Joe Ricketts said some things that are unacceptable to the political and media elites, and now the Chicago Cubs are getting shaken down and played for chumps by Hamas-linked CAIR. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.) CAIR chapters frequently distribute pamphlets telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement. CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush in 2017 called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. CAIR’s national outreach manager is an open supporter of Hamas.

Joe Ricketts wrote in emails from between 2009 and 2013 that were recently released (and how were they obtained?): “I think Islam is a cult and not a religion. Christianity and Judaism are … based on love whereas Islam is based on ‘kill the infidel’ a thing of evil.”

As for the distinction between a cult and a religion, a cult is generally centered around a charismatic leader who demands strict obedience, and there is no such in Islam, although one could argue that the conformity it enforces by threats of hellfire combined with earthly punishments is similar. In any case, this can be the subject of a rational and respectful discussion. It is only ipso facto hateful in today’s climate of the idolization of victimhood. And as for Islam not being based on love, but on “kill the infidel,” well, the Qur’an does thrice tell Muslims to “kill them wherever you find them,” the third time specifying them as “idolaters,” which in the Qur’an’s worldview essentially means all who are not Muslim (see Qur’an 2:191, 4:89, 9:5). It does also offer subjugation under the hegemony of Islamic law to the “People of the Book,” i.e., mainly Jews and Christians (cf. Qur’an 9:29). But nowadays any discussion of such matters leads to charges of “bigotry” and “Islamophobia.”

The Chicago Cubs are a baseball team, not a social welfare organization, and so they were blindsided by all this. They don’t know Hamas-linked CAIR from shinola. They have no idea that “Islamophobia” is a propaganda neologism designed to intimidate people into fearing to oppose jihad terror and Sharia oppression, or that hate crimes against innocent Muslims, which are never justified, are actually far less common than hate crimes against Jews — but the Cubs aren’t doing anything about anti-Semitism, because there is no Jewish group like Hamas-linked CAIR. Ahmed Rehab and company were able to swoop in and get the Cubs to grovel, and grovel they are doing. Watch for the Cubs to inundate their fans with unctuous video warnings against “hate,” featuring happy hijabbed Cubs fans, and to shower money on Muslim organizations in the Chicago area. Another mission accomplished for CAIR-Chicago’s execrable and sinister Ahmed Rehab, who won’t condemn Hamas, and has accused the government of fabricating jihad terrorists.

“Cubs, CAIR To Work Together Against Islamophobia,” 670 The Score, February 18, 2019: