CAIR banquet divides fund raising

A sold out CAIR fund raising dinner in Philadelphia was divided, literally. Outside Jewish protesters held signs objecting their representative attending, what this Jewish group dubs CAIR, an apologist for terrorism at best and a front for terrorism at worst. Inside, US Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) gave a 20 minute speech where he blasted the groups silence and refusal to condemn the islamic resistance movement (hamas) and the party of god (hezbollah). Sestak said it was not sufficient for any group just to condemn terrorist acts and it was CAIR's duty to condemn individuals or groups that commit terrorism and specifically mentioned hamas and hezbollah. The remark drew no reaction from the audience. Big surprise there.

But there's another twist to the story. It seems the congressman was in attendance due to miscommunication or lack there of. Staff member, Adeeba Al-Zaman (the former communications director for the CAIR chapter in Philadelphia), accepted the invitation without consulting with the congressman. Sestak was unaware the dinner was a fund raising banquet and he wouldn't have accepted the invitation if he had known that the $50-per-person banquet was partly to raise money for CAIR. Sestak claimed he agreed to attend because he had been told that 250 of his constituents would be at the event and told CAIR they needed to separate the fund-raising portion of the program from the portion at which he would speak. And CAIR complied. Midway through the banquet, after Sestak's speech, CAIR officials abruptly announced that the fund-raising portion of the evening would begin.

How absurd, does anyone really believe there wasn't any "fund raising" going on prior to or during Joe's speech? Why didn't CAIR announce their condemnation of hamas and hizbollah when they made the "banquet division" broadcast? CAIR can't continue to use semantics in their condemnation of terror. Denouncing acts of violence perpetrated against "innocent people" isn't cutting it anymore. Israelis and infidels aren't defined as innocent. People are beginning to wake up and look a little closer at this muslim civil rights group.