DOES CAIR CARE?  


   The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has become well-known as of late, and
rather predictably, has attracted a bit of controversy.  CAIR is supplying legal support to the six
Muslim imams who were removed from a US Airways flight, as well as in many other cases of
alleged anti-Muslim discrimination.  The organization has also been accused of having ties to
terrorist groups and some fear it is part of a movement to eventually “Islamify” the US along the
lines of what is said to be happening in Europe.  

      I say that it’s perfectly legitimate to address concerns about discrimination and to advocate
on behalf of the Muslim-American community.  But I also think that CAIR and other Muslim groups
minimize the concerns many Americans have developed about threats from Islamic extremism.  
CAIR spokesmen often appear as guests on political talk shows and there they have a tendency
in responding to perceived concerns about Muslim attitudes—like threats of jihad—with critiques
of the questioner’s interpretation of the Qu’ran.  Apparently, terrorists and those who threaten
jihad as in holy war and other extremists are not legitimate Muslims and therefore the legitimate
Muslim community in no way has to answer for them.  

      But they must understand that the face that Muslims present is the face that Islam presents.   
By their own insistence the Islamic community is tightly knit, considering one another brothers and
taking it personally when their co-religionists are mistreated, so to disown those among them who
act up as extremists is to have it both ways.  

      But if any responsibility to the Muslim-American community is implied, it’s simply to do their
part in helping to bring about a peaceful resolution to the troubling confrontation between their
country and much of the Islamic world.   It would appear that what CAIR is ideally suited do is act
as a bridge between the America people and the Muslim community in the Middle East.  Certainly
CAIR and other moderate Muslims groups have broadly condemned terrorism, and that’s all good
and fine.  But they need to go to the Middle East and say that.  That’s what’s missing.  

      Rep. Keith Ellison’s recent Mideast visit can be said to have blazed a trail for more Muslim-
American liaison to the region.  But I’m not talking about CAIR negotiating with representatives of
governing regimes—let alone terrorist groups—I’m talking about establishing grass-root
relationships with some of the groups that make up their base.  Religious congregations, social
organizations, schools, and the like.  For starters, I can easily see a consortium from CAIR
appearing on some news chat show on Al Jazeera and delivering whatever conciliatory message.  
Although a fair amount of prudence and triangulation are in order, part of the message has to be
that the US is not trying to destroy Islam.  Muslim-Americans don’t believe that; their fellow
Muslims need to be made to believe that as well.  In addition to that, many of their fellow
Americans believe that Islam is trying to impose its laws on the West, and they too need
reassuring.   

      Two halves of the world cannot live together if each believes that the other is trying to destroy
them, and yet, as Rep. Ellison said, we cannot just “fold our arms and turn our backs”.  History,
however unairly, has thrust the Muslim-American community into a key position to help, and the
Council on American-Islamic Relations can lead the way.  And although it’s not really up to me to
say, it is perhaps their duty in more ways than one.