What the media isn't telling you about Ted Cruz's refusal to meet with a Muslim group

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

If you’re going to voice complaints that an American politician won’t meet with you, you should probably check to see if you’re an organization that supports terrorism first. CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) failed to do this, and are now wondering why Ted Cruz wouldn’t take time out of his day to sit down with them.

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It’s likely because Cruz has far better things to do than meet with terrorist sympathizers. Things like, for instance, anything else. However, by the way the International Business Times, the Dallas Morning News, and RawStory tell it, you would think Cruz was blowing off Muslims because he’s just a bad person like that, and often citing his comments about patrolling Muslim neighborhoods.

A fun game I like to play is going to articles like those above, hitting ctrl+f, and typing in the word “Hamas.” If it doesn’t appear in an article revolving around CAIR, then you can be sure it’s only telling you a fraction of the story. Allow me to fill in the blanks for you.

Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of CAIR, stated that she had been trying to get a meeting with Cruz’s staff for weeks, but couldn’t get anything solidified.

Salem stated that her group “traveled all the way from North Texas to come and meet with our elected officials. I know they have things they have to do, but what I’m concerned about is the complete and utter shutdown, not finding one legislative aide to meet with us.”

“It’s important to mention that all of our representatives have attempted to meet with us.” said Salem, in a statement. “There have been scheduling conflicts. This is the only office that outright declined to meet with us, which is indicative of his behavior in the media as well,”

This is for good reason. The Texas chapter of CAIR has been in trouble for being a little too friendly to terrorists in the past. The founder of the state chapter was found guilty, along with his brothers, of helping fund the terrorist group, Hamas, through the use of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The group was convicted of no less than 108 charges, and found guilty for every single one.

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CAIR itself has a checkered past of being friendly toward terrorism, who called Cruz “Islmophobic” in the past for simply saying that muslim neighborhoods need to be patrolled like any other neighborhood. Cruz didn’t like the idea of Muslim neighborhoods becoming radicalized terrorist recruitment centers, which is something the residents agreed upon. CAIR, however, had different ideas.

As Kyle Shideler writes at the Federalist on this,

CAIR is notorious for urging Muslim community members not to talk to law enforcement. In 2009, while Somali residents of Minneapolis were desperate for law enforcement assistance in dealing with imams recruiting their children for the terrorist group Al Shabaab, CAIR intervened.

So it’s absolutely no surprise that Cruz doesn’t want to meet with CAIR, or any branch of its organization. What the media is not telling you, however, is that Cruz is just not meeting with that Muslim organization. In the past, Cruz has enthusiastically met with Muslims such as Abdirahman Warsame, of the group Terror Free Somalia.

“He asked me to schedule a meeting. I made some phone calls  to Senators and Congressmen. The only person who came back to me with short notice was Senator Ted Cruz,” said Warsame.

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Notice the difference between Salem’s and Warsame’s comments regarding Cruz? Cruz was the only candidate that refused to meet with CAIR, but Cruz was the only candidate to immediately respond to Warsame, and meet with him.

So the idea that Ted Cruz won’t meet with Muslim groups is a fabrication. He’s more than willing to, but he’s not going to meet, and validate any organization who recruits, and uses children as human shields, is responsible for more than a few suicide bombings, and more. 

Why the media is leaving all this out is still beyond me, but in terms of who is in the wrong, it’s not Cruz. 

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