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Source: http://frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=9981
Bad Day for CAIR
(FrontPage Magazine) - Evan McCormick Last Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security held the second in a series of hearings aimed at examining Saudi Arabia's role in exporting Islamic extremism abroad, focusing on the prevalence of the radical Wahhabi Islamic sect among Muslim political groups in the U.S. Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) executive director Nihad Awad and chairman Omar Ahmed were invited to testify, but both declined. In their absence the committee heard compelling evidence that Saudi Arabia financially and ideologically supports a network of American organizations that act as the defenders, financiers, and front groups of international terrorists. CAIR has been a major player in this network since its creation in 1994, with a particularly soft spot for the suicide-bombing death squads of Hamas. Chairman Jon Kyl said, "a small group of organizations based in the U.S. with Saudi backing and support, is well advanced in its four-decade effort to control Islam in America - from mosques, universities, and community centers to our prisons and even within our military. Moderate Muslims who love America and want to be part of our great country are being forced out of those institutions." Senator Chuck Schumer stated that prominent members of CAIR - referring specifically to Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmed - have "intimate links with Hamas." Later, he remarked that "we know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism." In recent months, three CAIR officials were indicted on terrorism-related charges. News services reported that former CAIR community affairs director Bassem K. Khafagi had pleaded guilty to charges of visa and bank fraud in federal court in Detroit, for his role with the Islamic Assembly of North America, a group that has advocated violence against the U.S. and is believed to have funneled money to organizations with terrorist connections.