The trouble with those who brand Daniel Pipes as an Islamophobe is while he provides proof of what he asserts, his accusers’ only evidence is their rhetoric. Mr. Pipes writes again today, in FrontPage magazine:

The Muslim Public Affairs Council [MPAC] and the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] each have a problem. As perhaps the most prominent and effective Islamist organizations in the United States, they have distinct stylistic and ideological characteristics but work together effectively as a one-two punch. Their problem concerns two of their most prominent staffers, Edina Lekovic of MPAC and Hussam Ayloush of CAIR.

Lekovic, who serves as MPAC’s communications director, appeared on CNBC’s Kudlow & Company with counterterrorism specialist Steven Emerson on May 23, where they discussed a Pew Research Center poll on U.S. Muslim attitudes…
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Later in the day, Emerson provided evidence of his claim at “MPAC in Denial about Radicalization of Muslim Youth?”: “…in July 1999, she is clearly listed as the Managing Editor of Al-Talib, in the upper right hand corner. This column was published almost a full year after the Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. At this point, the role of Bin-Laden in these bombings was widely and publicly known. … The masthead clearly lists Edina Lekovic as one of its two managing editors. And the text, written by “The Al-Talib staff,” contains the passage Emerson quoted: “When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid … Osama bin Laden, as a ‘terrorist,’ we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter.””

Click on bottom image to view actual PDF of page

Such sentiments come as less than a total surprise, for Al-Talib has linked to an Al-Qaeda website, www.qoqaz.net, and is published by the branch of the Muslim Student Association at the University of California at Los Angeles. (Writing in the Middle East Quarterly, Jonathan Dowd-Gailey has called the MSA a voice “espousing Wahhabism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism, agitating aggressively against U.S. Middle East policy, and expressing solidarity with militant Islamist ideologies.”)
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Emerson has a back run of Al-Talib issues. Between October 1997 and May 2002, it turns out, her name appears at least eleven other times on the masthead, in such capacities as “managing editor,” “assistant editor,” “copy editor,” “writer,” or the recipient of “special thanks.”
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations comes into the picture because that July 1999 Al-Talib masthead also conveys “special thanks” to Hussam Ayloush, long-time head of its southern California office. What now, CAIR? This information connects you too to denying bin Laden’s terrorism; do, please, explain Ayloush’s role in the July 1999 issue.

Also see: Keith Ellison’s Dangerous Liaisons by Joe Kaufman.