CAIR admits it erred on Farah statement

"Why We Left Islam," a best-selling new book of testimonies by ex-Muslims, is stirring controversy as well as sales before its official release Tuesday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which blasted the book in comments to the New York Daily News more than a week ago, has acknowledged in an e-mail to Joseph Farah, editor of WND and founder of the publisher, WND Books, that remarks about Farah by the group's spokesman were in error.

Ibrahim Hooper told the paper: "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."

CAIR now admits Farah never said or wrote anything resembling that remark. In addition, the New York Daily News, through its corporate counsel, said the column would be corrected.

"Why We Left Islam," a controversial new book that is the first in America to feature an image of Muhammad on the cover and tell nearly two dozen horror stories of former Muslims, hit the No. 1 spot on Amazon's Islamic category – a week before the latest title from WND Books is even released. It has also hit the top 50 among non-fiction titles.

Compiled and edited by Susan Crimp and Joel Richardson, the stories of former Muslims speaking out has caused some consternation among organized Islamic lobby groups such as the Council of American Islamic Relations.

Farah said he is grateful for the response to his retraction demand to the New York Daily News, but is disappointed CAIR continues to make outlandishly hyperbolic and reckless denunciations of WND.

"CAIR can always be counted upon to make wildly untruthful and reckless claims about others, while maintaining a hypersensitivity about its own concerns," said Farah. "Here, for example, Hooper makes this claim that WND promotes anti-Muslim hate on its site every day, offering only one example – and that one is totally untrue. Why other responsible media outlets continue to offer CAIR a platform for making such outrageous statements is beyond me. How many CAIR staffers and officials need to be indicted and convicted before my colleagues recognize these people as the extremists they are?"

"If Muslims rioted around the world after a Danish newspaper published a political cartoon making fun of Muhammad, what will they do in response to this book?" wonders Farah, himself a former Middle East correspondent of Lebanese and Syrian ancestry.

"Why We Left Islam" is filled with first-person stories of former radicals who began to question the Quran and ultimately changed their lives.

Khaled Waleed, for instance, said he was indoctrinated with the same type of teaching as fellow Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden.

"Our teacher and other Islamic scholars told us that as Muslims, we are the best people in the world," he writes. "I listened to my imams and was disturbed when they used abusive language to describe non-Muslims as the grandsons of monkeys and pigs ... [they] told me that it was my duty to revile and ridicule non-Muslims."

Waleed says the attack on the World Trade Center changed him: "On Sept. 11, 2001, I saw the real face of Islam. I saw the happiness on the faces of our people because so many infidels were slaughtered so easily. I saw many people who started thanking Allah for this massacre."