Those who took hope in the talk at St. Cloud State University by the director of Council on American-Islamic Relations of Minnesota (CAIR) Jaylani Hussein earlier this week might not have that sort of chance if a bill favored by Republican Congressman Tom Emmer's GOP challenger somehow manages to pass.
As the screenshot above demonstrates, Kern doesn't have much up now on her campaign website's "Issues" page, but readers can visit the AJ Kern for Congress Facebook page if they wish to learn about Kern's issues.
In a headnote over a link to the Clarion Fund website article More Reps Back Bill to Designate as Terrorists Muslim Brotherhood that she shared on the AJ Kern for Congress Facebook page on February 8, 2016, Kern wrote:
Looks like the St Cloud Times was wrong about CAIR... According to the current list, Emmer hasn't signed on to support this bill. I would support this bill immediately.
"The legislation explicitly identifies the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) as U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities and includes evidence tying them to a Hamas support network."
Here's a screenshot:
In the note, Kern presumably alludes to a November 2015 fact-checking article in the St. Cloud Times, Fact Check: CAIR not on US terror watch list. The bill is HR 3892, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015. Neither Second District Republican Congressman John Kline nor Third District Republican Erik Paulsen, or even Blue Dog Democrat, Seventh Congressional District Congressman Collin Peterson have signed on to this hot mess.
Perhaps Kern is trying to pick up on the sort of malarky that nearly cost Michele Bachmann the seat in 2012, when she failed to take St. Cloud.
The Hill reported in Cruz bill would designate Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group:
In 2014, former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) spearheaded a similar effort to label the group a terrorist organization, though it ultimately failed to reach President Obama’s desk. Bachmann had previously alleged that longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had links to the organization — an allegation that was widely condemned by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Imagine 2050 reported in Guandolo helped draft Bachmann’s dubious Muslim Brotherhood bill:
As part of a last ditch effort before she retires, Rep. Michele Bachmann introduced HR 5194, which seeks to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist entity and impose sanctions on anyone in the U.S. who provides material support to the group. As is usually the case with these types of efforts, the bill seems to be more about fueling anti-Muslim hysteria rather than addressing any actual problem.
As Kern noted in her campaign website post, the bill defines CAIR as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity. The Imagine 2050 report continues:
For starters, World Net Daily (WND) recently revealed that former FBI agent John Guandolo helped draft the bill. After resigning in disgrace from the FBI, Guandolo now operates as a full-time anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist who travels the country providing law enforcement and civilian trainings. His his trainings are steeped with anti-Muslim bias and geared more toward perpetuating fear that Muslims are bent on taking over America.
It’s no surprise that Bachmann’s bill also appears to be a slight against the civil rights organization Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), who she and Guandolo have repeatedly claimed to be a Muslim Brotherhood front group. CAIR, who is mentioned in the body of the bill and has repeatedly rejected accusations of terrorist activity or support, has been known to get Guandolo’s events canceled or discredited. However, members of the far-Right who uphold this claim were recently emboldened after the United Arab Emirates bizarrely labeled CAIR as a Muslim Brotherhood front group, although the U.S. officials haven’t made any similar designations and are still awaiting evidence from the UAE substantiating this claim.
It should also be noted that Bachmann, as well as the bill’s co-sponsor Rep. Louie Gohmert, seem to see the Muslim Brotherhood everywhere they go. In 2012, the two members of Congress embarked on a smear campaign accusing Hillary Clinton’s former aide Huma Abedin of being a Muslim Brotherhood operative, an attack that even drew criticism from their fellow Republicans.
The earlier bill went nowhere, and we doubt this new version will gain traction. As we reported in Guandolo talk persuades some guys Black Lives Matter movement ruled by Muslim Brotherhood, the anti-Muslim speaker had appeared at Cragun's Resort on Gill Lake in Brainerd on Saturday, January 9, 2016.
Kern gained recent notoriety during her brief stint as an unpaid volunteer monthly columnist who frequently sounded alarms about refuges at the St. Cloud Times; under the paper's policy, she had to relinquish her bully pulpit when she decided to run for office.
Star Tribune blogger Michael Brodkorb reported in Kern announces she will challenge Emmer in Sixth District that Kern cherished misgivings about the presence of Muslims in America's political life:
Kern raised strong concerns yesterday about refugees and immigrants running for political office and said a person seeking elected office in the US should not be able to have dual citizenship.
Specifically, Kern objected to Muslims serving in elected office and she echoed previous statements made by presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson, who expressed concerns with a Muslim serving as president.
