Intimidation: CAIR opposes Omaha’s Tri-Faith Initiative
In August 2011, we wrote about the benighted Tri-faith Initiative, a complex serving a small Episcopal parish, a Reform Jewish Temple and a Mosque. The complex was to be developed on the grounds of what was a Jewish country club where the oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet was a member. The title of our post, “Omaha’s Tri-Faith Project is Not Kosher” was a send up on a quip by Connecticut Jewish Ledger publisher Rick Greenfield who commented: “when I see the word Tri Faith…I think of traif (not Kosher)”. Rabbi Jonathan Hausman opined:
Let’s see if I understand this situation. Reform synagogue teams up with mainline Protestant church with dwindling attendance to provide cover for the inevitable zoning issues and protests that will ensue regarding construction of a mosque. Just perfect.
Research by a local ACT! chapter leader revealed funding of the Islamic Center of Omaha mosque by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) a Muslim Brotherhood front. Rabbi Hausman commented on what the non-Muslim Tri-Faith partners should address:
Who will sit on the mosque’s board, who will serve as officers, what links do/did/will these individuals have? What organizations have such people supported in the past (e.g. American Task Force for Palestine, ISNA, CAIR and other proven MB front groups)?
Today’s Daily Caller had confirmation of those suspected links. Dr. Mark Christian, a former Egyptian Muslim and Executive Director of the Global Faith Initiative in Omaha disclosed them in an updated article, “Omaha ‘Tri-Faith’ project has links to Muslim Brotherhood.” See our NER Vimeo interviews with Dr. Christian, here. The DC article reported:
The first of these, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is a well-documented purveyor of Islamism, preaching the supremacy of Islam over not only all other religions, but all nations as well.
Their fellow-traveling co-conspirator, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has similarly well documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamic supremacist organizations.
The Tri-Faith Initiative features links to both groups on their website, under the “Resources” and “Recommended Reading” tabs. Considering the security concerns presented by a post 9/11 world, these links are disturbing and warrant a discussion.
Dr. Mark Christian has called for the Tri-Faith Initiative to sever ties and disavow connections with all terror-linked Muslim groups.
Dr. Christian is an Egyptian-born convert to Christianity from Islam. His family’s ties to the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood go back to its founding, and his conversion to Christianity has earned him a fatwa of death, should he return to his home country.
Dr. Christian is hosting a pair of conferences in Omaha and Lincoln on the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the heartland, at which the lead presenter will be Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch and favored target of radical Muslims everywhere.
In one recent instance, a large radio station has canceled a previously scheduled interview with Dr. Christian and Mr. Spencer, claiming to have done so “on advice of legal counsel.”
This is the station that features Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin as the mainstays of their weekday programming. The largest radio station in the state has expressed interest in speaking with Mr. Spencer, but only if the Tri-Faith Initiative remains undiscussed.
CAIR has been tweeting and speaking against the planned conferences, labeling them “Islamophobic” despite having made no effort to determine their content.
The primary weapon employed by CAIR and ISNA is pre-emption by intimidation. The “co-conspirators” level charges of Islamophobia at the first sign of opposition. They threaten lawsuits and boycotts, doing a 21st-century version of shouting down their opposition.
Attempts to address the concerns raised over the clear links between CAIR, ISNA and the proposed Mosque, have been met with stony silence from the Jewish and Christian legs of this Tri-Faith stool.
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All Dr. Christian has asked, is that the Mosque organizers eschew the support of, and affiliation with, CAIR and ISNA, as well as any other groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood or terrorism.
Intimidation by CAIR in the American heartland amidst the myopia of mainstream Christians and Reform Jews with a MB Mosque partner in their Tri-Faith Initiative is a travesty of interfaith dialogue. We need look no further than CAIR’s media Jihad against the documentary Honor Diaries. Now we have Brandeis University subjected to another CAIR MB attack that resulted in the university President cowardly rescinding a commencement honorary degree for former Muslim Somali American women’s rights advocate and noted author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
These represent a clear and present danger of Interfaith dialogue to free speech and the right to criticize a religion that intolerantly denigrates personal liberties and freedoms that are protected under our Constitution.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.
