Dinner Party

(CNSNews.com) - Critics slammed a Democratic lawmaker for addressing a Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) function over the weekend, but the Muslim group praised him for doing so "despite being demonized and vilified by the right-wing media and pro-Israel extremists."
"We cannot blindly empower Islamists, like Gov. Ed Rendell and Rep. Joe Sestak have done, and then wonder why we are losing the ideological battle," added Zuhdi Jasser, chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
Though CAIR declined to comment for this article, the group's spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, told Cybercast News Service previously that those implicated in terrorism and their activities were unrelated to the organization.
"Nothing these named individuals did or didn't do had anything to do with CAIR," Hooper said. "They didn't do it in the name of CAIR, on CAIR's time or in association with CAIR. Fifty-thousand members are held responsible for actions we didn't take. That standard is not applied to any other group except a Muslim group."