The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, today expressed concern about the reported rise in the number of anti-government and anti-immigrant extremist groups during the past year.CAIR cited a report released today by the respected Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). That report, titled "Rage on the Right," states in part:
| The SPLC report is thoroughly discredited (just as Walter Jacobson), which is why CAIR jumped all over it. |
"American Muslims are concerned that groups expressing extremist anti-immigrant and anti-government views are the same ones that promote anti-Muslim bigotry," said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "Whenever extremism of any kind flourishes, all those who seek to preserve our nation's cherished values of tolerance and inclusion must speak out."
He added that CAIR condemned last month's politically-motivated airborne suicide attack on an IRS facility in Texas as an act of terrorism. CAIR also called on American leaders to repudiate a statement by former Rep. Tancredo (R-CO) seeming to advocate Jim Crow-era literacy tests for voting rights. Tancredo made those remarks at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tenn.
Hooper noted that a recent survey showed that more than 4 in 10 Americans admit to anti-Muslim prejudice.