CAIR Asks Active Duty Generals to Withdraw from Virginia Event Co-Sponsored by Anti-Muslim Hate Group

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on several top active duty military commanders to withdraw from an event later this week in Virginia co-sponsored by the Center for Security Policy (CSP), an anti-Muslim hate group headed by notorious Islamophobe and conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney.

CSP is co-hosting an October 17 symposium on "asymmetric threats" in McLean, Va., which includes four speakers who are lieutenant generals from several branches of the military.

• Lt. Gen. VeraLinn "Dash" Jamieson, USAF
• Lt. Gen. Daniel J. O'Donohue, USMC
• Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson, USAF
• Lt. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, U.S. Army

SEE: https://www.asymmetricthreat.net/

According to the Army's equal opportunity manual, "participation in extremist organizations and activities by Army personnel is inconsistent with the responsibilities of military service." The Air Force's manual states that participating in groups "espousing supremacist causes or advocating unlawful discrimination" is a violation of policy. Other branches of the military have similar policies.

SEE: Military Officials Aren't Supposed to Associate with Hate Groups. So Why Are These Generals Speaking at Frank Gaffney's Confab?
https://theintercept.com/2018/10/15/frank-gaffney-military-generals-anti-muslim-islamophobia/

Last year, an event at a Maryland country club featuring Gaffney was canceled after several advocacy organizations ? including CAIR ? raised concerns about his Islamophobic rhetoric.

SEE: Event at Kenwood Country Club with Right-Wing Speaker Canceled After Protest Threat
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/politics/event-at-kenwood-country-club-with-right-wing-speaker-canceled-after-protest-threat/

Gaffney, whose conspiracy theories have reportedly been used as the ideological basis for President Trump's recent "Muslim ban."

SEE: How the Anti-Muslim Fringe Conquered the White House
http://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/13/14559822/trump-islam-muslims-islamophobia-sharia
Meet Frank Gaffney, the Anti-Muslim Gadfly Reportedly Advising Donald Trump's Transition Team
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/08/meet-frank-gaffney-the-anti-muslim-gadfly-who-produced-donald-trumps-anti-muslim-poll/

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has identified Gaffney as an anti-Muslim extremist and his Center for Security Policy (CSP) as a hate group. According to the SPLC, CSP is "a conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement in the United States."

Of Gaffney himself, the SPLC says he is "gripped by paranoid fantasies about Muslims destroying the West from within, suspicious that Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya, and a proponent of a new version of the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee to root out suspected Muslim subversives."

SEE: SPLC Designated Hate Groups: Center for Security Policy
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/anti-muslim
SPLC: Frank Gaffney
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/frank-gaffney-jr

Backgrounder on Frank Gaffney:

Gaffney is a notorious anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist who has claimed that "most of the Muslim-American groups of any prominence in America are now known to be, as a matter of fact, hostile to the United States and its Constitution."

He is a key promoter of the bizarre conspiracy theory that Muslims in public service are infiltrating the government on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Gaffney has questioned "whether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States," claimed the Missile Defense Agency logo is part of a "worrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam," claimed an aide to Hillary Clinton was a secret Muslim Brotherhood operative, was a key witness for the plaintiffs in a controversial lawsuit seeking to block construction of a Tennessee mosque, promoted the debunked claim that Dearborn, Mich., is a "ghetto enclave in which it's Muslim-only," and hosted "white supremacist" Jared Taylor on his "Secure Freedom" radio program.

He has in the past:

• Suggested that Saddam Hussein was behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
• Claimed Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, was submitting to Islamic law when he condemned the burning of a Quran by a Florida pastor.
• Objected to Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.) serving on the House Intelligence Committee because they are Muslim.
• Accused Pope Francis of having "rabidly anti-American" views after the pope said it is "not Christian" to urge the deportation of undocumented immigrants and to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Gaffney was banned from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011 after accusing fellow Republicans of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, cited Gaffney in his anti-Muslim manifesto.

Gaffney's staff attorney, David Yerushalmi, has advocated outlawing the practice of Islam in America and is the key promoter of anti-Islam bills in state legislatures nationwide.

White supremacist and White House senior adviser Steve Bannon hosted Gaffney on his Sirius XM radio show "Breitbart News Daily" 29 times.

SEE: The Anti-Muslim Extremists Steve Bannon Thinks Are Experts on Islam
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/anti-muslim-hate-groups-steve-bannon_us_582b1cf0e4b0c4b63b0e70c3

Muslim community members who believe their rights have been violated are being asked to contact local police and CAIR's Civil Rights Department at 202-742-6420.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.

La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.

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CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]

SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)