Census Bureau abruptly ends just-announced partnership with Muslim advocacy group CAIR

EXCLUSIVE: The Commerce Department on Thursday terminated its just-announced planned partnership with the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, after Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” asked about the arrangement — given CAIR’s reported ties to the terrorist group Hamas, and its repeated attacks on the president.

By Gregg Re, FOX News, August 30, 2019:

“Based on further review, the Census Bureau is no longer partnering with CAIR,” the Commerce Department said in a statement to “Tucker.”

The plan, according to the group, was to enhance outreach efforts to Muslims using CAIR’s network of local offices. The census, conducted once a decade, has been used not only to determine congressional apportionment, but also as a critical planning tool for state, local and federal agencies.

However, CAIR and the Trump administration would have been strange bedfellows — and tension in the relationship was evident earlier Thursday. Reached by Fox News prior to the Census Bureau’s decision, CAIR openly derided the Trump administration as “white supremacist” despite the partnership.

“The Census Bureau, like CAIR, is nonpartisan,” the organization said. “CAIR is not receiving any government funding as part of this project to promote Muslim participation in the U.S. census. We continue to believe that President Trump and his administration promote a white supremacist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic agenda.”

In its official statement on Wednesday announcing the partnership, however, CAIR sounded a more positive note.

“CAIR is proud to partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure American Muslims are fairly and accurately counted in the 2020 Census,” Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, said in a news release earlier on Thursday. “Full participation in the census ensures that American Muslims will be better represented in Congress and that their communities receive an equal share in state and federal programs.”

The organization added: “CAIR wants to ensure that not only are American Muslim communities being fairly counted, but that their neighbors are getting a fair share in federal and state funding.”

TRUMP SAYS EXECUTIVE ORDER WILL SATISFY MOST AIMS OF ‘CITIZENSHIP QUESTION’ ON CENSUS

In 2009, the FBI severed its once-close ties to CAIR amid mounting evidence that the group had links to a support network for Hamas.

Local chapters of CAIR were shunned in the wake of a 15-year FBI investigation that culminated in the conviction of Hamas fundraisers at a trial in which CAIR itself was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator.

The U.S. government has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.