Best Buy Boycott Alleges Company Has Ties to Hamas

An online petition that calls for the boycott of Best Buy alleges that the US-based chain has ties to Hamas, an officially recognized terrorist organization by the both the Canadian and American governments.

The petition was started by RadicalIslam.org on April 23 and already has over 10,000 signatures.

The movement was prompted by a financial donation made by Best Buy to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to the Islamist Watch organization, CAIR was mentioned by the US government in federal court papers as a co-conspirator in the 2007 trial of another charity, Holy Land Foundation, which served as a fundraising arm for Hamas in Gaza.

“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists” and “the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists,” the court papers said, as reported by IsraelNationalNews.

“I assumed the decision to sponsor CAIR was made out of ignorance or at a low-level, sadly, I was wrong,” Islamist-Watch.org Director Marc Fink told the Jerusalem Post.

According to Fink, Best Buy replied to their inquiries about the donation, stating the company aims to “represent a variety of faiths and denominations. We respect that diversity, and choose to engage with our customers, employees and communities in ways that reflect their traditions and maintain good relationships for Best Buy.”

At the time of the 2007 trial, District Court Judge Jorge Solis ruled the government had provided “ample evidence” tying CAIR to Hamas and allowed its designation as an “unindicted co-conspirator.”