You know, for an intractable and barbaric group of people, who have made their dysfunctional "religion" into an obsession we all have to take note of, Muslims have learned "the system" pretty well. For a group of people, who say publicly that they disavow everything that "we" stand for, they seem to be doing a good job of imitating us! Right down to using the system they hate to their own advantage.

I have long been familiar with the expression "strange bedfellows" and thought I knew what it was all about when Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller. Now I'm certain I know what "the enemy within" means, too. These days, when I look around for "the enemy within", I only have to observe the actions of both CAIR and the ACLU. I find it somehow ironic, that CAIR, seemingly and allegedly the "legal arm" of HAMAS, the Islamic terrorist movement, or perhaps more broadly stated, the US-based eyes and ears of the worldwide Islamic terrorist effort, has turned into a Muslim version of our ACLU. I might not even be allowed to say what I just did, anymore, so strong is their grip on the throat of free speech.

To my way of thinking, both organizations are out to destroy the American way of life. No doubt about it, the Muslim "refugees" we opened our country to have learned to "work the system" and they are proving to be highly adept at doing so, with the assistance of the ACLU, our government, our major corporations, a howling Katrina-wind of Muslim organizations and, not to overlook, the many sympathetic, politically correct followers every overturned rock exposes. Under the guise of "freedom of speech" and the lack of attention by many, including Congress, the FBI and many companies, in our desperate need to be politically correct, this cancer is spreading. Would you believe that workers in the benefits department at Dudley Council, West Midlands, were told to remove or cover up all pig-related items, including toys, porcelain figures, calendars and even a tissue box featuring Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. While we are in England, did you know an Ice-cream lid is now offensive? And banned! My Lord... Winnie the Pooh!

(Burger King lid with icecream whirl and "Allah" in Arabic, Online Sun, UK)

The Council of American-Islamic Relations has had a troubled history. They use intimidation and fear; they go for the jugular of anyone who challenges their activities. Their organization is riddled with staff members who have been indicted on, and/or convicted of, a variety of serious charges, mostly dealing with support of terrorist activities; CAIR has even been named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit stemming from the 9/11 bombings. Yet businesses who have dared to challenge them, such as Fox TV, Denny's K-Mart and others, have found themselves in our courts because of suits brought against them by CAIR.

To date, Boeing, Bell, Disney (ABC), Doubletree Hotels, Los Angeles Times, MasterCard International, Burger King, Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing, and Seagram's, among others, have fallen into line by pulling ads found offensive by the Islamists. Two clothing businesses, Liz Claiborne and Warehouse One, withdrew or discontinued women's apparel that bore Arabic script. Nike had to build playgrounds for the Muslim community after an unintentional offence to their sensitivities. National Review had to defend itself because it ran an ad promoting a book on Mohamed; not that anything was untrue, but simply because CAIR sees parts of history as anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Why are so many corporations timid in the face of these outrageous demands and why do so many fall so easily?

They are image and reputation-conscious, unwilling to absorb a public relations episode which could make headlines; they seem convinced that they need to show their diversity to one and all -- because they think YOU, the American public, approve of that cowardice. They don't want to be sued and possibly lose, any lawsuit award probably digging deep into their pockets. So, they take the path of least resistance, by finding a quick way to get out from under the problem, one easily done and easily documented. Then they can say, "See what we did. We work with them. Aren't we good boys and girls?"

A few months ago, I wrote about the politically correct suicide engaged in by Dell Computers. When an issue arose at their Nashville plant, Muslim employees walked off the job en masse. These Nashville Muslims, urged on by CAIR, demanded recognition of their religious prayer requirement to pray five times a day, and they wanted that time as well as being paid for it. Never granted previously to Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, NFL fans or anyone else, but by golly, it has to be given to the followers of the prophet! This was verified when I called and spoke to a Dell representative, David Frink. I was curtly dismissed as an "argumentative reporter" and "not worth his time", because I dared question his company's reasons for buckling under pressure from CAIR. Mr. Frink was even less happy when I suggested to him that this issue was not actually about prayer but Dell being manipulated into setting a precedent, and that Dell was, apparently, bending over backwards in allowing CAIR to do it! Mr. Frink's response was that Dell is "a company that allows many freedoms and even had a room set aside for nursing mothers." I do not think he took too kindly to my comment; that they ought to have a room set aside for the Chabad to lay tefillin, and maybe next to the "nursing mother's room."

