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For Immediate Release
August, 17 2010, 03:01pm EDT
Contact:
CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper,
202-488-8787, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com;
CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin,
202-488-8787, , E-Mail: arubin@cair.com
CAIR Asks Gingrich Not to Speak at Rally with Islam Hater
Presidential hopeful scheduled to appear with Dutch extremist who calls for ban on Quran
WASHINGTON
A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization
today called on former House Speaker and presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich
not to speak at a rally in opposition to a planned Islamic community
center in New York City featuring an anti-Islam extremist who has called
for a ban on the Quran, Islam's revealed text.
CAIR said Gingrich is scheduled to appear with anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders at the September 11 rally sponsored by the hate group Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), which is led by individuals with long histories of promoting Islamophobia.
Wilders has in the past called for banning the Quran, taxing
Muslim women who wear Islamic head scarves, ending immigration from
Muslim countries, and prohibiting the construction of new mosques. He
has said, "I hate Islam" and has called Islam's Prophet Muhammad "the
devil."
"Anyone who aspires to become president of the United States
should not be seen lending support to hate-mongers and Islamophobes,"
said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.
"Muslim-bashing may score Mr. Gingrich some cheap political points in
the current climate of anti-Islam hysteria, but if he occupied the white
House, such associations would inevitably harm our nation's
international image."
SEE: Newt Gingrich Compares Mosque to Nazis
CAIR: What Would Bush Do About the Ground Zero Mosque?
Experts Say Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Undermines Struggle Against Extremism
CAIR-FL: Fear-Mongering's at Its Bigoted Peak for Primaries
Conservative Muslim-Americans' Letter To GOP Leaders: Don't Bring Mosque Debate Into Elections
Hooper said SIOA's founder, Pamela Geller, has
claimed that "Hitler and the Nazis were inspired by Islam" and offered
rhetorical support to both accused Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic
and slain Apartheid-era leader Eugene Terre'blanche.
SEE: How the "Ground Zero Mosque" Fear Mongering Began
Pamela Geller: The Looniest Blogger Ever
She has posted images on her blog that include a photoshopped
photograph of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in a Nazi uniform,
another fake image of President Obama urinating on an American flag and
drawings purporting to depict Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a pig. In a
June 25 blog entry, Geller posted a video claiming that Muslims engage
in bestiality.
SEE: Screen Shot of 'Muslim Bestiality' Post on Geller's Blog
CAIR Video: TV Host Exposes Pamela Geller's Anti-Muslim Bigotry
SIOA is an Anti-Muslim Hate Group
Fox Opens Its Airwaves to Anti-Muslim Activist Geller
SIOA co-founder Robert Spencer has called
Islam's Prophet Muhammad a "con man." The independent national media
watch group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) identified
Spencer as one of "Islamophobia's Dirty Dozen" who systematically
"spread fear, bigotry, and misinformation." In its report, FAIR said,
"By selectively ignoring inconvenient Islamic texts and commentaries,
Spencer concludes that Islam is innately extremist and violent."
SEE: FAIR Unmasks the Smearcasters - Robert Spencer
The United States Patent and Trademark Office
refused to grant SIOA a trademark because: "The applied-for mark refers
to Muslims in a disparaging manner because by definition it implies that
conversion or conformity to Islam is something that needs to be stopped
or caused to cease."
SIOA, Geller and Spencer are all affiliated with another
anti-Islam hate group, American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), the
founder of which wrote: "[T]here are no innocent muslims. islam is
subject to killing on grounds of political expediency on the same basis
as islam kills its victims, and islam cannot ethically and morally claim
otherwise."
SEE: SIOA Co-Founder: Kill Your Liberal Relatives and All Muslims
SIOA is an outgrowth of a similar group in Europe called Stop
the Islamization of Europe, which seeks to block the construction of
mosques on that continent and "considers Islamophobia to be the height
of common sense."
