CAIR Doesn’t Want People to Use the Word ‘Islamist’ Because ‘Islamophobia’

In an appearance with MSNBC on Monday, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper insisted that the use of the word “Islamist” to describe radical Muslim terrorists is offensive to Muslims.

Breitbart TV covered Hooper’s remarks. He stated:

If you find a plot where there’s some violence planned, of course stop that plot, but we’re also seeing a tremendous rise in Islamophobia, not only in Europe but in the United States. We’re, ourselves, we’re receiving [a] tremendous increase in hate messages and threats. We’re seeing threats to mosques, we’re seeing hate rallies against ordinary Muslim conferences, like over the weekend in Texas. So we’re seeing [a] tremendous rise in the level of Islamophobia, and I would also caution us all on terminology. In the package preceding this segment, the reference was repeatedly made to “Islamists,” used as a pejorative. And when you start using terms like that as a pejorative, I think it sends a very negative message. It sends a message that anyone involved with Islam in any way is somehow engaging in something they shouldn’t be engaging in. So, we have to examine the terminology and we have to, you know, get out of this downward spiral of hostility and mutual mistrust that these horrific incidents can lead to.

While CAIR profiles itself as a civil rights organization, the has all too often revealed itself as one that has embraced radical Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

CAIR was accused as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing trial in United States history—The Holy Land Foundation Trial. CAIR was accused of working with a charity that had solicited millions of dollars for Palestinian jihadist group Hamas, which is recognized by the United States and many other countries as an officially designated terrorist organization.

Federal prosecutors said of CAIR in an official court memo: “From its founding by the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists… The conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.” An FBI agent testified at the time that CAIR was “listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee.”

Ever since, CAIR has engaged in an active campaign to smear those critical of Islam as “Islamophobic” and “racist,” while portraying American Muslims as helpless, marginalized victims.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise when CAIR takes umbrage to the use of the word “Islamist,” especially when the word more comfortably fits its profile as a pseudo-civil rights organization.