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October 28, 2009

Lawmakers Denounce Calls to Probe Islamic Group for Intern Spying
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Back in Washington, a group of lawmakers representing three minority
caucuses is denouncing a Republican proposal to investigate the Council
on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, on allegations it’s sending
spies into congressional offices. Four Republican lawmakers called for
the probe after a recent book called Muslim Mafia accused CAIR of
planting spies posing as congressional interns. The only verified intern
spying to come out of the book is that of the co-author’s son, who posed
as a convert to Islam and worked as an intern in CAIR’s Washington
offices. Speaking on the House floor, Congress member Keith Ellison of
Minnesota read a statement from the Congressional Tri Caucus.

Rep. Keith Ellison: “These charges smack of America sixty years ago,
where lists of ‘un-American’ agitators were identified. We should be
affirming the importance of diversity and tolerance for all interns and
staff who serve in Congress, without suspicion of being identified as
spies. The idea that we should investigate Muslim interns as spies is a
blow to the very principle of religious freedom that our Founding
Fathers cherished so dearly.”



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