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy
organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam,
encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims,
and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
(202) 488-8787LATEST NEWS
'We Must Stop Him': Gallego Bill Would Ban Funding for Trump Greenland Invasion
"Congress will not bankroll illegal, unnecessary military action in Greenland just to soothe the ego of a power-hungry wannabe dictator."
Jan 06, 2026
As leaders in Europe respond to once-unimaginable threats by the United States to take territory from a NATO ally, one US senator on Monday proposed legislation banning funding for any Trump administration military action against Greenland.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) put forth an amendment to the Senate Defense Appropriations bill "to prohibit the use of funds for military force, the conduct of hostilities, or the preparation for war against or with respect to Greenland," a self-governing territory of Denmark.
“Families are getting crushed by rising grocery and housing costs, inflation is up, and [President Donald] Trump’s name is all over the Epstein files," Gallego said in a statement. "Instead of doing anything to fix those problems, Trump is trying to distract people by threatening to start wars and invade countries—first in Venezuela, and now against our NATO ally Denmark."
“What’s happening in Venezuela shows us that we can’t just ignore Trump’s reckless threats," Gallego added. "His dangerous behavior puts American lives and our global credibility at risk. I’m introducing this amendment to make it clear that Congress will not bankroll illegal, unnecessary military action, and to force Republicans to choose whether they’re going to finally stand up or keep enabling Trump’s chaos.”
"This is not more complicated than the fact that Trump wants a giant island with his name on it. He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong. The US military is not a toy," Gallego—a former Marine Corps infantryman—said on social media.
The illegal US invasion and bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife—which came amid a high-seas airstrike campaign against alleged drug traffickers—spooked many Greenlanders, Danes, and Europeans, who say they have no choice but to take Trump's threats seriously.
“Threats, pressure, and talk of annexation have no place between friends,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Monday on social media. “That is not how you speak to a people who have shown responsibility, stability, and loyalty time and again. Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more innuendo. No more fantasies about annexation.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned during a Monday television interview that "if the United States decides to militarily attack another NATO country, then everything would stop—that includes NATO, and therefore the post-Second World War security."
Other European leaders have also rallied behind Greenland amid the mounting US threat.
"Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland," the leaders of Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain asserted in a statement also backed by the Netherlands and Canada—which Trump has said he wants to make the "51st state."
The White House said Tuesday that Trump and members of his national security team are weighing a “range of options” to acquire Greenland, and that military action is “always an option” for seizing the mineral-rich and strategic island.
This, after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller brushed off criticism of a social media post by his wife, who posted an image showing a map of Greenland covered in the American flag with the caption, "SOON."
"You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else," Miller told CNN on Monday. "But we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power."
No war powers resolution has ever succeeded in stopping a US president from proceeding with military action, including one introduced last month by Gallego in a bid to stop the boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who has also unsuccessfully tried to get war powers resolutions passed, implied Tuesday that more measures aimed at preventing Trump from attacking Greenland may be forthcoming.
“He has repeatedly raised Greenland, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia. He’s waged military action within Nigeria,” Kaine said of Trump, who has bombed more countries than any president in history. “So I think members of the Senate should go on the record about all of it.”
In Greenland, only a handful of the island's 57,000 inhabitants want to join the United States. More than 8 in 10 favor independence amid often strained relations with their masters in Copenhagen and the legacy of a colonial history rife with abuses. Greenlanders enjoy a Nordic-style social welfare system that features universal healthcare; free higher education; and income, family, and employment benefits and protections unimaginable in today's United States.
Pro-independence figures say like-minded people must use the specter of a US takeover to wring concessions from Denmark.
"I am more nervous that we are potentially in a situation where only Denmark's wishes are taken into account and that we have not even been clarified about what we want," Aki-Matilda Tilia Ditte Høegh-Dam, a member of the pro-independence Naleraq party in Greenland's Inatsisartut, or Parliament, told Sermitsiaq on Tuesday.
"I'm in the Folketinget [Danish Parliament] right now, and I see that the Danish government is constantly making agreements with the United States," she added. "It’s not that they ask Greenland first."
