I found the May 1 letter from Arsalan Bukhari, the Washington state director for CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) quite astounding. He condemns the Inter Lake for publishing a letter suggesting that Syrian refugees in Missoula, if like Muslims in other U.S. cities and other countries such as France, would likely not assimilate.

First, I am astounded that CAIR, an organization that many legitimate news sources and at least one federal judge has linked to terrorist organizations such as HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood would either have local informants or would monitor a newspaper so far from their base in Seattle!

Second, as always with CAIR, while attacking legitimate concerns regarding the risk of resettling unscreened “refugees” in an environment so different than their native Syria, this same organization, to my knowledge, rarely condemns jihadist acts of violence with anywhere near as full and angry a voice as they use to object to any concern regarding their perception of anti-Muslim rhetoric.

What was their response to videos of thousands of Muslims dancing in the streets of Arab countries in celebration of 9/11? The Boston Marathon bombing? San Bernardino? Condemnation? Or silence? Or worse ... blaming the victim? In response to San Bernardino, Hussam Ayloush, the LA director of CAIR, said, “When we support coup leaders in Egypt or other places, when we support dictatorship, oppressive regimes around the world that push people over the edge, then they become extremists, then they become terrorists. We are partly responsible.”

Yes, we were responsible ... responsible for giving San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook a good job and allowing him to bring his murderous wife back to the United States from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (two of our so-called allies) to assist him.

Questioning the motives of Syrian refugees, especially young single men, in wanting to resettle in Montana when their own political-religious leaders have espoused the philosophy of conquering from within seems like legitimate concern to me. Certainly not “... the words used by perpetrators of hate crimes ...,” as claimed by the author.

Perhaps if the leaders of CAIR spent a bit more time monitoring their own violent subset as they spend monitoring the Opinion page of a small Montana town newspaper and complaining about every voiced concern regarding present and future Muslim acts of violence, they might gain a more legitimate voice. —P. David Myerowitz, Columbia Falls