A PROMOTER OF JIHADIST TERRORISM

CAIR: The wolf in sheep’s clothing threatening American values

The organization’s agenda, if unchecked, would leave the United States disarmed in the face of jihadist terrorism. 

 

By Stephen M. Flatow 

 

JNS

Nov 11, 2025 

 

 

 

Nihad Awad, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) co-founder and executive director, speaks at the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in the U.S. on November 24, 2023. Awad said he was "happy" on October 7 and that Israel had no right to defend itself from Hamas attacks because it is an "occupying power."

 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations presents itself as a benign civil-rights organization; however, behind this friendly facade lurks an extremist core.

From its inception, CAIR has harbored alarming ties to jihadist groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood—connections that reveal it as a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a threat to the American way of life. While CAIR denies supporting terrorism and touts its advocacy for Muslim Americans, evidence from courtrooms, investigations and even its own leaders’ words tells a darker story.

Its existence, under the guise of civil rights, serves to normalize and defend Islamist radicalism, undermining the very American values of tolerance and security it claims to uphold.

From its founding in 1994, CAIR’s roots have been entwined with Islamist extremism. Federal prosecutors revealed that it was established by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood’s U.S. network as part of a conspiracy to support the Hamas terror organization. The 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing trial exposed CAIR’s association with that network. A federal judge found ample evidence of CAIR’s links to Hamas. Internal documents and wiretaps showed that its founders were Hamas sympathizers working to mask their true agenda.

Those early ties were no accident. A 1993 meeting of Islamist activists, which was later obtained by the FBI, revealed plans to create a “neutral” organization to advance the Islamist cause without detection. Within a year, CAIR was born, founded by Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad, both senior officials of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by U.S. counterterrorism officials as a Hamas front.

In a 1994 public forum, Awad openly declared, “I am in support of the Hamas movement.” Another early CAIR official, Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of CAIR’s Texas chapter, was later convicted for funneling money to Hamas.

These associations were not historical anomalies but part of CAIR’s DNA. The U.S. Department of Justice identified CAIR as a component of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Palestine Committee,” which operated in the United States to support Hamas. The FBI was so concerned that in 2008, it formally cut off outreach ties with CAIR. Even America’s ally, the United Arab Emirates, was not deceived: In 2014, it officially designated CAIR as a terrorist organization for its Brotherhood links, placing it alongside Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

If CAIR’s leaders once tried to hide their sympathies, today the mask has slipped. Khalid Turaani, director of CAIR’s Ohio chapter, moderated an online event in October alongside known Hamas operatives and supporters. Speakers included a senior Hamas fundraiser sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury and a convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad financier. They praised the massacre of Israelis and foreigners in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as a “strategic shift.” That a CAIR official would lead such an event speaks volumes about the organization’s loyalties.

CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, has gone further. After Hamas’s Oct. 7 pogrom in southern Israel—the deadliest single day of anti-Jewish violence since the Holocaust—he publicly celebrated the attack as an act of “breaking the siege.”

“Yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege,” he said, while Hamas terrorists were murdering Israeli civilians and taking hostages. Awad claimed that Gaza’s people had “the right to self-defense” while denying that right to Israel. The White House later condemned those remarks as antisemitic and “unadulterated evil.”

Beyond its ties to foreign extremists, CAIR works to undermine American values and security from within—using the banner of “civil rights” as camouflage. It has launched “diversity” programs that urge educators to avoid terms like “Islamic terrorist” or “jihadist” when teaching about 9/11, as though naming ideology were bigotry. It promotes lectures portraying Jewish political influence as sinister and encourages student activism against Israel. This is not inclusion; it’s indoctrination.

CAIR also works to erode counterterrorism tools. It reflexively labels FBI stings and terror prosecutions as “Islamophobia,” even when they stop real threats. Its knee-jerk defense of any Muslim accused of extremism, combined with its own Hamas-linked past, undermines legitimate efforts to combat radicalization. The organization’s agenda, if unchecked, would leave America disarmed in the face of jihadist terrorism.

The American way of life is built on freedom, respect and rejection of violence—values CAIR’s ideological mentors oppose. By promoting Islamist narratives and shielding radical actors, CAIR stokes division and fuels antisemitism. Its rhetoric turns civil rights into a weapon, targeting the very pluralism it pretends to defend.

CAIR’s existence is a threat to American values precisely because it masquerades as their defender while subverting them. Its record—from secret Hamas sponsorship to open endorsement of terrorist violence—shows it stands opposed to liberty and peace. Americans of all backgrounds, including law-abiding Muslim Americans, have nothing to gain and much to lose from CAIR’s influence.

As evidence of its ties mounts, it is time to stop granting CAIR the legitimacy it craves. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. By unmasking CAIR’s true nature and holding it accountable, we defend not only our security but the integrity of our nation’s ideals. In a post-9/11 world, there can be no place for an organization that cheers on jihadists and cloaks it in the rhetoric of justice.