The Dangerous Intersectionality of CAIR, the Reform Movement, and Biden’s FBI

The council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) targeted Jews, yet again—this time, through a terrorist hostage situation at Beth Israel Temple in Colleyville, Texas where the terrorist demanded the release of his “sister” in terrorism, Aafia Siddiqui. What does a synagogue have to do with releasing “Lady Al-Qaeda” who is serving 86 years in a federal prison? It would be analogous to expecting a Buddhist Temple to help in the release or reduction of sentence of the female terrorist. The targeting of Jews and Jewish institutions has been normalized by the intersection of CAIR, the Reform Jewish movement, and Biden’s FBI which, with utter absurdity, stated that the hostage situation was not antisemitic, nor that it targeted the Jewish community.

CAIR, originally fueled by Saudi funds during its long-lasting Wahhabism spread, is best known for non-cooperation with U.S law enforcement to root out extremists within the Muslim communities. The Islamic Association for Palestine, a group founded by Hamas, was the precursor to CAIR. Additionally, the Muslim Brotherhood also identified this group as its front abroad. In 1993, the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee created CAIR in order to influence U.S policies and promote Hamas. The group had a prison radicalization reform program canceled in California, and, subsequently, sued Los Angeles after the city received a grant under the Trump Administration to bolster its Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program. Aligning with terrorism is within the DNA of CAIR.

The organization which fervently backs BDS (Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions), an antisemitic movement against Israel, is still a front-group for Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation, and, just this past November, declared that pro-Zionist synagogues are Islamophobic and “are your enemy.” In the same month, CAIR ramped up its petition to release Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national, who, in 2008, was arrested for plotting a mass terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and firing a weapon at U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan.

America’s faux ally, Pakistan, has accused America of using Siddiqui as a political hostage and routinely advocates for the terrorist’s release. Siddiqui’s hate for Jews is deep-rooted; not only did she dismiss supplemental legal counsel on the basis that the lawyers were Jewish, but also demanded DNA testing of jurors to exclude Jews from determining her fate. CAIR, an organization which was placed on UAE’s terrorism list in 2014, defends a woman who publicly stated, “it is this cruel, ungrateful back-stabbing of the Jews that has caused them to be mercilessly expelled from wherever they gain strength. This [is] why ‘holocausts’ keep happening to them repeatedly! If they would only learn to be grateful and change their behavior.”

Astonishingly, I am not shocked at that abhorrent statement. CAIR uses Islamophobia to bully others into acting against non-Muslims’ best interests. While there are instances of attacks against Muslims, it pales in comparison to antisemitic attacks against the Jews. The Reform Jewish Movement is, overall, a naïve victim of CAIR’s influence. The Central Conference of American Rabbis, under the Reform umbrella, has issued official statements on being opposed to legal Jewish communities in Israel’s ancestral heartland, Judea & Samaria, and has pushed for an antisemitic “two-state” solution, when there  already is a second state, created specifically for Arabs —Jordan.

Years ago, before switching over to attend Chabad services, I was searching for a Reform or Conservative synagogue for High Holiday services in NYC. It says something about the current environment that I had to call each institution and inquire if they were pro-Israel; unfortunately, many declined to answer that specific question.

Reform rabbis in Boston not only aligned themselves with CAIR, but they also aligned themselves with numerous other CAIR-affiliated antisemitic Islamist groups. A rabid antisemite, Zahra Billoo, who leads the San Francisco office of CAIR, was welcomed by leftist Jewish groups in the area. Reform Jewry has bastardized the concept of “tikkun olam” and, instead, uses their movement to affix themselves to the latest woke trends, even when it includes the taqqiya of CAIR. This Islamist organization ‘stands with Jews’ when synagogues are attacked, but, in the same breath, demonizes the only Jewish homeland based on blatant misinformation which often leads to said synagogues being attacked, as was the case this past weekend.

Biden’s FBI is not aiding with countering antisemitism. While the Jewish community at large (and others) applauded the safe release of the hostages held in Beth Israel Temple in Colleyville, Texas, most were angered to hear, the very next morning, that the FBI had not declared the attack to be antisemitic in nature. Only after harsh backlash, did the FBI recant its statement. Not surprisingly, the FBI is still “looking for a motive.”

The motive is known and it is Jew hatred. If a Black institution, transgender, or any other minority-protected space had been attacked, the FBI would easily have figured out the motive. Islamist-influenced woke-ism has infiltrated the body-politic of the very organization that is supposed to offer federal protection. Biden and his handlers are too busy focusing on white supremacy, and, ironically, potential election-stealing boogy-men within voting districts, so that the very real threat of Islamist antisemitism is dangerously ignored. If the U.S. government were serious about combating antisemitism, it would declare CAIR a terrorist organization, choking off its funding opportunities. As for Reform Jewry, they are so busy being “ideal” Jews in the enemies’ image, that they are doing real damage to Jews both here and abroad.

Laureen Lipsky is a pro-Israel advocate living in New York and the founder of Taking Back the Narrative, a Zionism education initiative (www.tbtnisrael.com). @Zionist_Patriot