On Monday, the CBS Evening News ran a full story about fears of continued Islamophobia in America following the terror attack in San Bernardino and turned to none other than the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for help, but neglected to mention CAIR’s extremist tendencies and how an official recently blamed the United States and the West for the spread of terrorism.
After the lead story was dedicated to Donald Trump’s call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, anchor Scott Pelley used that as a jumping off point to assume that Americans have turned away from Muslims: “Well, Muslim-Americans are already feeling the divide in their communities here at home.”
Filing from Irving, Texas, correspondent Omar Villafranca fretted over the alleged spread of Islamophobia: “In the wake of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Muslims around the U.S. say the rhetoric against them has become increasingly incendiary.”
Villafranca cited three examples of anti-Muslim demonstrations then added how CAIR’s Dallas chapter had a recent phone message left by someone who ruled that they’re “not welcome here” and hoping that they “get sprayed with pig’s blood.” He spoke with an area woman who claimed her car had been spat upon before again trotting out CAIR:
CAIR recently said in a statement that the group “has received more reports about active Islamic intimidation, threats and violence targeting American Muslims” in the past week and a half “than during any other limited period of time since the 9/11 terror attacks.”
At no point in the two-minute-and-14-second story did Pelley or Villafranca mention a number of points about CAIR. Most recently, they ignored how Los Angeles CAIR member Hussam Ayloush suggested on December 4 that the western world was partially to blame for terrorism.
In addition, The Blaze featured an extremely thorough post on Saturday morning from Mary Ramirez that exposed how CAIR was derived from the Muslim Brotherhood, supported Hamas, received financing from groups linked to terrorism, and been listed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a terrorist organization.
For more on the media’s inability to even footnote CAIR’s true colors, check out our archive on CAIR-related posts here.
The transcript of the segment from the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on December 7 can be found below.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
December 7, 2015
6:33 p.m. EasternSCOTT PELLEY: Well, Muslim-Americans are already feeling the divide in their communities here at home, and Omar Villafranca is looking into this.
OMAR VILLAFRANCA: In the wake of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Muslims around the U.S. say the rhetoric against them has become increasingly incendiary. A few weeks ago, armed protesters picketed a nearby mosque in Irving. In Virginia, tempers erupted at a meeting over building a mosque.
MAN AT SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY MEETING: Every one of you are terrorists. I don't care what you say.
VILLAFRANCA: Last night in Philadelphia, a severed pig's head was found outside a mosque, and voice messages like this one left on the answering machine of the Dallas chapter of CAIR, the Council of the American-Islamic Relations.
CALLER TO DALLAS CAIR: You're not welcome here. I hope you get sprayed with pig's blood.
VILLAFRANCA: Not far away in Fort Worth, American-born Aya Syed says the backlash has gotten worse.
AYA SYED: I was in the car with my nine-month-year-old daughter and a woman was basically trying to flag me down from her vehicle, and she rolls down her window, and she starts using derogatory language, and she spit from her vehicle to my vehicle.
VILLAFRANCA: Some area imams have even started advising local Muslim women in covering their heads in a different way other than the traditional hijab.
SYED: I don't have a problem with anybody else doing it. I wouldn't do it. This is who I am.
VILLAFRANCA: CAIR recently said in a statement that the group “has received more reports about active Islamic intimidation, threats and violence targeting American Muslims” in the past week and a half “than during any other limited period of time since the 9/11 terror attacks.” Omar Suleiman is a Muslim scholar in Texas.
OMAR SULEIMAN: As an American and as a Muslim —
VILLAFRANCA: And as a human!
SULEIMAN: — and as a human being, we are forced to both grieve and worry at the same time. We had Muslim victims in this recent shooting. You always have Muslim victims, but even for the non-Muslim victims, as human beings, we grieve.
VILLAFRANCA: There is another armed protest Saturday at a mosque outside of Richardson, and, Scott, they're expecting a the heavy police presence there.
PELLEY: Omar Villafranca in Texas tonight. Omar, thank you.
