by Rod Williams, Jan 12, 2011- There are allegation that proponents of Shariah Law and Muslim Jihadist have infiltrated the conservative movement.
The most important conservative political gatherings in the nation is the Conservative Political Action Conference. It was founded in 1973 and anyone who is anyone in the conservative movement attends this annual gathering. It is often the launching pad for conservative candidates who seek and often win the Republican Presidential nomination. Ronald Reagan, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich have been keynote speakers at the annual CPAC conference.
The sponsor of the CPAC conference is the American Conservative Union. ACU has been around since 1964 and is a leading voice in grassroots American conservative thought and activism. In addition to ACU, over 100 organization including The American Rifle Association, Human Events, and Eagle Forum are participants in CPAC.
There are two specific claims to support the charge that CPAC has been infiltrated by jihadist:
1. Suhail Khan a Washington lobbyist and attorney, who was on the staff of the George W. Bush White House, is apparently a member of a group called Muslims for America and he is also on the board of the ACU.
From a web search, it appears that Muslims for America is a pro-American, patriotic, bi-partisan organization. They state they have, "zero tolerance for any kind of terrorism." Their web site denounces terrorism and features news of Muslim clerics and Muslim leaders and Muslim pop stars who denounce terrorism.
Khan's father, it is alleged, was a founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in America and Khan was also reportedly on the board of CAIR (The Council on American-Islamic Relations) and served on committees at ISNA (the Islamic Society of North America). Both CAIR and ISNA have been classified by the US government as terrorist organization and have a relationship to Hamas.
2. The other connection is Grover Norquist. Norquist, who is married to an Arab-American Muslim women, is on the board of ACU. He is a founder of Americans for Tax Reform and is a former Executive Director of the National Taxpayers Union. He has a long history of conservative and anti-communist activism including, during the cold war, assisting the Contra rebels in Nicaragua and building support for other anti-soviet movements in the world.
Americans for Tax Reform is a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization and was founded in 1985 and is dedicated to resisting increases in the personal or business income tax. Norquist is co-founder of an organization called the Islamic Free Market Institute. It is alleged that Norquist is also associated with other Muslim organizations that allegedly have ties to terrorist organization.
This latest charge of CPAC ties to terrorist organization may destroy CPAC. There has already developed a splintering in CPAC, not due to the allegation of ties to Muslim terrorist, but due to the admission of GoProud as a sponsor. GoProud is a gay conservative group and a couple of the family values type conservative organizations are pulling out of CPAC because CPAC admitted GoProud. CPAC has also been hit with an embezzlement scandal.
The allegations of CPAC jihadist ties have primarily been reported by World Net Daily, however they have also been made by other influential conservatives including Michelle Malkin, Pamela Geller, and David Horowitz.
I have no way of knowing if the allegation of conservatives with ties to terrorist organization are true or not or if the paranoid wing nuts are off on a tangent of character assignation looking for Jihadist under every bed. Certainly there have always been traitors and efforts of our enemies to infiltrate American organization and there have been front groups doing the bidding of foreign interest. It has always happened. Benedict Arnold and Alger Hiss were real people. Prior to American entry into World War II, Germany helped fund American anti-war groups and during the cold war there were numerous organizations that had domestic and foreign communist ties and supported the interest of our enemies. Still, I find it hard to believe someone of Mr. Norquest's stature and commitment to conservative causes is a Muslim Jihadist traitor.
Being part of a front group or doing the bidding of foreign interest is much different than simply having association with others who are associated with terrorist organization. People who are politically active and who try to influence opinion in the Muslim world are no doubt going to have associations with unsavory characters. People who seek to influence the opinion of others have to engage them. I am not going to declare someone guilty by association. Being married to a Muslim does not make you guilty of being a jihadist.
If Mr. Khan and Mr. Norquest are guilty, by association, of having ties to terrorist organizations, so am I. You see, I either am currently, or have been, a member of The American Conservative Union, The National Taxpayers Union, and Americans for Tax Reform. So, if Norquest is guilty of being a member of an organization that has ties to organizations that supported terrorist organizations then I am guilty of belonging to an organization that was heading by a person that was a member of an organization that had ties to organizations that supported terrorist organizations. If Mr. Khan is guilty of being the son of a founder of a terrorist associated organization , I am guilty of being a member of an organization that has on its board a man who is the son of a founder of a terrorist associated organization.
While I am confessing, I also once taught a homebuyersQuran. Also, some years ago I visited Turkey on a 15-day vacation and enjoyed it very much. I ate with Muslims and had long conversations with Muslims and stayed in Muslim-owned pensions and bought some beautiful oriental rugs from Muslim merchants. I visited the Grand Mosque and the Blue Mosque and some other mosque, the names of which I cannot recall.
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