"[CAIR is] "unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect.”
-- Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)

"We know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism.”
-- Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Members of the US Muslim community are registering to vote in droves. In Los Angeles 1000 voters were signed up in one day. So too were 900 in Miami, at one mosque alone. 350 in Ohio, 300 in Maryland, 125 in Sacramento with registration drives happening in New York, Texas, South Carolina and Missouri. While it is a great thing for citizens of the United States to register to vote it is also a great thing for all the citizens of the US to understand they are supposed to live together in respect of one another.

The voter registration drives, supported and sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is centered on the belief that there is an ongoing assault on civil liberties by the Bush administration in the aftermath of September 11th. They cite the fact that in a country of over a quarter of a billion people 1,200 people of Muslim or Arab descent were detained by the federal authorities for questioning. They find these actions to be unacceptable.

It can be viewed as amazing that representatives of an entire culture can’t invoke enough common sense to realize that detaining 1,200 practicing Muslims who were either here illegally or in some way suspected of being connected with a terrorist organization, was a necessity in getting a handle on one of the bloodiest days in American history. If CAIR truly believed in the American principles of community they would have taken the lead in denouncing the actions of those who waged war on our soil by weeding the murderous elements out of their own communities. Instead, CAIR throws an inclusive blanket over all Muslims, those who are upstanding members of their community and those who would take flight lessons at unsuspecting flight schools in order to fly planes into occupied buildings, and say that all Muslims are being discriminated against. Now groups like CAIR say they want to bring about change? It needs to be asked, what change do they want to bring about?

I will go on record as saying that I have nothing against those of the Muslim faith. I have many friends who practice Islam. But just as the descendents of the original white Anglo-Saxon Protestant immigrants to the United States are expected to carry the burden of their distant relatives actions with regard to slavery, so too must every culture that comes to the United States in peace have to carry the burden of their culture’s actions, especially when an element of their modern day culture has launched murderous attacks on the United States. The United States, contrary to what those on the liberal left would contend (including Senator Patty Murray and Representative Jim McDermott) did not ask for what happened on September 11th. Fanatical Islamists through their bastardization of the religion they practice concocted the horrors of that day half way around the world.

The idea that their scripture embraces no provisions for living in peace with those who are non-believers is disturbing. This basic premise in the Islamic religion is the single issue that alarms non-Islamic practitioners. This single premise not only suggests intolerance but it mandates it. For this reason alone it is no wonder there is skepticism and a sense or warning about fanatical Islamists.

While it is regrettable that innocent Muslims must fall under scrutiny for the actions of the few, the fanatical - just as the WASP descendents must fall under scrutiny for the actions of their distant relatives - the fact that some interpret intolerance for non-believers as a "license to kill at will” is reason enough to keep a watchful eye. To not would be the height of stupidity.

Groups like CAIR are guilty of helping to incite discontent with President Bush and his administration. They claim that his administration is violating the civil rights of the 1,200 Muslim detainees. If this is actually the case then why aren’t there 1,200 lawsuits filed to combat these civil rights violations? No one has asked this question and received a legitimate answer. The ACLU is never without a reason for filing a lawsuit against the federal government yet they remain silent on most of these so-called civil rights violations. Once again, those who do not fully comprehend the measures being taken are smearing President Bush. Once again, those who have only read the first paragraph of the story are claiming to know about the events surrounding the ending.

19 hijackers of the Muslim faith, fanatical in their beliefs and not reflective of those who practice the Islamic religion in good faith, murdered over 3000 Americans on September 11th, 2001. That’s a fact. The natural and logical course of action is to look at those who emanate from the circles that created these monsters; those circles would be the circles where the Muslim faith is practiced. Is this a fair thing to do? In a perfect world probably not, but in an imperfect world unpleasant and sometimes unfair things have to occur, if only for a moment in time. Could the Justice Department have handled things better? Most likely, but they were being faced with a situation that only one other administration had been faced with in the history of our nation and that was Roosevelt’s administration after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. That time we went to war with a declaration, something we should have demanded formally from our Congress immediately after our contemporary tragedy. To expect the Justice Department to have functioned as though they had a standard operating procedure for terrorist attacks of September 11th’s magnitude is to live in a fantasyland.

CAIR says it wants to bring about change. They are registering voters to bring about change to the American government. Perhaps they should bring about change within their own religion and community first, thus removing the threatening verbiage that brings about the rest of the world’s guarded position. Of course, if they tried that in their countries of origin they would most likely be killed for their efforts as heretics. Good thing they chose to come to America, eh?!

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.

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