Steve Emerson is a Liar, No surprise there

Newsflash: Steve Emerson Calls RevolutionMuslim "Fraudulent" *

The IPT, or the Investigative Project, is little more than an anti-Muslim propaganda mouth-piece run by a right-wing pro-Israel activist by the name of Steven Emerson.

Devoid of credentials, Emerson tries hard to run himself off as some sort of independent "expert" on Islam and Muslims; the puff pieces he fills his blog with are often empty of substance and instead replete with anti-Muslim hysterics.

What is really astonishing about the IPT, a supposedly counter-terrorism investigative project, is that Emerson rarely attacks Muslim terrorists or violent extremists, curiously opting instead to devote much of the website to attacking peaceful Muslim moderates.

This posits the possibility that Emerson is actually not concerned in the least about the national security of the United States of America and that he could not care less about the actual terrorist threat this country faces. Instead, it is the enfranchisement of moderate Muslim Americans that gets him chasing his tail. It seems from a careful scrutiny of his "reports" that his real and only concern is how a more politically empowered Muslim community would reflect on the interests of Israel, the latter being his true obsession and cause-du-vivre.

For more on Mr. Steve Emerson and his shady associations, check out this report.

Now to the business at hand.

Mr. Steve Emerson recently weighed in on yet another matter of top national security concern on his IPT blog: South Park!

Even then, Mr. Emerson does not attack the extremists at RevolutionMuslim (the group of about 5-10 people who delivered a veiled death threat to the creators of South Park for depicting the prophet Muhammad); instead he devotes the piece to attacking the Muslims at CAIR who oppose the extremists and condemn their threats.

This fits perfectly with Mr. Emerson's unstated agenda as mentioned above.

He strangely takes issue with CAIR's National Communications Director, Ibrahim Hooper, for stating the simple fact that RevolutionMuslim is "an extreme fringe group that has absolutely no credibility within the Muslim community." He calls that "writing [extremism] off." In doing so, Emerson sets up a false choice: either state the truth that the group is fringe with no credibility and risk Emerson accusing you of "writing extremism off," or refrain from stating the truth and risk the implication that the group is somehow representative of mainstream Muslim sentiment, the latter of which Emerson hopes for people to believe.

Emerson then claims that "[CAIR] lacks the standing to judge who does and does not speak for American Muslims, though it claims the role for itself." In saying so, the obnoxiously pretentious Mr. Emerson is ironically implying that it is he who has the standing to tell Muslims who does and does not have the standing to speak for them. Between Mr. Emerson and CAIR, we are fairly certain American Muslims would tip CAIR to speak for them.

Mr. Emerson, who previously attacked CAIR-Chicago's Civil Rights Director, Christina Abraham, for yet another non-counter-terrorism related and perfectly peaceful American "sin", is now attacking our Executive Director, Ahmed Rehab, asserting that he called RevolutionMuslim, fraudulent:

"Monday, CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab offered up a similar dismissal of the site's extremism, calling the group fraudulent (emphasis is CAIR-Chicago's). "The 'Muslims' in this case are a group of literally 5-10 people who are widely reviled by the mainstream community for their radical and confrontational style," Rehab wrote in an article for the Chicago Tribune. "Whether, true Muslim or agent provocateurs, the result is the same: they are five community outcasts.""

Firstly, Mr. Rehab did not by any stretch of the imagination dismiss the extremism of RevolutionMuslim.com or the group behind it. To the contrary, he described the group's style as "radical and confrontational," their rhetoric as "outlandishly provocative [and] anti-American," and warned that their "threat ought to be seriously investigated." That is anything but a dismissal of extremism. That makes Mr. Emerson a flat out liar who thinks cutting and pasting makes him smart and makes you stupid. (see Mr. Rehab's full piece here)

Secondly, Mr. Emerson asserts that Mr. Rehab called the group fraudulent, but fails to provide the quote backing this allegation up.  In fact, that part of Rehab's alleged quote is magically omitted from the rest of the Rehab quotation Emerson sites. Why? Because it does not exist and Mr. Emerson is once again a flat out liar who thinks you are stupid. He paraphrases things, rather than quotes them, when he wishes to massage the truth or lie to you.

Here is Rehab's actual full quote, without Emerson's disingenuous paraphrasing:

The “Muslims” in this case are a group of literally 5-10 people who are widely reviled by the mainstream community for their radical and confrontational style including harassing Muslims outside mosques (where they tend to be banned) with outlandishly provocative anti-American rhetoric.

Most suspect the group is fraudulent. (emphasis is CAIR-Chicago's)"

Rehab at no point himself calls the group fraudulent; at no point does he state that he believes that it is.

Instead, Rehab simply reported on a third party view: that the mainstream community reviles this group, and "most suspect the group is fraudulent." Not only a third party view mind you, but a third party suspicion, not even an assertion. And yet Emerson falsely paraphrases it as an assertive statement, and then falsely presents it as a first-party claim. That's a double whammy.

In fact, the rest of the quote that Mr. Emerson himself republishes on his blog clearly shows that Mr. Rehab puts forth two possibilities including that RevolutionMuslim are true Muslims and makes clear that whether they are fraudulent or not, his personal view is that it makes no difference to the story.

According to Emerson, simply reporting on someone else's view automatically makes it your own view.

Well,  then guess, what:

*Seeing as Mr. Emerson reported that Mr. Rehab is"calling" RevolutionMuslim fraudulent, we can readily announce that "Mr. Emerson is calling RevolutionMuslim fraudulent."

Oops! That did not work out too well for you after all, Mr. Emerson, did it?

There you have it.

Don't expect the man to be up for a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting anytime soon. Unless of course that "investigative reporting" means lazily Googling stuff, and then sloppily cutting and pasting things to make your lies seem viable.