The Biden administration cut ties on Thursday with a major Muslim civil rights group it partnered with, citing antisemitic remarks from the organization’s director in November, but brushed aside years of its documented history of antisemitic statements years prior.
In May, the Biden White House partnered with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a self-proclaimed civil rights organization, to combat antisemitism in the United States. The Biden administration cut ties after its director claimed he was “happy” about the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, but had ignored years of antisemitic and anti-Israel statements well before it patterned with the organization.
“The Council on American-Islamic Relations and Islamic Relief Worldwide are not innocuous ‘faith-based’ groups,” Asra Nomani, co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, previously told the DCNF. “They are dangerous organizations that believe in political Islam, or Islamism, and stoke anti-American, anti-Jew intolerance and hate.”
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CAIR Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said in 2018 that Iran and Israel were equitable and both a “cancerous tumor,” and declared that the Middle East would be better off “once both murder regimes are terminated,” according to an X post. Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against Israel, Ayloush seemed to celebrate and insisted that Israel “does not have the right to defend itself,” according to JNS.
CAIR’s national strategic communications director and Chicago chapter Director Ahmed Rehab declared that Israel is an apartheid state and said “f*** Zionism,” in a Facebook post from 2019. In the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, Rehan declared that he blamed “the murderer for the murder,” seeming to refer to Israel as the “murderer,” according to the Committee For Accuracy In Middle East Reporting And Analysis.
CAIR San Francisco Director Zahra Billoo, who has declared herself a “proud anti-Zionist,” said during a 2021 speech that Jewish people “are not your friends” and were instead “your enemies,” according to the Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel. Billo also previously claimed that blaming Hamas for attacking Israel “is liking blaming a woman for punching her rapist,” according to a 2014 X post.
Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of CAIR, said decades ago that he was “in support of the Hamas movement” and has sympathized with the terrorist group’s mission, according to The New York Times. Awad said in November that he was “happy to see” the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks against Israel that left over 1,200 civilians dead.
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“I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land,” Awad said in a speech on Nov. 24. “The people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense.”
The Biden administration only cut ties with CAIR after Awad’s most recent comments. The White House scrubbed CAIR from its antisemitism fact sheet and insisted the organization was not part of its strategy to combat discrimination against religious groups.
“We condemn these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said on Thursday. “Every leader has a responsibility to call out antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head.”
The White House and CAIR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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