Over the next month, we will be exposing new evidence about the activities of the Council on American Islamic Relations, known as CAIR. The evidence – and ensuing requests for formal investigations of CAIR – will be submitted to members of Congress, to the Departments of Justice and Treasury, as well as to the public here at Big Government. To set the scene, here’s a brief “CAIR for Dummies” backgrounder from author Paul Sperry, whose just-published best-seller Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America unmasks CAIR and its foreign backers:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations bills itself as a “civil-rights advocacy group,” much like the NAACP, but for Muslims

However, the FBI says that far from being a benign nonprofit, CAIR is a front group for Hamas terrorists and the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America. And the bureau recently cut off formal ties to CAIR’s national office in Washington and all 30 of its branch offices across the country.

At the same time, the Justice Department has blacklisted CAIR as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator in the largest terror finance case in U.S. history, the Holy Land Foundation trial. It ended in convictions on all 108 counts.

Prosecutors have also connected CAIR to the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement that seeks to institutionalize Shariah law (think: Taliban) in America and the West through immigration, coercion and political infiltration.

“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists,” said assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg in a court filing.

The FBI last year severed ties to CAIR, citing court evidence that its leaders were participating in an “ongoing” conspiracy to support terrorists. Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York has requested that the FBI’s anti-CAIR ban “should be government-wide policy.”

CAIR has proven ties to terrorists.

No fewer than 15 CAIR officials have been convicted or caught up in terrorism investigations since 9/11 — including its founding chairman, Omar Ahmad, and acting executive director, Nihad Awad.

And they remain under government suspicion, as a result of evidence emerging from the Holy Land terror trial.

“During that trial, evidence was introduced that demonstrated a relationship among CAIR, individual CAIR founders (including its current President Emeritus and its Executive Director) and … HAMAS,” wrote assistant FBI Director Richard Powers in an April 2009 letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

CAIR’s terror ties are not limited to Hamas and cross over to al-Qaida, and leaders of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus now believe CAIR to be a threat to national security. Last week, citing documents uncovered in “Muslim Mafia,” they called for an investigation of CAIR’s lobbying activities on the Hill.

CAIR insists it has no agenda other than protecting the rights of Muslim Americans.

However, the words of its own leaders reveal a hidden subversive agenda.

CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper: “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.”

CAIR Founding Chairman Omar Ahmad: “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran should be the highest authority in America.”

CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad: “Muslims in America are in the best position to show Islam and to show action and to show vision, not only for a Muslim school how it should be run, but for the entire society — how it should be run. Who better can lead America than Muslims?”

Americans should also know the following about CAIR:

* CAIR’s major funding comes from Persian Gulf sources, including Saudi Arabia.

* CAIR leaders travel frequently to the Middle East to personally raise cash.

* Bank wire shows Saudi royal family member transferred over a hundred thousand dollars into CAIR’s bank account at Citibank.

* After 9/11, the ruler of Dubai took a nearly $1 million stake in CAIR’s headquarters, just three blocks from the U.S. Capitol, and has pledged millions more.

* “Do not think about your contributions [to CAIR] as donations,” CAIR’s former chairman told CAIR’s UAE patrons. “Think about it from the perspective of rate of return. The investment of $50 million will give you billions of dollars in return for 50 years.”

* CAIR is selling its service to the UAE and Saudi governments by doing their ideological and commercial bidding. Yet CAIR is not currently registered as a foreign agent, and CAIR has never disclosed its foreign funding or relationships with countries tied to 9/11 and still potentially hostile to U.S. interests.”

Our investigative team attended the October 24 15th annual fundraiser for CAIR – and we’ll be posting on that shortly. To be continued….