The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has a message for the authors of a new book alleging a host of secret and nefarious activities by the group: We'll see you in court!
CAIR filed a lawsuit in D.C. federal court Friday against David and Chris Gaubatz, the father-and-son investigative team behind the book Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America. In the book, Chris Gaubatz acknowledges securing an internship at CAIR's headquarters in 2008 by posing as a Muslim and using an assumed name. Once inside, he took more than 12,000 documents and secretly recorded 300 hours of video, including private conversations with CAIR officials.
Citing those records, the book reports that CAIR officials grossly exaggerate their membership rolls and the depth of their domestic financial support. In addition, they actively thwart law enforcement counter-terror investigations. Following the release of the book, four congressional Republicans sought an investigation into the book's claims that CAIR seeks to place interns on committees dealing with the judiciary and homeland security.
To this last point, CAIR officials have ridiculed the book's findings in an attempt to minimize them, and attacked the author's motives. Suspiciously absent from CAIR's public shouting fest has been any claim of any falsehood in Muslim Mafia, and there's no indication CAIR issued a demand letter seeking any retractions.
The suit makes no charge of defamation or libel, instead alleging breach of contract, trespassing, and hacking CAIR computers. Politico reports that CAIR also wants a restraining order blocking the authors from using the internal CAIR documents the younger Gaubatz acknowledges taking during an internship there under an assumed name.
CAIR, rarely shy in promoting itself and its actions, is oddly quiet about the litigation, Politico notes.
Even if they should prevail on the merits of their lawsuit, CAIR officials – via their silence – vouch for the book's accuracy. It's not exactly blurb material for the paperback, but it still speaks volumes.