CAIR Officials Demonize America on Iranian TV

by STEVE EMERSON May 17, 2012

Two officials representing the Council on American-Islamic Relations' New York chapter (CAIR-NY) turned to an Iranian television station this week in order to propagate the dangerous and oft-repeated narrative that the U.S. is at war with Islam and hostile to Muslims.

The narrative-said to be one of the most potent tools in recruiting Muslims to violent jihad-was first put forth by CAIR-NY head Zead Ramadan in an interview Monday with Iranian state-controlled Press TV. During the discussion, Ramadan compared the situation of Muslims in America to that of Jews under Nazi rule.

"In Nazi Germany, they targeted the minority, the Jewish minority," Ramadan told Press TV by phone. "I don't think we will ever get there, but I don't think we should allow the road to continue to be built towards that direction because the comments that are being made against Muslims are very eerily echoing the comments that were being made against Jews by Nazis."

The steady increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric can largely be blamed upon "election season" in general Ramadan said, but in particular, Republicans should be seen as the primary offender.

"[W]henever you think that America, the land of the free, is going to grow up and go beyond it [racism], more intolerant, extremist voices come out," Ramadan lamented. "And the easiest target, the minority, the easiest target has been the Muslim people.

"Every time there is an election cycle, some people like Newt Gingrich, Santorum, and even Mitt Romney had made very negative comments about Muslims and that makes people think that if someone is running for president, he could make negative comments and he is spreading negative rhetoric about Muslims... I think it's very dangerous," he added.

Ramadan's message cannot be brushed off as a personal rant of one rogue leader. Just one day earlier, a similar theme was echoed by fellow CAIR-NY official, Cyrus McGoldrick, to the very same Iranian outlet.

In the Sunday interview, McGoldrick, the group's Civil Rights Manager, accused the FBI of using "tremendous resources" to demonize Muslim Americans and of not spending a "fraction" of the amount on real security measures.

They are using "tremendous resources, tremendous resources to spy on Muslims, to demonize Muslims, and to entrap Muslims. I think it would be great if they spent a fraction of that money, protecting Muslims and all American citizens," McGoldrick said.

Because of this, "the real American ideals are now being lost," he concluded.

Strangely absent in McGoldrick's comments about ideals is a discussion of how minorities are treated in Press TV's state-sponsor, Iran, and how treatment of Muslims in America compares to that of ethnic minorities elsewhere.

Such realities have never stopped CAIR from routinely taking to the channel to promote the "America is against Muslims" narrative. They join a group of fringe academics, far left activists, and Islamist extremists who agree with the Islamic Republic's propaganda about the so-called Western and Zionist "War on Islam."