CAIR-Florida sold the strangest Congressional letter ever for $2,625 which they will put towards educating the public on Islam and Muslims as well as working for civil liberties.

The following report also points out that West had no trouble finding a nice gig with the Aubrey Chernick funded Pajama’s Media corporation.

Allen West “NUTS!” Letter Sold for $2,625 on eBay

The Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida announced Tuesday that a letter in which then-Congressman Allen West wrote “NUTS!” sold on eBay for $2,625.

The eBay listing shows West’s brief note from Aug. 4, 2011, addressed to Nezar Hamze and Hassan Shibly of CAIR Florida. They had sent the South Florida congressman a letter that July expressing their concerns about his association and support of individuals they said “have been identified as anti-Islam extremist(s),” and urging West to cut his ties with them.

“I am writing to you with regard your recent letter: ‘NUTS!’” West responded, CAIR said.

The letter concluded with the words “Steadfast and Loyal” above West’s signature, name and title.

West still has not fully explained his meaning, CAIR said.

“We are taught in Islam to meet a bad deed with a good deed. So we turned Allen West’s bad deed into 2,625 good deeds. We thank Allen West for his ‘NUTS’!” CAIR said in a statement Tuesday. “Every penny of these monies will be used to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.”

West, a one-term tea party congressman, lost the November election in a close and contentious race to Democrat Patrick Murphy in the 18th Congressional District, which includes northern Palm Beach County and parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties. West challenged the results before conceding two weeks later.

PJ Media recently announced that West had joined the company as its “director of Next Generation programming” and will host an online television show, “Next Generation Today.”

There was no way to leave a phone message for West at PJ Media Tuesday, and phone numbers on his campaign website were not in service.

The eBay auction’s winner is a Stockton, California resident that CAIR Florida identified by his screen name, decem4444.

The former history teacher said in the statement that he supports CAIR’s “positive and proactive efforts to fight irrational Islamophobia, and I am glad to make a token contribution toward that goal.”

Allen West Helping Raise Funds For Islam, What A Nice Guy

by Rich Abdil (Wonkette)

Last summer, then-as-yet-undefeated-congressman Allen West took his whirlwind American diplomacy tour to the Council on American Islamic Relations, which sent him a letter asking him
Read more at  to distance himself from the prominent Islamophobes he’d been palling around with. West, seeing an opportunity for prejudice-fueled grandstanding, sent a response to CAIR: It said, simply, “NUTS.”

You may have forgotten this, on account of one asinine Allen West military reference kind of blends in with the rest. BUT! That letter, in addition to reminding us that literally anyone can get himself some congressional stationery if he appeals to the right Christians, is now doing some good: It’s raising money for CAIR, which will go toward either defending civil rights or building car bombs, depending on whom you ask. Maybe even both!

What appears to be the South Florida chapter of CAIR is auctioning off the “NUTS!” letter, and right now it’s 12 bids in and going for more than $2,200 — a small sum compared to compensation being afforded to CAIR in superdense piles of schadenfreude, but still, not chump change for a piece of paper! Check this, from the eBay listing:

Up for Auction is one of the shortest Congressional Letters ever written in US History! This is the ORIGINAL LETTER on Official US Congressional Stationary signed by Allen West himself! This item has something for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a die-hard member of the Tea Party, Democratic Party, or protect the Civil Rights of Americans; this item is perfect for your collection.

Tea Party- This letter is signed by your fearless Rock Star! If you win this auction you will have signed documented proof that Allen West stood up in the face of your “EVIL” to protect the US (A “Judeo-Christian” Nation) from the Muslims. Your collection can’t go without this item.

Members of the Democratic Party- This letter represents the accomplishment of Democratic Party’s victory over Allen West. Allen West’s firebrand of politics often came with blanket insults towards Democrats with no regard of Congressional Fellowship or Respect.

So there you go! You’ve got until Jan. 17 to bid, if you have a few thousand dollars lying around. You never know, though — congressional letters from West might lose value if he keeps sending them. OH WAIT HE LOST. Haaaaahahaha sorry Allen, good luck finding a job in this economy, which you totally helped save by holding Creeping Sharia hearings during the debt ceiling “crisis.” Maybe CAIR needs a lobbyist?

