As we reported last month, Best Buy has been called to task by conservatives for its sponsorship of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that has been linked to the Hamas terror organization by the Federal government.
According to Islamist Watch, a project of the neoconservative Middle East Forum run by Arabist and political commentator Daniel Pipes, the struggling retail chain has “recently used profits from American consumers to fund the annual banquet of a group closely linked to Hamas.”
Now, Fox News reports that there is a budding movement to boycott the retail electronics chain due to its alleged ties to Hamas-linked groups.
Following the latest Fox News report on the boycott efforts, which have garnered 11,547 signatures on a petition against the chain and over 6,000 likes on Facebook, CAIR threatened to sue PetitionBuzz.com, which hosts the petition, and the site took down the petition for several hours. However, it was reinstated after “it was proven that the facts were true (truth is an absolute defense in defamation lawsuits),” the Middle East Forum stated .
CAIR, whose spokesman Ibrahim Hooper has said he wishes to see America ruled by Islamic Sharia law, was listed as an ”unindicted co-conspirator” in 2007 Holy Land Foundation fundraising case in which the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was charged with funding Hamas.
Hamas, which targets civilians and which propagates an extreme anti-Semitic ideology, is chartered to destroy “Israel, [which] by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims.”
Although CAIR was not charged in the suit, the Federal government named the group as being linked to efforts to fund Hamas and other terrorist organizations and in being a member of “the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations.”
Despite CAIR’s history, Best Buy has stated that it believes that is fostering diversity in its role as a “Platinum Sponsor” of the organization’s annual dinner.
