We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Earlier this year the Chairwoman of the Democrat Party, Belinda Biafore, sent a letter of apology to Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Additionally, 38 of the 41 Democrats in the West Virginia House of Delegates signed a letter of invitation to a spokesperson for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to come visit the state capitol down in Charleston. CAIR is an organization with ties to Hamas and to the Muslim Brotherhood, both of which have been associated with terrorism A growing number of people believe that CAIR itself might itself be a terrorist organization as this article in the American Thinker suggests.

It is ironic that the apology letter refers to so called “hate speech”. Both CAIR and Rep. Omar have been accused of “hate speech” against the state of Israel. To get an idea of their anti-Israel stances you can read this article and this article. Or this one. If you do a search on the internet there’s no shortage of articles linking CAIR to groups that promote violence against Israel. Statements made by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar last year led to an attempt to pass a resolution in the US House of Representatives condemning them. That resolution was eventually watered down into a statement of condemnation of anti-semitism in general – and even that failed.

It is Rep. Omar’s anti-Israel rhetoric that prompted a Jewish woman named Brenda Arthur to set up a booth at GOP day in February of last year protest. Her protest was peaceful. The reactions from certain Democrats in the House of Delegates were violent. I reported on it back in March. While Ms. Arthur committed no acts of violence, Democrats serving in the House of Delegates are alleged to have committed several.

To show you what an upside down clown world we live in, the West Virginia Democrat Party sent an apology letter to Rep. Omar and invited CAIR to speak. You can read it here. The letter of invitation to CAIR was signed by 38 Democrats serving in the House of Delegates, you can read that here, including local legislators Del. Jason Barrett (D-Berkeley), Del. Sammi Brown (D-Jefferson) and Del. John Doyle (D-Jefferson). Disclosure, I am running against Del. Doyle in the 67th District. I could find no statement of apology to the injured capitol employee who wound up in the hospital. No apologies for the F bombs hurled at Ms. Arthur as per her account of the incident.  Further, no apology to the Sergeant-at-Arms at the capitol, another Jewish woman, who intervened to try to keep the peace.  Subsequent events stemming from this incident eventually led to her resignation. You can read her account of that here.

We live in a world where people make accusations for the very things that they themselves are guilty of. The Democrats accused Brenda Arthur of hate speech, while she was protesting against hate speech. They then unleashed a torrent of hate speech on Ms. Arthur. Upside down world. The implications and ramifications of this incident are disturbing. I am not prepared to accuse the 38 members of the West Virginia House of Delegates that invited CAIR to come to the capitol of committing an act of anti-semitism. But what they did was an was clearly anti-Israel.

I am a strong supporter of our constitutional right to free speech. But words and actions have consequences. If you invite CAIR to visit, you are inviting an organization that would like nothing better than to see the state of Israel cease to exist. You are therefore sending a powerful anti-Israel message to the people of West Virginia.

[This article has been updated with regard to the events involving the sergeant at arms; and includes a link to an op-ed with her entire account of the incident - Editor].

West Virgnia House of Delegates John Doyle Sammi Brown Jason Barrett Israel Ilhan Omar Belinda Biafore CAIR
Elliot Simon

Elliot Simon

I'm a retired executive and consultant. My wife and I have lived up on the mountain outside of Harpers Ferry since 2002. We have six cats. It would be nice if we could all agree on everything, but lately we... [More...]

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