Aug. 15, 2006
 
COMMENTARY: U.S. Muslim Group Slams Bush for Using Term ‘Islamic Fascists’
 
By Jim Kouri
Special to Huntington News Network
 
The nation's largest Muslim group expressed concern over President Bush's use of the term "Islamic fascists" in a news conference about the arrest of 21 suspects in a plot to bomb airliners flying between Britain and the United States on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006.
 
In a letter to President Bush, Parvez Ahmed, board chairman of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote in part:
 
"American Muslims have consistently condemned all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by individuals, groups or states. We repudiate anyone who plans or carries out a terrorist act. The American Muslim community remains dedicated to the protection of our nation's security ...
 
"Unfortunately, your statement this morning that America 'is at war with Islamic fascists' contributes to a rising level of hostility to Islam and the American-Muslim community. Just today, Gallup released a poll indicating that four out of ten Americans feel 'prejudice' toward Muslims.
 
"You have on many occasions said Islam is a 'religion of peace.' Today you equated the religion of peace with the ugliness of fascism.
 
"The use of ill-defined hot button terms such as 'Islamic fascists,' 'militant jihadism,' 'Islamic radicalism,' or 'totalitarian Islamic empire,' harms our nation's image and interests worldwide, particularly in the Islamic world. It feeds the perception that the war on terror is actually a war on Islam ...
 
"American Muslims stand ready to serve as a bridge of understanding to the Islamic world. We can best fulfill that role by offering advice that can help prevent misperceptions and misunderstandings between different nations and cultures."
 
However, there are terrorism experts who've said Islam is at once a religion and an ideology. Its totalitarian ideology is comparable to Nazism, Communism and Fascism, according to counterterrorism experts. They frown on the use of euphemisms to describe the enemy in the current war.
 
As far as CAIR is concerned, there are those who claim the organization has a hidden agenda. For instance, Senator Chuck Schumer D-NY said, "We know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism."
 
Another Democrat, Senator Dick Durbin D-IL said that the organization is "unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect."
 
On one occasion, Omar Ahmad, a co-founder of CAIR said this: "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."
 
Perhaps the most obvious problem with CAIR for several experts on radical Islam, such as Andrew Whitehead, is the fact that five of its employees and board members have been arrested, convicted, deported, or otherwise linked to terrorism-related charges and activities. CAIR has also consistently defended other radical Islamic terrorists. Rather than praise the conviction of the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, it deemed this “a travesty of justice.” It labeled the extradition order for suspected Hamas terrorist Mousa Abu Marzook “anti-Islamic” and “anti-American.”
 
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Jim Kouri is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org). He's a former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. Kouri has appeared as on-air commentator for more than 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book “Assume The Position” is available at Amazon.Com. Kouri's own website is located at http://jimkouri.U.S.