Islamist Watch Blog, by Johanna Markind • Jul 7, 2015
Last week, the Boston Globe ran a story about the emergence of a younger generation of leadership within the local Muslim community. “The younger leaders grew up in America, unlike many of their predecessors, and appear more willing to raise concerns about counterterrorism efforts targeting their community amid the rise of Islamic extremism and its global online recruitment efforts.” A cynic might say they are more focused on demanding their rights and than in cooperating against radical Islam.
Underscoring that conviction, younger Muslims established two new civil rights organizations in Boston in the last year alone: the Muslim Justice League and a revived Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national advocacy group.
In the case of CAIR Massachusetts, “in the last year” means within the last month. The local CAIR chapter was reportedly relaunched “during the holy month of Ramadan.” Its Facebook page timeline goes back to June 20, 2015. In other words, after Usaama Rahim was shot and after Islamist Watch’s related article Does CAIR Represent Boston’s Muslim Community? was published.
John Robbins has been hired as CAIR Massachusetts’ executive director.
Interestingly, although the Globe article goes on to identify where the aforementioned Muslim Justice League got its seed money (specifically, from Harvard Law School’s Public Service Venture Fund), it says nothing at all about who is funding the new “local” CAIR chapter. This is no surprise. As the IW article discusses, CAIR’s funding sources are a mystery.
By the way, another young leader featured in the article was Yusufi Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center that, as noted in a previous IW blog, has refused to cooperate in the Obama Administration’s Countering Violent Extremism program.
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