Will CAIR-LA Join Me in Condemning the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Scholars Who Affirm Sharia’s Persecution of Homosexuals?

The greater Los Angeles area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has quickly arranged a news conference, apparently to be held in conjunction with another left-wing political “civil rights” organization, the LGBT Center of Orange County, in order “to condemn the deadly shooting spree at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida that left at least 50 people dead and another 53 injured.”

Isn’t that precious?

As noted here many times, CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood creation from the mid-1990s, the original purpose of which was to be a media-savvy apologist for Hamas (the Brotherhood’s Palestinian terrorist wing) and other Islamist causes. The Brotherhood is the intellectual backbone of sharia-supremacist ideology – the Islamist agenda to implement Muslim law – and has a long history of vocal support for sharia’s condemnation of homosexuality and endorsement of the killing of gay people.

But if CAIR-LA is actually going to condemn the jihadist, sharia-approved mass-murder attack at the gay club in Orlando last night – the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11 – that is to be celebrated.

I wonder if CAIR-LA will be specific in its condemnation?

Will CAIR-LA, for example, condemn the Muslim Brotherhood, its creator?

In the 2011 Egyptian election that gave the Brotherhood control of the government, the Brothers basically ran a homophobia campaign tailored to the overwhelmingly Muslim population’s hostility to homosexuality. Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood’s “supreme guide,” explained that, “The West has allowed gay marriage under the pretext of democracy, which we will never allow in Egypt” (adding that the Brotherhood would also “not allow under the pretext of national unity that a Muslim woman would get married to a Christian man, which violates Islamic law”). Badie elaborated that sharia must take precedence over democratic choice because “it is not permissible for democracy to allow what’s forbidden or forbid what’s allowed, even if the entire nation agreed to it.” Badie was merely reaffirming the Brotherhood’s long expressed position that homosexuality is considered an abomination in Islam and is against “the temper of Egypt.”

Will CAIR-LA condemn Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Brotherhood’s leading sharia jurist?

CAIR has treated Qaradawi as an eminence over the years. Indeed, CAIR’s co-founder (and express Hamas supporter) Nihad Awad shared the stage with Qaradawi in Qatar back in 2012 to announce their collaboration in the production of a movie about Islam’s prophet. CAIR’s ‘moderates” have evidently not been dissuaded by the sheikh’s strident support of Hamas, his approval of suicide bombings against Israel, his call for violent jihad against American troops in Iraq, his expressed wish to “seal my life with martyrdom” by “shoot[ing] Allah’s enemies, the Jews,” and his praise for Adolph Hitler because “he managed to put [the Jews] in their place” – although, the sheikh was quick to add his hope that this “divine punishment” inflicted by the Nazis would “Allah willing, the next time … be at the hand of the believers.”

As I’ve recounted in a column just posted on the website, Qaradawi is a forceful defender of Islam’s condemnation of homosexuality – which he describes as a “sexual deviation” and “depraved practice” that is “a reversal of the natural order” and “corruption of man’s sexuality.” According to Qaradawi, the admittedly “cruel” sharia punishments against gay people are necessary to “maintain the purity of the Islamic society and keep it clean of perverted elements.”

Will CAIR-LA condemn the International Institute of Islamic Thought?

IIIT is a U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood think-tank dedicated to “the Islamization of knowledge.” It was co-founded by Jamal Barzinji and Taha Jabir al-Alwani, who have both recently passed away. CAIR honored both men in life and publicly mourned their passing. (See, e.g., this testimonial to Barzinji recently offered by Sami al-Arian, a convicted terrorist whom CAIR continued vigorously defending even after his guilty plea.)

As also explained in my column today, IIIT provided a critical, influential endorsement of the English translation of Reliance of the Traveller, a classic sharia manual. Reliance explicitly sets forth sharia’s call for the killing of homosexuals (e.g., sec. p17.3, “Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him”), and elaborates that Islam’s condemnation of homosexuality is rooted in Koranic scripture.

“From a purely academic point of view,” wrote Alwani in IIIT’s endorsement of Reliance (which is included in the manual), “this translation is superior to anything produced by orientalists in the way of translations of major Islamic works.” A renowned sharia expert, Alwani praised Reliance as an “eminent work of Islamic jurisprudence.” He gushed that this faithful rendering of Islamic law would be “accessible” to English speakers and thus of “great use” in America, Britain, Canada and other English-speaking countries.

When Alwani died, Awad, CAIR’s executive director, lauded him as “an internationally-recognized pioneering leader.”

Why do I think they haven’t really changed their minds?