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CORRECTION: Shawn Steel made a factual error in this piece. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the southern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, did not co-host the May 1998 event as described in the piece.
In light of my pro-Muslim track record, readers will share my astonishment at the vicious firestorm of abuse that has been directed at me personally following a widely made observation about contemporary Islam. A few weeks ago, I was invited by the University of Southern California chapter of the College Republicans to speak at a "support our troops" rally," at which I applauded the success of our troops, the president's vision, and the liberation for the Iraqi people. So far so good. Then, I went on to say "The Islamic community has a cancer growing within it, which hates Jews, hates freedom, and hates Western society...the disease within Islam must be rectified" — some something as obvious as it is politically incorrect. A huge outcry followed — one compounded by the subsequent article in the Daily Trojan (USC's student newspaper) that misquoted me as stating "The disease OF Islam must be rectified" (emphasis added) — transmitting my comment into an excoriation of the world's second largest religion as a "disease." The newly installed editor has since printed a retraction. Out of nowhere, I
now find myself subject of a national protest campaign organized by a
group called Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). For example, CAIR described
several incidents by different Republican and conservative organizations
of actions against Islam. They described my misquoted statements as "anti-Muslim
bigotry spewed by a minority of hate-mongers...." YOU'VE
GOT HATE MAIL O.K., I can understand why an organization like CAIR would be upset — if I had actually castigated Islam as diseased. But I did not. I reminded the Daily Trojan of that fact, and demanded a correction. I informed CAIR they were responding to a misquote and asked them to call off their troops — to no avail. Being misquoted is a predictable side effect of leftist journalism. I've been punching and getting punched for years, which I expect in the course of honest political debate. What I didn't expect was the depth of hatred and alienation from so many American Muslims. Of the hundreds of messages I've received as a result of this CAIR-organized e-mail bombardment, not one has contained a good word for the president. None expressed any support for our troops or for the liberation of their fellow Muslims in Iraq from the tyrannical yoke of radical secularist Saddam Hussein. The incessant refrain was I was hateful for warning against a poisoned element of contemporary Islam, or simply spiteful broadsides against Israel. A review of a few of the responses I received was quite an education for me; I have not included the senders e-mail addresses or names out of respect for their privacy:
FRIENDS
AND FOES CAIR's history is checkered. CAIR defended convicted blind sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, who planned the first 1993 World Trace Center bombing. CAIR apologized for the twin East African-embassy bombings, as a "misunderstanding of both sides." When President Bush closed the "Holy Land Foundation" as a terrorist front for Hamas, CAIR loudly complained it was "unjust" and "disturbing." More recent, one individual who led the attack against me made some interesting comments. CAIR's southern California executive director, Hussam Ayloush co-hosted an event in May 1998 at which an Egyptian militant Islamic leader, Wagdi Ghunaym, call Jews the "descendants of the apes." National Chairman Omar Ahmad made an astonishing and troublesome admission when he told a crowd of California Muslims in July 1998, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America. And Islam the only accepted religion on earth...." CAIR wants an apology. Instead, they need to apologize — Shawn Steel is the immediate past chairman of the California Republican party. |
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primary task of any political-party chairman is to recruit new leaders
from new communities into the party. This is particularly true in California,
where I recently ended a two-year term as chairman of the California Republican
party. During that time, I directly sponsored more minority clubs for
formal chartering than any prior chair. I made a special point of outreaching
to Arab and Muslim Americans. I personally encouraged a considerable number
of Muslims to assume active leadership in the California Republican party.
I had the first Muslim prayer given at our state-party convention, appointed
Muslims to important party positions, and encouraged the chartering of
Arab and Muslim Republican clubs.
Mr. Rumsfield and Cheney along with Wolfowitz are a bunch of murderers,
plunderers and should be tried for war crimes.
