June 11, 2007

CAIR Lost 90% Of Its Membership

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) refers to itself as America's largest Islamic civil-rights organization. Perhaps they still are, although that may say more about the state of Islamic groups than it does about CAIR. According to tax records gleaned by the Washington Times from a Freedom of Information Act request, CAIR has lost 90% of its membership since 2001:

According to tax documents obtained by The Times, the number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006, a loss of membership that caused the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues to drop from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35.

The organization instead is relying on about two dozen individual donors a year to contribute the majority of the money for CAIR's budget, which reached nearly $3 million last year. ...

Critics of the organization say they are not surprised membership is sagging, and that a recent decision by the Justice Department to name CAIR as "unindicted co-conspirators" in a federal case against another foundation charged with providing funds to a terrorist group could discourage new members.

M. Zuhdi Jasser, director of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy, says the sharp decline in membership calls into question whether the organization speaks for 7 million American Muslims, as the group has claimed.

For a group that only has 1,700 members, it has an inordinate amount of political clout. The fact that roughly 25 people paid $3 million and represented the majority of its financing should raise some eyebrows. It comes to an average contribution of $120,000 each for last year alone.

Who are these fundraisers and what do they want? The organization just got named an unindicted co-conspirator in support of the terrorist group Hamas. They pressed hard for Keith Ellison's election here in Minnesota; it would be helpful to know who these donors are to understand the motivation behind using CAIR's rapidly-diminishing resources for the election.

Tomorrow, the Washington Times will have more detail from the records released under the FOIA demand.

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Ed Morrissey links to a Washington Times article containing some statistics regarding the Council on American Islamic Relations that you won't be seeing on the evening news anytime soon:According to tax documents obtained by The Times, the number of re... [Read More]

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WASHINGTON, DC (Washington Times) - Membership in the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has declined more than 90 percent since the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to tax documents obtained by The Washington Times. Asked about the decline,... [Read More]

Comments (12)

Posted by NRA Life Member | June 11, 2007 4:07 PM

If the membership drop and current total can be verified, I would like to think that this would be the end of Ibrahim Hooper getting a free pass to spread his brand of disinformation on the various talking head shows. I've seen this clown quite regularly compared to the number of times someone like Wayne Lapierre of the NRA (I know, totally different focus) gets on the interview shows, but at some point the number of people an individual represents should count for something.

Posted by Lightwave | June 11, 2007 4:23 PM

More proof that CAIR is nothing more than a US front for terror lobbying, and Congressman Elison is their pointman.

If CAIR was legitimately representing and advocating the views of the majority of Muslims in the US, membership would have drastically increased, not dropped by almost 95%. The fact of the matter is CAIR is radioactive to all but a few Muslims in the US. By this account, CAIR is a failure in this regard, yet it goes on as the most visible US Muslim organization in politics today.

Why is that? And again, who are these large donors? Shouldn't the US government be doing this investigation rather than the Washington Times? Is not the relationship between America's only Muslim Congressman and CAIR a national security issue of the highest priority?

Finally, if CAIR is this toxic, why is Keith Ellison accepting any sort of endorsement from them?

Posted by Fight4TheRight | June 11, 2007 6:32 PM

" Tomorrow, the Washington Times will have more detail from the records released under the FOIA demand. "

Hmmm...me thinks that somewhere across this country there are 25 VERY nervous people tonight!

Cap'n Ed - can you please put an update on this tomorrow once the additional info is released?

As for Ellison, he will sink his own ship. As time goes by his mouth will get more and more loose and anyone that knows Keith Ellison....knows that he can't stop shooting his mouth off and sooner or later, the Minnesotans from his District will find out what they put into the House. The best thing that could happen for the voters is for Ellison to keep getting the press....a cocky Ellison is an Ellison on his way out of Congress and back to only cheating local governments.

Posted by NahnCee | June 11, 2007 6:32 PM

So if CAIR gots no members, who's been reporting all those increases in hate crimes against Muslims they regularly report, and the media regularly prints all over the place, to make the rest of us feel guilty?

Posted by chsw | June 11, 2007 6:43 PM

If those 25 are all emirs, prices and kings, then CAIR may have to register as a lobbyist for foreign governments and organizations and give up its nonprofit, tax-exempt status. Moreover, CAIR's leadership may face tax fraud charges.

chsw

Posted by RKV | June 11, 2007 6:45 PM

We need the names of those who left as much as those who stayed. Counterintelligence would do well to investigate each and every member. If you where a jihadi, you'd run from scrutiny if you became aware that a front organization you belonged to had come under suspicion. It won't be pretty, but with an actual attack on American soil, this shouldn't get played up like the red scare trials of the 50s did.

Posted by richard mcenroe | June 11, 2007 7:16 PM

CAIR lost 90% of its membership? Dayyyam! How crowded is Gitmo, anyway?

Posted by docjim505 | June 11, 2007 7:47 PM

CAIR is a typical liberal front group: bankrolled by a few anti-American billionaires and given credibility by a fawning liberal media that agrees with their hatred of the United States and (in this case) Israel.

Posted by McGehee | June 11, 2007 8:56 PM

I would like to think that this would be the end of Ibrahim Hooper getting a free pass to spread his brand of disinformation on the various talking head shows.

So would I. Sadly, I've seen too much from the Establishment Media to actually expect it.

Posted by jpe | June 12, 2007 2:39 AM

Hmmm...me thinks that somewhere across this country there are 25 VERY nervous people tonight!

I would think the names will be redacted. And, if CAIR really were guilty of a crime, why haven't they been indicted? We know the AUSA in Texas is out for them, since s/he sidestepped regular procedure and named them as unindicted coconspirator.

Posted by Eg | June 12, 2007 6:47 AM

Cair, along with this ‘M. Zuhdi Jasser, director of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy,‘ certainly appear to have problems with numbers as IBD noted in their editiorial, CAIR's Fuzzy Math.

The sooner Western political leaders and representatives get over being intimidated by numbers, the more lives will be spared - the better.

Expect Cair to begin a campaign of howling, shrieking and whining about being the victims of Islamophobia by the Zionist-VRWC imperialist's of the Washington Times.

Posted by always right | June 12, 2007 2:35 PM

This number only tells you that 90% of their members did not want to have their name associated with Cair.

Other numbers showing "mooslems as the fastest growing religion - in US and around the world", and "numbers of mosques or mooslem cultural centers being built in your neck of the woods" tell you that imams and other equivalents getting more sophicated, they want to go underground, grass-root movement so nobody can track them.