From Raymond Ibrahim
The US Army War College (USAWC) has just surrendered to the demands of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)—an “unindicted co-conspirator,” to quote the U.S. Dept. of Justice, in the largest terror funding case in American history, and a designated “terrorist organization” for nations such as the UAE.
The June 19, 2019 planned lecture on my book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks was canceled due to a CAIR-induced hysteria that focused on presenting me—a native Arabic speaker of Egyptian/Middle Eastern descent—as a “racist” and “white nationalist” who is out to incite American soldiers to murder Muslims.
Although the USAWC claims that the event has been “postponed”—and that CAIR’s smear campaign had nothing to do with its decision—what really happened, along with the troubling lessons learned along the way, follow:
On January 4, 2019, I received an email, portions of which follow:
“Mr. Ibrahim: On behalf of the Director and Staff of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), I am honored to invite you to speak as part of the USAHEC’s 2019 Perspectives in Military History Lecture Series. … [W]e would like you to speak about your new book, “Sword and Scimitar.” The Perspectives series attracts a wide audience including the U.S. Army War College students, faculty, and staff, ROTC cadets, Soldiers from regional military bases, university students and faculty, and the general public.”
“On a personal note,” the author of the email added, “I think your new book, and a lecture based on it, will resound very well with the primary audience of our lecture programs—the students and faculty of the U.S. Army War College.”
After I accepted the invitation, my USAWC contact reiterated: “I am excited to book you, I think your topic will be perfect for my audience.”
Aside from a few more exchanges on dates and logistics, that was that—until CAIR got wind of the event.
I’ve already discussed what initially happened: how the leadership of CAIR’s Penn. chapter sent a letter on May 28, 2019 to USAWC Commandant Gen. John Kem and Provost Dr. James Breckenridge, urging them to cancel my event because “Raymond Ibrahim’s book … advance[s] a simplistic, inaccurate and often prejudicial view of the long history of Muslim-West relations which we find deeply troubling”; and how CAIR did not once cite a single sentence from my 352-page book to support their accusation that it “is based on poor research.”
After media outlets began reporting on CAIR’s displeasure with the USAWC, the latter called and assured me that the event was still on. I also received a June 5, 2019 email from my USAWC contact saying, “We are good to go for the lecture.”
Then CAIR and allies took off their gloves and got nasty. If a formal, ostensibly rational sounding letter of “concern” would not suffice, then hysteria would have to do.
On the very next day, June 6, 2019, CAIR issued a number of screeds, including a Press Release and a petition addressed to the USAWC by Linda Sarsour’s Islamist group, MPower Change. The overall theme is that, if the USAWC goes ahead with my planned lecture, the “racist” military will get so riled that American soldiers will randomly begin to massacre Muslims at home and abroad. The following excerpts from the MPower petition are typical; note especially the last paragraph…..
In the midst of their lies, CAIR and MPower repeatedly present me—an Arab-American whose parents immigrated from Egypt to evade Islamic oppression—as a “racist” associated with “white nationalism.” But as the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which maintains a comprehensive dossier on CAIR’s shady and terrorist links, observes:
“Being a “white nationalist” doesn’t mean having European ancestry in Linda Sarsour’s world. Her group, MPower Change, joined the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Philadelphia chapter in charging that Raymond Ibrahim, an American Copt of Egyptian ancestry, whose people have been severely discriminated against under Islamic rule for centuries, is a “white nationalist.”…. To classify Ibrahim in the same category as white supremacists who hate Muslims for being non-white is to show ignorance of the severe persecution and discrimination faced by the Coptic people under nearly 14 centuries of Islamic rule. Copts face constant discrimination and persecution at the hands of their Muslim neighbors … [including] Jim Crow-style conditions in their homeland.”
……Regardless of the baseless and hysterical nature of CAIR’s and its Islamist allies’ allegations, on June 10, 2019, the US Army War College caved in to their demands and canceled the event. In my last phone call with the USAWC on that same day, I suggested a compromise: turn my lecture into a debate, and pit me against any academic of CAIR’s choosing. Even though I was under no obligation to make such a concession, it still wasn’t good enough for the USAWC.
