From IPT:
Can a hate peddler be the victim of a hate crime?
The people at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) seem to think so. It is not clear whether they agree that Salah Soltan, a former leader in the Columbus, Ohio Muslim community who is hailed by some Islamists as an influential scholar, is a hate monger. He has issued fatwas sanctioning the murder of Zionists, and whohas said the 9/11 attacks were "planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world."
Soltan's home in Hilliard was nearly destroyed early Monday morning in a firedescribed as arson by local investigators. Soltan's adult son and a roommate escaped without injuries. CAIR issued a statement asking the FBI to investigate the fire as a hate crime, noting two recent incidents in which anti-Muslim graffiti was painted on the house.
This is not to minimize the severity of the crime, which thankfully resulted in no injuries, but the case serves as an example of how dangerous radicalism like Soltan's gets sugar-coated by his supporters and by the media.
CAIR's release about the fire makes no mention of his history of incitement, or of the fact that it worked with Soltan, who also helped establish the Muslim American Society and spent years in Ohio running the American Center for Islamic Research and lecturing at the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus. There is no record of CAIR condemning Soltan's radicalism when he lived in Ohio or since he left the country for Bahrain about five years ago.
Soltan signed CAIR's 2005 fatwa against terrorism. But he has repeatedly praised Hamas, endorsing "the creed of Jihad and Resistance" while rejecting the very concept of a peaceful settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He serves on the board of trustees for influential Muslim Brotherhood theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi's International Union for Muslim Scholars.
Media reports from Columbus news outlets refer to Soltan as a "controversial Islamic scholar."
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