12/28/2017
When the Clarion Project broke the story about a congressional run in Massachusetts by an official from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Jamaat ul-Fuqra (which now uses the name of Muslims of the Americas or MOA), we pointed out that she casts herself as “unapologetically progressive.”
We knew it would be fascinating to see how progressives respond to the “progressive” candidacy of Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, who is running in the Democratic primary in Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District against Rep. Richard Neal. An articulate, likable, African-American female attorney who styles herself as a civil rights activist would normally be a formidable challenger in today’s anti-establishment atmosphere.
However, she and the organizations she serves have repeatedly espoused views that progressives are used to condemning from anti-Semites and neo-Nazis from the “alt-right.”
Fuqra & CAIR
To recap just a tiny bit of the information from our expose: She promoted an article written by the Pakistan-based leader of Fuqra that sanitizes Hitler by presenting moral equivalence between him and his Jewish victims and attributing Pearl Harbor and 9/11 to Jewish conspiracies.
Fuqra (MOA) is currently under federal investigation and is openly supportive of Hizbul Mujahideen, a designated terrorist group in Pakistan and Kashmir. Clarion Project has set up a website to store our unprecedented body of research into the Fuqra group at FuqraFiles.com.
Amautl-Wadud is a board member of CAIR’s Massachusetts wing, which slyly omits mentioning her connection to MOA beyond saying she is the general counsel to a “New York Muslim congregation,” referring to MOA’s “Islamberg” headquarters.
A dozen Muslim organizations in the U.S. and Canada have asked the State Department to review designating the Fuqra as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The documentation of Islamberg’s extremism is immense. For example, its website used to promote “The Synagogue of Satan,” an anti-Semitic, Holocaust denial website. A screenshot shows that Islamberg listed the website—and only this website—as a “MUST SEE.”
The Justice Department identified CAIR as an entity of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, specifically its secret Palestine Committee section that was established to covertly assist the Hamas terrorist group. That happened during the trial of a Muslim Brotherhood front, the Holy Land Foundation, for financing Hamas. CAIR was labeled an “unindicted co-conspirator” by the U.S. government during the trial.
“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing from another terrorism case.
How have self-proclaimed progressives in Massachusetts responded thus far?
The Principled, Open-Minded Progressive
Boston-based David Pakman, host of the massively popular David Pakman Show, is unabashedly progressive but does listen to the other side. Here is how he reacted to the “unapologetically progressive” candidate in his state:
Insert Screenshot from David Pakman Tweet
The Triggered Closed-Minded Progressive
Democratic political strategist Matt L. Barron, based in Massachusetts, has been enthusiastically promoting Amatul-Wadud’s candidacy on Twitter. According to his company website, he has worked on political campaigns for 35 years and is “one of the Democratic Party’s most experienced opposition researchers.”
Apparently, his research skills disappeared when he decided to back her campaign, or maybe he just doesn’t care that much.
I politely sent him our article responding to Amatul-Wadud’s declared candidacy and he initially responded with an argument based on prioritization; that concern over her ties to Islamist extremists and her promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is irrelevant because he likes her and there’s nothing more important than backing anti-establishment candidates. Nothing.
Barron was then triggered and blocked me after using his self-touted research skills to find a hit piece about Clarion Project on the Internet. He mentioned the Southern Poverty Law Center’s placing of this author and Clarion on its widely-ridiculed list of anti-Muslim haters (which includes Muslims!).
His advertised research skills (or lack thereof) were on full display with his referencing of the discredited list and his failing to realize the corner he backed himself into: The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote about Fuqra’s history of terrorism and extremism in 2002.
Yes, that’s right: The source cited by Barron in order to defend Amatul-Wadud earlier reported that the group she represents is a dangerous extremist group involved in terrorism. You can decide whether that’s the product of terrible research skills or willful blindness. The exchange is below:
Insert screenshot from tweets with Matt L. Baron
The Silent Faux Progressive
Since Amatul-Wadud is an official for CAIR’s Massachusetts chapter, it’s no surprise that this chapter and CAIR-National is promoting her candidacy. But why did CAIR bring her on in the first place and purposely disguise her affiliation with Fuqra?
It’s a reasonable question, so I offered CAIR-MA a chance to explain themselves. Their response was cowardly silence.
Insert screenshot from tweet to CAIR-MA
Democrats in Massachusetts are now forced to confront the inherent contradiction between Islamism-associated extremism and progressive values.
To what degree are they willing to sacrifice the progressive values for the sake of having an anti-establishment candidate who checks every box of identity politics?
Will the self-righteousness of defending a minority overpower their desire to confront extremism and intolerance, even from a minority?
Democratic primary voters in Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District now have three models to follow.