We had a post last week about Neil MacFarquhar’s New York Times whitewash of the Council on American Islamic Relations; MacFarquhar simply left out the most important facts about CAIR in what amounted to a public relations piece for the radical Islamic front group. Today in the New Republic Steven Emerson responds to this disingenuous article: ’One Muslim advocacy group’s not-so-secret terrorist ties’ - Google News.

This year has been a rocky one for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the self-professed “prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy” group. First, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer rescinded an award her office had issued a CAIR official, stating that she was uncomfortable with many of the organization’s positions. Then, two weeks ago, the GOP House Conference objected to the use of a Capitol facility—provided by Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell to host a CAIR forum, labeling the group “terror apologists” (based on CAIR’s long track record of extremism and anti-Semitism).

Yet, just as people began to realize this and to ostracize CAIR accordingly, The New York Times arrived with a life raft. Earlier this month, Neil MacFarquhar wrote an incredibly generous profile called “Scrutiny Increases for a Group Advocating for Muslims in U.S.” MacFarquhar’s piece is so fraught with errors—of commission and omission—that it is a coup of CAIR propaganda.

MacFarquhar gets off on the right foot, noting, “Several federal officials said CAIR’s Washington office frequently issued controversial statements that made it hard for senior government figures to be associated with the group.” But he cites none of these “controversial statements.” Nor does he mention the CAIR-sponsored fund-raisers and conferences featuring former neo-Nazi leader William Baker and jihadist cleric Wagdy Ghoneim. (At a 1998 CAIR event, Ghoneim sang, “No to the Jews, descendants of the apes.” And, after he was deported in 2004 for overstaying his visa, Hussam Ayloush, CAIR’s Southern California director, called Ghoneim’s removal from the U.S. “a dent in our civil rights struggle.”)

(The link goes to Google News because clicking on it from there bypasses TNR’s registration and lets you read the whole thing…)