The up-shot? Dell caved in to Muslim demands and gave their disgruntled employees a "gold card" full of employee benefits, complete with "undisclosed settlements", to make their "hurt feelings" go away, not just to "keep them happy" but to stop them from destroying the company!

As a Dell stock holder I resented it when CAIR got into the picture and Dell gave those employees "undisclosed settlements" so as not to hurt their feelings by being so politically incorrect as to want to run their company in a business-like manner. As an American, I'm even angrier.

Not long after this cowardly and stupid act of appeasement, ABC Disney, and several other companies, caved in to more CAIR demands. Disney backed down to CAIR threats, firing, without pay, a conservative talk-show host, Michael Graham, over statements regarding Islam and terrorism. Not content with firing Graham, they also reined in another respected journalist, Paul Harvey. Amazing how free speech only works when it's not saying anything the Council for American-Islamic Relations might consider unflattering regarding terrorism and Islam.

In the Disney case, Graham was fired because CAIR, whic monitor our speech, has issued a fatwa... Isn't it cute folks, how we now talk in terms of fatwas and beheadings? Anyway, when Graham linked the current theology and structure of Islam to the repeated acts of terror done in its name, CAIR had him sacked. Personally, I couldn't agree more with Graham's opinion: "Because of the mix of Islamic theology that --- rightly or wrongly --- is interpreted to promote violence, added to an organizational structure that allows violent radicals to operate openly in Islam's name with impunity, Islam has, sadly, become a terrorist organization. It pains me to say it. But the good news is it doesn't have to stay this way, if the vast majority of Muslims who don't support terror will step forward and re-claim their religion."

And it doesn't stop there. The Muslim employees at Tyson Fresh Meats plants have agreed not to strike pending negotiations of "alleged religious discrimination by management." Now, in a display that should sicken all Americans, the Tyson people are planning to prostrate themselves in order to accommodate the demands of TEN Muslim employees.

A company spokesperson, Mr. Mickelson, stated that the plant provided a prayer room for Muslims and pointed out that "plant officials are consistently trying to work with the religious leaders to accommodate prayer time". Wow! Wouldn't it be nice if they also set aside milk and cookie time? He continued, "However, because we're a manufacturing operation, we're not able to let everyone leave the production line at the same time without shutting down entire sections of our operations." Mickelson said, "Since we have more than 200 Muslims working our second shift, this has sometimes been a point of contention and misunderstanding."

Excuse me? No offence to meat workers, but ... these people gut hogs! This is not National Security, it's heartland America. Since when did sausage makers, halal or not, have the right to alter a nations behavior? I urge you all to read the "Statement of Intent" on Tyson's homepage. Here is a group of people who are so totally committed to "doing the right thing" that they have been targeted by CAIR, an organization who are intent on forcing us to "do the right thing"... by Islam.

But this is, actually, nothing new, just more of the same old same old. I remember, over twenty years ago, when the Israeli pavilion in the Epcot Centre was removed, because Arabs complained they didn't want it there!

My fears back then were all about on the gradual take-over being perpetrated by this culture - now, I see it everywhere. It's happening in the boardrooms of companies like Dell, and on shop floors of companies like Tyson; the same way our prisons have been turned into hotbeds of Islamic Fundamentalism. I felt then, as I do today, that the work place is supposed to be a place of work and not a refuge for Muslims to wage ideological warfare, no matter how nice they are!

CAIR has been given no reason to doubt that - if we can do it once, why not again? It works, and they work it; they are getting better at the game and, with each precedent ruling, their tentacles are more widespread. Their rights under our system grow, despite my sense that no other religion has taken such steps before.

Gawd, do you see what is happening here, in so many corners of our country? CAIR is using our system with all of its technicalities and generosity, to make determined inroads to topple it. The ACLU has been doing that for years and has made tremendous strides toward the erosion of our values. Just what we need, huh? An Islamic arm of the worst oppressors of American freedom. I think the ACLU is doing just fine, destroying much that is good about America. Do they really need Arab assistance?

Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at: bestredhead@earthlink.net and www.arlenepeck.com

The image of the ice cream lid is from the Sun Online, UK, and was not part of the original article.

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