This post originally appeared at The Clarion Project.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front by the U.S. government, has released a new video through its Michigan chapter that ironically uses deception to allay worries about Islamist deception.
The video featuring CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid says that “anti-Muslim bigots” who “sow the seeds of distrust about Muslims and Islam” are incorrect in referencing taqiyya, an Islamic doctrine permitting deception. Some Sunnis reject taqiyya as being Shiite in origin, but doctrines of deception nonetheless exist and are used by Islamists from either branch of Islam.
Walid says that taqiyya “gives permission for individuals to conceal some of their thoughts or beliefs due to extremely dire circumstances,” such as a Muslim who worships a false idol under threat of torture or death.
He later says it can only be done for “saving one’s life.” However, since Muslims believe they are part of one ummah or community, it is implied that lying to save another Muslim’s life is permissible.
The problem is that Islamists believe they are working to save other Muslims from “extremely dire circumstances.” And, of course, an Islamist is permitted to lie to protect his own life from repercussions like jail time.
If you think that is an unfair parsing of words, look at what CAIR—the source of this video–has done and said.
The Justice Department identified CAIR as an entity of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood when the Holy Land Foundation was prosecuted for financing Hamas. CAIR was labeled as an unindicted co-conspirator in that trial. The Muslim country of the United Arab Emirates ended its support of CAIR when it banned the Muslim Brotherhood and designated CAIR as a terrorist group.
The FBI wiretapped two of CAIR’s founders at a secret Brotherhood/Hamas meeting in 1993 where the leading participants were recorded explicitly discussing advancing the Islamist agenda through deception. They discussed forming a new non-profit with a clean trail for this purpose. Here is a partial transcript of the exchange:
“Holy Land Foundation leader Shukri Abu Baker: I swear by your God that war is deception. War is deception. We are fighting our enemy with a kind heart and we never thought of deceiving it. War is deception. Deceive, camouflage, pretend that you’re leaving while you’re walking that way. Or do we have to be…Deceive your enemy.”
CAIR founder Omar Ahmad: This is like one who plays basketball; he makes a player believe that he is doing this while he does something else…UI. I agree with you. Like they say; politics is a completion of war.
Holy Land Foundation leader Shukri Abu Baker: Yes, politics—like war—is deception.”
This exchange is part of the reason why federal prosecutors said in a court filing for another terrorism trial:
“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, 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.”
Dawud Walid, the CAIR official in the video about deception, has a history of inflammatory statements that include repeated deceptive characterizations of law enforcement, including accusing the FBI of “basically cultivating and inciting people towards extremism” and “manufacturing their own terrorism suspects to give the appearance that they’re actually doing something tangible in the so-called ‘War on Terrorism.’”
He has also accused the U.S. of undermining the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and made comments disparaging Independence Day and Memorial Day, including being quoted by another CAIR official as suggesting fallen U.S. troops should not be honored. You can read more in our profile of CAIR’s Michigan chapter.
This deception is justified by Islamist doctrine beyond the concept oftaqiyya.
The Reliance of the Traveler is an authoritative manual on sharialaw endorsed by Al-Azhar University (the top school of learning in Sunni Islam), the U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood frontInternational Institute of Islamic Thought and the Fiqh Council of North America, a section of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). It teaches that Muslims first preference should be to tell the truth, followed by “employ[ing] words to give a misleading impression,” followed by lying if it is for a “praiseworthy aim.”
In such cases where the objective cannot be achieved truthfully, it is “obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory.” Accompanying examples include lying to an “oppressor” about where a Muslim is located or lying to someone who is trying to stop a Muslim from performing an obligatory act.
In word and in deed, CAIR has shown us that it believes in using deception for its cause. The latest video is a deceptive attempt to make you unconcerned about the deception it practices.
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