CAIR representing the Muslim-American community, I think not

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) seems to have problems keeping their members. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, membership has declined more than 90 percent.

The Washington Times stated that the number of reported members has gone down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006. This has contributed to a loss of their group's annual income. It was $732,765 in 2000 when yearly dues were $25. Last year, it was $58,750 from dues that were $35.

So how do they still manage to keep their $3 million budget intact? Through about two dozen individual donors. Even though CAIR continues to hail their grass-roots support, it is hard to say whether these dozen unnamed donors have more pull over the organisation as a whole.

Anyways, the overall decline threatens their argument that their organisation represents the nation's 7 million American Muslims.

Recently, CAIR has been involved in questionable accusations of discrimination. They are also known to trump up hate crimes. They have sided with the imams when they were thrown off a Northwest Airlines flight for suspicious behavior. In response to the "Fort Dix Six" arrests, CAIR is playing the politically correct card asking the media to refrain from linking this case to the faith of Islam, and even asked mosques and Islamic institutions nationwide to report any incidents of anti-Muslim backlash.

Could their actions have lead to a decline in its membership?