Fox News Special Report: "Four House Republicans on Wednesday accused the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group of trying to "infiltrate" Capitol Hill by placing interns in the offices of lawmakers who handle national security issues.
The four lawmakers, members of the anti-terror caucus, asked for an investigation into the Council on American Islamic Relations after discovering an internal memo noting the group's strategy."
This seem ridiculous to me. First, it sounds like the CAIR is becoming just like anyother organization trying to lobby congress to pass bills fit to their needs. So, if congress wants to stop them, then stop all lobbying. Second, the way this is presented poses CAIR as a terrorist group and fails to mention the Christian groups that have sought to infiltrate congress in the same manner. If correct, Jerry Falwells college and law school specifically trains Christians to become leaders and politicians to push the Christian agenda.
Should this draw the same concerns?
Source:
1) Fox News Article
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/14/gop-lawmakers-accuse-muslim-advocacy-group-planting-spies-capitol-hill/
2) Info on Falwell Law School
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4632072
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I'll have to play devil's advocate momentarily, at least. First,
ReplyDelete"The memo cited three House committees -- Homeland Security, Intelligence and the Judiciary -- as panels on which lawmakers preside over policy affecting American Muslims."
Are these really the only three panels where policy affects American Muslims? Because those would seem to be the main three involved in terrorism too. If so, perhaps this is just a bad sign of the state of our society.
Second, why did the Justice Department name CAIR as a co-conspirator in a terrorism case, and why did the FBI sever "once-close ties" (whatever that means) with CAIR. The second one they said was because of mounting evidence of ties to a support network for Hamas. I still don't really know anything about Hamas, but it's been designated a terrorist organization.
So I can see cause for concern, but overall I also agree with Brent. Any group has a right to pursue an interest in their own government. Obviously that's what many Christian organizations have done. Perhaps this representative should be more concerned that interns have such great power in Congress.
Well continuing your devil's advocate tone, I suggest you wiki Nicaragua v. United States. You will see it is not uncommon even for Christian Americans to fund terrorism if they believe it is in their interest.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I mimic your thoughts. Under the current rules of lobbying they can try to "infiltrate" as much as they want. The bigger problem is the power lobbyist have.
But are these even lobbyists they're discussing? I thought they were trying to get people employed in Congress, mainly as interns.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that they were not trying to lobby but become interns. This is why in my original post I juxtaposed CAIR to Falwell's Law School. Their mission was not to "lobby" for Christian causes but to "infiltrate" the highest levels of government. Monica Goodling reported that 150 Liberty University graduates were in the Bush Administration at some point.
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