We all know without me having to add the “(R)” that the pol was a Republican, as the Dhimmicrats are far too busy appeasing and apologizing for muslims waging jihad against our way of life (see Jimmy “Peanut” Carter, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama for examples).
House Leader Calls Muslim Group Head ‘Terrorist Sympathizer’
TALLAHASSEE – The organizer of a day that brought nearly 200 Florida Muslims to the state Capitol to lobby politicians Tuesday was called a “known terrorist sympathizer” by a head lawmaker and others, a label the leader emphatically rejected.
House Majority Leader Adam Hasner said his colleagues should learn more about the head of Tampa-based United Voices For America before deciding whether to meet with any of the men and women at the Capitol for Florida Capitol Muslim Day. The group is about a year old and has four staff members and about 100 volunteers around the state. It had urged Muslims to come to talk to lawmakers about education and health care issues.
“All Floridians are welcome to come to Tallahassee to petition their government,” Hasner said repeatedly during a news conference on the back steps of the Capitol. “This is to draw a light onto the leader of this organization who is a known terrorist sympathizer, who is a part of an organization with ties to funding Hamas and other terrorist organizations.”
Hasner, R-Delray Beach, was talking about Ahmed Bedier, United Voices For America’s executive director. Before starting the group he was the executive director of the Tampa office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The Washington-based group was founded in 1994 and has offices in 20 states.
Recently the organization was one of hundreds of Muslim individuals and groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in a terrorism-financing trial where a Texas charity was accused of helping fund Hamas. CAIR is fighting the label in court.
Bedier said Hasner’s comments linking him to “terrorists” were “absolute nonsense.”
“I’ve repeatedly spoken out against terrorists,” Bedier said, adding too that CAIR was not the organization at the Capitol on Tuesday.
“This is a distraction from his real motive of disenfranchising minority participants, Muslims, from participating in the political process,” Bedier said.
Bedier pointed to comments made in 2006 by the head of the Tampa office of the FBI who thanked him for an “open line of communication” between the agency and CAIR.
Hasner and other speakers at the afternoon news conference pointed to what they called Bedier’s role as an “unofficial spokesman” for Sami Al-Arian, a former computer science professor at Tampa’s University of South Florida once accused of being a leading Palestinian terrorist. Al-Arian, acquitted of many charges, later agreed to a plea bargain on others and was sentenced to nearly five years in prison.
CAIR had supported Al-Arian during the time Bedier was in Tampa, and he was often quoted on the case.
Other participants at Tuesday’s news conference included representatives from the Florida Security Council; Americans Against Hate and Christian Action Network. A spokesman for CAIR called those groups “extremists and Islamophobics.”
Bedier said Hasner’s comments did not appear to be affecting the actions of other lawmakers, many of whom met with Muslims at the Capitol for the day. Bedier said he expected the group to meet with just under half of all lawmakers.
He said he had not heard of any lawmakers turning away people who had come to visit them because of Hasner’s comments. Hasner said he had not been contacted by representatives of United Voices for America and would not say whether he would meet with them if contacted.
Lobbying days at the Capitol are not unusual. Last week included Space Day, when space-industry groups were in town to meet with lawmakers.
Husain Nagamia from Tampa was one of the people who came to the Capitol for Muslim Day, his first trip to the Legislature. He said he had participated in the discussion of a bill on kidney dialysis, met with three lawmakers and planned to meet with another.
“It never crossed my mind that we could enter into a discussion with them. I think it’s a great success for us,” Nagamia said.
While it is great that muslims want to interact with our elected officials, choosing a terrorist cheerleader is not their brightest move. I laud them for coming out to speak ot their politicians. I mock them for choosing a CAIR affiliate to head their group.
Related posts:
- CAIR’s Ahmed Bedier continues to defend convicted homegrown terrorists
- Florida: Volunteers Needed To Counter CAIR’s con
- Congress warned to avoid terrorist tied CAIR
- Video: CAIR admits “Hamas not a terrorist organization”
- No surprise, CAIR honored islamist tv station founder who later beheaded his wife
- The Friend of My Enemy is My Enemy
- US muslims debating whether or not to assist FBI after ties with CAIR cut
- McCain supporter angers CAIR, asserts “We will never kneel” CAIR cries foul
- A Florida prediction
- US muslim brotherhood Front fights crime prevention
