I am so behind in posting and likely would have forgotten this one if I hadn’t noticed that Ken Bacon, President of the refugee lobbying group*, Refugees International, was being google-searched yesterday which resulted in a large number of readers arriving here at RRW.
Ha! Ha! Ha! I just learned why Ken Bacon was being googled yesterday, he was on Celebrity Apprentice—a poker player is raising big bucks for the lobbying organization—an organization that is busy promoting the importation of loads of questionable immigrants to the US.
Back to my post. This is a story from Pipe Line News about ten days ago. Authors Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer charge that Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen Furniture and Chairman of the Board of Refugees International, is affiliated with groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and is using Ethan Allen as his base of operations. These are pretty serious charges which we cannot confirm, but we have previously expressed our concerns about whether Mr. Kathwari’s pro-Islamist agenda should be questioned in light of Refugees International’s position in promoting refugee resettlement to the US.
Ethan Allen shareholders might well take note that CEO Farooq Kathwari’s political project, the “Kashmir Study Group,” gives it’s email and physical address as the Ethan Allen company premises [source, http://www.kashmirstudygroup.net/] as well as the way he promotes an Islamist ideology, cynically manipulating the patriotic name and image of the Ethan Allen Furniture company as a way of legitimizing and financing the jihadist Kashmiri separatist effort.
Mr. Kathwari’s important role with refugee resettlement first came to our attention last May when he and Refugees International received an award from the Arab American Institute.
By the way, I never see Refugees International highlighting and putting out news releases about the plight of Christian Iraqis persecuted by Muslims, but they lead the charge in lobbying for us to take the Iraqi Palestinians that no Muslim country will take. Why would that be? Why would there be no condemnation of Muslim persecution of Christians, hum?
RI: I invite you to correct me if I’m wrong and send press releases etc. where you have emphasized the persecution of Christians or other religious groups by Muslims anywhere in the world. Please put links in the comments. Thanks!
* Check out their finances here and note the bulk of their expenses are for lobbying (advocacy!) with a big recent effort to bring more Iraqi refugees to the US. So, who exactly is funding this lobbying? Go to RI’s donor list at the end of their 2007 Annual Report here.