Legislators Celebrate Ramadan

Katy Grimes: Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis, are hosting the annual Ramadan Iftar dinner at the state Capitol next week, together with 36 Assembly members and Senators, and the governor.

The event invitation states that this is the seventh annual event hosted by capitol legislators, with the invitation signed by Basim Elkarra, Executive Director of CAIR Sacramento Valley, and Masoud Nassimi, Chairman, CAIR California. However, some capitol insiders say that by hosting the event, legislators are in essence, not only condoning, but partnering with a group which the FBI considers a front for Islamic radicals.

CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror financing trial against the Holy Land Foundation (the largest Islamic charity in the US.) and its former officials. Assistant U.S. Attorney general Ronald Weish sent a letter last February to several Capitol Hill lawmakers, and included trial transcripts and exhibits “which demonstrated a relationship among CAIR, individual CAIR founders, and the Palestine Committee, and HAMAS, which was designated as a terrorist organization in 1995.”

Interestingly, back in 2007, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer rescinded an award she had given to CAIR-Sacramento Director Basim Elkarra, after being informed of CAIR’s support of terrorists.

“We made a bad mistake not researching the organization,” Boxer told the Sacramento Bee. “If individuals are doing great work, I commend them personally, but not in the context of the organization,” quickly divesting herself from controversy.

At a June rally held at the state Capitol boycotting Arizona’s recent immigration law, Elkarra not only spoke in support of the boycott, he singled out the recently-resigned chairman of the Tea Party Express, Mark Williams, who was attending the rally, and accused him of “peddling hate,” and called the Tea Party a “racist movement.”

“CAIR Watch” reports on its website that on April 20, 2000, while a member of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the University of California at Berkeley, Elkarra moderated a pro-terror, anti-Israel program, entitled ‘Continued Resistance in Palestine.’ One of the program’s speakers, Mohammad Salah, had been imprisoned for five years in Israel for being a Hamas operative and had been labeled by President Clinton, via executive order, a “Specially Designated Terrorist.”

In 2007, Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-El Cajon, sponsored AB 221, which required the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to divest from companies doing business in Iran. Since Iran is the top exporter of terrorism throughout the world according to Anderson (and federal law enforcement), his bill called for the divestment of more than $24 billion dollars of the PERS and STRS public pensions from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Anderson’s bill gained traction nationally, and led 28 other states and Congress to introduce similar laws. Anderson was unavailable for comment about the Ramadan dinner.

As for the California legislators hanging out with CAIR  members at an event celebrating Iftar (the end of an Islamic fast), since this is the seventh year of the event, they don’t seem to be worried. However, the entire co-host list is made up of state Democrats, with one exception – Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams. Last year, Steinberg was a no-show, as was the governor.

Maybe it’s okay to host the event, as long as certain lawmakers aren’t seen arriving on the red carpet.

In light of the controversial ground zero mosque proposal in New York City, I am not sure what this event means other than yet another political statement of correctness by state Democrats.