Kern, who lived in Iran in the 1970's, questioned the virtues of Islam and said, "if you look at their Prophet [Muhammad], he murdered people, he raped people, he enslaved people, he molested children."
As Bluestem reported back in October, Kern lived for less than a year in Iran while a teenager. The short residence occurred during the rule of the Shah of Iran before the Islamic Revolution, the Sauk Rapids activist said in an October interview on the Ox in the Afternoon radio show.
After her announcement, we explored her background as Tea Party activist and more in Motivated thinking in Minnesota's 6th: AJ Kern was against Emmer before she was against him.
What is the Clarion Fund?
Kern apparently believes that that Clarion Fund's published content is worth sharing with potential voters in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District. What is the Clarion Fund?
The Institute for Policy Studies' Right Web reports in its entry for the Clarion Project:
The Clarion Project (previously the "Clarion Fund") is a nonprofit organization led by U.S. neoconservatives and rightwing Israelis that produces alarmist films and publications aimed at hyping the threat of "Radical Islam."
Clarion's first three films—Obsession, Iranium, and The Third Jihad—received rave reviews from rightwing activists like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. However, many observers argue that the films employ anti-Islamic rhetoric and make misleading claims.[1] In 2013, Clarion released another film called Honor Diaries, which it describes as depicting the allegedly "cruel and often violent oppression of Muslim women."[2]
Arguably Clarion's principal public face is its National Security Analyst Ryan Mauro. He often appears on Fox News making sensationalist claims about "Muslim enclaves" in the United States and has argued that Iraq's purported stockpile of "weapons of mass destruction" were moved to Syria prior to the Iraq War.
Shortly after the 2013 Boston marathon bombings, Clarion's public relations firm, M. Sliwa Public Relations, issued a press release capitalizing on the attacks to promote the group's political agenda and films. Claiming that "jihadist ideology continues to motivate a sophisticated worldwide terror network and that America remains a target," the press release promoted Clarion's 2008 film, The Third Jihad, and offered up veteran neoconservative activists Richard Perle and Clare Lopez for interviews.[3]
In its 2011 report Fear, Inc., the Center for American Progress identified Clarion as an important member of the "Islamophobia network," an informal grouping of prominent foundations, scholars, and opinion-makers that spreads negative impressions about Islam and Muslims in the United States. Indeed, the group's funding is replete with large contributions from major foundations identified in the report.[4]
Clarion contests claims that it intends to promote negative views of Muslims generally; rather, it claims to focus only on those it deems "radical." A statement on the Clarion website makes a distinction between "Radical Islam and the majority of the Muslim population worldwide,"[5] and the film Obsession opens with the statement, "It's important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror. This is not a film about them."
However, the group seems to treat any "moderate" behavior by Muslims as an example of taqiyya, a medieval Islamic doctrine that Clarion and other Islamophobic groups interpret to mean "deceit" in the interest of furthering "sharia Islam." Articles posted on the Clarion Project have claimed that violent jihad "is obligatory for Muslims everywhere"[6] and that "Islam not only permits its believers to lie but actually commands it in some circumstances."[7]. . .
Likud and Neocon Connections
Clarion was founded in 2006 by Raphael Shore, a conservative Israeli rabbi. Clarion's advisory board has included a number of neoconservatives and other militarist policy advocates, including Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy; Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum; Ilan Sharon of Minnesotans against Terrorism; Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD)and narrator of the Clarion Fund's Third Jihaddocumentary; Clare Lopez, executive director of the Iran Policy Committee; Harold Rhode, a former staffer under Douglas Feith in the Donald Rumsfeld Pentagon who serves as an adviser to the Gatestone Institute; and Sarah Stern, president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET),which has assisted in the distribution of Clarionfilms.[38]
As of 2014, Clarion no longer provided information about its leadership and advisors on its website. . . .
Read the entire post at Right Web.
For a more detailed look at the organized effort to make Americans afraid of all of their Muslim neighbors and co-workers, the Center for American Progress's Fear, Inc 2.0, published in February 2015, is definitely worth a read:
For an interactive journey through the findings in 2011's Fear Inc, click here.
Apparently, freshman RepublicanRepresentative Emmer isn't sufficiently willing to violate the civil rights and liberties of Muslims living in his district and he must be punished. Perhaps after November, Kern and her pals can Adopt a Highway and do some good for the St. Cloud area.
Screenshots from Kern's campaign website and Facebook page.
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