Since the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded in June of 1994, the group has worked hard to conceal its true feelings about Hamas. That is, until now. Video footage taken at a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, rally against CAIR reveals its unabashed support for Hamas. If people had questions about CAIR's sympathies before, this should end all debate on the matter...

...Jawhar Sadallah Badran, a Palestinian resident of Deerfield Beach, Florida, has made outrageous statements before. In July of 2006, he told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, "Hamas and Hezbollah are committing acts of defense against the acts of the Israelis. The only weapons that we have are to strap bombs on our bodies and do whatever damage and destruction we can."

At the time, although he had told the paper that he was not speaking on behalf of any group, Badran was representing the South Florida chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC-South Florida) as its Vice President. [CAIR co-founder and ex-IAP President Rafiq Jaber was also a leader of the ADC.]

Nevertheless, at a March 1, 2008 rally against CAIR's usage of a government-owned facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, there was no ambiguity, as Badran made his support for Hamas known. Speaking into a microphone bearing CAIR's name and logo and standing beside a smiling Altaf Ali, the executive director of CAIR-Florida, he clearly and emphatically stated on video: "Hamas is not a terrorist organization."...

...Badran made other pro-Hamas statements at the rally. For instance, he said, "Hamas is a defender of the Palestinian people. That's what Hamas is." In a similar vein, he declared that "Hamas is better than Fatah, because there's no corruption. Hamas takes care of the people." And when asked if he believed a suicide bombing was a terrorist act, he balked on the question and said, "I'm saying that the state of Israel has committed a terrorist act."

Given his associations with extremist groups and given his overtly pro-Hamas stance, it is curious that Badran, too, sits on the diversity committee of the Broward County School Board. On the other hand, given the way that Broward has coddled CAIR over the years, it may very well make sense...