Another bit of Emerson's work is the false claim that Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the most respected and popular American Muslim leaders, is a CAIR board member and that he is somehow an anti-Western zealot. Tapper perhaps forgot to mention that Imam Siraj was once asked to give the prayer opening for a session of Congress. And another little point -- he is not a CAIR board member.

And yet more Emerson-inspired claims. Tapper wrote that "Hooper ... refused to discuss questions about a series of 1994 meetings that CAIR coordinated for Bassam Alamoush." Perhaps one reason I did not discuss that issue is because it was never raised in the interview. It is always somewhat difficult to respond to questions that are not asked. (At the time of his visit, Alamoush was speaker of the democratically-elected parliament of a nation having warm relations with the United States. CAIR did not sponsor his visit.)

The article echoes Emerson's use of the late Seif Ashmawy to attack CAIR. Of course Tapper did not reveal that Ashmawy was a close associate of Emerson or that he was featured in Emerson's "Jihad in America" video as early as 1994.

Tapper also quoted me as saying that, "criticism [of CAIR] comes their way from other Muslims for not speaking out against terrorist organizations or human rights abuses in Muslim countries, not for necessarily voicing support."

Suffice it to say that I never said this. I did tell Tapper that we would "condemn" (there's that word again) any human rights abuses by Muslims or people of any faith anywhere in the world. I also told him that we "condemn" any act of terrorism, in any form, by any party. (During the interview, I actually asked Tapper to count the number of times I used the word "condemn" because I knew that no matter how many time I used it, it would not be enough for me to pass his McCarthy-like test of loyalty.)

He falsely claimed I referred to a "Zionist conspiracy." The term came from Tapper, not from me. When I heard him use it in our conversation, I explicitly told him that that was his reference, not mine.

He claims that CAIR has a hierarchy in which some civilian victims of terrorism are "innocent" and others are not. We do not hold this belief and I did not explore that theory with Tapper because it is insulting by its very nature.

He claimed I "criticized" the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. I did not. Unless by criticism he meant monitoring the civil rights of American Muslims to make sure that all legal procedures are being followed. Within hours of the attacks, CAIR signed on to a joint statement by Muslim groups that read in part: "We join with all Americans in calling for the swift apprehension and punishment of the perpetrators. No political cause could ever be assisted by such immoral acts." As noted above, we have since met with officials of the Justice Department and the FBI on issues related to the attacks.

The list of distortions, misrepresentations and inaccuracies outlined above is by no means exhaustive, and does not include inaccurate references to other Muslim groups.

I think Tapper tipped his hand as to why he objects to CAIR when he wrote: "USA Today, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Fox News Channel and Salon -- as well as hundreds of media outlets throughout America in search of expertise, information and a moderate face for Islam -- have sought out CAIR and AMC executives in recent weeks." It sounds like someone is upset that Muslims are finally gaining a voice in American society.

Ours is a seven-million-strong multi-ethnic faith community. (See "About Islam and American Muslims," http://www.cair-net.org/aboutislam.asp) "The Mosque in America: A National Portrait," (www.cair-net.org/mosquereport), the largest study of its kind, showed the number of American mosques grew by 25 percent in the past seven years and that mosques are becoming dynamic centers for political, as well as spiritual mobilization.

Muslims, like every emerging ethnic or religious minority in this country, have to struggle to take their proper place in the American social and political arena. It is a pity that struggle will have to overcome the active hostility of a vocal minority.

As the Monty Python crew used to say, "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition."

-- Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

Jake Tapper responds: There's a lot to address in Hooper's letter; let me first apologize for one error in my story. I wrote that CAIR had called the conviction of Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman, whom U.S. authorities deemed the ringleader of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, a "hate crime." In fact, in 1996 CAIR published a book called "The Price of Ignorance" which dealt with the "status of Muslim civil rights in the United States." That book listed "incidents of anti-Muslim bias and violence," on which CAIR included the trial of Abdul-Rahman, which ended with his conviction for conspiring to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel and other New York City landmarks. CAIR listed the trial on that list of "incidents of bias and violence" because Abdul-Rahman's lawyers said that his trial had been "far from free and fair." They did not call it a "hate crime." I regret the error.

The rest of Hooper's complaints, however, have no merit, and in fact typify the type of obfuscation CAIR regularly engages in when faced with criticism.

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