(CNSNews.com) – During Tuesday night’s sometimes combative House debate over a bill to create a special envoy on “Islamophobia,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was called out after accusing the bill’s author of being anti-Semitic and of being “affiliated with” terrorist groups.
Perry did not name Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in his remarks – which were removed from the record – but his references to the “maker of this bill” made clear at whom they were directed.
“Let’s face it: Aside from the attempts to placate an anti-Semitic member of this chamber, all that’s really happening here is that House Democrats are deflecting from the real issue confronting the House of Representatives, and that is that the maker of this bill has no business sitting on House committees, has no business in this chamber,” he said.
“A myriad of anti-Semitic comments and those of support of violence and terrorism against the United States are totally unacceptable. But we’re not going to deal with that because we’re going to deal with this.”
Perry recalled that during the last week’s House Foreign Affairs Committee markup of the Combating International Islamophobia Act (H.R. 5665), he attempted unsuccessfully to insert an amendment to prevent U.S. tax dollars “from going to an organization with ties to terrorism.”
“American taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay terrorist organizations, organizations that the maker of this bill is affiliated with, like the one that’s an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-finance case in the United States of America’s history – not cuz I say so, cuz the judge said so.”
Perry was asked to suspend and take his seat. After consulting with the parliamentarian Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who was chairing the session, said that his comments “contained an allegation that the maker of the bill is affiliated with a terrorist organization.”
“This remark impugns the patriotism of loyalty of a member of the House, which is not in order, as stated in section 370 of the House Rules and Manual.”
Castor said Scott had also alleged that “the maker of the bill is anti-Semitic. This remark constitutes an allegation of discrimination which is not in order, as stated in section 370 of the House Rules and Manual.”
The bill to create an “Office to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia” at the State Department headed by a special envoy passed in a 219-212 party-line vote. The initiative now moves to the U.S. Senate, where Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has introduced companion legislation, co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
‘Anti-Semitism’ rows
Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, has been embroiled in several controversies over comments and social media posts regarded by critics – including some fellow Democrats – as anti-Semitic.
Just weeks after taking her seat, Omar in early 2019 implied that some U.S. politicians were paid to be pro-Israel and have “allegiance to a foreign country.”
Those and other public comments by Omar did not go down well with some senior Democrats, and party leaders tried to defuse the tensions within their caucus by proposing a resolution condemning antisemitism. In the end, the House passed a measure that condemned a wide range of bigotry rather than focus on antisemitism.
Perry’s remarks about organizations that Omar is “affiliated with” referred in part to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The group, which describes itself as the nation’s biggest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, has long called for an Islamophobia special envoy and has been leading lobbying for the bill.
As alluded to by Perry, CAIR was named by the Justice Department in 2007 as “unindicted co-conspirators” in its case against the Holy Land Foundation in Texas, whose leaders were convicted the following year of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997.
One of the convicted men, Ghassan Elashi, was founder of CAIR’s Texas chapter. He was sentenced to 65 years’ imprisonment.
The Holy Land Foundation case has dogged CAIR for years. In a “dispelling rumors” section on its website, it maintains that the “unindicted co-conspirators” label holds no legal weight.
“There is no legal implication to being labeled an unindicted co-conspirator, since it does not require the Justice Department to prove anything in a court of law.”
CAIR says Elashi was “once briefly associated with one of our more than 30 regional chapters” and that “[a]ny actions he took were outside the scope and chronology of his association with one of our chapters.”
“CAIR has never been indicted and can attest to the enormous reputational damage done by the inclusion on the massive list,” the group says.
CAIR was reportedly one of hundreds of entities listed as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the Holy Land Foundation case.
In 2010, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, in the case of another of the groups listed, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Department of Justice had violated its Fifth Amendment rights by including it on the publicly-filed list.
After Perry’s amendment to H.R. 5665 seeking to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars going to CAIR was defeated in the House Foreign Relations Committee last week, CAIR commented on Twitter:
“It was sadly not unexpected to see Republican [Scott Perry] attack CAIR and other American Muslim organizations during the debate of HR 5665. Thank you to the members of the [House Foreign Affairs Committee] who voted Perry’s anti-Muslim organization amendment down.”
See also:
CAIR and Rep. Omar Pressing Biden Administration to Appoint 'Islamophobia' Envoy (Jul. 22, 2021)