Muslim Mafia (31 page)

CAIR’s campaign to run popular conservative radio host Michael Savage off the air, for example, cost the group $160,000. Though it didn’t work, Awad says it was “worth every penny,” because he says it cost Savage at least $1 million in advertising revenue.
¹³
CAIR highlighted some “bigoted on-air comments,” and pressured corporate sponsors to stop airing commercials on his top-rated
Savage Nation
show.

Still, internal memos reveal CAIR ran into a number of roadblocks in its battle to intimidate Savage’s advertisers. CAIR’s power-and-coercion game wasn’t as effective as it let on.

It launched its campaign in 2007, after Savage called the Quran “a throwback document” and “a book of hate” and demanded CAIR be thrown out of the country for promulgating it. In a series of press releases running into 2008, CAIR trumpeted its success in convincing some twenty companies to drop ad spots on Savage’s show. (Those who caved into its demands include previous targets Office Max, JC Penney, and Sears, as well as: Wal-Mart, Sprint, Nextel, US Cellular, GEICO, Union Bank of California, ITT Technical Institute, AT&T, and Intuit.)

However, CAIR and its leftwing allies had hoped to knock off more of Savage’s advertisers, reveal internal reports, which document their difficulties and frustration.

“Getting advertisers to withdraw from the
Savage Nation
has its challenges,” one report written early last year says. “Some companies are quick to respond and look into the matter, while others are slow or don’t even return phone calls.”
¹⁴

CAIR and its confederates complained that it’s much easier to get the attention of big, national corporations than small local firms, especially franchisees.

“Going after franchises [like Jiffy Lube or Burger King] is hard,” the report notes, because “for the most part the parent company cannot tell them not to advertise on a specific show.”

Large corporations, on the other hand, are worried about their reputations and easier marks.

“Companies that should be the primary focus are big national companies like AT&T,” the report advises. “They are the ones who’s [
sic
] reputation is at stake the most, and don’t want to associate with anything that might seem controversial.”

However, it cautions that some large advertisers have been known to “slip through the cracks and start airing ads again.”

“If this happens, which it has, you have to start from square one.”

“THEY ARE LOYAL TO SAVAGE”

CAIR and its partners at Hate Hurts America, a nonprofit it helped form to attack Savage, complained that they got nowhere with companies whose products and services Savage personally endorses on the air. These firms refused to succumb to their boycott threats and pull their ad campaigns.

“Companies and products endorsed and/or promoted by Savage are an absolute no (Direct Buy, Life Lock, Swiss America),” the report conveys. “They are loyal to Savage and there is a chance they might sue.”
¹⁵

As a result, Savage is still on the air and still railing against CAIR and its efforts to deny critics freedom of speech. (In fact, CAIR is not happy that he still has a microphone to “badmouth” the group.)

CAIR has had more success censoring other radio personalities.

After publishing a list of ABC Radio’s advertisers on its Web site, along with their contact information, CAIR forced the media giant to sack popular Washington DC radio personality Michael Graham for arguing that Islam promotes terrorism. Graham, to his credit, refused to bow to “CAIR’s wishes and apologize or retract the truth.”

Similarly, when syndicated radio legend Paul Harvey asserted that Islam “encourages killing,” CAIR instructed its members to blast both Harvey and his corporate sponsors like General Electric with angry calls and emails. GE caved and agreed to pull its sponsorship, prompting Harvey to issue a revised on-air statement saying Islam is a “religion of peace.” GE then restored its advertising.

CAIR also took a swipe at Dr. Laura Schlessinger, but she in contrast didn’t flinch. The self-help guru held her ground when CAIR demanded she apologize for what it called an “anti-Muslim tirade” on her national radio show.

CAIR and Hate Hurts America had planned to broaden its attacks on right-wing radio hosts before running out of money. “The campaign needs to expand beyond Michael Savage to other bigoted talk show hosts,” their report recommends.
¹⁶

CAIR has turned its guns on other media personalities, including:

NO OPPOSITION TO CAIR ALLOWED

CAIR considers all these critics “threats,” according to internal memos, and it has assembled an “oppositional research” team to monitor “blogs and anti-CAIR sites” and “put them on the defensive.” The memo suggests “framing” critics as “voices of hate” and showcasing them in a “hall of shame.”

CAIR has used even heavier-handed tactics to silence the media.

After accusing
National Review
of selling books defaming Muhammad, CAIR pressured the magazine into withdrawing the titles from its online bookstore by essentially blackmailing one of its biggest advertisers. CAIR’s Awad sent a letter to the head of Boeing complaining about the books and demanding Boeing stop running full-page ads in
National Review
until the magazine stopped selling the offending books. Awad noted that Boeing enjoyed a multi-million-dollar contract with the UAE—which happens to be one of CAIR’s top foreign backers—and he threatened to copy his letter to the UAE.

The dirty trick worked:
National Review
pulled the books from its Web site.

‘WE WILL HAVE A DIRECT INFLUENCE ON HOLLYWOOD’

CAIR has also trained its sights on Hollywood, and plans to have a major influence on how Muslims and Islam are portrayed in films in the future.

In the 1990s, CAIR led a nationwide protest against the movie
The Siege
which it complained stereotyped Muslims as terrorists. Awad credited CAIR’s campaign with causing the film to show a $20 million loss. “Maybe the film industry learned a $20 million lesson,” he sneered.