The Council on American-Islamic Relations may be too extreme now, even for the Biden White House, but apparently not for Chicago Public Schools. The Center Square recently highlighted that the Chicago chapter of CAIR is working with the CPS on countering so-called Islamophobia as well as on other student-focused initiatives.
According to the CAIR-Chicago website, the extremist group "has been working with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) as well as numerous private and suburban public school districts on numerous projects to promote inclusion and understanding about Islam and the Muslim community."
This partnership affords schools the ability to subject parents, children, and faculty to CAIR training on matters of rights, cultural sensitivity, and Islam. Extra to propagating its preferred narratives, CAIR-Chicago purportedly "meets and advocates to schools and districts to ensure that students' rights are protected."
Despite masquerading as experts on sensitivity and combating bullying in the classroom, CAIR has a well-earned reputation for hatred and anti-Semitism — and not just because the Obama Justice Department noted that "evidence at trial linked CAIR leaders to Hamas, a specially designated terrorist organization, and CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case."
Blaze News previously reported that Nihad Awad, the executive director and co-founder of CAIR, said during his Nov. 24 speech at the American Muslims for Palestine conference that the Hamas terror attacks on unarmed women and children made him "happy."
"The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on Oct. 7," said Awad, who previously spoke explicitly in support of Hamas. "And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their lands that they were not allowed to walk in."
"And yes," continued Awad, "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."
Awad's extremist rhetoric was hardly exceptional where CAIR was concerned.
Zainab Chaudry, the director of the CAIR chapter in Maryland, was temporarily suspended from her position on the state's new hate crime task force in late November after referring to the Hamas terror attacks, which left thousands dead, as the "uprising in Palestine."
Chaudry, who was ultimately reinstated, also claimed that the Hamas terrorists were akin to "Ukrainian freedom fighters," Israel was a Nazi state, and the Israeli babies butchered by Hamas were "fake."
The head of CAIR in Los Angeles, Hussam Ayloush, said in a Dec. 1 address to the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, "Israel does not have the right to defend itself as an occupier. ... This is not a rhetorical thing. It doesn't, legally, under international law."
When pressed about the CAIR-CPS partnership, Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, told the Center Square, "While we can't comment on this specific program without seeing its content, we urge institutions that work with CAIR to seek alternative partners that genuinely support mutual respect and understanding between all communities."
Blaze News reached out to CPS to determine whether this partnership was still active despite the terror apologetics and hateful remarks issued by elements of the Islamic activist group's leadership but did not receive a response by deadline.
Regardless of whether this formal partnership persists, CAIR-Chicago continues to exert pressure on CPS.
CAIR-Chicago recently leaned on CPS last month to take action against a Chicago Academy Elementary School substitute teacher who dared to call Hamas terrorists "terrorists" on Dec. 15.
Mahmoud Ihmud, an 8-year-old student at the school, told WBBM-TV that his substitute art teacher "said that Hamas are terrorists."
"I said I was from Palestine. She said, 'Hamas are terrorists.' I was like, 'That's not true.' She was like, 'Yes it is.' I was like, 'That's not true.' She goes, 'No, it's true - and it's true, I'm going to hit you,'" recalled Ihmud. "And then I pushed her away, and then I ran back to my desk."
CAIR-Chicago joined the boy's father in seeking the departure of the Hamas critic.
"We call on CPS to intensify its investigative efforts, engaging additional witnesses to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the events that transpired," said Phil Robertson, litigation director of CAIR-Chicago. "This is fundamental in taking appropriate actions to address any misconduct and restore a sense of security for the affected student."
The teacher was placed under investigation and removed from the school.
Chicago Academy Principal Joyce Pae notified parents and staff, "We received a report that a substitute teacher used Islamophobic language in one of our classrooms on Friday. Upon receiving this report, we immediately launched an investigation, and have notified the CPS Office of Student Protections and Title IX to support our school as needed. This substitute teacher has been blocked from working in our school."
"I want to make it extremely clear that we are taking this incident very seriously, and that Islamophobia and bias-based language has no place at our school and will not be tolerated," added Pae.
According to CAIR, "Islamophobia" includes any allegation that Islam is "inherently or uniquely violent, misogynistic, inferior, intolerant, primitive, devious, or that Islam is the antithesis of civilization."
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The Biden White House is scrambling to distance itself from the Council on American-Islamic Relations after footage went viral of its executive director expressing glee over the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
Extra to condemning the views expressed last month by CAIR's Palestinian executive director Nihad Awad, the White House has attempted to scrub its past ties with the Muslim advocacy group.
Blaze News previously reported that Awad said in his Nov. 24 speech at the American Muslims for Palestine conference that the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel made him "happy."
