In a development that should surprise no one, some on the right-wing are accusing the Occupy Wall Street movement of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“JIHAD ALERT,” the anti-“Shariah Islam” group “The United West” declares in a blog post. “‘OCCUPY ORLANDO’ or JIHAD ORLANDO?”
Tom Trento, the group’s director, explains that Occupy Orlando is a “move by a Muslim activist to take over control of ‘Occupy Orlando,’ in the ‘spirit of the Arab Spring.'” An accompanying video shows Trento attending an Occupy Orlando protest last weekend, and warning about activist Shayan Elahi, who Trento says is “associated with CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Elahi is a local Demcoratic activist and a Muslim civil-rights attorney who is also legal counsel for Occupy Orlando, according to My Fox Orlando.
Trento writes:
Once we watched Shayan Elahi in action, running around, signing up speakers, providing direction, telling people what to do, we started to connect the dots to the stated Face Book Mission Statement of “Occupy Orlando,” which reads, “…we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America.”
Here’s the full almost-13 minute video. Elahi calls Trento a “bigot” in a confrontation around the 2:00 mark:
Elahi told Ashley Lopez of the Florida Independent that he was “volunteering [his] legal services as just another proud American and a member of the movement” that day.
But, as expected, several right-wing blogs think his presence was much more nefarious. “Look who’s behind uprising in Orlando,” the headline of a World Net Daily article on the protest says. “Who’da thunk this group would be pulling strings?”
Blogs like Bare Naked Islam and the Tea Party Tribune have also picked up the story, as well as the Houston chapter of the anti-Islam group Act! For America.
Even failed Senate candidate Joe Miller (R-AK) was concerned, posting the video on his blog with the question: “Occupy Orlando- Muslim Brotherhood Exposed?”
But if the Occupy Orlando movement is backed by the Brotherhood, it must mean the greater Occupy Wall Street movement is as well — which is why the news that CAIR was organizing its supporters to pray at Occupy Wall Street on Friday was greeted with the similar outrage by right-wing sites.
Glenn Beck’s The Blaze wrote a post saying, “They say one can tell a lot about people by the company they keep. If that adage is true, what does the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) endorsement of Occupy Wall Street — and the organization’s choice to conduct Friday ‘Jummah’ prayers in Zuccotti Park — tell us about both CAIR, and, the Occupy protesters?”
Occupy Wall Street has, among other things, also been accused of anti-Semitism, and as a writer for Townhall.com writes, it’s no surprise: “So, we now have the Nazi Party of America and CAIR supporting Occupy Wall Street. Now I understand where all the anti-semitism in the movement is coming from.”
