CAIR Official Linked to Al-Qaeda
Generally, critics of CAIR link the organization to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood. But now it appears that one former senior official of the group was in bed with members of Al-Qaeda, but it is unclear if he knew of their membership in the organization. Paul Sperry deserves an applause for bringing this link to light, as well as a few other gems about CAIR’s belated condemnation of Bin Laden.
“Federal investigators have learned that imam Mohammed El-Mezain — who goes on trial next month with one of CAIR’s founding board members — once lived in the same small Colorado apartment complex with another imam accused of preparing some of the hijackers for their “martyrdom” operation.
El-Mezain and imam Anwar Aulaqi later moved to San Diego, where Aulaqi held closed-door meetings with the al-Qaida hijackers. The two radical clerics also organized pilgrimages to Mecca together, including one made just months before the 9/11 attacks.”
And as for CAIR being so passionately against Al-Qaeda?
“After 9/11, an Al-Qaida operative by the name of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali participated in paramilitary training exercises with members of the Virginia Jihad Network — whose convicted ringleader was none other than CAIR’s civil-rights coordinator. The ringleader, Randall “Ismail” Royer, worked out
of CAIR’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. His pal Abu Ali recently was convicted of plotting to assassinate Bush.
CAIR has been slow to denounce al-Qaida for terrorism.
In 1998, after bin Laden was fingered for blowing up the U.S. embassies in Africa, CAIR demanded that Los Angeles-area billboards with bin Laden’s picture under the headline, “Sworn Enemy,” be taken down.
In 2001, when most of the civilized world condemned bin Laden for attacking New York and Washington, CAIR abstained for nearly four months, while demanding a halt to U.S. bombing in Afghanistan, bin Laden’s home base at the time.”