[eBay, via tipster Murray]

Check out Wonkette on Facebook and Twitter, and, if you’d like intemperate missives from a source other than West, Rich Abdill is on Twitter too.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/496148/allen-west-helping-raise-funds-for-islam-what-a-nice-guy#lb1oDGe7eYkfpk9f.99

A belated post but a necessary one.: (h/t: hsmoghul)

LEADING ISLAMOPHOBE ALLEN WEST LIKELY DEFEATED DUE TO HIGH MUSLIM AMERICAN TURNOUT

(Progressive Change)

Yesterday, right-wing House Republican Allen West finally conceded in his race against Democrat Patrick Murphy. West had made himself notorious for his anti-Muslim attitude. He argued that Islam is “not a faith” but a “totalitarian theocratic political ideology,” and that terrorism is inherent to Islam. He even said that Muslim congressman Keith Ellison (D) of “represent(ing) the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established.”

But in an America that grows increasingly progressive and tolerant, bigotry can be a major electoral liability. Murphy’s margin of victory is roughly 1,900 votes. I talked to Imran Siddiqui, who works for the organization Empowering Motivating Educating Resourceful Grassroots Entities, which registers Muslim voters in the area. He mentioned that his organization had 2,500 Muslim voters in their database in the district and that they witnessed 80 percent turnout. That means roughly 2,000 Muslim-American votes — a little bit higher than Murphy’s margin of victory.

West’s loss should be a lesson to all those in Congress who would try to use bigotry to their political advantage. Sometimes the targets of your ire get out and vote, and when they do, you lose.

According to Florida election law, if the gap is larger than 0.5 percent, which it was, then no official recount is needed. But yet a recount was still given out to the former, one-term Representative Allen West. In predictable fashion West has called the recount a “sham.”

Rep. Allen West still refuses to concede, calls recount a ‘sham’ 

By Yukio Strachan

by Emperor

Bye, bye to the shining hope of Islamopobes everywhere, Allen West (though he refuses to concede the election) has likely lost his House seat in a close race against 29 year old businessman Patrick Murphy. I’m sure post-Congress West will hit the speaking and right-wing news circuits railing against the infiltration of the USA by the twin phantom menaces known as the “Communists” and the “Mooslims”.

Florida was also the scene of that other darling of the Islamophobia movement, Adam Hasner. You will recall Hasner is good friends with Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, he also shared the stage with the fascist Geert Wilders, who he praised effusively and hosted at a special event in 2009. Hasner lost his bid for the House to West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel.

Also gone is Tea Party politician Joe Walsh who saw “Muslim terrorists” in all of the surrounding suburbs of Chicago, Walsh was defeated by US Army veteran and double amputee Tammy Duckworth.

Charles Fuqua who advocated the “deportation of all Muslims” from the USA was defeated in Arkansas and Chip Cravaack was ousted by Rick Nolan after just one term .

Michelle Bachmann barely squeezed out a victory in Minnesota and Peter King held on, Mike Pence a possible future Republican presidential candidate won the governorship in Indiana and is an Islamophobe to watch.

Overall it was a bad night for the harbingers of anti-Muslim Islamophobic fervor. No doubt, they will try and come back with vengeance, but the electoral defeats they suffered are a good sign that their blatant displays of hate-mongering and scapegoating can be broken.

Obama’s re-election is not going to change much, we are still going to have a corporatist state that continues the policies of Empire, but just on a basic level Obama’s victory staved off a Romney presidency that would be littered with anti-Muslims heavily invested in attempting to intimidate American Muslims and enhancing a global Neo-Con vision. The next four years could have been one in which the likes of Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, Walid Phares and others who are intimately tied with the Islamophobia movement would become regular staples of our Loon Politics category.

Related articles

Top House Islamophobe Allen West Falls – The Daily Beast

Key members of the Congressional ‘Islamophobia caucus’ swept from Congress

Some Broward County Muslim parents have requested that Muslim holidays be added to the school calendar at a public diversity hearing.

