Muslim civil rights group says movement fails to repudiate Islamophobia

WASHINGTON, July 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today offered support for an NAACP resolution passed earlier this week asking the Tea Party movement to condemn racism within its ranks.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) echoed concerns by delegates at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that the Tea Party has failed to repudiate elements within the movement who use racist or bigoted language.

SEE: NAACP Votes to Repudiate Racist Elements Within the Tea Party

http://tinyurl.com/25fyjtr

“If the Tea Party wishes to be taken seriously by mainstream Americans, it must repudiate all those who express or promote extremist, racist or bigoted views while claiming to be affiliated with the movement,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

Hooper noted the NAACP’s list of racist incidents tied to the Tea Party movement and cited similar examples of Islamophobic incidents, including: (more…)

Andrew Breitbart appeared on the ‘Hannity’ show tonight to discuss the NAACP’s resolution condemning the Tea Party Movement as racist.  The NAACP used the dubious claims of Rep. Andre Carson, that fifteen protestors yelled racial slurs at him fifteen times on March 20th prior to a vote on ObamaCare in Washington DC.

Breitbart conducted a search of all available video of the moment Rep. Carson described – as he and Rep. John Lewis “came down the steps at (the) Cannon” Office Building on their way to the Capitol.

This segment on ‘Hannity’ marks the very first time these videos, which show no evidence of anyone shouting racial slurs and which contradict every description Rep. Carson made of the scene, have been shown on national television.

Given that this false charge has become the basis for the nation’s oldest and most respected civil rights organization to label an entire political movement as racist, it will be instructive to see which other media outlets pick up the story as well.

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As our readers have already learned, Rep. Andre Carson gathered Capitol Hill reporters around him and told the tale of racial slurs and menacing crowds on the verge of hurling rocks at the congressmen.  Our first few videos showed the congressmen coming out of the Cannon Office Building, walking down the steps and into Independence Avenue from various angles.  None of those videos revealed the racial hatred Rep. Carson conveyed to reporters that day and none of the videos showed a mob rushing or in any way impeding the congressmen.

When Rep. Carson gathered reporters around him to spread the myth of racial slurs being hurled “fifteen times” he painted the protesters not just as racists, but as a terrorist threat.  We know this, because Kerry Picket of the Washington Times recorded Rep. Carson as he explained it all to eager reporters.

KERRY PICKET (Wash. Times): Do you think the people outside are generally dangerous or no?

REP. CARSON: Oh absolutely. I worked in homeland security. I’m from intelligence, and I’ll tell you, one of the largest threats to our internal security…I mean terrorism has an Islamic face, but it really comes from racial supremacist groups. (inaudible) Its the kind of thing we keep a threat assessment on record [for].

PICKET: From groups like this?

REP. CARSON: Oh absolutely.

And we can now see this two pronged message continuing in the narrative from Democratic politicians and the media:  The Tea Party protests are really about white rage and they are sowing the seeds for domestic terrorism.  This was the message delivered by Rep. Carson that afternoon and that is the message the media has run with.

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We all know the story by now.  Rep. Andre Carson (D-In) says that he and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga) were assaulted with racial slurs by Tea Party protesters as they walked down the step of the Cannon office building and headed to the Capitol on March 20^th.  Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo) also told reporters that he heard the ‘N-word’ as he was walking a few yards behind Rep. Lewis.  “It was like a chorus”, Rep. Cleaver said.

Only problem is:  Rep. Cleaver wasn’t there.  He didn’t walk behind Rep. Lewis coming down the steps of Cannon on the way to the Capitol.  He walked behind Rep. Lewis coming UP the steps of Cannon on the way BACK from the Capitol.

Of course, Rep. Cleaver and Rep. Carson could claim that racial slurs were screamed both times by the Tea Party protesters.  If that’s the case, then they have contradicted their own narrative from two weeks ago when the AP ran a story with the headline:

Wrong video of health protest spurs N-word feud

The entire thesis of that story was that the dumb, right-wing wackos were looking at the wrong video at the wrong time to show that racial slurs didn’t happen.  We’d been looking at a video showing the Congressional Black Caucus walking up the steps of Cannon returning from the Capitol.  But, it is now claimed, the racial slurs were shouted earlier in the day while Rep. Carson and Rep. Lewis were walking to the Capitol.

If last month’s narrative was that there were no racial slurs shouted on the way up the steps of Cannon, then how did Rep. Cleaver hear a chorus of the ‘N-word’?

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While scouring the thousands of videos that exist on YouTube from the March 20th health care bill protests in Washington DC, we were able to uncover four different angles of the Cannon Office Building at the precise moment Rep. Andre Carson and Rep. John Lewis descended the steps on their way to Capitol Hill.

We have noticed that there is a mystery man positioned at the bottom of the steps of the Cannon Building with a video camera.  He is in the exact position to capture the moment that Rep. Carson later described to reporters.  He is dressed in a dark suit and he is wearing some kind of credential on his jacket.

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Yesterday, we revealed yesterday’s examination of Rep. Andre Carson’s contemporaneous account that he gave reporters versus actual video footage of the events at the Cannon Office Building.   The video showing the congressmen walking down the steps unencumbered by the hostile, racist mob that we had been told was there proved that Rep. Carson’s description was exaggerated at best, fabricated at worst.

We asked our readers for any other footage and testimonials they might have from that day in Washington DC.  In the true spirit of citizen journalists holding our government accountable, we received many tips.  The following compilation further exposes the myth that Rep. Carson passed on to the eager media that day.

Ever since Andrew Breitbart offered $100,000 to be donated to the United Negro College Fund if anyone could produce video evidence of the racial slurs that Rep. Andre Carson claimed he heard on March 20 in Washington DC, I’ve been looking all over YouTube. All of my searches were for video of the moment the congressmen were walking down the steps of the Cannon Office Building on their way to the Capitol.

Lee Fang, employee of the liberal think tank American Progress, posted a video he claimed happened five minutes after the congressmen were rushed by an angry mob at Cannon. I had been searching and searching for those five minutes of angry mob action for weeks. I never found it because it never happened.

What did happen, as seen in this video, is that Rep. Andre Carson and Rep. John Lewis strode down the steps of the Cannon Office Building with a wide berth and completely unencumbered. There was no angry mob. And no one “rushed” the congressmen. And no one yelled a racial epithet at them.

If you have any video footage of this moment from March 20th, or of the next two minutes when Rep. Carson and Rep. Lewis continue walking toward the Capitol after they cross Independence Ave., please email us at tips@biggovernment.com.