Perhaps the most dishonorable aspect of this entire fiasco is that, in a vain effort to save face and pretend that the prestigious United States Army War College is not surrendering to the demands of a notorious Islamist organization—whose subversive tactics and terroristic ties are well documented (here, here, here, and here)—the USAWC’s official story is that my lecture has only been “postponed,” and not because of CAIR’s demands.
As a June 10, 2019 report notes, the USAWC’s decision to “postpone” the event “comes in the wake of strong opposition from the Muslim community to the previously scheduled appearance of author Raymond Ibrahim. The Army War College on Monday, however, suggested that the postponement had nothing to do with the outcry from the Muslim community” (emphasis added).
Reality is clear enough: for the USAWC suddenly to postpone a long-planned event only nine days before schedule—and just a handful of days after CAIR’s smear campaign—is not a “coincidence”; it is a clear message for all.
……The grand lesson of this entire debacle should be disheartening for all who care about this nation. If an ethnic Egyptian and native speaker of Arabic, with verifiable credentials, whose extended relatives continue to be persecuted because they are Christian, can be characterized by Islamist groups with terror links as a “racist” and “white nationalist”; and if, of all places, the US Army War College, as opposed to the average “liberal” college, can so easily capitulate to such patently deceptive tactics—the true motives of which are to keep the actual and troubling history between Islam and the West concealed from the military—know that the hour is late indeed.
FYI:
CAIR was founded in 1994 by three leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) — Nihad Awad, Omar Ahmad, and Rafeeq Jaber, and funded by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief, a designated terrorist organization. Mousa Abu Marzook, the current deputy political chief of Hamas, served on the board of directors. They fund Hamas and their parent organization is the Muslim Brotherhood. Their function as a terrorist operative is well documented. They didn’t have to disclose their donors. The Muslim Brotherhood has even formed its own U.S.-based political party.
The Army War College, an institution that is supposed to prepare and educate warriors to face the threats against America and democracy, has curtailed the curriculum so that their students are not exposed to radical Islam. God forbid Islamofascism, which has accumulated quite a body count in the name of allah, should be viewed as a threat.
When an Army officer at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, put together a fact-based presentation titled: “A Counter-Jihad Op Design Model, which made mention of our war against radical Islam, he was summarily dismissed. Can’t offend the enemy. It might make America look politically incorrect.
A former Army Lieutenant and avowed communist was mentored by a radical muzzie professor at West Point.
LTC Matthew Dooley , a former instructor at the Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) was fired for telling the truth about the Islamic enemy.
The pro-Islamist disease has metastasized.
Egyptian-born terrorist Hesham H. Islam was actually hired as a Pentagon aide, in spite of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other terrorist groups. Major Stephen Coughlin, an intelligence analyst was fired for questioning Islam’s access to classified information and briefing the connection between groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism.
An Army Reserve Public Affairs unit decided to pay a friendly visit to a Columbus, Ohio mosque that not only supports Islamic terrorism but has been exposed as having ties to terrorist groups. The unit left with free Qurans.
During Obama’s Dhimmified regime, the Pentagon insisted that we weren’t at war with a violent theocracy that’s at war with us.
The military hierarchy seems to have no trouble with radical muslim thugs in the ranks, kowtowing to the violent ideology of Islam, or high-ranking officers who send emails to subordinates calling Christians “racist and terrorist”.
Islam is diametrically opposed to every Constitutional principle on which this country was founded. Under the muzzie point of view, Sharia law trumps all other laws. It’s meant to overtake and replace all Western civil, criminal, and government jurisdiction. The founding principles of this country did not hinge on a violent ideological theocracy that advocated the deaths of those who didn’t hold the same religious beliefs. Letting them thrive here is suicidal.
They attacked this country on 9/11. Now they sit in Congress and teach at our military academies. Let that sink in.