CAIR's national headquarters in Washington, D.C. |
Cincinnati's archbishop stepped in to cancel a local Catholic school's plans to host a Ramadan dinner with a Muslim group after parents learned from a WND article that federal prosecutors have linked the group to a major terror-financing case.
Archdiocese officials say they received dozens of "emotionally charged" e-mails complaining about last Friday's scheduled "interfaith" event from parents of students attending Mother of Mercy Catholic High School in Cincinnati. They protested the school's partnership with the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after reading about the Muslim advocacy group's proven ties to terrorists on WND.
On Aug. 18, WND reported that the school administration was unaware that the U.S. had named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing case in U.S.
history. They also had no idea the FBI had severed ties with CAIR and its 30 chapters – including the Cincinnati office. Or that the IRS recently stripped CAIR's national office of its non-profit status.
Some parents said they had read negative things about the national CAIR group and didn't want Mercy associated with even the local group, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
"I'm glad it's canceled; it wasn't a good thing," said Kelly Jennings, a Mercy parent who lives in Bridgetown, Ohio. "There were a lot of parents who were up in arms about it. It would have really given Mercy a bad name."
A Catholic member of the local parish who wished to remain anonymous pointed out that the school had no plans to screen CAIR officials as they do parents who enter the school building.
"Parents of the children in the Catholic schools have to be fingerprinted to volunteer in the schools, but they are bringing in people who are associated with CAIR who are presently being investigated by the FBI," she complained.
"Something just doesn't sit well with me."
Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr reportedly didn't want a terror-tied group at the school, given the complaints and the Aug. 26 event's proximity to the 9/11 anniversary.
School officials confirm he pulled the plug on the high school dinner due to security concerns. As WND has previously reported, no fewer than 15 CAIR officials have been implicated in terrorism investigations since 9/11.
"The fact that Mercy was co-hosting this Ramadan meal with the Council on American-Islamic Relations specifically had become too great a distraction from the positive intent of building relationships and understanding with our Muslim neighbors," Mother of Mercy President Kirsten MacDougal wrote in her letter to staff.
"While the archdiocese appreciates our good intentions, there is now some concern for the safety of those who would attend the meal," she added. "As a result, the archbishop has asked that we cancel our hosting the meal."
In an interview with the Associated Press, MacDougal said, "We share the concern over safety."
The rare scuttling of an interfaith event also was reported in USA Today, the Dallas Morning News and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The Franciscans Network, a local group of lay Catholics that sponsors events that bring together Christians and Muslims, rented a space at a church parish center outside the school in order to go ahead with holding an interfaith dinner Friday night, upsetting some parishioners who thought dialoguing with CAIR officials in any venue was inappropriate.
Washington-based CAIR remains under active investigation by a federal grand jury for allegedly providing material support to Hamas, a federally designated terrorist group responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis and Americans.
CAIR has documented ties to terrorists, recently exposed in the bestselling "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America."
Earlier this year, the IRS revoked CAIR's tax-exempt status for failing to file three consecutive years of tax records as required by law. The IRS responded to requests for an audit of the group by Senate and House Republicans citing the blockbuster findings revealed in "Muslim Mafia."
The Justice Department says CAIR is a terrorist front group for Hamas and its parent, the radical Muslim Brotherhood, according to court records in the Holy Land Foundation trial, which ended in convictions on all 108 counts of felony charges against the Hamas front group and its leaders.
"CAIR has been identified by the government at trial as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization – a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew," said assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Jacks, who recently won an award from Attorney General Eric Holder for convicting the Holy Land terrorists.
"From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists," wrote assistant US attorney Gordon Kromberg in a separate 2007 court filing.
CAIR in 2007 was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation's criminal scheme to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas suicide bombers and their families, prompting the FBI to cut off all outreach to the group.
"We do not have a relationship with CAIR. There are individuals in CAIR with whom we had issues with and continue to have issues with," FBI Director Robert Mueller testified earlier this year before Congress, specifically citing "concerns with regard to the national leadership."
His assistant Richard Powers earlier identified these individuals as "executives" currently working inside CAIR's national office in Washington, and the "issues" as the "connection" between the executives and the Hamas terrorist group. Powers confirmed the group and its leaders remain under FBI scrutiny.
"Until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner," advised Powers in a 2009 letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The FBI has suspended all formal outreach activities with CAIR."
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