If the Council on American-Islamic Relations is in the United States simply to protect the civil rights of Muslims according to the law of the land, why would it object to protests against the implementation of a religious law that ultimately conflicts with the U.S. Constitution?

That's the question that arises in response to CAIR's outrage against the rallies organized by the group Act for America in more than 20 U.S. cities Saturday dubbed "March Against Shariah, March for Human Rights."

Act for America said the event was in "memory and support of victims of FGM (female genital mutilation), honor killings and violence toward the LGBTQ community in the name of religion, culture and foreign law."

But the executive director of CAIR's Houston office, Mustafaa Carroll, contended in an interview that the premise for the rallies is "propaganda saying the Muslim community is here to take over the country, subvert the Constitution and implement Shariah law as the law of the land."

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"There's nothing further from the truth. I have never heard a Muslim say it, intimate it, want to do it, etcetera," he said.

"But this is all propaganda, and that propaganda has found some traction with a lot of groups who are anti-Muslim, anti-xenophobic (sic), racist or whatever you want to call them."

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Despite Carroll's assertions, CAIR itself – according to FBI wiretap evidence – was founded as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood to carry out the Brotherhood's stated objective to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law.

Further, several of CAIR's top leaders are on the record saying the same.

CAIR founder Omar Ahmad, as WND reported in 2003 and in 2006, told a gathering of Muslims in Northern California in 1998 that they were in America not to assimilate but to help assert Islam's rule over the country. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he hoped to U.S. would become Islamic through "education."

And in a 2003 interview with Michael Medved, Hooper clearly declared: "If Muslims ever become a majority in the United States, it would be safe to assume that they would want to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law, as most Muslims believe that God’s law is superior to man-made law.”

Ihsan Bagby of CAIR’s Washington office has said that Muslims “can never be full citizens of this country,” referring to the United States, “because there is no way we can be fully committed to the institutions and ideologies of this country.”

WND reported a poll commissioned in May 2015 by the Center for Security Policy showed that 51 percent of American Muslims preferred to have their own Shariah courts outside of the legal system ruled by the U.S. Constitution. And nearly a quarter believed the use of violent jihad was justified in establishing Shariah.

Nevertheless, in an interview with MSNBC's "A.M. Joy" about the Saturday rallies, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress, insisted "no one is actually trying to enact Shariah in America."

"This is nothing more than a tactic to scare Americans about their Muslim neighbors," the congressman said.

He said President Trump is creating a "culture of hate" in which "intolerance is taking over."

The host, Joy Reid, commenting that Act for America founder Brigitte Gabriel "has some sort of fantasy of a Muslim takeover," asked Ellison if he was disturbed by Gabriel's recent invitation to the White House.

"It's like playing 'Birth of a Nation' in the White House, as President Wilson did one time," he said.

President Trump, Ellison said, "has given a stamp of approval to a lot of haters."

Related story: "Thousands of Americans in 20 cities 'March Against Shariah'"

'Hate groups'

Many news reports on the rally cited the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center's designation of Act for America as a hate group. It's a determination many regard as dubious because the organization smears many mainstream groups and individuals as "haters" simply for supporting the traditional definition of marriage, including Dr. Ben Carson.

The director of CAIR's Minnesota branch, Jaylani Hussein, spoke out against the rallies at a press conference his organization held Friday.

"Hate groups like Act for America and the hate rhetoric that is now increased in our society have real, serious consequences," he said.

In an interview with WND, however, Gabriel pointed out that Islamic law has entered Western court rooms, citing the fact that 143 cases in 22 states have allowed Shariah law as a defense.

Female genital mutilation and honor killings also are a serious problem in the U.S., she said.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta estimated 513,000 girls in the United States in 2017 are at risk of female genital mutilation or have already been victims of it.

“Who would have thought that in America today we were going to be discussing or dealing with such a barbaric practice that people think is only practiced in the backwoods of Africa and the Middle East?” Gabriel asked.

She said honor killings continue in American communities.

“These are girls and women who are killed by a male in their family for simple things such as asking for a divorce, wanting to wear makeup, wanting to go out on a date or wanting to go out to a cafe with male and female friends,” she said.

Responding to critics who accuse the March Against Shariah of being anti-Muslim, Gabriel pointed out there are Muslims who have joined the cause, including a former imam who helped organize one of the rallies.

She said four practicing Muslims spoke at rallies.

“The Muslim that organized our Atlanta rally was named Muhammad, and he’s the one who pulled it all together. We had acid-attack survivors who spoke at our rallies. We had Miriam Ibrahim speak at our rally in Virginia Beach.”

Ibrahim was the woman sentenced to death in Sudan for converting to Christianity and forced to give birth while shackled in prison. Fierce international pressure eventually led to her release.

“We welcome people to our country from all over the place, from different backgrounds, different religions, different sexual orientations, whatever it is,” Gabriel said.

“I am an immigrant to America. But we want people who come to the United States to abide by our rules, obey our Constitution, adopt our culture and become part of the American fabric and live in a way that is compatible with our Western democracy and respect for human rights.”

She said that is clearly not happening.

“We do not want people coming here genitally mutilating young American girls, killing American girls in the name of honor or teaching the hatred and encouraging the killing of gays and lesbians, etcetera,” she said.

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