The membership of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has dropped by more than 90 percent since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The membership numbers fell from 29,000 in 2000 to fewer than 1,700 in 2006, according to tax records analyzed by the Washington Times. Over the same period of time, CAIR’s income from dues dropped from $732,765 to $58,750, despite a $10 increase in the rate. The Justice Department recently named CAIR “unindicted co-conspirators” in a federal case against a foundation that is charged with helping to fund terrorists, according to the Times. The director of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, M. Zuhdi Jasser, said the declining membership shows that CAIR does not represent American Muslims. “This is the untold story in the myth that CAIR represents the American Muslim population. They only represent their membership and donors,” Jasser said. “Post-9/11, they have marginalized themselves by their tired exploitation of media attention for victimization issues at the expense of representing the priorities of the American Muslim population.”
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