Dangers of Wahabbism

By Oubai Shahbandar

Terror proxies like the Council on American Islamic Relations are attempting to throw a veil around the truth.

Radical Islamists have hurled ad hominem aspersions against me for my part in speaking out against Wahhabi extremists in our midst. They refuse to confront the facts because the facts are damning indictments of just how far the rabbit hole of Wahabbism goes in this country.

On Sept. 10 of this year, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security held a series of hearings that focused on the proliferation of radical Islamist extremism in the United States.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, remarked that CAIR leaders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmen have “intimate links with Hamas” and “we know CAIR has ties to terrorism.” Sen. Richard Durbin concluded that CAIR is “unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect.”

The senators' findings are built on firm foundations. Nihad Awad stated at a 1994 meeting at Barry University, “I am a supporter of the Hamas movement.” CAIR communications director Ibrahim Hooper has even defended Saudi Arabia's financial aid to Palestinian suicide bombers.

Former CAIR official Bassem K. Khafagi has pleaded guilty to charges of visa and bank fraud in federal court in Detroit. The charges were brought against Khafagi for his role with the Islamic Assembly of North America, a group that has advocated violence against the United States and is believed to have funneled money to organizations with terrorist connections.

But groups like CAIR continue their efforts to keep Americans deaf, dumb and blind to the dangers of Wahhabi radicalism and will stop at nothing to censure such open-minded Muslim dissidents as I.

It is time that we as Muslims bridge the gap to our American identity by eschewing the radicalism espoused by such Islamic groups. It is good for us as Muslims and ultimately good for our country as a whole.

Oubai Shahbandar is an Undergraduate Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.