CAIR: Fighting Islamophobia and Cosseting Pedophiles

Adam Savit at Big Government has turned over a rock and uncovered some unsavory details about a recent influence operation mounted by CAIR:

On April 5 the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a press release urging GOP leaders to “insist” that Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC) withdraw support from the non-profit grassroots advocacy organization ACT! for America. CAIR referred to ACT! for America, one of the largest national security (and pro-American and pro-Israel) citizens organizations in the United States, as an “anti-Islam hate group.”

As we at the Center for Security Policy have reported previously at Big Government, we believe — with the backup evidence to prove it at CAIRObservatory.org — that CAIR has been operating as an unregistered foreign agent, as defined by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). FARA § 611 (o) states that foreign agents who engage in any activity to “influence any agency or official of the Government of the United States or any section of the public within the United States” must register as a foreign agent and report such activity to the Department of Justice. Therefore as Rep. Myrick and GOP leaders are “officials of the government of the United States,” CAIR’s attempt to influence their conduct and associations in this way is a clear violation of the FARA statute.

On April 13 CAIR-Tampa echoed the CAIR national office message with this action alert and directed readers to a petition calling for 5,000 signatures condemning the GOP and Myrick for associating with ACT! for America. CAIR could only find a single spokesperson to prop up their attack on ACT! For America, a certain Reverend Wilifred Allen-Faiella of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove, FL. The CAIR action alert quotes from her letter which echoes, word for word, CAIR’s talking points from their smear campaign:

“As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who preached love for all I am appalled that a Congresswoman can support a hate-filled group such as “Act for America”. Their statements about Muslims constitute hate speech and no responsible leader of this country founded on the principles that all are created equal should associate herself with such an anti-American group.”

Big mistake in spokespersons, CAIR.

So what is the problem with the Rev. Wilifred Allen-Faiella?
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Nothing, really — she just happened to let a convicted pedophile volunteer at the thrift shop next to her church’s elementary school. No big deal. This is, after all the Episcopal Church we’re talking about, whose most recently formulated moral and theological positions are not that far removed from the mission statement of NAMBLA.

Funnily enough, however, the parents of the children at St. Stephen’s school did not agree with Fr. Allen-Faiella:

According to the Miami New Times, “When parents discovered the man’s criminal record, Allen-Faiella failed to take immediate action, so the school’s principal, Carol Shabe, forcefully confronted the pastor, demanding that the man’s school access be revoked at once….” According to the report, the school principal had to ask Allen-Faiella two more times to take Sypnieski’s keys away from him before Allen-Faiella would take action. Parents and donors withdrew support for the school in reaction to the pastor’s behavior; and Pastor Allen-Faiella fired the school principal Carol Shabe later that year for “divisiveness.”

Angry parents described Allen-Faiella as “intransigent and unresponsive.” Indeed, the pastor told the Miami newspaper “I think it’s being blown totally out of proportion… The appropriate people knew about it. No big deal was made about it. And suddenly it became a big issue.”

In summary:

• CAIR is an unregistered foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (see the report at CAIRObservatory.org).
  
• This particular CAIR influence operation targeted Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC) through a related influence operation in order to smear ACT! For America as “hate-filled…anti-American.”
  
• The sole spokesperson that CAIR-Tampa could find to support their smear campaign is best known for her earlier tolerance for a convicted pedophile, for whom she permitted potential access to children in her care, according to news reports in the mainstream newspaper Miami New Times.

CSP has sent the Rev. Wilifred Allen-Faiella a letter outlining the danger she has placed herself in as a representative of an unregistered foreign agent, and urged her to contact the relevant authorities to report the details of CAIR’s influence.

Next step: Follow the money.

And who are the foreign principals — individuals, companies, organizations, government offices — bankrolling CAIR’s smear campaign using that most tolerant (of pedophiles at least) Reverend Allen-Faiella? A major one is the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), who gave CAIR $325,000 in 2007 — just part of the $6.6 million in cash and loans given to CAIR by foreign principals based in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. The OIC’s Ten Year Plan demands “deterrent punishments” for any alleged acts of so-called “Islamophobia” in non-Muslim countries.

Sound familiar? You’ve met the same unsavory characters here before, most recently last night, as they worked to get “Islamophobic” ads pulled from the sides of Miami’s municipal buses, and in the process smeared Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.

The OIC is keeping very, very busy. It has to; there are only five years remaining to complete its Ten-Year Program.

So little time, so much Islamophobia.