"The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on Oct. 7," said Awad. "And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their lands that they were not allowed to walk in."
Those terrorists to whom Awad appeared to be referring to did not simply "walk free into" the Jewish state, but invaded, armed for war, and massacred thousands of unarmed civilians and dozens of Americans.
"And yes," continued Awad, "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."
Awad went on to criticize the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, suggesting that "unless we free Congress [from AIPAC], we will not be able to free Palestine."
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Awad's hateful rhetoric painting terrorism in a positive light does not appear to be exceptional among the group's leadership.
Zainab Chaudry, the director of CAIR in Maryland, was temporarily suspended last month from her position on the state's new hate crime task force after referring to the Oct. 7 terror attacks as "the uprising in Palestine"; suggesting Hamas terrorists were akin to "Ukrainian freedom fighters"; claiming Israel is a Nazi state; and calling the Israeli babies murdered by Hamas "fake."
Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of CAIR in Los Angeles, said in a Dec. 1 address to the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, "Israel does not have the right to defend itself as an occupier. ... Not, it doesn't. This is not a rhetorical thing. It doesn't, legally, under international law."
"Imagine we tell Nazi Germany: 'You have the right to defend yourself against French resistance, or Polish resistance, or Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto,'" continued Ayloush. "People would laugh at you if you said that."
After the video of Awad's remarks went viral online this week, CAIR went into damage control.
Awad claimed in a statement that his admission of happiness concerning Hamas' incursions into Israel had been taken out of context.
"During my remarks at a conference two weeks ago in support of Palestinian human rights, I condemned violence against all civilians and all forms of bigotry, specifically including Islamophobia and antisemitism," said Awad. "Despite my clear remarks, an anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian hate website selected remarks from my speech out of context and spliced them together to create a completely false meaning."
Awad stressed that he condemns and has long condemned violence against Israelis but repeatedly qualified his condemnation, specifying that violence against Israeli civilians is wrong.
CAIR's backpedaling appears to have been in vain.
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates told Jewish Insider, "We condemn these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms."
Bates underscored that the Hamas terror attacks resulted in "the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust" and that the "atrocities of that day shock the conscience, which is why we can never forget the pain Hamas has caused for so many innocent people."
"The horrific, brutal terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 were, as President Biden said, 'abhorrent' and represent 'unadulterated evil,'" said Bates, reported the New York Times.
The spokesman added that "every leader has a responsibility to call out antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head."
The White House stealthily edited CAIR's name off a May 25 document acknowledging the Muslim advocacy group as one of several groups "commit[ted] to counter antisemitism and build cross-community solidarity by organizations across the private sector, civil society, religious and multi-faith communities, and higher education."
A White House official told Jewish Insider that "CAIR was not listed in the strategy. They were one of several independent organizations listed in a supplemental document. The White House removed their commitment from the supplemental document today."
Bates' statement was cited as the reason for the removal.
The Biden White House has not yet attempted to hide that a CAIR director was among its guests for a May 3 "listening session with Muslim community leaders to discuss efforts to counter Islamophobia."
However, the White House has stressed that "CAIR is not consulting on the development of the Islamophobia strategy, period."
It appears President Joe Biden has little to lose politically in kicking CAIR to the curb given that Muslim American leaders have already begun to rally their communities against him.
Jaylani Hussein, director of CAIR in Minneapolis, suggested that those upset over Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war are willing to risk former President Donald Trump possibly winning in the 2024 election, even though they similarly find him loathsome, reported Axios.
"We recognize that, in the next four years, our decision may cause us to have an even more difficult time," said Hussein. "But we believe that this will give us a chance to recalibrate, and the Democrats will have to consider whether they want our votes or not."
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The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is attempting to clarify controversial remarks about Hamas' barbaric attack on Israel.
Speaking at the annual Convention for Palestine in the U.S. in Chicago last month, Nihad Awad admitted the Oct. 7 attack — which included Hamas murdering more than 1,200 innocent people, takings hundreds of hostages, and using rape as a weapon of war — made him "happy" because Palestinians were able to break through the "walls of the concentration camp."
Awad, who is Palestinian, said:
The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp on Oct. 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their lands that they were not allowed to walk in. 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.
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Later in the speech, Awad claimed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is controlling the U.S. government.
"AIPAC and its affiliates have been controlling the United States government and the United States 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."
The remarks are jarring, not only because of their contents but because Awad leads the most prominent and influential Muslim advocacy group in the U.S.
Awad responded to concern about his remarks by claiming they were taken out of context in order to "create a completely false meaning." Instead of being happy because of the terrorist attack, Awad alleged his "happy" reference was about the "average Palestinians who briefly" entered Israel on Oct. 7.
