Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) is teaming up with an Islamophobic fringe group, the Florida-based Citizens For National Security (CFNS), for a Capitol Hill briefing today at which they are planning to accuse the Council on American-Islamic Relations of “advancing its agenda of radical Islam” and backing a campaign of “extortion, intimidation and subversion.”
Republican members of Congress regularly demonize CAIR: One former representative even called the organization a “terrorist organization.” CFNS previously collaborated with then-congressman Allen West.
Either Wolf failed to do his due diligence before working with CFNS or simply doesn’t mind their record, as CFNS is a bastion of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.
For example, CFNS chairman William Saxton believes that the Muslim Brotherhood has captured public schools in the US and is training students to become Islamic extremists:
“It’s a form of jihad. It’s like stealth jihad,” Saxton, who was quoted in the Fox News story, tells OneNewsNow.
“It’s not blowing up buildings and killing people, and being overtly terroristic,” says Saxton. “They’re terrorizing our kids in other ways, getting into their heads when they’re in middle and high school.”
This latest controversy is not new in Florida. The website at Citizens for National Security is heavily devoted to the topic, including a report of the ongoing textbook issue in Florida; a 10-minute instructional video devoted to the topic; and a “Teacher’s Guide” to correcting “Islamic bias.”
Saxton calls the Islamic-biased textbooks a “national issue” that’s been ongoing for some time.
“But it hasn’t really gotten a lot of media attention and a lot of traction amongst parents and grandparents of the kids, whose hearts and minds are being invaded by Islamists,” he says.
Saxton and CFNS frequently (and without basis) allege pro-Islam bias in textbooks; one Florida reporter described Saxton as fixated on a fear that history textbooks are “turning any distracted school kid into a raging jihadist.”
Another CFNS leader, Peter Leitner, has said the supposed Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy in the US is so complex that it’s “kind of like looking at a plate of spaghetti.” “You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to understand there really are conspiracies in the world,” he added.
CFNS claims it has identified thousands of members of “a multifaceted Fifth Column movement within our borders” that is “destroying the United States as it currently stands,” and is urging members to help them track and “identify ‘Islamic’ businesses, social and religious organizations, schools, etc. throughout North America.”
That’s right, it wants to create a database of every single Muslim-run business, school and organization in America.
Apparently, no group — no matter how paranoid and bigoted — is too extreme for today’s GOP to associate with.
See the CFNS press release hailing Wolf’s involvement below:
