As anyone who is paying attention can tell you, the Council on American Islamic Relations is on TV a lot.

For example, last year, CAIR reps were on TV over 440 times. Yet despite the frequency of their TV appearances, they are seldom, if ever, newsworthy.

Consider that there are TV news broadcasts about CAIR and fingers, PizzaHut, Hmong people, Confederate flags, Civil War monuments, Black Lives Matter, the 1619 Project, the Atlanta Spa Shootings, the Capitol riots, Derek Chauvin, white people, Jewish misfortunes, Facebook comments, the KKK, Nazis, George Floyd, nooses, misspelled Starbucks cups, Christopher Columbus, ICE raids, graffiti, swastikas, etc.

Even when the story is about Muslims, CAIR’s appearance is gratuitous, such as in the case of an imam mugged by two teens, one black, and one white. The police concluded the motive was money, and that it was not a hate crime. But CAIR told us this was an example of how Americans are targeting Muslims. CAIR was not only irrelevant, they were flat out lying.

Anyone can see CAIR’s irrelevance for themselves by visiting the press releases section of CAIR’s website. In any given time frame, 60, 70, 80, or 90 percent of CAIR’s press releases may be about things that do not have anything to do with Muslims, Islam, or CAIR.

Indeed, the Florida Family Association recently took a look at CAIR’s press releases and found that only 7 out of 100 CAIR press releases were about alleged Muslim civil rights complaints. And while CAIR is fretting about hijab crises, “systemic racism, white supremacists, Native Americans, the Sikh community, Asians and bogus defense of some Jews,” they are simultaneously ignoring stories about Muslims trying to join ISIS, honor killing, blowing up Marines, applauding Louis Farrakhan, kidnapping American citizens, blowing up NY subway, etc.

So after months of watching CAIR get on TV over things they had nothing to do with, they got on TV to say they have nothing to do with Texas synagogue hostage-taker Malik Faisal Akram. But it is not that cut and dried. As Fox News’ Eric Shawn reported, CAIR held 20 rallies calling for the release of convicted al-Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, whose release Akram was also demanding when he took the hostages.

A new report from something called the Network Contagion Research Institute has found that CAIR was directly involved in an explicitly anti-Semitic Twitter campaign to free Aafia Siddiqui.

• Advocacy for Siddiqui’s release has been quiet in recent years, but reemerged in late 2021: “Aafia” was mentioned on Twitter fewer than 20 times per day in 2021 until late August, when “Aafia” related tweets spiked, with more than several thousand daily.
• The bulk of the chatter appears to have been driven by a network of Pakistani Twitter accounts, some of which displayed bot-like activity: The 20 most prolific authors amplifying Aafia-related hashtags self-identified as Pakistani, and several of them disseminated social content featuring anti-Semitic tropes.
• In September 2021, in response to an alleged prison assault on Siddiqui, the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Texas DFW &Austin chapter (CAIR-Texas) launched a formal campaign advocating for Siddiqui’s freedom via real-world and virtual events, as well as an online “#FreeAafia” campaign.

CAIR-Texas promoted the central node of the self-identified Pakistani network to promote Aafia-related material, and the most shared URL by the predominantly self-identified Pakistani network was a link to CAIR-Texas’s website promoting the Aafia campaign.

The now-deceased attacker’s actions came against the backdrop of a sudden spike in social media activity as part of a coordinated campaign to “Free Aafia.”

This is not an insignificant detail for the media to sweep under the rug. Because just five days after the Colleyville Beth Israel attack, CAIR and the media were up to their old tricks as if nothing had happened.

• By January 20, CAIR was promoting themselves over something that has nothing to do with them.
• That same day, CAIR was vilifying the Minneapolis police officers who restrained George Floyd. CAIR has nothing to do with George Floyd.
• The next day, CAIR was on TV several times offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed an imam in Ohio. But don’t worry, nobody will claim CAIR’s reward; no one ever does. Because CAIR has zero contacts in the broader Muslim community.
• Four days later, CAIR-Oklahoma was, once again, begging us to help them resettle the Afghans.
• The following day, CAIR-Maryland was demanding greater access to and authority over the Afghans (see also here). Which we should expect, since they are partnering with radical Muslim groups in the resettlement process.
• From there, it was on to attacking Carol Hefner. CAIR made Hefner come to them. Carol Hefner had to explain herself to CAIR, the group that may have inspired Malik Akram.
• And, by February 3, CAIR was still grinding on Steve Emerson for something CAIR had previously described as “smart.”

Nowhere in any of these broadcasts is there any explanation from CAIR about Colleyville. No indication that they learned from the hostage incident, or that they will stop using media campaigns to attack individuals, and groups of people. It is just back to business as usual, as if it never happened. But it did happen.

There is much to say about the Congregation Beth Israel attack and CAIR’s involvement in it. Including a comparison to CAIR’s campaign to stigmatize Pamela Geller with the actions of Anders Breivik. If CAIR can claim Pamela Geller may have inspired Breivik, then they also have to take responsibility for the actions of Akram.

