A Chicago television news report offers a nice example of the difference in approach between those who call out Islamists for their deception and the Islamists themselves.
WLS reporter Chuck Goudie's story Wednesday focused on Sheik Kifah Mustapha's role as the Illinois State Police's first Muslim chaplain. As the Investigative Project on Terrorism first reported, Mustapha was identified by federal prosecutors as a member of a fundraising and support network for Hamas in the United States. He raised money for one arm and volunteered for a second.
Goudie's story cited the IPT report and included comments from Executive Director Steven Emerson. It also showed the court documents naming Mustapha an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) Hamas financing trial, along with a copy of a deposition Mustapha gave in which he acknowledged his volunteer work for the Islamic Association for Palestine.
The trial ended with convictions against HLF and its former officers on 108 counts. "The purpose of creating the Holy Land Foundation was as a fundraising arm for Hamas," U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis said at sentencing.
Mustapha declined to comment for the WLS report, so Ahmed Rehab from the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago office spoke for him:
"Our concern is that the Illinois State Police is kowtowing to articles online published by notorious anti-Muslims who have been in the business of smearing Muslim activists leaders and Imams for the longest time."
Smearing how? Rehab doesn't say. He certainly doesn't say the connections both IPT and WLS documented are false. Rather, he laments that "accepted leaders of this community do not have to be second guessed as a result of some notorious, dubious individual on the Internet."
Gosh, that hurts. We've noted CAIR's habit of responding to specific criticism with empty, sweeping accusations of bigotry against any and all critics. But, in this case, Rehab is the pot calling the kettle black.
As a student, he had his own web site which featured Rehab questioning the extent of the Holocaust and arguing "Jewish control over the media."
Not exactly notorious. But it's more than dubious.