The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has announced that it has released a video appeal in an African language calling for “good behavior” in relation to the controversial film at the center of recent events. According to a CAIR press release:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today released a video appeal in Yoruba, a language spoken by more than 20 million people, to those protesting an anti-Islam film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. [NOTE: This is the second in a planned series of such videos to be released by CAIR. See below.*] In the CAIR video, Imam AbduSemih Tadese of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh tells viewers in West Africa that the U.S. government has described the film as ‘distasteful’ for its offensive caricature of the Prophet Muhammad. (NOTE: The appeal was produced for CAIR by Take1Media of Cleveland, Ohio.) The imam states: ‘It is clear that the motive behind the film is to enrage Muslims and to display a hatred of Islam. However, Muslims need to demonstrate good behavior as our Prophet (peace be upon him) dealt harmoniously with people. I hereby appeal to our scholars to calm down the youth and encourage people to cultivate exemplary behavior as Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) teaches.’ He goes on to say: ‘I want to remind you of the words of God in the Quran: ‘Hold to forgiveness; enjoin what is good, and turn away from the ignorant.” [The Holy Quran 7:199] On Saturday, CAIR released a similar video appeal in Arabic. In it, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad tells viewers in the Middle East that ordinary Americans and the U.S. government should not be blamed for the religious hatred expressed in the film. Last week, CAIR condemned the killings of American diplomats in Libya and said that extremists must not be allowed to control the political and religious discourse worldwide. CAIR made that statement at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., at which representatives of CAIR and other Muslim organizations condemned both the killings of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats in that nation and the attack on the American embassy in Egypt.
Watch the film here.
A post from last week reported that at the press conference mentioned above, the CAIR Executive Director read a statement appearing to draw an equivalence between the embassy attackers and the filmmakers.
Documents released in the Holy Land Trial have revealed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as identifying the organization itself as being part of the US. Brotherhood. A recent post discussed an interview with the Deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in which he confirms a relationship between his organization and CAIR. Investigative research posted on GMBDW had determined that CAIR had it origins in the U.S. Hamas infrastructure and CAIR and its leaders have a long history of defending almost all individuals accused of terrorism by the US. government, frequently calling such prosecutions a “war on Islam.” In 2009, a US federal judge ruled “The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas.”