CAIR demands Biden 'defund' counterterror program

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for December 22

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is urging President-elect Joe Biden to soften up on extremism in a new document on issues it hopes the new administration will address during its first 100 days.

It calls on Biden to "oppose and defund" a Homeland Security program aimed at preventing violent extremism and terrorism.

The Office for Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention aims to defend against terror groups of all stripes, from ISIS to White supremacists, as well as school and workplace shootings, according to the DHS.

The document describes the government’s Terrorist Screening Database, a terror watchlist, as "unconstitutional." It demands the FBI stop using informants "to spy on American Muslim communities." And it asks Biden to reject "any new domestic terrorism statutes" in addition to closing Guantanamo Bay.

BIDEN NAMES BRUCE REED, MODERATE FIERCELY OPPOSED BY 'SQUAD,' AS DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF

It also accuses the federal government of relying on "Alt-Right and Islamophobic online resources" that prevent Muslim Americans from getting hired to federal jobs.

President-elect Joe Biden pauses as he speaks at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, Dec 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The document not only criticizes the Trump administration, but also the actions of former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush for "policies and programs that led to the discriminatory profiling and targeting of American Muslims by state and federal law enforcement."

On foreign policy, it calls on the government to address human rights abuses against Muslims in China, India and Burma. It also calls on Washington to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the slaying and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a former Washington Post contributor who was killed at a Saudi embassy in Turkey in 2018 while trying to get paperwork so he could get married.

CAIR SAYS IT MET WITH NBC TO DISCUSS JOY REID'S 'OFFENSIVE' MUSLIM REMARKS

But it also asks Biden to rollback drone warfare and "oppose Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories."

"CAIR believes that the Biden-Harris administration presents our nation with an opportunity not only to undo the damage caused by prior administrations – including policies and programs that led to the discriminatory profiling and targeting of American Muslims by state and federal law enforcement – but to adopt new initiatives that protect and respect the rights of everyone in our nation, including American Muslims," the group’s national director, Nihad Awad, said in a statement Tuesday.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

CAIR hosted Rep. Ilhan Omar in 2019, when she received backlash after saying CAIR was founded in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks "because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."

In addition to angering critics who felt she had minimized the extent of the attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people, with the phrase "some people did something," she was also wrong about the timeline of CAIR’s founding. It formed in 1994.

CAIR describes itself as "America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.