US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was among observers who noted Tuesday that any US invasion of Greenland would oblige other NATO members to defend the island under the North Atlantic Treaty's collective defense requirement.
“That’s what Article 5 says. Article 5 did not anticipate that the invading country would be a member of NATO,” Murphy told reporters on Capitol Hill. “We’re laughing, but this is not actually something to laugh about now because I think he’s increasingly serious.”
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'No Blood for Oil': Platner Slams 'Spineless' Susan Collins for Backing Illegal Attack on Venezuela
"The illegal attack on Venezuela is not foreign policy; it’s gangsterism on an international scale," said the Democratic Mainer running for Senate.
Jan 06, 2026
Since the Trump administration invaded Venezuela to abduct President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, Graham Platner, a military veteran and Democratic US Senate candidate from Maine, has been calling out not only the attack, but also the Republican lawmakers who enabled it—particularly Sen. Susan Collins, whom he hopes to beat next November.
After the attack, Collins said that while "Congress should have been informed about the operation earlier and needs to be involved as this situation evolves," she was "personally briefed" by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Maduro is "a narco-terrorist and international drug trafficker... who should stand trial" in the United States.
Platner, who became an oyster farmer and harbormaster after his four infantry tours in the US Army and Marine Corps, responded to Collins on social media, "As someone who works with many invertebrates, I know a spineless response when I see one..."
The progressive candidate also joined protesters in Portland on Saturday, addressing the crowd at Longfellow Square.
"This is not foreign policy. This is gangsterism on an international scale," Platner said to cheers. "We must not be fooled by the childish lies being used to justify this illegal aggression. Be wary of the establishment voices in media and in politics who, over the next few weeks, will work tirelessly to manufacture consent, even when they sound like they are opposed."
"Keep an ear out for 'this operation is bad, but' followed by words about democracy, dictatorship, and international law," he warned. "If those were justifications for invasion and abduction, we'd have invaded many of our allies a long time ago."
"Those voices are doing the work of empire, and we must be vigilant for their duplicitousness," he continued. "If they are media figures, change the channel. If they are political figures, work tirelessly to remove them from power."
President Donald Trump—who was elected with the backing of fossil fuel billionaires—addressed the nation after the attack on Saturday and again made clear that he has set his sights on Venezuelan oil.
In response to Trump, Platner called "bullshit," adding, "I watched my friends die in Iraq in the wake of speeches like this one." He also posted photos from the Portland protest and declared, "No blood for oil."
Platner also put out a video blasting the failure of federal lawmakers to pass a war powers resolution requiring congressional authorization for military action against the South American country.
In recent months, both GOP-controlled chambers of Congress have failed to pass resolutions that would have blocked Trump's strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats and war with Venezuela. In both Senate votes, Collins has voted no.
Platner highlighted the Republican senator's November vote against the Venezuela measure, which failed 49-51, and said that "from Iraq to Venezuela, you can count on Susan Collins to enable illegal foreign wars."
Meanwhile, Collins has affirmed her support for the US operation in Venezuela, saying in a Monday interview with News Center Maine that Maduro "should stand trial on American soil."
During Maduro's first court appearance in New York City on Monday, he said that "I am the president of Venezuela, and I consider myself a prisoner of war," and pleaded not guilty—as did his wife, Cilia Flores, who was also captured in Caracas.
Amid mounting global outrage and arguments that their abduction violated the US Constitution and international law, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has pledged to force another vote on a bipartisan war powers resolution this week.
Maine's other US senator, Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, has voted for both previous war powers resolutions. After Trump abducted Maduro, King said that "I'm very concerned about where this leads."
"The Constitution lays out very clearly that Congress has the power to declare war," King added. "I know Congress has abdicated many of its powers in recent years, but I hope and plan on trying to return those fundamental duties back to the legislative branch as the founders designed."
