FBI Rebuts CAIR Scare Tactics

Here's how CAIR explains Islamophobia:

When 9-11 happened, the people already predisposed to viewing Islam with suspicion jumped on this bandwagon and through a multitude of primarily right wing outlets have been successful in creating a climate of extreme prejudice, suspicion and fear against Muslims. This sentiment has also been aided by many pro-Israeli commentators such as Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson, Judith Miller, and Bernard Lewis among many others.

It's all a big problem in CAIR's eyes:

Such public attitude translates into discrimination, exclusion and violence. In 2005, CAIR processed a total of 1,972 civil rights complaints, compared to 1,522 cases reported to CAIR in 2004. This constitutes a 29.6 percent increase in the total number of complaints of anti-Muslim harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment from 2004.

CAIR can't help itself; it must threaten us with the consequences:

The impact of Islamophobia is not only seen in these large increases in complaints of discrimination by Muslims but it can have other consequences that will be very detrimental to the overall society. Muslim youth in the West have grown up being preached ideas of plurality, equality and freedom. When such ideas are not applied towards their own empowerment it can lead to disillusionment, social disorder and in the worst cases irrational violence.

Interesting, isn't it, that the focus is on youth? You think ill thoughts of us, they seem to say, and you will have London subway bombers, Paris car burners and Carolina pipe bombers.

More interesting, isn't it, that it's all gross overstatement? For all CAIR's concerns, far more Catholics and Protestants face hate crimes than Muslims ... and Jews, who CAIR professes no concern for, are the targets of 66 percent of the hate crimes, compared to Muslims' 11 percent. This from an Investors Business Daily editorial citing new FBI stats:

Not only are anti-Islamic hate crimes way down, but they're a fraction of overall religious hate crimes. The overwhelming majority of such crimes target Jews, something CAIR and other Muslim groups don't seem all that concerned about.

In 2006, a whopping 66% of religiously motivated attacks were on Jews, while just 11% targeted Muslims, even though the Jewish and Muslim populations are similar in size. Catholics and Protestants, who together account for 9% of victims, are subject to almost as much abuse as Muslims in this country.

CAIR can trumpet all they want about anti-Islamic hate, but the fact of the matter is that in all of last year, the FBI indentified just 156 anti-Muslim hate crimes, down 68 percent from 2001.

Such a small number does not serve CAIR's policy wonks well. For them to succeed in fighting the Patriot Act, the TSA and the war, they need an intolerant America, but they're stuck with an America more tolerant by far than the countries from which they, or their forefathers, hailed.

They're between a Ka'ba and a hard place. To raise funds and be an Islamic NAACP, they must cry wolf, but they can never accept that, as the FBI evidence shows, tolerant America is not the problem, but the hate-flaming intolerance of Islam is. Admit this, and CAIR would have to turn its attention to trying to reform Islam, not trying to Islam-ize America.

hat-tip: memeorandum; chart: IBD