...and the Muslim Brotherhood's favorite mouthpiece, CAIR.

When Islamists become the representatives of ordinary Muslims, radical Islam advances its Sharia agenda and Islamists become the go-to source when policy decisions are being made for the Muslim community and the American people as a whole. Our government officials have already contributed immensely to this legitimization of Islamists such as members the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – who according to The Clarion Project had “325 meetings with members of Congress or their staff over the last year.”

U.S. President Barack Obama furthered CAIR’s credibility by allegedly inviting them to a White House event Thursday that celebrated Eid al Fitr – signifying the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The Investigative Project On Terrorism (IPT) reports that the Muslim Reform Movement was excluded from invitation – a movement that is vocal in speaking out against the dictates of political Islam and the ideology of Sharia.

IPT reveals some information about the White House’s guest list:

At least four CAIR officials were invited. Among them, a man who called the 2008 war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza a “genocide” and who likens the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to ISIS, and a man who accuses the FBI of setting up innocent Muslims and of cold-blooded murder. In addition, Ahmed Bedier, a former CAIR official in Florida who continued to raise money for the organization as recently as 2014, posted links to videos from the event on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

Hasan Shibly, CAIR-Florida’s Chief Executive Director, also posted a video allegedly taken at or around the White House event, and claims, “Right now U.S. drone strikes – they’re the biggest creators of terrorism in the Middle East[.]” This is a bold allegation to say the least. Islamic terrorists have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people within the last decade or so. For example, in 2015 alone TheReligionofPeace.com estimates, “During this time period, there were 2866 Islamic attacks in 53 countries, in which 27627 people were killed and 26150 injured.”

IPT reports on some of Shibly’s other claims:

Shibly said he and his colleagues also planned to criticize “consistent abuse by the FBI” and Customs and Border Protection “against the American Muslim community,” saying Muslim activists are harassed and accusing the FBI of “brainwash[ing] mentally disturbed youth to plan terrorist plots so they can justify the continued surveillance of the community.”

To accuse our FBI of brainwashing people to commit terrorist attacks is a convenient way to ignore the global jihadist movement that is actually carrying out these terror attacks or at least inspiring them. It’s worth mentioning that Shibly also exhorts Muslims to defy law enforcement. It’s deeply troubling to know these Islamists are influencing policy decisions that affect America’s national security such as lobbying our officials to purge words like “jihad” from government training manuals – handicapping our government’s ability to go after America’s enemies.

Of course, during President Obama’s speech at the reception, he played into Muslim victimhood narrative and failed to seriously address the radical elements within Islam – not only Islamic jihad, but also the Sharia doctrine that unites jihadists and Islamists alike. President Obama states:

Singling out Muslim Americans, moreover, feeds the lie of terrorists like ISIL that the West is somehow at war with a religion that includes over a billion adherents. That’s not smart national security. In fact, it is ISIL and al Qaeda, and organizations like those that are waging war on Muslim communities, even during the holy month. And discriminating against Muslim Americans is also an affront to the very values that already make our nation great.

Obama once again fails to recognize that it is not a war with Islam per se – it is a war against Islamic terrorism and the ideology of Sharia. He first needs to understand that groups like ISIS are Islamic – from their doctrine to their behavior. Read CounterJihad’s Immanuel Al-Manteeqi’s These 8 Things Show How ISIS is Islamic if you doubt it.

Additionally, there is more than a few Muslim extremists – try millions of Muslims holding radical Islamic views including severely punishing individuals even to the point of death for Islamic crimes such as blasphemy, apostasy, and the list continues. These views obviously clash with Western values of freedom and liberty. The president also seems to oppose targeting Muslim Americans because it might conflict with American values, while at the same time talking to some Islamists in the crowd who either directly or implicitly oppose those very American values. I am sure they enjoyed what they heard.

The White House’s continued embrace of Islamist groups like CAIR shows a failure on our government officials part to understand the dangers of Sharia law and those that want to impose it gradually in America, one step at a time. Their continued courting of the Muslim Brotherhood represents a failure of judgment.