 Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. |
Responding to the IRS removal of tax-exempt status for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Virginia congressman has asked the federal agency to investigate whether the D.C.-based Muslim lobby group has “illegally received or solicited funds from foreign governments or agents.”
Republican Rep. Frank Wolf said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman that he wants to resolve the question of whether foreign and potentially hostile governments have funded CAIR, which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-finance case in U.S. history.
The move by the federal agency follows an expose published by WND Books that revealed the violations by CAIR, triggering a federal investigation and audit.
As WND first reported in January 2010, CAIR’s national office has failed to file financial records since 2007 as required by federal law. Registered as a 501(c)(3) organization, the group must detail its revenues and expenses to the IRS in annual reports known as form 990s to maintain its tax-exempt status.
Wolf brought to the IRS’s attention a copy of a recently disclosed letter from CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad to Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi in which Awad appears to solicit money for a CAIR project.
“I am concerned that Awad and CAIR may be soliciting – and receiving – funds from other unsavory foreign governments and organizations, including some that may be sponsors of terror,” Wolf wrote.
The lawmaker also cited reports that indicate Awad and other CAIR representatives may have traveled to Sudan to solicit funds from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir, whose hard-line Islamic regime has been held responsible for more than 2 million deaths in a jihad against Christians and animists in the country’s south.
Under a new federal law, effective starting for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2007, if an organization fails to file either Form 990-N, Form 990 or Form 990 EZ for three consecutive years, its tax-exempt status will automatically be revoked.
As a result, the IRS earlier this month purged CAIR from its list of tax-exempt organizations. Donations to the group are no longer tax-deductible, even though CAIR continues to claim on its website that contributions are deductible.
The gross delinquency raises new suspicions that CAIR – identified in a recent terror-finance case as a front group for Hamas – is concealing from the American public details about its already shadowy financial activities.
CAIR is a regular staple of the cable news programs where it claims to be a “Muslim-American civil rights group.”
The Washington-based group receives millions of dollars in donations, pledges and other support from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other terror-tied Arab states, as revealed in the bestseller “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”
As WND has reported, CAIR has filed a lawsuit against “Muslim Mafia” co-author P. David Gaubatz and his son, Chris, who collected thousands of pages of CAIR documents destined for a shredder while working as an intern.
CAIR’s complaint asks a federal judge to expunge all copies of “Muslim Mafia”. A lawyer defending the Gaubatzes says CAIR is attempting to eliminate evidence that could lead to criminal prosecution.
“Muslim Mafia” presents evidence that CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper has misled Washington reporters about the source of most of CAIR’s financial support.
Hooper has repeatedly denied that CAIR receives foreign support, insisting it’s a “grass-roots” nonprofit organization. In CAIR press releases, he has stated, unequivocally: “We do not support directly or indirectly or receive support from any overseas group or government.”
In a private conversation with undercover researcher Chris Gaubatz, who was posing at the time as a CAIR intern, Hooper boasted that he personally can “bring (in) a half million of overseas money” a year, adding: “If some guy’s got a lot of extra money in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), I don’t mind taking it.”
Hooper made the remarks Aug. 30, 2008, during the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention in Columbus, Ohio.
A State Department cable citing Hooper by name, moreover, directly contradicts Hooper’s denials about foreign support, according to “Muslim Mafia,” which exposes the secret inner workings of CAIR, among other radical Muslim Brotherhood front groups in America.
CAIR in January 2007 prepared a secret “strategy” memo launching what the “Muslim Mafia” authors call a hostile influence operation against Congress to undermine homeland security and anti-terror efforts.
The memo states that CAIR would try to “influence” the intelligence committees, along with committees dealing with homeland security and justice, while placing interns in “congressional offices.”
CAIR has been successful in both endeavors, using Mideast funds free of taxation in the process.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The CAIR legal attack on WND’s author is far from over. WND needs your help in supporting the defense of “Muslim Mafia” co-author P. David Gaubatz, as well as his investigator son Chris, against CAIR’s lawsuit. The book’s revelations have led to formal congressional demands for three different federal investigations of CAIR. In the meantime, however, someone has to defend these two courageous investigators who have, at great personal risk, revealed so much about this dangerous group. Although WND has procured the best First Amendment attorneys in the country for their defense, we can’t do it without your help. Please donate to WND’s Legal Defense Fund now.
