Florida Congresswoman Stands Up to CAIR and Bedier

Brown-Waite defends Hogans speech rights

***UPDATE.. CAIR buys off County commission for $5,000. Money to be used for turkeys.

BROOKSVILLE — U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite has jumped into the fray created by Tom and Mary Ann Hogan’s recent comments about the Islamic faith.

The Brooksville Republican, fresh off her re-election victory to District 5, fired off a two-page letter Thursday to Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa Chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), defending the Hogans’ right to free speech and suggesting that Bedier should resign.

“Mrs. Hogan expressed in her statements the views of many of my constituents, and while they do not encourage harmony in the community, they should demonstrate to you how many United States citizens perceive your faith,” Brown-Waite wrote. “Your area of concern should not be focused on the statements of the Hogans, but rather upon the actions of many in your community who created these beliefs.”

Brown-Waite sent the 1,100-word letter in response to a letter Bedier sent Nov. 3 calling for Brown-Waite to condemn the Hogans for what he called “anti-Muslim statements” his organization found “deeply disturbing” and “bigoted.”

Calling people bigoted is one of Mr. Bedier's favorite charges. He has in the past called me a bigot. He has also called Joe Kaufman, Robert Spencer and Paul Whitehead bigots...so I feel I am in good company.

“With the election only a few days away, we are concerned about your close relationship to Mr. and Mrs. Hogan and encourage you to disassociate yourself from their hateful comments,” Bedier wrote, citing news stories in which Tom Hogan was described as “an ardent Brown-Waite backer” who flew to Washington, D.C. for Brown-Waite’s swearing-in ceremonies after she was first elected in 2002.

“As the only Congress-woman representing Hernando County, we call on you to send a clear message that hatred and bigotry by GOP leaders will not be tolerated,” Bedier wrote, reminding Brown-Waite that Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida GOP chairwoman Carol Jean Jordan condemned the Hogans’ comments.

“Florida is waiting to hear where you stand on this issue,” he wrote.

In her letter to newspaper editors last month, Mary Ann Hogan called Islam “a hateful, frightening religion.” Her husband, a co-founder of the county Republican Executive Committee, came out in support of the comments. Bush had appointed him to a vacant County Commission seat in August.

“The stated goal of the Islamic faith is to kill us, the ‘infidels,’” Mary Ann Hogan wrote.

She penned the note to criticize the county for using personnel and equipment to assist a recent Ramadan festival at a local mosque.

Brown-Waite, in her letter to Bedier, praised the Hogans for standing firm in the face of criticism and calls to apologize.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hogan have shown tremendous fortitude by resisting the pressures of your group to retract their statements,” she wrote. “I am sorry that Jeb Bush and Carol Jean Jordan from the Republican Party were so quick to also forget that we have freedom of speech and that the Hogans were made to feel that they are the ones who were in the wrong.”

Brown-Waite then went into a little history, citing her work after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to “reach out to the Muslim community because many of my citizens were of the belief that all Muslims were to be blamed.”

She “met many fine Muslims” but “also met some local Muslims who expressed vehement anti-Semitic views and some who even attempted to justify the extremist wing ideology.”

She recalled in 2004 when she was invited to the home of a prominent Muslim doctor, whom she did not name, “allegedly for tea,” and found eight or more men sitting in a semi-circle waiting to confront her.

At that meeting, Brown-Waite claims that Bedier and CAIR were seeking a member of Congress sympathetic to their views. She was not that person, she said, because “neither I, nor my constituents, felt that the American Muslims or CAIR had adequately disavowed past terrorist acts.”

How can CAIR disavow terrorism with their proven ties to terrorist organizations?

Brown-Waite recalled in the letter that Bedier had told her, “Catholic priests pose more of a terrorism threat by having sex with young altar boys than those who flew planes into the World Trade Center.”

Mr. Bedier has no qualms attacking other religions. Apparently the label "bigot" only applies to those who attack Islam.

“I know many fine Muslims who would be well served by your resignation from the local CAIR office,” she wrote in closing. “Your militancy and manipulation of facts does not serve them well.”

Reached Thursday afternoon, Bedier said he was “getting over the shock” from Brown-Waite’s letter.

This is what happens when people stand up to bullies.

CAIR was not trying to stifle the Hogans’ free speech, he said.

“We didn’t say shut them up or don’t talk to them, we just wanted to make sure (elected officials) didn’t share the same views,” he said.

He said CAIR has actively campaigned against violence, citing television ads the nonprofit group purchased to run in the Tampa Bay market — including Hernando County — condemning acts of terrorism.

The Congresswoman’s recollection of the visit is a fabrication, Bedier said. The visit, he contends, included men and women and was planned well in advance. As for the comments about priests, Bedier said his only mention of Catholic priests was to make the analogy that the Catholic faith should not be judged for the actions of a few priests just as Islam shouldn’t be judged by the acts of terrorists.

He said he has even spoken at Brown-Waite’s church, St. Anthony Catholic, about fostering harmony between Christians and Muslims, and that CAIR recently donated money to rebuild Catholic churches in the Middle East that had been firebombed.

The $5,000 blood money donation came after the reaction to a quotation read by Pope Benedict XVI. Enraged Muslims firebombed churches and Christian symbols in Gaza and the West Bank. An Italian nun was also killed during this violence. A fine example of Islamic tolerance towards free speech.

Bedier questioned the timing of Brown-Waite’s response, pointing out that busy people such as both gubernatorial candidates Jim Davis and Charlie Crist had time to draft a letter condemning the Hogans’ words within a day or two after the news broke.

Nowhere in her letter, he said, did Brown-Waite do the same.

“She was so courageous to send it after she was elected,” he said. “If she had such strong convictions, she could have sent this letter on Friday of last week, like everybody else. It just shows how low people are willing to go to score cheap political points.”

Brown-Waite, in turn, called Bedier “cowardly” for sending his letter last Friday, “when he knew I was out campaigning all weekend and Monday and Tuesday,” she said.

She bristled when asked Thursday if she supported the content of the Hogans’ letter and raised her voice as she recalled the event in the doctor’s home.

“What about the content of his speech to me, attacking my religion?” she said. “He’s not going to get away with it.

Mr. Bedier...it's time you learn that "free speech" goes both ways.