By Russell Patten

Patrick Dunleavy is an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School at Hurlburt Field, Florida. He teaches a class on “The Dynamics of International Terrorism.” Mr. Dunleavy’s specialty is on the subject of radicalization of Muslims in American prisons.

He must be pretty effective because CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is calling for his firing.

Last week CAIR sent a letter to the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) urging the Air Force to sever its ties with Mr. Dunleavy. CAIR’s main point of contention is that Mr. Dunleavy is associated with the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), a non-profit think tank that “investigates the operations, funding, activities and front groups of Islamic terrorist and extremist groups in the United States and around the world.”

CAIR asserts that IPT is led by an “anti-Muslim propaganda mouthpiece, [who] has made a number of false statements betraying a personal prejudice against Islam and Muslims” and has been labeled an “anti-Muslim extremist” by the leftist-funded Southern Poverty Law Center.

According to CAIR, Mr. Dunleavy “does not fit the military’s standards for a subject-matter expert.” As though CAIR has any business defining what the military should consider a subject-matter expert.

Mr. Dunleavy has allegedly made such hate-filled Islamophobic statements as:

“To Americans (morality) means individual liberty, equal rights for men and women, religious freedom, free speech, etc. But these are contrary to the moral code of Islam.”

“The concept of ‘friendship,’ . . . is a relationship based on at least some degree of shared moral and political ideals. By that standard no Muslim nation is a friend of the U.S.”

And “To many Muslim parents, visions of violence and death are indeed the ‘better future.’”

If AFSOC is indeed working with people who are simply prejudiced against Muslims, then appropriate action must be taken. If this is simply CAIR attempting to hinder the Air Force’s ability to effectively fight terrorism, then let’s pray that AFSOC doesn’t cave.