Cinnamon Stillwell has a column in the San Francisco Chronicle on the radical Islamic front group CAIR, their connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and their ongoing efforts to shut down and/or demonize all critics of Islam in the United States: Savage vs. CAIR: The battle over free speech.

I’m shocked—shocked!—that the uber-leftist SF Chronicle would even consider printing something so uncharacteristically truthful about this pernicious group of terrorist enablers.

A favored CAIR tactic is to push the specter of anti-Muslim hate crimes, as if to imply that the United States is a hostile environment for Muslims. The overriding narrative holds that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were the catalyst for a wave of unfounded hostility towards Islam. Never mind the fact that it is not anti-Muslim hate crimes that have been on the rise since Sept. 11 but rather anti-Jewish hate crimes, the United States is still the most religiously and ethnically tolerant nation in the world. This may perhaps explain why, as compared to other parts of the West, Muslims are thriving in America. But one would never know this to listen to CAIR’s dire reports.

Among the supposed anti-Muslim hate crimes sweeping the nation are death threats, a claim that has a habit of popping up whenever criticism is directed toward high-profile Muslim groups or individuals. It seems awfully coincidental that, following the announcement of Savage’s lawsuit, the FBI began investigating a death threat claim brought by Basim Elkarra, director of CAIR’s Sacramento chapter, which he insists resulted from the public feud. Strangely enough, Elkarra also reported a death threat after Sen. Boxer, as mentioned above, rescinded his award. While the basis for Elkarra’s current claim remains to be seen, such threats are in fact a hazard of public life and aren’t necessarily the doing of one’s political opponents. The truth of the matter is that those who dare to critique Islam — Muslims and ex-Muslims among them — are themselves most at risk of death threats in the current political and religious climate.

This is one of CAIR’s most-used tactics—reporting “death threats” to the FBI and whining about them publicly.

(Hat tip: zombie.)