The response from some of the prolific anti-Muslim groups in Broward (home of Rep. Allen West) including loon Joe Kaufman was to scream about “terrorism,” “cultural Jihad,” and “camels” entering your home.

Video: Opponent of Fla. Muslim School Holidays Warns of ‘Camels’

Loonwatch has been reporting on Adam Hasner since 2009 when he first came across our radar screen for his alliance with Pamela Geller and endorsement of Geert Wilders. Not long ago he was pontificating about “Civilization Jihad” and other nonsense,

“We are not in a War on Terror,” Hasner said. “This is a civilizational struggle against an ideology of Sharia Islam.”

“It’s not just a threat on foreign soil,” he continued. “It’s also a threat from those who seek to destroy us from within. And we have a problem of domestic terrorism both in the violent form as well as in the civilizational jihad that we’re witnessing here in our own country and our own state.”

Adam Hasner: Islamophobe for Congress

BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD

Congress’s anti-Islam caucus will likely grow in November, and Florida’s Adam Hasner may be its worst new member

Rep. Michele Bachmann has gotten a lot of attention lately for her witch hunt against Muslims in the U.S. government, but she’s not alone. In addition to the four lawmakers who signed on to her letters, there are a handful of others who together might be called the Islamophobia Caucus — and their ranks are likely to swell after November, thanks in part to one of the caucus’ most outspoken members, Rep. Allen West.

After redistricting made West’s 22nd Florida congressional district slightly more liberal, he moved to the 18th. Running in his place is Adam Hasner, the former Florida House majority leader who abandoned a previous bid for the Senate. Hasner has already earned top-flight endorsers, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and West himself, as well as several major conservative organizations.

But perhaps a bit farther down the list is Pam Geller, the anti-Islam blogger and activist who spearheaded the effort against the so-called ground zero mosque. While she may not have officially endorsed Hasner, they’re clearly comrades in the fight against Shariah law. “Pamela [Geller] and I were on the front lines of that together, fighting to make sure that we kept her safe here,” Hasner told a Fort Lauderdale crowd in June of last year. For her part, Geller has written numerous blog posts praising Hasner, whom she declared to be “my friend.” “So many patriots and elected officials joined us, like Adam Hasner,” she wrote in June of last year. Here’s a photo of them posing together from her blog. (Hasner did not reply to requests for comment.)

As the Florida Independent noted in September of last year, Hasner has been involved in a “long-time crusade against the supposed threat of Sharia in the U.S.” In 2009, he appeared on a panel in D.C. with Geller and Frank Gaffney, the man behind Bachmann’s with hunt, according to a press release unearthed by the liberal research group American Bridge. Robert Spencer, another key figure in the Islamophobia cottage industry, called Hasner a “fearless truth teller” (here’s a photo them posing together via Spencer’s blog, Jihad Watch).

Before that, Hasner invited notorious Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders to Florida. “When I invited Geert Wilders to join me for a Free Speech conference in Palm Beach County, not only did the hotel cancel its plans to have him come in, but I was the one who was asked by the Hamas front group, the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations, to resign from the Florida House of Representatives, because I was an Islamophobe and a hater,” he said in the Fort Lauderdale speech. Wilders has made crusading against Islam his top priority. He was under house arrest for hate speech in Holland and is barred from visiting several countries.

When Hasner caught flak for the invitation, he was unperturbed. “These are the same people who have been attacking me all session. This isn’t about being anti-Islam, this is all about the right to free speech and they are trying to stifle it,” he casually told the St. Petersburg Times in April 2009. Wilders personally thanked Hasner in his speech, saying, “We need strong leaders like we have here today, Allen West and Adam Hasner. We need strong men like that.”

