Opening CAIR’s Books

The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has long been suspected of receiving funding from terrorist groups and terror-supporting countries. Now, a federal magistrate has ruled that it must open its donor files and books on its assets as part of a discovery request in a lawsuit by a former employee.

CAIR is a litigious group that consistently denies it receives funding from terrorist groups or other illegal sources, and passes itself off as a Muslim civil rights group. In 2021, CAIR sued former employee Lori Saroya for defamation because she had said that CAIR received terrorist funding and had terror connections. (CAIR subsequently dropped the lawsuit). Saroya counter-sued also for defamation contending that what she had said about CAIR’s terrorist ties were true. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Biden Is Trump-Proofing the World)

The Book on CAIR

Saroya’s lawyers probably won’t find any smoking guns in the form of direct evidence of illegal donations to CAIR. That’s because, as the 2006 book Alms for Jihad explained, CAIR and groups like it are funded through a chain of companies and charities designed to hide the real sources of the money.

As Breitbart News has reported, “In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government ‘produced ample evidence to establish’ the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization.”

When Alms for Jihad was published in England in 2006, it was met with a massive libel suit aimed at suppressing it. A Saudi man named Khaled bin Mafouz, who the book accuses of helping fund terrorism through charities, filed a lawsuit in the UK (which was later settled) against publisher Cambridge University Press. Part of the settlement allegedly included that Cambridge University Press would help suppress its own publication. But the book caught on, nevertheless, in other countries.

What Alms for Jihad says about CAIR is quite revealing. It says, first of all, that CAIR is “beholden” to the Saudi embassy in the U.S. That implies both ideological and financial support by the Saudis.

Alms for Jihad says that the Holy Land Fund for Relief and Development (aka, Holy Land Foundation, referred to here as “HLF”) was perhaps the “most perfectly disguised Islamic charity.” Originally funded by a Gaza native named Marzouk, its funding quickly spread to Texas and HLF became a founding member of CAIR’s Texas chapter.

Again, according to Alms for Jihad, in 1998 HLF joined with CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America and the Islamic Circle of North America “to sponsor American Muslim speakers whose anti-Jewish rhetoric in Arabic was as intense as any found in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.”

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of such groups. They shuffle money among themselves, always trying to conceal where the funds came from originally. Remember, please, that Alms for Jihad was written 18 years ago. Then, its authors wrote, “During the past three decades the Saudis created numerous enterprises, institutions, and charities whose resources and members were the agents for the spread of Salafist, Islamist Wahhabism throughout the world.” (Salafism and Wahhabism both reject Western culture and values and insist on the most literal interpretations of the Koran.)

You can get an idea of how convoluted and complex — hence most difficult to prove — are the relationships between groups such as CAIR, HLF, and others are. It is entirely intentional, as Alms for Jihad says, to prevent the discovery of their connections to terrorist groups. It’s not only the Saudis that have done this. Other states, including Iran, have followed the Saudis’ example.

CAIR is very active in defense of terrorism. For example, its executive director and co-founder, Nihad Awad, said in November 2023, that he was “happy” to witness the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel and its civilians. Those attacks killed 1,200 Israeli civilians (including 32 Americans) and featured the burning of babies and entire families in their homes, as well as the mass rape of Israeli women. That is what Awad defends.

In that same statement Awad also said, “And yes, 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.”

That sounds like the Hamas-Iranian party line.

Awad also contends that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) controls the U.S. congress. He said, “And if someone says, ‘Oh, Nihad Awad said this about the Congress,’ I tell you, ‘Yes, I say it today, and I will say it tomorrow — unless we free Congress, we will not be able to free Palestine.’” Awad wants to replace our elected congress with his allies.

Several state governments, including Arizona (2017), South Carolina (2018), Mississippi (2018), Arkansas (2019) and Florida (2024) have suspended all connections with CAIR. So did the FBI in 2013.

In 2014 the United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR and the Muslim American Society terrorist organizations. So far, our State Department has declined to do so.

CAIR Is Wrong on Gaza

In March 2024, CAIR issued a statement endorsing a UN report alleging that Israel is conducting genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Its statement said, “The latest report by the UN’s Special Rapporteur validates what has been obvious to anyone who has witnessed what Israel has been doing in Gaza for the past five months: that the Israeli government is clearly committing a genocide against the Palestinian people.” (READ MORE: Hegseth and Ratcliffe Face Big Challenges)

Lt. Gen. David Deptula was the most senior U.S. officer to go to Gaza and see how the Israelis are conducting their war. In July, he wrote that:

Gaza presents an extraordinarily difficult adversary environment. Yet the Israel Defense Forces face the acute challenge of defending their nation while striving to protect Palestinian civilians. Unfortunately, negative perceptions on social media and elsewhere, based on a combination of disinformation, ignorance, and anti-Semitism, indicates there is a wide gap between the reality I witnessed and the perceptions abroad.

That says it all. CAIR, which may be an arm of Hamas or another terrorist network, is entirely wrong. There’s no genocide going on in Gaza despite what the UN, its International Criminal Court, and Hamas say.

So CAIR and its ilk will probably continue to be able to advocate for terrorists. Free speech is still free, even when it’s disinformation and propaganda.

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