Steven Emerson looks at what happens When Islamists Get Caught: they immediately cry “Islamophobia!” and “Free speech!” and “Out of context!”

And the mainstream media covers for them.

The Esam Omeish affair is the latest example of a “moderate,” “peaceful” American Muslim leader done in by his own words, caught on tape.

Omeish, the president of the Muslim American Society (MAS), was forced to resign last week from his recently-appointed position on Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s immigration commission when videos featuring Omeish posted by Little Green Footballs and the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) were brought to the governor’s attention.

Kaine asked for Omeish’s resignation after observing one video featuring Omeish at a December 2000 rally praising Palestinians for “…you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land.”

Instead of owning up to his words, Omeish told reporters at a press conference Friday that he was taken out of context as part of a “smear campaign” based on“Islamophobia.”

When speaking of jihad, he said he did not mean violence. He only meant “exerting full effort.” He, like the Muslim American Society, is completely peaceful, espousing only a “path of moderation, engagement and outreach.” Omeish is a surgeon, and before that, an honor student – a pillar of the community, and nothing more. The re-production of his own words is an “Islamophobic” “smear.”

MAS Freedom Foundation Executive Director, Mahdi Bray, went one step further, portraying Omeish as the victim of a not-so-vast right wing conspiracy by those who “send people into our mosques and send people into our conventions dressed as Muslim women with hidden cameras.”

Bray, too, has been “caught on tape” by the IPT, raising his arms and cheering loudly in October 2000 as his former colleague, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, announced his support for two notoriously deadly terrorist groups:

Alamoudi: I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas, anybody supports Hamas here?

[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”].

Anybody is a supporter of Hamas here?

[Crowd cheers, “Yes!” Mahdi Bray on stage nods and raises his arms in approval].

Anybody is a supporter of Hamas here?

[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”].

Hear that, Bill Clinton; we are all supporters of Hamas, Allahu Akbar. [Crowd responds].

I wish they added that I am also a supporter of Hizballah. Anybody supports Hizballah here?

[Crowd cheers, “Yes!”]

Now, is it “Islamophobia” to show a tape of Bray gleefully cheering on Hamas and Hizballah? Somehow asking Omeish to be accountable for his endorsement of “the jihad way” is over the line?