CAIR Report: “Confronting Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States”

CAIR MAIN1

The Muslim advocacy group CAIR, who released the report, says Donald Trump and Ted Cruz’s proposals are outgrowths of anti-Muslim propaganda.

The largest Muslim advocacy group in America, the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), headquartered in Washington D.C., released a report Monday entitled “Confronting Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States.” It lists about 74 organizations that CAIR believes are Islamophobic groups.

Report: Confronting Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States.[/tweetthis]

Outer Inner core fundingThe organization has tagged them as the “U.S. Islamophobia Network.” According to the report, since 2008, the number of such groups have gone up, and they have so far managed to raise more than $200 million in funding. The study was conducted by CAIR, along with the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley.

CAIR was supposed to release the report last week, however, the non-profit organization delayed the release in the wake of the Orlando shooting that took place on June 12.

The report shows that the primary purpose of the 33 “inner core” organizations included in the U.S. based Islamophobia network is to promote hatred against Muslims. The Forum for Middle East Understanding, PamelaGeller.com, Jihad Watch, and David Horowitz Freedom Center are some of those organizations.

The rest of the 41 groups that the CAIR tags as Outer Core organizations are not directly involved in promoting hatred against Muslims, but they support the inner-core through anti-Islam demonstrations or backing Islamophobic themes. The Joyce and Donald Rumsfeld Foundation, Fox News, and The Washington Times are some of those groups.

Strategy to Confront Islamophobia -Four Priority Areas of Focus
Strategy to Confront Islamophobia – Four Priority Areas
of Focus
According to the executive director of CAIR, Nihad Awad, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim propaganda have gone mainstream in American society. The main reason for that could be attributed to the unconstitutional policies suggested by viable contenders for the office of the presidency. He said that Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States and Ted Cruz's proposal to monitor Muslim neighborhoods are outgrowths of that propaganda. Awad says the last two months of 2015 saw about 34 anti-Islam incidents.

CAIR is not opposed to criticism of Muslims and Islam. According to Corey Saylor, the main author of the report, Muslims strongly believe in the freedom of conversation in America, however, they do not want to see Islamophobia going mainstream in the country.

Speaking against CAIR, and the report, David Horowitz, the founder of one of the organizations that is listed in the report, said that he never said anything that could be tagged as anti-Islam. He has always said that Muslims are law-abiding people, however, there are some who wants to wage Holy War. Horowitz accused CAIR as a front for Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.

The report also contains: “A National Strategy to Confront Islamophobia.”

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