Recently the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) asked the Defense Department to drop yet another counter-terror trainer: the Iranian ex-Muslim Reza Kahlili. Surprisingly enough in this hyper-politically correct age, when it seems as if the Obama administration cannot accommodate Islamic supremacist demands fast enough, the Pentagon refused to budge. This was widely hailed as a rare defeat for CAIR; unfortunately, it is nothing of the kind, and manifests the deeper problem that currently besets the Defense Department and the entire Washington establishment.
Pentagon spokesman James Gregory responded to an inquiry from the Daily Caller about CAIR’s demand:
We can confirm that Mr. Reza Kahlili, who has specialized counterintelligence expertise, occasionally lectures at the Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA). He’s one of many guest lecturers called upon by JCITA for specific subject matter knowledge. His experiences provide valuable insight to trainees, and he keeps his personal religious beliefs out of the classroom. He does not lecture on or about Islam or any religious treatise, and his personal beliefs are his own.
This was indeed a victory in a certain sense: instead of caving to Hamas-linked CAIR’s demands and dropping the speaker as it has so many times in the past, the Pentagon stood firm and declared that Kahlili was going to speak as planned. However, Gregory was careful to note that Kahlili “does not lecture on or about Islam or any religious treatise, and his personal beliefs are his own.”
