Farah v. CAIR

Look, I won’t beat around the bush.

I need your help making a big decision.

I believe I have been defamed by the New York Daily News and the spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, euphemistically known in the media as CAIR.

On Thursday, I happened to be in New York when the Daily News published a column about a new title from WND Books called “Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out.”

By the time I got to the bottom of the column, I was fuming.

The columnists for the Daily News called Ibrahim Hooper, an American convert to Islam and the mouthpiece for CAIR.

Here’s what Hooper said, according to the Daily News: “This book is put out by WND Publishing (sic), which promotes hate every day on its extremist anti-Muslim hate site. The editor is a guy who suggested air-dropping pig’s blood over Afghanistan. There are 7 million American Muslims and over a billion worldwide who love Islam and practice it peaceably on a daily basis.”

Now, as some of you know, there is only one person who has ever served as editor of WND – and that’s little old me, the grandson of immigrants from Syria and Lebanon. As you also know, I have written many millions of words – 13 books, a six-day-per-week column for much of the last 11 years, magazine articles, a nationally syndicated weekly column and news stories.

For years, I also conducted a daily, nationally syndicated, three-hour radio show. I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of interviews on radio and TV. I’ve given speeches to audiences around the world.

And never once, in any of those venues, have I ever done what the former Doug Hooper accuses me of doing. I never suggested, stated, hinted or even thought about air-dropping pig’s blood over Afghanistan.

Now consider how dangerous it is for me when the spokesman for this Islamic lobby, with countless connections to terrorism, asserts this prima facie libelous mischaracterization about me – an Arab-American seen by some in the Arab world as a traitor because of his pro-American stands, his commitment to Jesus Christ and his defense of the Jews.

Hooper put a target on my back.

He also uttered a false and defamatory statement about me that has yet to be corrected by the Daily News, has yet to be withdrawn by Hooper and will undoubtedly be recycled in other venues.

My question to you is this: What should I do?

Do I divert time and money from doing what I do for the cause of truth to fight this one lie?

How much time?

How much money?

Or, is there someone out there who would share the burden with me?

Perhaps there’s a First Amendment attorney in New York or Washington who would like to help me put this super-litigious group on the legal defensive for a change.

My friend Michael Savage is doing just that – and I commend him for it. But I know the sacrifice he is making by getting down into the gutter with these people. I would urge you to contribute to his legal defense fund so he can pursue his lawsuit against CAIR for as long as it takes to win.

But what about me?

What’s your advice?

How should I respond?

Has CAIR stepped in it this time?

Will I get a fair shake in America’s politically correct courtrooms?

Are there sharp lawyers brave enough to take my case?

I look forward to hearing from you.

And before I leave you today, here’s a word for the columnists and editors at the New York Daily News: Admittedly I have only 30 years of experience doing everything one can do in American newspapers, but I always thought the standard practice was to print accurate and truthful statements about known individuals – named or not. I always thought the standard operating practice was to allow people attacked verbally like this to respond and correct the record. I always thought that once a story or column was challenged, corrections would be made – if they were in order.

It’s been a week. The column is unchanged. The libel has not been corrected.

So I hereby publicly demand a correction be issued.

CAIR can always be counted upon to make wildly untruthful and reckless claims about others, while maintaining a hypersensitivity about its own concerns. In this case, Hooper makes the unsupported assertion that WND promotes anti-Muslim hate on its site every day. He offers one example, which turns out to be totally untrue.

Why does the Daily News permit unfounded, unsupported, defamatory statements by CAIR officials to go unchallenged? Is the Daily News unaware of what CAIR really is? Are they not aware that CAIR – which the columnists refer to as “moderate” – was named recently by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in an alleged scheme to funnel $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas? Don’t they know CAIR has been described as a “turnstile for terrorists and their supporters” by veteran FBI agents? Are they unaware that the co-founder of the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus, U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., has said: “Groups like CAIR have a proven record of senior officials being indicted and either imprisoned or deported from the United States”?

Exactly how many CAIR staffers and officials need to be indicted, convicted or caught up in terrorism investigations before my colleagues in the press recognize these people as the irresponsible extremists they are?

Obviously the answer to that last question is more than 14 – because that’s the current number the last time we counted.

 

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