The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has urged the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to demand of the Attorney General, Eric Holder, that the U.S. government investigate the Islamist lobby, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), when Mr. Holder appears before them later this week. The ZOA is also urging the Judiciary Committee to press the Attorney-General to investigate Viva Palestina, a group allegedly raising money for Hamas on US campuses,  and other efforts to bankroll groups dedicated to destroying Israel, attacking the West and supporting terrorism.

CAIR is a Saudi-funded Islamist group whose officials have voiced support for terrorist movements like Hamas. CAIR’s founder is on record praising suicide bombers and saying he would like the Quran to be the highest authority in America. CAIR officials have been indicted for funneling money to foreign terrorists and been found urging the replacement of the Constitution with the Koran. The FBI demonstrated during the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial, CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. It also emerged in that trial that CAIR is a local front organization for Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror organization that has murdered over 500 Israelis in scores of suicide bombings, sniper and rocket assaults and whose Charter calls for the destruction of Israel (Article 15) and the murder of Jews (Article 7). This week, Hamas condemned the killing by U.S. forces of arch-terrorist Osama Bin Laden.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is vitally important that the long neglect of Islamist organizations operating in the U.S., like CAIR, be replaced by proactive investigation and exposure. For too long, CAIR and other Islamist lobbies have been courted by government, law enforcement agencies, civil liberties groups and religious bodies.

“We urge our members, indeed, all American Jews and non-Jews of goodwill to urge their Members of Congress who sit on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and especially House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, (D-VT) to press Attorney-General Holder to act on the already abundant, publicly available evidence of CAIR’s record and investigate CAIR’s activities in the United States. Those wishing to do so should contact http://judiciary.house.gov/about/members.html and relevant Members of Congress by contacting the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.”