Tennessee’s Trevecca Nazarene University drops Homeland Security Summit after complaints from Hamas-linked CAIR

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY FROM JIHAD WATCH

This egregious USA Today article is full of the usual nonsense: it’s “anti-Muslim” to oppose jihad terror, Hamas-linked CAIR is presented as if it were the civil rights organization it claims to be, without any indication of the fact that CAIR officials have refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. 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. A CAIR operative recently called for the overthrow of the U.S. government.

An unsavory Hamas-linked group and a hard-Left smear group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, should not be allowed to control who speaks about security issues and who doesn’t, much less to control the public discourse to the extent that only its point of view is represented in a major newspaper. But that is the world we live in today.

“Trevecca Nazarene University blocks Mae Beavers event criticized as anti-Islam,” by Natalie Allison, USA Today, January 10, 2018:

Amid criticism, Trevecca Nazarene University has withdrawn as a venue this month for a controversial event organized by Republican gubernatorial candidate Mae Beavers.

The Jan. 25 “Homeland Security Summit” will feature three speakers known by critics for espousing anti-Muslim views, including Bill French — listed on promotional materials under his pen name “Bill Warner” — Cathy Hinners and John Guandolo.

“It’s kind of a who’s who of Islamaphobes,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR.

“The themes are always the same: Muslims are about to take over the country and install sharia in place of the Constitution, and mosques are hotbeds of extremism.”

Beavers released a statement on Wednesday describing Trevecca’s decision as “caving to Islamic pressure” and said the university had “abandoned Biblical principles in order embrace [sic] political correctness and promote the interests of those who deny Christ.”

In a statement to USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee on Wednesday, the university said the event would distract from Trevecca’s mission.

“Throughout our history, Trevecca has consistently offered political candidates of both parties the opportunity to use our campus for events,” according to the statement from spokeswoman Mandy Crow. “We strongly believe that our students benefit from proximity to the voting process, and that freedom of speech is a foundation of American democracy.

“However, a recent event tentatively scheduled to be held on our campus appears to have an agenda beyond a political campaign. This event would distract from our commitment to community building, education, and support of a diverse enrollment. Our agenda of Christian education in the heart of Nashville requires that we serve the best interests of this mission. For this reason, the planned event will not be held on Trevecca’s campus.”

Trevecca President Dan Boone said in a statement on Tuesday the university shared concerns expressed by alumni who had contacted the school after learning of the event.

Beavers, 70, is an alumna of the university.

Crow said Tuesday that Boone’s office had received complaints about the event and school officials began researching the speakers.

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee confirmed it distributed a letter to roughly 3,000 people over the weekend who had previously signed its Nashville Unites resolution in an effort to inform them about the controversial summit being planned.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the event will go on at another venue.

CAIR issued a statement on Wednesday announcing that it “welcomes” the university’s decision to drop the event.
Following criticism, Beavers points finger at critics

In response to CAIR’s initial criticism of the event’s speakers, Beavers noted that the Muslim advocacy group had been designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates and alleged the organization was involved in “terrorism in the Holy Land.”

The U.S. government does not deem CAIR a terror group.

In an interview about the summit, Beavers said she decided to organize the event because she is concerned about illegal immigration, and that Americans and Tennesseans “don’t know who is coming here.”

Though Beavers said the event is on “homeland security” in general, all the speakers featured in the summit express a clear focus on Islam.

“I think Islam is a threat to our country,” Beavers said in response to whether she was against the religion, before adding that she believes “Islam is a political agenda.”

She disagreed that the summit could be classified as an anti-Islam event.

Beavers described herself as “the only gubernatorial candidate who has been talking about homeland security,” and told the USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee she was forming an “advisory committee on homeland security.”

When asked about homeland security risks facing Tennessee, Beavers noted “the crime and the gangs that have come here because of illegal immigration.”
Event speakers long-criticized by civil rights groups

Guandolo, a former FBI agent who runs the website and training group “Understanding The Threat,” was accused by a Minnesota sheriff last year of assaulting him at a national law enforcement conference.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Guandolo is an “anti-Muslim extremist” who has been barred by multiple law enforcement agencies from continuing to conduct training workshops due to his conspiracy theories about Muslims.

Multiple events being led by Guandolo and his Understanding The Threat associate Chris Gaubatz have been canceled, including as recently as Tuesday in Amherst County, Virginia.

French runs the Nashville-based Center for the Study of Political Islam, which the SPLC has also labeled a hate group, and was a leader in opposing plans in 2010 for a new mosque in Murfreesboro.

He formerly worked as a physics professor at Tennessee State University.

Hinners, who lives in the Nashville area, is a retired Albany, N.Y., police officer who now runs the blog Daily Roll Call, where she claims to expose “the Islamists and their organizations throughout the country, with an emphasis on the State of Tennessee,” according to her LinkedIn profile….