World Bulletin / News Desk

American rights lawyer and journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has recently been in the spotlight for his collaboration with U.S. defector Edward Snowden, has defended his connections with American Muslim group CAIR.

The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is at the forefront in defending the civil liberties of American Muslims and aiding cohesion between Muslim and non-Muslims in the U.S.

Greenwald was a guest speaker at CAIR’s ‘Faith in Freedom’ banquet on November 16, which has attracted the criticism of far-right groups who have previously accused CAIR of having links to terrorism. Since then, he said that his patriotism to his country has been in question.

He called on people to support the work of CAIR, saying that they are protecting the political values are on which the United Stated was founded.

He also criticized those who neglect the rights abuses against American Muslims, saying “Abuses of liberties never stay confined to the single group to which they’re originally applied. They always spread far beyond the original application, and by allowing it to happen to American Muslims, now we allow civil liberties of all Americans to be degraded and threatened and jeopardized.”