“I’ve been asking myself who I want to vote for this Tuesday and I can’t decide.  Of course I won’t get into personal politics right now, given that CAIR-Chicago is a 501(C)3 and I’m speaking in my capacity as the Government Affairs Coordinator...”

Those were the words of (as shown) the Government Affairs Coordinator for the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago) and the administrator of CAIR-Chicago’s The Mobilizer, Sadiya Ahmed.  They were written on February 1, 2008, two months before CAIR-Chicago violated its 501(c)(3) tax status by posting to its blog an attack on Presidential candidate, United States Senator John McCain.

Now, CAIR-Chicago has altered its post on Senator McCain, essentially admitting guilt.  The question that needs to be asked is will the group be punished for it?

CAIR’s history as a radical Muslim group is widely known.  What has been baffling to many, though, is how the U.S. government has allowed the organization to exist for as long as it has.  Yet, the key to shutting down the group may very well hinge not on its Islamist ties, but on its flawed operation as an American non-profit tax-exempt institution.

On May 19, 2008, this author wrote a piece for FrontPage, showing how both CAIR National and CAIR-Chicago, a.k.a. CAIR-Illinois, posted material on their respective websites that violated the groups’ statuses as 501(c)(3)s.

According to the IRS, under its ‘Ban on Political Campaign Intervention,’ “For an organization to be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) it cannot “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements) any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

Both CAIR National and CAIR-Chicago have websites devoted specifically to politics.  CAIR National’s site is titled CAIR 2008 Elections.  CAIR-Chicago’s political site (or weblog) is The Mobilizer.

On the op-ed page of the CAIR 2008 Elections site, CAIR National board member Sarwat Husain called into question the “moral conscience” of Presidential candidate John McCain.  This, while Ahmed Rehab, writing in his capacity as CAIR National Director of Communications Strategy, stated on the page, “I am not drawn to [Presidential candidate Barack] Obama for any other reason but his political outlook, one that brings me hope that we can move beyond divisiveness and polarization and toward a new unity for the common good... I am [not] offended as a Muslim that Obama would not want to be one [a Muslim]... I am casting a vote for the next president of the United States, not the next imam of my mosque.”

CAIR, being a 501(c)(3), is not allowed to choose one candidate over another, but the aforementioned statements found on CAIR’s website demonstrate that that is exactly what it had done.  And CAIR National was not the only culprit.

On May 9, 2008, Shazeen Kareem, one of three contributors to The Mobilizer, posted to the blog a video attacking Presidential candidate John McCain and his association with a well-known pastor.  Above the video, Kareem wrote, “Muslims voting for McCain?  Not after this!!”  Under the video were the words, “I don’t know how to react.  I don’t know what to say.  I’m just amazed at the ignorance that exists.”

The posting was a blatant violation of the IRS’s ban, as it clearly sought to influence Muslims and others to vote against Senator McCain.

Three weeks later, CAIR-Chicago altered the posting.  Now, replacing the declaration that Muslims won’t be voting for Senator McCain are the innocuous words, “McCain’s Statement on Muslims.”  As well, the sentence “I’m just amazed at the ignorance that exists” was deleted.

The alteration in the blog post was reminiscent of when CAIR National was caught placing a photograph it had doctored, depicting a woman wearing a hijab (Islamic veil) that had been sloppily painted or ‘Photoshopped’ onto her head, on the homepage of its website.  As reported by Jihad Watch in September of 2005, the photo, which was taken at a CAIR-sponsored event in Washington, D.C., was later replaced by the original, which showed the woman not wearing any type of head covering.

However, the doctored image is only a symptom of CAIR’s disingenuousness.  CAIR-Chicago’s altering of a blog post attacking a Presidential candidate is an admittance of wrongdoing and possible grounds for the group to lose its tax status as a non-profit organization.

As was mentioned by this author in his previous article about this subject, according to the IRS, “Violating this ban [Ban on Political Campaign Intervention] may result in denial or revocation of the organization’s tax-exempt status...”

Now, it is up to you the reader to see that the IRS does its job to investigate this matter fully.  If you are as troubled about CAIR’s and CAIR-Chicago’s infractions as this author is, you can contact the IRS with your respectful comments and concerns.

No group should be above the law or beyond reproach, when it comes to the American taxpayers’ money.  That should especially be the case for a group with a past such as CAIR has.