Muslim Leader Who Blamed Israel for 9/11 Represents U.S. at Human Rights Conference

Anti-Israel Advocate Reps U.S. at Rights Conference

Muslim leader who blamed Israel for 9/11 chosen to speak at OSCE human rights conference

Salam al-Marayati / mpac.org

A Muslim leader who said that Israel should have been added to the”suspect list” for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was recently selected to represent the United States government at a human rights conference sponsored by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Salam al-Marayati, founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), was chosen by the Obama administration to deliver remarks in Warsaw, Poland—home to one of the largest Jewish ghettos during the Holocaust—during the OSCE’s Human Dimension Implementation Meetings (HDIM), a 10-day gathering meant to foster the “promotion of tolerance,” according to the group’s website.
Al-Marayati was selected to participate in the confab by the U.S. delegation, which was led by Ambassador Avis Bohlen, a Georgetown University professor and former Clinton administration official, according to MPAC’s website.
The selection of al-Marayati, who has drawn criticism for defending terrorist acts and blaming Israel for 9/11, raised concerns among some observers, who deemed his presence at the human rights meetings offensive.
“It is inexplicable that a person who blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks and advocated for terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah—which has killed more Americans than any terrorist group in the world except al Qaeda—was chosen to represent the United States,” said Josh Block, a former Clinton administration official who now serves as CEO of The Israel Project, a pro-Israel educational group.
Al-Marayati drew widespread criticism from Jewish leaders and others when he said that the U.S. “should put the state of Israel on the suspect list,” according to the New York Times.
“If we’re going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what’s happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies,” al-Marayati told a radio host, according to the Times.
Al-Marayati has also defined attacks by the terrorist group Hezbollah as “legitimate resistance,” according to a report by the Investigate Project on Terrorism.
He was invited to participate in the conference as a “public member of the U.S. delegation,” according to MPAC.
“Al-Marayati was invited as a public member of the U.S. delegation to HDIM along with Professor Ethel Brooks of Rutgers University and Nida Gelazis of the Woodrow Wilson Institute,” MPAC said in a statement.
During his remarks before OSCE participants, al-Marayati said that “hate speech that intends to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence against someone based on religion is harmful,” according to a portion of his speech posted on MPAC’s website.
MPAC, the pro-Muslim advocacy group that al-Marayati helped found, has urged that the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas be removed from the list of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, according to the Investigative Project’s report.
Among other topics, participants in the Warsaw conference discussed “freedom of religion and belief,” according to MPAC’s website.
“Al-Marayati, who has a long history of civic engagement and service to the U.S. and the Muslim community, was the only American Muslim invited to speak at the HDIM,” the statement said. “This honor and privilege of addressing the OSCE could not have been bestowed upon a better person who epitomizes working toward religious freedom and human rights protection.”
The U.S. Embassy in Poland also praised al-Marayati’s presence.
“The United States is proud to have Mr. Salam al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Professor Ethel Brooks of Rutgers University, and Ms. Nida Gelazis of the Woodrow Wilson Institute serving as public members in the USG delegation to HDIM,” the embassy said in a statement. “Their expertise will be invaluable in addressing these topics at the meeting.”
One official with a Jewish organization said the embassy’s statement was tone deaf, and demanded the Obama administration explain itself to the Jewish community.
“That he was chosen to address human rights and religious tolerance, and that our embassy in Poland said in a statement that it is ‘proud’ to have him provide his ‘expertise,’ compounds the concern,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “Whoever made this decision owes the American people and the Jewish community an explanation for this error in judgment.”
Also in attendance at the meetings was Ambassador Ian Kelly, the U.S. Representative to the OSCE, as well as Ambassador Michael Kozak, a senior adviser on human rights who is serving as the acting special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.
Stacy Bernard Davis, a senior adviser to the special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism Hannah Rosenthal, told the Free Beacon that “while Amb. Kozak is indeed in Warsaw on the delegation, I do not know anything about the individual you named.”
Ambassador Bohlen, the U.S. delegation’s leader, served in the government for nearly 30 years, including in the State Department. She also served as the ambassador to Bulgaria during the Clinton administration.
Bohlen currently serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies.
She did not respond to a request for comment about al-Marayati’s presence on the trip.

This entry was posted in Middle East and tagged Israel, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Salam al-Marayati, September 11. Bookmark the permalink.

MPAC Represents United States at Human Rights Conference

October 1, 2012

On Oct. 1, MPAC president Salam Al-Marayati spoke in Warsaw, Poland, as part of Ambassador Avis Bohlen’s U.S. delegation to the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
SEE: “Annual OSCE Human Rights Conference Opens in Warsaw on Monday” (osce.org)
Al-Marayati was invited as a public member of the U.S. delegation to HDIM along with Professor Ethel Brooks of Rutgers University and Nida Gelazis of the Woodrow Wilson Institute. 
Al-Marayati, who has a long history of civic engagement and service to the U.S. and the Muslim community, was the only American Muslim invited to speak at the HDIM. This honor and privilege of addressing the OSCE could not have been bestowed upon a better person who epitomizes working toward religious freedom and human rights protection.
Al-Marayati’s speech reads in part:

“Hate speech that intends to degrade, intimidate or incite violence against someone based on religion is harmful,” Al-Marayati said. “The best way to counter hatred is to defy it through convincing arguments, good actions and open debate.  Human rights protect individuals, not abstract ideas or social norms.  Religious symbols do not need governments or international bodies to defend them … It is not the job of governments to make people more religious, but rather to protect the right of their citizens to practice a faith of their choosing, or not to practice at all.  It is their job to establish security for all people, protect the universal rights of all, counter discrimination when it is manifested, and to promote prosperity for their people.”

ALSO SEE: MPAC President, Salam Al-Marayati’s Full Address to the HDIM of the OSCE (mpac.org)
The 10-day conference reviews the implementation of a broad range of OSCE human dimension commitments, including human rights and fundamental freedoms, elections, the promotion of tolerance, the use of the death penalty and the rights of national minorities.
The Warsaw HDIM is the OSCE region’s most important human rights event of the year, bringing together hundreds of government representatives, human rights activists and international experts from 56 European, Central Asian and North American states. This year, the HDIM will focus on three topics for comment and consideration: freedom of religion and belief, empowerment of Roma women and rights of persons belonging to national minorities in OSCE countries. 
“HDIM is a unique opportunity for the United States and indeed for all participating States to discuss our shared commitments in the Human Dimension, and our commitments to the fundamental freedoms that are the core of civilized society,” Bohlen said. “This forum allows us to come together to evaluate where we are on human rights throughout the OSCE space, and in this year, to stress the important contribution that civil society organizations make not only to the discussions at HDIM and the deliberations of the OSCE as a whole, but also to the security and stability of participating States throughout the OSCE region.”