Within just a few days of the Wilders speech, it was an event that Hasner did not attend that raised eyebrows. He apparently boycotted an imam’s opening prayers at the state Legislature. The Palm Beach Post reported at the time:

As usual, the Florida House opened session today with a prayer. But for the first time this year (and possibly the first time ever), that prayer was led by an imam, Qasim Ahmed, from the Islamic Learning Institute in Tampa. The prayer was videotaped by Ahmed Bedier, United Voices of America director, who remarked on the absence of House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton. Bedier said he was videotaping the “historic” moment. “We did notice Hasner’s empty chair. That’s definitely noticed,” Bedier said… Hasner said he wasn’t on the floor this morning for personal reasons and noted the iman was in the House at the invitation of Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek. “It’s Jim Waldman’s right as a member to invite whomever he wants,” Hasner said.

In 2011, according to a YouTube video of a speech uncovered by American Bridge, Hasner boasted about the real reason for his absence two years earlier. “When the imam who was invited by a state representative who was a Democrat from here in Broward County, when he was invited to give the morning prayer at the Florida House of Representatives, and I boycotted the prayer, I was the one who was ridiculed,” he said.

In 2008, Hasner helped found an anti-Shariah group called Florida Security Council with an activist named Tom Trento. While Hasner was never an official member, he touted his involvement with the organization, which later changed its name to United West. “You cannot fight an enemy when you will not acknowledge that an enemy even exists, and that enemy has a name, and that is Shariah-compliant Islam,” Hasner told a local conservative group in March of last year. “We cannot allow political correctness and multiculturalism or appeasement to cripple our defenses at home or abroad.”

Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon’s political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald.
MORE ALEX SEITZ-WALD.

Bachmann follows in the footsteps of Allen West, joining the Islamophobic Thomas More Law Center.

Michele Bachmann joins board of Ann Arbor-based Christian activists

By Niraj Warikoo (Freep.com)

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., was named Thursday to the citizens advisory board of an Ann Arbor-based legal center that fights for conservative Christian causes.

The appointment of Bachmann, who dropped out of the presidential primary in January, brings another high-profile conservative to the Thomas More Law Center, which increasingly has focused on Islam in recent years. In May, the center named U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., whose views also have sparked controversy, to the advisory board.

“I am pleased to join forces with the Thomas More Law Center,” Bachmann said Thursday. “They are in the courts aggressively fighting the internal threat to America posed by radical Islam.”

Richard Thompson, the center’s president and chief counsel, said that Bachmann “puts country before politics.”

“She understands the threat of radical Islam,” Thompson said. “We share her concerns regarding the stealth jihad that’s being perpetrated against the United States.”

Thompson was referring to what he and some other conservatives say are quiet ways in which some Islamic organizations are trying to take control in the West. Last month, Bachmann sent an open letter asking whether officials in the U.S. government — including Huma Abedin, a Muslim born in Kalamazoo who is a close aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — have ties to Islamic extremist groups.

Bachmann’s letter, signed by several other Republicans, was criticized by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and others who praised Abedin. Bachmann defended the letter, saying there are legitimate concerns about Abedin’s family ties.

Established in 1998 by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, a conservative Catholic, the Thomas More Law Center has filed suits in a number of cases involving the rights of conservative Christians. It supported the right of a school in Pennsylvania to teach creationism, fought gay rights ordinances and opposes the contraception mandate announced by the Obama administration this year.

It has actively defended Christian missionary groups that have been involved in conflicts at the annual Arab Festival in Dearborn, held in June.

Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Bachmann is a “perfect fit” for the board.

“Since Michigan has been a target of nationwide of anti-Islam campaigns, it makes sense that Bachmann would join a Michigan-based group … openly hostile to the Islamic faith.”

Allen West with Pamela “the loon” Geller

When a radical, extremist Christian politician such as Rep. Allen West discusses any matters related to Islam we can’t help but laugh because West stands convicted, first and foremost of those allegations with which he would like to tar Islam and Muslims.

When West isn’t busy accusing 40% of Congress of being infiltrated by “Communists” (I thought such conspiracies had faded out of currency), his favorite topic is Islam, Muslims and the Middle East–sometimes all of the aforementioned are even combined in a grand conspiracy!

