CAIR-Chicago recommended that DePaul fire Klocek

Documentary filmmaker Grant Crowell recently met with Christina Abraham, a DePaul University law student and CAIR-Chicago's Civil Rights Coordinator. The video of that interview, courtesy of Pirate Ballerina, is available here.

CAIR is an acronym for the Council on American Islamic Relations.

The video takes a while to download, but it's worth the wait.

Abraham pretty much falls in line with the same story that the two DePaul Muslim student groups, United Muslims Moving Ahead and Students for Justice in Palestine have stuck to, that Klocek yelled, threatened, threw papers around, made an obscene gesture (Klocek says he flicked his thumb under his chin), and the CAIR rep quoted Klocek as saying "Maybe not all terrorists are Muslims, but all terrorist are Muslims," while participating in a spirited debate on Israeli-Palestinian politics.

Regarding the terrorist comment, "That is not true," according to Ms. Abraham, "in addition to being racist."

In fact, Klocek was only restating what Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, General Manager of the al-Arabiya television network, wrote in an article that appeared about a week before the September 15, 2004 cafeteria encounter that led to Klocek's dismissal.

It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.

No one called al-Rashed a racist.

Abraham dropped a bombshell, that CAIR Chicago suggested to DePaul "if the investigation were to have shown that (Klocek) did make these statements that and he did act this way towards the students, yes, we did suggest that they should terminate him."

Abraham of course, says she is a strong supporter of free speech on campus.

Klocek is pro-Israel--which shockingly, Abraham claims that is the "majority opinion" on college campuses in regards to Middle Eastern politics.

Huh?

CAIR fashions itself as a civil rights organization along the lines of the NAACP. I'm a bit naive, but if it's common for such groups to recommend that private organizations such as DePaul fire employees--and in turn, destroying their livelihood, well, that just stinks out loud.

Klocek was fired without receiving a hearing from DePaul, and he was not allowed to confront his accusers.

Here's more on CAIR, courtesy of Daniel Pipes' web site, CAIR Accepted as "Mainstream."

Here is FIRE's file on the Klocek case, DePaul University: Professor Suspended for Expression Without Due Process.

Technorati tags: DePaul Free Speech Academic freedom Chicago catholic education Klocek Muslims Thomas Klocek Illinois CAIR israel ישראל