Certainly one of the most urgent lessons of the attack in Colleyville is that TV stations must stop promoting CAIR. Someone is going to get hurt. It is one thing to put CAIR on as news, but quite another to promote, protect, and facilitate in their attacks on people.

We have had some close calls with the stories of Dan Leonard and Tamar Herman. The story out of Colleyville, and CAIR’s involvement leading up to it, is the closest call yet to an innocent person getting physically hurt due to CAIR’s incitement.

Who started Free Lady Al Qaeda movement? Social media campaign led to Texas synagogue attack

A report stated that calls for the release of Pakistani terrorist Lady Al Qaeda aka Aafia Siddiqui spiked considerably on Twitter, days before the Texas synagogue hostage attack

By Meenal Chathli
Published on : 02:01 PST, Feb 10, 2022

 

Researchers have found that calls for Pakistani terrorist Lady Al Qaeda aka Aafia Siddiqui, to be released spiked considerably on Twitter, days before the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue hostage attack in Texas. As per reports, the sudden spike in Twitter activity advocating Siddiqui’s release comes across as a coordinated attempt promoted by a US-based non-profit organization and self-identified Pakistani Twitter accounts.

Last month, British-born Malik Faisal Akram flew to New York from the UK and then left for Texas, where he brandished a pistol. Then he headed to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, where he took four people hostage and demanded Siddiqui’s release from prison. Before the hostages escaped and law enforcement killed him, he demanded Siddiqui’s release from custody in Fort Worth, where she’s serving an 86-year sentence for shooting at Americans in Afghanistan.

“Siddiqui is serving an 86-year sentence for shooting at U.S. service members in Afghanistan. She was being arrested in connection with an alleged Al Qaeda plot when she grabbed a soldier’s M4 assault rifle and opened fire on her interrogators. She was a bad shot and none were hurt,” reports Daily Mail.

The Sudden Massive Spike in Twitter Activity for ‘Free Aafa Movement’ Preceded Attack on Congregation Beth Israel report mentions, “What caused British national Malik Akram to travel to Texas earlier this month and take hostages in a synagogue with the demand of releasing his “sister” – a.k.a., the jailed Pakistani terrorist Aafia Siddiqui? At first glance, it seemed an unlikely cause to champion, as Siddiqui had been imprisoned for over a decade and the solidarity campaign on her behalf had been largely dormant for years. As President Biden himself noted after the attack, there are lingering questions as to “why [Akram] targeted a synagogue, and why he insisted on the release of someone who has been in prison for over 10 years?” While the now-deceased attacker’s motives remain obscure, his actions came against the backdrop of a sudden spike in social media activity as part of a coordinated campaign to ‘Free Aafia.’ The Network Contagion Research Institute used open-source data from social media platforms to analyze the dynamics of how and by whom the campaign was reactivated. This analysis revealed that the cause Akram identified as a key motive for his attack had been promoted by a U.S.-based non-profit organization and self-identified Pakistani Twitter accounts in the months before the attack.”

The key findings of the report state, “Advocacy for Siddiqui’s release has been quiet in recent years but reemerged in late 2021: ‘Aafia’ was mentioned on Twitter fewer than 20 times per day in 2021 until late August when ‘Aafia’ related tweets spiked, eclipsing several thousand daily. The bulk of the chatter appears to have been driven by a network of Pakistani Twitter accounts, some of which displayed bot-like activity: The 20 most prolific authors amplifying Aafia-related hashtags self-identified as Pakistani and several of them disseminated social content featuring antisemitic tropes. In September of 2021, in response to an alleged prison assault on Siddiqui, the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Texas DFW &Austin chapter (CAIR-Texas) launched a formal campaign advocating for Siddiqui’s freedom via real-world and virtual events, as well as an online ‘#FreeAafia’ campaign. CAIR-Texas promoted the central node of the self-identified Pakistani network to promote Aafia-related material, and the most shared URL by the predominantly self-identified Pakistani network was a link to CAIR-Texas’ website promoting the Aafia campaign.”

The research was conducted by the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM) and the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). Researchers said that there was a sudden increase in pro-Aafia tweets five months before the attack. The report mentioned that the campaign included “bot-like activity and a network of influencers amplifying anti-Semitic content.” As per the data, “Aafia was mentioned on Twitter fewer than 20 times per day in 2021 until late August when Aafia-related tweets spiked, eclipsing several thousand daily.”

“The well-coordinated online and offline solidarity campaign for Aafia Siddiqui, a raving anti-Semite herself, indulged in anti-Semitic tropes and predictably inflamed supporters. While one can never determine a direct cause and effect, tragically, one of those radicalized supporters flew all the way from England to Texas to visit terror on an innocent Jewish community during Shabbat services,” lan Carr, former US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and member of CAM’s advisory council told Fox News.

While the researchers didn’t dig up any direct evidence linking the Twitter campaign to Akram’s motivations, the correlation is concerning and should be worth digging into. “The information that we have in this report is absolutely worthwhile for the investigating agencies to take notice of. The investigative agencies… really do have to run this sort of information down to help identify the motivation,” said Jack Donohue, former NYPD Chief of Strategic Initiatives and co-author of the report.