This post originally appeared at https://www.wisconsinrightnow.com/cair-tammy-baldwin/

“It is critical that you continue the fight for civil discourse and civic engagement. …congratulations on more than two decades of passionate advocacy.” – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin in a letter to CAIR

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin wrote a letter supporting an Islamic group that now blames Israel for the Hamas attacks.

Baldwin has also accepted campaign donations from leaders affiliated with the same group.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR recently demanded that the U.S. government examine “the root causes of violence, terminating Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, and ending the Israeli government’s apartheid policies” after Hamas terrorists massacred Israeli families, beheaded babies, murdered concert attendees and took many children and elderly hostage.

The U.S. Department of Justice wrote in 2013 that evidence in a trial “linked CAIR leaders to Hamas, a specially designated terrorist organization, and CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.” In a December 2007 federal court filing, “prosecutors described CAIR as “having conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists,” according to the Investigation Project on Terrorism, which published a lengthy report on CAIR’s ties to terrorists and Hamas.

These controversies were well-known at the time Baldwin wrote her letter.

In her letter to CAIR in 2019, Baldwin wrote, “I appreciate all that you do in defense of justice and civil liberties throughout our state and nation. You deserve to be proud of your work to promote mutual understanding by countering prejudice and combating Islamophobia.”

She added, “It is critical that you continue the fight for civil discourse and civic engagement. …congratulations on more than two decades of passionate advocacy.”

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Baldwin was one of dozens of Congressional Democrats who wrote letters supporting CAIR in 2019.

“Congressional Democrats’ widespread support for CAIR reflects the left’s willingness for years to align with anti-Israel and far-left groups, which are now excusing and even praising Hamas’s terrorism,” the site reported.

According to the Washington Free Beacon:

“CAIR has a long history of anti-Semitism. Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the group’s San Francisco chapter, in 2021 described Jewish groups and synagogues as ‘enemies’ that are ‘working to harm you.’ In 2014, Billoo said, ‘Blaming Hamas for firing rockets at Apartheid Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist.’”

The Beacon added: “CAIR has also been linked to Hamas itself. In a 2007 federal trial, evidence showed that a founding member of the group’s Dallas chapter provided support to the terrorist group.”

The Investigative Project on Terrorism obtained the letters and wrote, “CAIR has a second, perhaps more paramount objective that it never directly acknowledges: To oppose Israel and promote Palestinian nationalism.”

According to that project, “CAIR also routinely teams with groups devoted to opposing Israel’s very existence. It should not be surprising to those familiar with CAIR’s origin story. It was created by a Muslim Brotherhood-run Hamas support network in the United States. Witnesses told the FBI that supporting Hamas was its mission from the start.”