Rep. Allen West, (R-Fla., left) offered Florida?s branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations a little history lesson in a letter to the group, and officials from CAIR don?t like it. Even worse, they couldn?t figure out what West meant. Responding to a lengthy diatribe against West that demanded he stop associating with anti-jihad writers such as Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihad Watch website, and Pamela Geller, proprietress of the Atlas Shrugs site, West sent a one-word reply. ?Nuts.?
Nazir Hamze, one of the officers at CAIR to whom West wrote, was clueless. And so were many of the people that CBS4 in Miami talked to about the laconic rejoinder.
CAIR Attacks West
In early August, CBS4 reported, CAIR Florida unleashed a 697-word missive that accused West, a former Army officer, of consorting with haters and Islamophobes as New Times of Miami and Palm Beach called Spencer and Geller. Spencer and Geller write about Islam and its deep ties to terror, and helped orchestrate opposition to building the Ground Zero Mosque near the site of the World Trade Center, which Muslim terrorsts destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001. Now, Muslim activists and their leftist allies are attacking the pair because their names turned up in the ranting and rambling manifesto of Anders Breivik, the man who murdered 68 people a few weeks ago in Norway.
CAIR Florida, an offshoot of the national umbrella group, is obsessed with West, accusing him of Islamphobia and insulting Islam on numerous occasions. In February, CAIR Florida said Congressman West associates with self-proclaimed experts on Islam and Muslims. CAIR’s press release stated:
These so called experts are nothing more than Anti-Islam Bigots and Muslim Bashers who have made a living off of propagating hate. It is shameful that a public servant who is supposed to represent all of his constituents would associate with bigots, while also making harmful and divisive comments about a specific group of people based on their faith.
Hamze, who received Wests one-word note, told the congressmen he was a hater: “You have consistently demonized and insulted my religion… You’ve insulted the prophet. Your version of Islam is exactly what the anti-Islam people are teaching you.”
In another prepared statement a few weeks later, Hamze said:
Mr. West exhibited behavior that does not reflect credibility on the US House of Representatives. He lost his cool when I asked a very simple question; he even went as far to accuse me and or Islam of the terrorist attacks on America. I will follow up with Mr. West regarding his false claim against me and or Islam. However, I am truly worried about the backlash he is creating for the peaceful Muslims with his hateful words. One man walked up to me at the event and said, I am going to have my son kill as many of you as he can! Mr. West doesnt understand the environment he is creating for us. I pray that God guides Allen West to the straight path.
NUTS!
The latest missive from CAIR Florida, which doesnt appear to be posted at CAIR Floridas website, received a one-word answer: NUTS!
West was alluding to the one-word answer that U.S. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe sent to the German General Heinrich Freiherr von Lttwitz after the German demanded the surrender of American positions defending Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.
But it was clear that Hamze, who is well schooled in identifying hate, knows nothing of history. When I first saw that, I wasnt sure if he was calling me nuts, or he was calling my concerns nuts, Hamze told the affiliate.
He also demanded that West grow up and act like a congressman, but in when CBS4 interviewed passersby about the letter, they didnt get Wests reference to McAuliffe either.
One woman thought it needed another sentence, while another said it doesnt look professional to me, echoing Hamze.
Amusingly, when the CBS4 reporter finally learned what West meant, he announced, Then we found this.
Also amusing was the reporters introduction to Hamzes demand that West grow up.
Hamze doesnt think hell ever find out what Congressman West meant with the word because, he says, West has turned down all meetings with CAIR Florida.
CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror trial and is tightly connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and other terrorist groups.
