Hussam Ayloush's Twisted Definition of Terrorist

Hussam Ayloush is the director of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Even by CAIR standards, he is one of their most disingenuous public figures. He illustrates this perfectly by this latest posting on his personal blog, where he tries to put his own definition on the term, "terrorist".

Let's take a look at these statements in detail.

"It is regularly used by our government to describe the targets of our CIA's drone attacks (who mostly turned out to be innocent civilians) or those who oppose our foreign invasions."

Really? Like Anwar al Awlaki, for example? The fact is that we have taken out numerous terrorist leaders using drones, most notably, the Al Qaeda and Taliban types hidden in the lawless provinces of Pakistan. In addition, how about Al Qaeda leader Abu Musad al Zarqawi, who was also killed in an airstrike in Iraq? Does Ayloush not approve of our killing terrorist leaders like the above, especially Awlaki, who while in the US associated with many of the so-called mainstream Muslim organizations that Ayloush associates with? As for his claim that most victims turn out to be innocent civilians, these surgical strikes have tended to take out those the target happens to be huddling with in the same house or vehicle. While any innocent deaths are regrettable, they are inevitable in any war where air strikes are used. Civilized nations like the US and Israel go to great lengths to avoid such collateral damage. And before you bring up, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden etc, remember that World War II was a war for our very survival.

As for those who disapprove of our foreign invasions, let's look at specifics. In the case of Afghanistan, what were we supposed to do after 9-11 when the Taliban refused to kick out Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, whom they were allowing to use Afghanistan as a base for their terror operations against the US?  In the case of Iraq, though reasonable people can still disagree on that action, we did remove an evil dictator, Saddam Hussein, and gave the Iraqis a chance for democracy. Interestingly enough, as we speak, Ayloush is actively lobbying for US intervention in Syria.

"It is what Al-Sisi calls pro-democracy Egyptians who oppose his military coup." 
 "
Rightly so, since the current Egyptian leader, Al Sisi, is referring to the Muslim Brotherhood, the umbrella organization of Islamist terror organizations, and the organization that is sending its followers out into Egyptian streets to attack Christians and burn their churches. In addition, they are now attacking police stations and military installations as well, with large loss of life.

"There are certainly groups such as Al Qaeda, Jewish Defense League, KKK, Neo-Nazis, and many others which have engaged in terrorism and deserve to be labeled "terrorist". However, by falsely accusing their legitimate opponents of being terrorists, governments that are actually engaging in terrorist-like behavior seek to dehumanize those opponents in order to justify human rights violations and murder against them and their communities. The manipulation of the term also leads to the trivialization and normalization of real acts of terror committed by such governments or actual terrorist groups and individuals." 

While I was never a fan of the Jewish Defense League, whose leaders, Meir Kahane and Irv Rubin,  I considered thugs, for Ayloush to compare them to Al Qaeda is beyond ludicrous. The JDL was founded on the premise that Jews should meet anti-Semitic violence with violence, but they never dreamed of such violence and mass murder that Al Qaeda has engaged in. As for governments that have engaged in terrorist-like behavior, let us begin with Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and that government which has been the greatest financier of radical Islamic ideology, Saudi Arabia. Sorry, Mr. Ayloush; Israel and the US are not on that list. While Ayloush himself puts Syria and the former Ghaddafi-led government of Libya on his list, the rebels that oppose Assad and the folks running around Benghazi that killed 4 Americans are terrorists in the truest sense of the word. As far as "actual terrorist groups", aside from Al Qaeda, we can list Ansar al Sharia, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad to say nothing about the organization that spawned them all, the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Therefore, next time you hear the term "terrorist", remember that it could be about a real terrorist, a freedom fighter, a pro-democracy activist, or some browned-skinned collateral damage."

The reference to "brown-skinned collateral damage" is a cynical and thinly-veiled attempt by Ayloush to pit "brown-skinned" people in America against whites. This is part of the strategy of CAIR and other questionable Islamic organizations-to convince racial minorities that they should band together with "persecuted" Muslims in the US in a common cause. It is despicable and divisive. One example of this is the drive by CAIR in Southern California (under Ayloush himself) to exploit the World War II relocation of Japanese and Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor and draw a connection to the imagined situation of Muslim-Americans post 9-11. It is a false analogy. Nobody is talking about rounding up Muslims and putting them in camps.

In addition, let us not forget that Ayloush is a man who spoke at a protest outside the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles back on October 22, 2000 as leaders of the UCLA Muslim Student Association were reportedly screaming, "Death to Israel-Death to Jews". It kind of makes you ask what moral authority Ayloush is speaking from.