January 06, 2011 12:20 AM UTC

Ali Hasan Drawn Into Bizarre CPAC Witch Hunt?

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• by: Colorado Pols

An interesting blog post today from the People for the American Way–you might have read recently that some activists preparing to attend the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, are upset about the participation of a GOP gay rights group, GOProud. This includes Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, who reportedly is considering pulling out of future CPACs in response, although they’re still on the list of sponsors for this year’s.

As it turns out, GOProud isn’t the only group attending CPAC that has the right wing up in arms: Colorado’s own Ali Hasan’s group Muslims for America is drawing some intolerant fire of its own. You’ll recall that Hasan announced he was leaving the Republican Party as a result of racism he experienced from Colorado Republicans during his run for Treasurer this year. Well, here’s the story on the trouble for Muslims for America at CPAC, as explained by PFAW:

The American Conservative Union (ACU), which hosts CPAC, has been the target of Religious Right groups and leaders over their handling of GOProud’s involvement, with Joseph Farah even calling for conservatives to “purge” the ACU from the movement. Already, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women For America, American Values, the American Principles Project, the Capital Research Center, the Center for Military Readiness, Liberty Counsel, Liberty University, and the National Organization for Marriage have announced their boycott of CPAC.

Now, the conservative news site WorldNetDaily, a major cheerleader for the groups boycotting CPAC, is giving right wing activist Frank Gaffney a platform to charge the ACU with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group. Gaffney is no stranger to conspiracy theories, as he previously claimed that the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell “amounts to a vote for reinstating the draft,” maintained that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is tied to an “ominous campaign” to “bring Shariah to America,” and said that Barack Obama is “America’s first Muslim president.” He is joined by WorldNetDaily’s Paul Sperry, who wrote a book asserting that radical Muslims were infiltrating the government through the congressional internship program.

Gaffney outlines a theory that since the ACU is allowing the leader of an organization known as Muslims for America, a conservative group with ties to the GOP, to participate in CPAC, the ACU is supporting a “stealthy effort to bring Shariah” to America…

Now the allegation that Ali Hasan’s Muslims for America group is in cahoots with this “stealth effort” to impose Muslim law in America, starting with the Conservative Political Action Conference, basically rests on the fact that Suhail Khan, a lawyer in Washington D.C. and a former Bush administration appointee, is staffing MFA’s booth at the conference. Apparently, although Mr. Khan served in a Republican presidential administration and as a senior staffer to Rep. Tom Campbell (R), Khan’s late father had a role in an American group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. Khan is a close associate of conservative activist Grover Norquist, who author Frank Gaffney at WorldNetDaily breathlessly asserts “has been working with the enemy.”

Got all this? Despite Mr. Khan’s long resume working for Republican elected officials and a Republican President, because of membership in an organization by Khan’s father, Grover Norquist, Ali Hasan and Muslims for America, and maybe the nation’s biggest conservative political conference are all co-opted by the Islamofascist plot to make your daughter wear a burqa.

Kind of helps you understand what Ali was talking about, doesn’t it?