Terror apologist appointed to head CAIR chapter
It is profoundly sad to see CAIR-Ohio descending further into extremism as witnessed by the recent appointment of local Somali terror apologist Abukar Arman to head the local CAIR-Columbus office as indicated by the email announcement from CAIR-OH figurehead Asma Mobin-Uddin back in January (see below). Arman has steadfastly defended the al-Qaeda-backed Somali Islamic Courts Union and is one of its most outspoken apologists in the West (see my article, “Hometown Jihad: The Somali terror apologist next door”). One only need visit his article, “Engaging Somalia via the Road Less Traveled”, from back in January to see how shamelessly he defends as “moderate” the very organization waging a bloody insurgency against the Somali people, and who’s leaders have been designated as terrorists by the US government.
Then again, no one should be surprised at this sudden lurch towards extremism by CAIR-OH. Abukar Arman has been on the state chapter board, and with the very sudden flight of his business partner Ahmad Al-Akhras (CAIR national vice chairman and former CAIR-OH founder and president) to the Middle East, Arman has no doubt been designated by his friend to help keep a tight rein on the group in his absence. Thus, this move is one of sheer pragmatism. While Asma Mobin-Uddin is the titular figurehead of CAIR-OH, the real power behind the local organization has always been and remains Ahmad Al-Akhras and his HAMAS/Muslim Brotherhood masters.
But Arman’s new position will drop the facade of “moderation” that CAIR-OH has tried to foist, with his open enthusiasm for terrorist organizations (see, for instance, his January 2006 blog post “HAMAS Victory is a Victory for Democracy and Peace!”, which has been proven manifestly false in the past two years; also remember that HAMAS has been designated a terrorist organization since 1995); his organizing conferences in our area with known Islamic extremists (e.g. the terror-fest held at the Ohio Statehouse back in October); his forced resignation back in August from the Franklin