To Commemorate 9/11 Allen West Says: “Islam is not a Religion”

Allen West: A Possible Sarah Palin Running-mate?

Allen West Campaign against Calendar for Citing Islamic New Year

Pamela Geller, Allen West and Robert Spencer Team Up for CPAC Hate Fest

Christian Supremacist Allen West Likely Winner in Florida

Allen West Defends Selection of Joyce Kaufman

Allen West Starting the Crusade against Muslims

Allen West Says Keith Ellison is the “antithesis of American values”

Allen West: I Can’t Be Islamaphobic, I Brought ‘The Light Of Freedom Into The Islamic World’ When I Invaded Iraq

In the past West joked about what has been dubbed the “Arab Spring,” saying he prefers “Irish Spring,” a slightly racist, inappropriate and condescending remark for an elected politician to make. How do his Arab American constituents feel about such remarks? Obviously, he doesn’t consider himself as serving those who are Muslim or Arab within his constituency since West has distinguished himself as a purveyor of anti-Arab racism.

The talking points of the anti-Muslim right-wing has, from the beginning of the Arab uprisings, been to 1. support the dictators in place (you will recall that Spencer and co. all wanted Mubarak to remain in power, one JihadWatch writer even called on Mubarak to employ “Tiananmen Square” tactics and mow down Democracy protesters) and 2. after  these dictators were toppled, to push the idea of a looming “Radical Islamic” takeover of these governments a la the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The diverse complexities of social, external, regional and historical factors in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen are swept aside in favor of the convenient (and false) explanation that the uprisings are a frightening specter of masses of people who want to impose beheadings on blasphemers, and stonings on adulterers, in symbolic centers of protest such as Tahrir Square.

This quixotic and desperate attempt by the right is really a ploy to reinforce the support of their base while continuing the indulgent myths of Islamophobia in which they have so heavily invested. The truth is the Arab uprisings have in many ways shattered Islamophobic and Orientalist mythos that always insisted that passive Arabs and Muslims needed dictators, or that Democracy could only be brought to the region through outside intervention (Iraq), or that Islam was the impediment to any true sovereign, accountable, representative government.

A process has begun in many of these nations, and there will be very fiery, open and public debate, there will also be behind the scenes haggling and serious attempts by foreign powers to meddle in these countries’ internal affairs (there already are). However what has changed for the time being is the will of people, who no longer want to be controlled by small corrupt cliques of autocratic and repressive tyrants. The call for dignity, freedom, justice, and better living conditions has gained an irretractable momentum, but of course, it is too early to say what the outcome will be in the longterm.

One thing it will likely not be however is Allen West’s fantasy of a “radical Islamic nightmare“.:

Allen West: Egypt is an ‘Islamic nightmare’

(Politico)

Tea party favorite Rep. Allen West decried the Egyptian presidential election results as proof that the Arab Spring is a “radical Islamic nightmare.”

“A year ago there were those of us who warned the Obama Administration of a Muslim Brotherhood takeover in Egypt,” the Florida Republican wrote on his official Facebook page. “We were castigated as alarmists and loose cannons. Today our predictions have come to reality and the ominous specter reminding us of the Iranian revolution is evident.”

“The Muslim Brotherhood claimed they would not run a presidential candidate. Clearly the Arab Spring is nothing more than a radical Islamic nightmare,” he added.

West said that the correct response to the election results was to reaffirm support for “Coptic Christians and Israel” and to cut off foreign aid to Egypt.

The congressman also called on President Barack Obama, whom he dubbed “the second coming of President Jimmy Carter,” to “denounce the results of this election, repudiate the Muslim Brotherhood, and all radical Islamist political entities.”

It was announced on Sunday that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi had won the election to be Egypt’s president.

Obama called Morsi on Sunday night, and a statement by spokesman Jay Carney said Morsi and the Egyptian government “have both the legitimacy and responsibility of representing a diverse and courageous citizenry.”

“We look forward to working together with President-elect Morsi and the government he forms, on the basis of mutual respect, to advance the many shared interests between Egypt and the United States,” Carney said.