Under reported pressure from Schumer, Maine Gov. Janet Mills is facing Platner in the Democratic primary contest for the Senate race. Although she has been friendlier to Collins than her progressive opponent, Mills has also called out the Republican senator over the Venezuela attack, saying that she "gave Donald Trump the green light to move us unilaterally towards a costly and unjustified war when she voted with her party against a bill to check his power."
"We have had enough of Sen. Collins feigning concern about the president's abuses on the one hand while she rubber-stamps his agenda and his actions on the other," Mills said. "I call on Susan Collins to use the power she claims to have as Maine's senior senator to demand accountability from the Trump administration and stand up to his dangerous and self-motivated power grab."
Polling published last month showed mixed results in the primary race, in the wake of Platner facing criticism for past social media posts and a tattoo he had covered up. His campaign told Axios on Monday that the candidate raised $4.7 million from more than 182,000 contributions in the final quarter of 2025, with an average donation of $25 per person.
"While the political elites in both parties have tried to write this movement off as a flash in the pan, we have shown time and time again that we not only have staying power but are building a ship that will last," Platner said in a statement.
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'Filled With Lies': Trump White House Releases False History of Jan. 6
"It is past time for 25th Amendment remedies," said one critic.
Jan 06, 2026
To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the deadly riots incited by President Donald Trump at the US Capitol Building, the Trump White House on Tuesday unveiled a website loaded with false claims about the events that took place on January 6, 2021.
The official White House January 6 website features multiple falsehoods and distortions about the Trump-incited Capitol riots, including brazenly false claims about the Capitol Police "escalating" tensions with rioters by firing "tear gas, flash bangs, and rubber munitions into crowds of peaceful protesters."
In reality, Trump supporters stormed past police barricades that had been set up at the Capitol and then smashed windows to enter the building and illegally disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump falsely claimed to have won.
The website also blames former Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to go along with Trump's unconstitutional scheme to unilaterally discard certified election results from key swing states, which would have put the election results in the hands of Republican-controlled state legislatures to falsely certify Trump as the winner.
The Trump White House's revisionist history of the riots falsely claims that rioter Ashli Babbitt was "murdered in cold blood" by Capitol Police, when in reality she was shot while trying to break into into the Speaker's Lobby after being warned multiple times by officers to stand back.
The Capitol rioters garner significant praise from the White House website, which falsely portrays them as peaceful demonstrators who fell victim to the actions of Capitol Police and overly zealous Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors.
"On his first day back in office, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued sweeping blanket pardons and commutations for nearly 1,600 patriotic Americans prosecuted for their presence at the Capitol—many mere trespassers or peaceful protesters treated as insurrectionists by a weaponized Biden DOJ," the website says.
The blatantly false claims on the website drew a horrified reaction from many critics, including some journalists who were at the Capitol on that day and witnesses the riots firsthand.
"Never forget that Trump attempted a coup to stay in power after losing reelection, ending with the violent insurrection he incited that left 140 cops injured, five dead," wrote HuffPost White House correspondent SV Dáte on X.
"The White House's new January 6 page is filled with lies, misrepresentation, and reality denial," wrote Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins on Bluesky. "It's a clear attempt to rewrite history and frame Trump in heroic terms."
Author Mike Rothschild accused the White House of engaging in historical revisionism on par with the government depicted in George Orwell's classic novel 1984, arguing that Trump and his underlings of embracing "an alternate reality so hackneyed and obviously fake that it would make Orwell stick his head in a wood chipper."
Victor Ray, a sociologist at the University of Iowa, raised alarms about what the January 6 White House website says about Trump's mental health.
"This is batshit," he wrote. "The White House is doing alternate reality history. It is past time for 25th Amendment remedies."
Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters for America, reacted to the section of the website blaming Pence by describing it as an ominous sign that a future coup attempt by Trump to illegally remain in power might actually succeed.
"Trump replaced Pence on the ticket with someone he fully expects would carry out this deranged scheme if he has the opportunity, instead betraying the Constitution," he wrote, referring to Vice President JD Vance, who criticized Pence for fulfilling his constitutional duty and certifying the 2020 election results.
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