State Department Web Site Panders To Radical Islamists

The United States government's stepped-up courting of Islamist groups is on display at the State Department Web portal www.america.gov. The site bills itself as a place to "meet the people" and "explore the values and ideas that define the character of the United States."

But when it comes to American Muslim organizations, that often means providing a U.S. government stamp of approval to organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) or apologists like the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

During the Cold War, government bureaus like the United States Information Agency worked to counter disinformation by driving home the point that freedom and democracy are superior to communism and tyranny. But Zuhdi Jasser, head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, says that in today's struggle with radical Islam, the U.S. government is doing something very different — even perverse.

It aids and abets groups like CAIR and ISNA in anointing themselves representatives of all American Muslims — though many Muslims want nothing to do with the Islamists.

Jasser singles out the State Department’s 64-page booklet "Being Muslim in America" as an example of what is wrong. The publication is "like Pravda. It's all about how Muslims in America are motherhood and apple pie," Jasser said he recently told a State Department official. "It's like the Muslim community has no warts" or divisions.

Nothing could be further from the truth, Jasser said. In presenting this monolithic, idyllic picture of Muslims, the State Department ignores inconvenient facts like the intra-Muslim debate over imposition of Shariah, and Muslims' larger relationship with non-Muslims, Jasser told IPT News.

The following examples from the www.America.gov site in recent weeks illustrate the problem:

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