Kaufman's Idiotic Assertions

Joe Kaufman, head of the anti-Muslim group Americans Against Hate, recently posted a video of himself attempting to ask questions to CAIR-Florida Executive Director Altaf Ali about Hamas. In that video, which is on YouTube, Kaufman also speaks with Joe Badran, an Arab American, who goes on to deny that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Badran says that he is a member of CAIR and then says he is a supporter of CAIR. Badran has no official title with CAIR at all actually. His opinions on Hamas or on any other matter are not attributable to CAIR. So if Badran had said that Osama bin Laden is the greatest person on Earth, CAIR has no connection to that - in fact, if anyone held such stupid ideas CAIR would make sure to distance itself from such an individual in every way possible because CAIR does not support violence.

Kaufman has his latest article posted on the front page of FrontPageMag - the extremely radical web haven for nutty right wing propagandists. In that article he claims to expose CAIR's true feelings about Hamas. He says that because Badran said Hamas is not a terrorist organization that this "reveals [CAIR's] unabashed support for Hamas." Lawyer tricks by Kaufman, as usual. He typically uses guilt by association tactics. If you ever went to an ISNA convention he'll tie you to the Ikhwan through that. He will say something like: "Ahmed Muhammad went to the 39th Annual ISNA Convention held in Chicago. ISNA's founding members were also founders of the Muslim Students Association, which has direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the ideological fountain for groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad." Meanwhile, Ahmed Muhammad (a name I made up) is an engineer in Nevada who attended an ISNA convention like 35,000 other Muslims and sits on his masjid's board. He's from India and enjoys Hamza Yusuf lectures. Oh yea, big terror connection there.

Besides that, the obvious idiocy of Kaufman's allegation is that if you say Hamas is not a terrorist organization then you're some sort of terrorism sympathizer or supporter. Joe needs to find more serious things to do than write fairy tales. CAIR, as an organization, provides support to no one in the Palestinian Territories. It's support is for the ending of the Israeli occupation through peaceful means and the establishment of a Palestinian state right next to Israel where both states can live together peacefully in coexistence. This is the stand that most of the international community has and CAIR is no different.

Hamas was democratically elected by the Palestinian people in 2006. They commit terrorist acts if and when they send suicide bombers and rockets at innocent Israeli civilians. CAIR does not support them or any other group who carry out such actions. It's Islamically prohibited to attack civilians (see my post about that) and CAIR attempts to uphold the most noble aspects of Islamic teachings. Now, if Hamas stops rocket attacks and somewhere down the road works out a deal to bring peace between Palestinians and Israelis then CAIR, like most of the international community, is all for that.

As far as saying that Hamas is a terrorist organization - that is a statement of opinion for anyone who makes it - even the State Department. Kaufman seems to think that everything our government says is sacred and cannot be questioned. Criticizing the government by a Muslim or someone who is pro-Palestinian is tantamount to treason in Kaufman's mind. Yet Kaufman is more than happy to criticize the government when some issue of his is not addressed. But back to the issue at hand - is Hamas a terrorist organization? Of course it's not. Is that all Hamas does? Is it's only function to carry out terrorist operations? No, anyone who has read anything objective about Hamas knows full well all of the social programs it carries out for the Palestinians as well as the lack of corruption within its ranks. Badran actually said all of this in the video clip. Anyone outside of Zionist fantasy land knows that Hamas has been much better for the Palestinian people than Fatah and its immensely corrupt bureaucratic system.

Hamas is a democratic party democratically elected by the Palestinian people and its leaders have said repeatedly that they will do whatever the Palestinian people vote for in a referendum. If that means accepting the 1967 borders and peace with Israel, Hamas leaders have said they will accept that. Hamas commits terror attacks, there is no question about that, and CAIR and other Muslim organizations have condemned those attacks repeatedly. What CAIR will not do is look to pass a test of false patriotism concocted by Zionist nuts like Kaufman who equate loyalty to Israel to loyalty with the United States of America. Israeli war crimes, documented by the most respected human rights groups in the United States and Israel, far surpass anything Hamas or any other Palestinian organization could ever hope to accomplish. It's not even an object of debate amongst objective observers - Israel has not only been a brutal and murderous occupying force, but it has taken terrorism to new heights. This does not give justification to any terror attacks Palestinians commit, at all, but all one has to do is look into the reports by human rights groups like B'Tselem and Amnesty International to compare the violence perpetrated by Hamas and violence perpetrated by Israel. The answer is very clear: if Hamas is on the State Department terror group list then Israel deserves its own classification because it far outstrips any of the groups on the State Department list.

Kaufman himself is tied to Jewish extremist groups in Israel and has never denounced these organizations or Rabbi Meir Kahane, the extremist Rabbi who influenced Baruch Goldstein's terrorist attack against Palestinian worshipers in the occupied Palestinian Territories. Kaufman is a hypocrite and an anti-Muslim bigot. His whole life is dedicated to defaming every mainstream Muslim organization in the United States. His loyalty is to Israel, not the United States, which is fairly obvious from his public comments. It's a blessing that someone like him is confined to the margins of civilized society.