CAIR's Press Conference

Hat tip Investigative Project on Terrorism


Once it became known that the killers in San Bernardino were Muslim, CAIR called a press conference this evening in Anaheim. I watched most of it until the the networks cut away. The first speaker was CAIR's SoCal director, Hussam Ayloush, who gave the standard fare about condolences for the victims. Then Muzammil Siddiqi, head imam of the Islamic Society of Garden Grove, head of the Southern California Shura Council, and former president of the Islamic Society of North America ( a Muslim Brotherhood front group) gave a short statement of condolences. Siddiqi said what he always says that such acts are prohibited by Islam. Then we heard from a brother-in-law of one of the suspects (Syed Farook), Farhad Khan, who spoke and expressed his sorrow and condolences. He said he had no idea why his brother-in-law committed this act. When reporters tried to ask him questions, he declined and Ayloush stepped in to shield him from questioning. Then the inevitable interfaith Christian pastors stepped to the microphone. At that point, the networks cut away.

How ironic that Ayloush, the man who spoke at a protest in front of the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles in October of 2000 as UCLA Muslim Student Association students reportedly shouted. "Death to Israel" and "Death to Jews", would speak on this occasion. But there again, he is well practiced for these occasions. It's getting to the point Ayloush needs to sleep in his suit and tie in case he gets called out to give one of these press conferences, which are becoming more and more frequent..

And that Siddiqi, who in 1992 hosted the Blind Shiekh, Omar Abdel Rahman, at his mosque and translated his sermon about jihad, would be there to give us his usual assurances that this has nothing to do with Islam.

If I weren't so used to these scenes, I would have retched.