and voice your concerns.against those who would quash free speech on Islam.