Is it Just Me, Or Is CAIR's Bedier Calling for the Return of the Caliphate?

CAIR's position on the notion of returning to the caliphate is a bit nebulous. Quotes by many CAIR leaders have been used to try and show that these CAIR members in fact want to turn the US into a caliphate, though this is more accurately a goal of theocracy. Many Muslim nations remain theocracies yet sovereign nations subject to no empire or caliphate. There is no caliph, no "unified voice", as Bedier puts it, for Muslims to speak out with. Perhaps it just slipped his mind that most Muslims at this point won't speak out against the Wahhabists, but I'll leave that to the discretion of the viewers. CAIR higher-ups recently responded rather as they do at the mention of the name "Daniel Pipes" over President Bush's use of the word caliphate, and I'm still trying to figure out their "official" stance, which is always hard with CAIR since their representatives are always running their mouths off in different directions nationwide.

This video is a seven minute third segment of a news debate between Tampa's CAIR director (and their web-trouble-maker) Ahmed Bedier and a former Catholic Priest, presided over by anchor/reporter Kathy Fountain. The discussion is almost intolerable for anyone with a knowledge of history, Islam or taqiyya, but try to get through it for the real kicker. In the three part discussion over the Crusades and the release of the film "Kingdom of Heaven", the subject of a "leader" existing to speak for all of the (Western) Christians (remember the time period here), and Ms. Fountain brings up her point that Islam perhaps needs one leader, to which Bedier responds:

Bedier: "Yeah, well, we're looking for it still. Right now....since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, uh, that was the last major Muslim organized religion, we don't really have a hierarchy that's organized how the Catholics are organized. We're looking for that, and once we have that one voice, [that] unified voice, we'll be able to speak up. Many people say all the time, 'Why aren't Muslims condemning 9/11?'. Well, we are, but we're doing it as groups, as individuals, as different mosques..."

Fountain: "And without one single voice the people like Osama bin Laden become the voice in that vacuum..."

Bedier: "Exac[tly]...and that's what's disturbing. And we're trying. But the Ottoman Empire fell because of the Allied Powers and it was caused by colonialism and so on. Again, Western always[??] going there and dividing the ottoman Empire like it is now."

Never mind that the Ottoman Empire joined the Axis powers to fight AGAINST the Allies, and were already called "The Sick Old man of the Bosphorus" in its obvious state of decline. But I needn't analyse, all one must do is watch. Just note how unquestioning Fountain is of Bedier's statements, never really challenging (she probably knows as much history as most news anchors), but instead laying down the segways for Bedier's next absurd claim.

I am in contact with this station now, and am discussing this problem. I hope that a solution is found. I will post on this later, but at this point I can say definitively that those I've spoken with are concerned about CAIR being a danger and aren't overly fond of Bedier. The claim, as usual, is that no other spokesperson can be found. Can they not be found, or does CAIR just consider this their turf? I'm beginning to believe that CAIR is bullying many Muslims as much as they do everyone else. Rest assured though, through our own programs of educating the media about CAIR, at least on local levels, people who misrepresent the truth as blatantly as Bedier will no longer be seen as credible.

Now you tell me. Does he endorse a return to the caliphate, even if not by name, or not? Roll tape....