The owner of a Minor League baseball team in Connecticut took heat for refusing to meet with members of the Hamas-Linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded a meeting with E. Miles Prentice III, the owner of the Single-A Norwich Tigers and co-owner of the Double-A Midland RockHounds (Texas), Fox 61 reported.
Prentice is chairman of the Center for Security Policy, a group designated by the troubled Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an “anti-Muslim hate group.”
The ball team owner told the media he has no intention of meeting with CAIR and considers the SPLC to be a “radical leftist” organization.
“My colleagues and I at the Center for Security Policy are more than willing to debate the content of our research and advocacy on behalf of freedom and the practice of peace through strength with Americans of differing views, but who are also committed to freedom and our Constitution,” Prentice said in a statement. “We see no utility, however, to meeting with, or otherwise legitimating, those who seek to silence us or are associated with terrorist organizations like Hamas.”
CAIR is an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror-funding investigation conducted by the FBI. And the SPLC has recently been mired in scandal after having been forced to fire its own founder for sexual misconduct, been sued for defamation over it purported “hate list,” and come under a cloud for misusing funds.
In a second statement emailed to Breitbart News, Prentice noted that he would soon set up meetings with members of local churches.
For many baseball fans, the game is considered America’s pastime and a near-religious experience. There is, of course, no religious test for attending the games or any other form of discrimination practiced by any team with which I have been associated—never has been, never will be. The Norwich Tigers welcome everyone who wants to enjoy the sport as much as our outstanding players do.
After a short, long-planned family vacation next week, I will be meeting with influential leaders of various faith communities to affirm my personal commitment to welcoming and serving all of our fans, irrespective of their religious beliefs, if any, as we have always done.
Tark Aouadi, the executive director of CAIR, Connecticut, however, attacked Prentice as a “racist.”
“It is unfortunate, but expected, that instead of sitting down to talk about legitimate local concerns of safety, inclusion, and otherwise participate in the free exchange of ideas, that the Tiger’s team owner has opted to smear the messenger,” Aouadi exclaimed in a statement.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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