Farah v. CAIR: Round 2

The day I publicly challenged the Council on American-Islamic Relations for defaming me in a public statement by its official spokesman to the New York Daily News, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a response from the organization.

It came from Nadhira F. Al-Khalili, national legal counsel for the group.

To refresh your memory, or to bring you up to date if you missed the kerfuffle altogether, on Thursday, April 17, the New York Daily News quoted the group's official spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, denouncing a new book published by WND called "Why We Left Islam," which includes nearly two dozen testimonies of ex-Muslims and whose controversial cover sports an image of Muhammad.

Here's what Hooper said: "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."

I took issue with that statement for several reasons:

It's not true that WND is an "an extremist hate site" that "promotes hate every day."
I never suggested air-dropping pig's blood over Afghanistan or anywhere else.
The statement about me is defamatory.
Knowing the kind of people who listen to Hooper, it is very dangerous to be mislabeled as an anti-Muslim extremist who suggested air-dropping pig's blood over Afghanistan.

Silly me, but I thought I deserved a retraction and apology – from both the Daily News and CAIR. So I publicly called for both.

Interestingly, the offending column is still posted at the Daily News website without a correction, though an attorney for the newspaper promises one is forthcoming. But I did evoke an admission of error – albeit a smarmy non-apology – from CAIR.

"In the interest of accuracy," Al-Khalili wrote, "Mr. Hooper was referring to a WorldNetDaily column, presumably approved by you as editor of the website, which advocated telling Afghans that the U.S. has 'enlisted Afghani (sic) moles to contaminate their water supplies with pig's blood.'"

Khalili wrote that Hooper should have said: "Joseph Farah, as editor of the website, published a commentary by Paul Sperry that advocated telling Afghans that the United States has 'enlisted Afghani (sic) moles to contaminate their water supplies with pig's blood' and suggested that pigs be 'air-lifted' into the homes of Afghan clerics."

"I hope this clarifies the matter," Al-Khalili concluded.

To which I responded:

"I'm afraid your e-mail doesn't clarify the matter at all. Until and unless your client offers a public apology to me and seeks clarification of his defamatory comments from the New York Daily News, we still very much have a problem here. I already know Hooper's comments were inaccurate. You don't have to tell me. Your client has an obligation to apologize for those comments and seek correction at the point of publication."

I continued: "Perhaps a second or third reading of Paul Sperry's column by Hooper and you will help you realize what anyone should be able to comprehend in the context of the complete column – that it was satire. Furthermore, the column was written two weeks after Sept. 11, 2001. I don't know if that date means anything to you. But it was long before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan – meaning the clearly tongue-in-cheek suggestion was for a time much different than now. At that time, our enemies (or do I need to say, 'America's enemies'?) were running Afghanistan. The Taliban was in charge. The Taliban was playing host to those who plotted the attacks on America."

Not to put too fine a point on it, I recapped the facts in evidence:

"Hooper claims I suggested air-dropping pig's blood on Afghanis. You now admit that was an error, though you have not apologized nor informed the New York Daily News of this falsehood.

"Now you recall, after my name has been tarnished by this lie, that it was actually someone else writing who made the suggestion. But you fail to mention the critical timing of the piece and the fact that it was clearly over-the-top satire.

"Perhaps it has also escaped your attention that viewpoints are expressed every day in WND's commentary section with which I disagree. In fact, unless I write the commentaries, I don't accept any ownership of the ideas expressed in them. We publish columnists every day with whom I disagree vehemently.

"Hooper also made the charge that WND daily published anti-Muslim hatred. He provided one example, from seven years ago, and it was a satirical piece published before CAIR had yet decided something abominable had happened on Sept. 11. In fact, CAIR didn't publicly rebuke the attack on America for another 10 weeks, as I recall. If WND publishes examples of anti-Muslim hatred every day, why would Hooper have to resort to one bad example from seven years earlier? This is your full-time spokesman!"

I also asked Al-Khalili, since he had admitted Hooper made an error in his statement to the Daily News, when I might expect him to inform the newspaper. I never got an answer to that question.

To be continued ...

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