"The average Palestinians who briefly walked out of Gaza and set foot on their ethnically cleansed land in a symbolic act of defiance against the blockade and stopped there without engaging in violence were within their rights under international law; the extremists who went on to attack civilians in southern Israel were not," Awad said. "Targeting civilians is unacceptable, no matter whether they are Israeli or Palestinian or any other nationality."
American Muslims for Palestine, the group that hosted the conference, has since removed the video of Awad's remarks.
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An anti-Israeli activist was suspended from Maryland's new hate crime task force late last month for spewing anti-Semitic vitriol and Hamas propaganda online. The suspension apparently didn't take.
Maryland Democratic Attorney General Anthony Brown reinstated Zainab Chaudry to the Maryland Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention Wednesday, noting it had not been within his power to remove her in the first place.
Within hours of Hamas terrorists slaughtering thousands of Israeli civilians and dozens of Americans on Oct. 7, Chaudry attempted to justify the attacks on Facebook, referring to the terror attacks as "the uprising in Palestine." She also stressed to her followers that "when you wake up to read media coverage [of the attacks], keep in mind that they are a people who are illegally occupied."
The hate crime commissioner compared Hamas terrorists to "Ukrainian freedom fighters" in an Oct. 9 post.
In an Oct. 17 post, she juxtaposed a recent photo of the Israeli flag projected onto the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, with a 1936 image of the gate adorned with the Nazi swastika, writing, "That moment when you become what you hated most."
On Oct. 31, she wrote, "no halloween this year, the horror ISREAL."
"I will never be able to understand how the world summoned up rage for 40 fake Israeli babies while completely turning a blind eye to 3,000 real Palestinian babies," Chaudry wrote in an Oct. 26 Facebook post, drawing on disputed figures provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
On Nov. 5, Chaudry posted a meme stating, "The term 'Israel' is now defined in the Urban Dictionary as the act of claiming something that belongs to someone else as if it were your own, akin to theft."
In a Nov. 7 post, she insinuated that Israel provoked the Oct. 7 terror attacks, stating, "inconvenient facts."
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced on Nov. 21 that he had suspended Chaudry from the brand-new commission, which has had only one meeting since its formation.
Chaudry was put on the commission to represent the views of CAIR, a radical organization required by Maryland law to have a presence on the commission.
A statement from Brown's office noted that "Ms. Chaudry's posts on her personal social media since October 7, in these very early days, have challenged the Commission's ability to do its work."
The attorney general further called on all members of the commission to "exercise great care in their communications and conduct, considering the duties and responsibilities they assumed when joining the Commission."
Jennifer Donelan, a spokeswoman for Brown's office, indicated "the views and opinions of any individual commission member do not reflect those of either the Maryland Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention or the Attorney General," reported WMAR-TV.
Donelan noted that the commission still needs to "develop policies and protocols governing ... the way in which its members engage on the issues that define its mission."
Following her alleged suspension, Chaudry stated on X, "I expect the gaslighting attacks - Zionist hate will never stop my activism. Stay loud, stay strong, fight harder for a FREE PALESTINE."
The Maryland House of Delegates wrote to Brown on Nov. 22 asking that Chaudry not be reinstated, reported WBOC-TV.
"The aggressive antisemitism of this post is unseemly from any decent person but is especially objectionable from someone serving on a commission whose sole purpose is to prevent hate crimes," said the letter.
CAIR, meanwhile, pushed a petition that claimed, "Chaudry's suspension is a blatant act of censorship and a betrayal of the very values that the Hate Crimes Commission is supposed to uphold. Her outspoken criticism of the Israeli government's human rights abuses and her unwavering support for Palestinian rights have made her a target for anti-Muslim extremists, but they should not be allowed to silence her."
Brown announced Wednesday that Chaudry had been reinstated. In his statement, the Democratic attorney general noted that while chair of the commission, he was not legally able to remove a commissioner before the end of their four-year term.
Chaudry's removal allegedly "can only be granted by statute, enacted by the General Assembly and Governor."
Barring such a statute, the Hamas apologist will be permitted to join the commission's other 21 members when it convenes on Dec. 13.
Brown indicated he will, however, distribute draft operating guidelines to members "which include personal communications and how to balance the members' right to freedom of speech and their roles as Commissioners for their review and feedback."
"Once the guidelines are finalized, all Commission members will be expected to comply with them and I fully anticipate they will," said Brown. "We must all put aside our differences, no matter how stark they may seem, and find common ground on ways to respond to and prevent hate crimes in our state."
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Muslim radicals wage a war to discredit Muslim reformers and the right as ‘Islamophobes,’ using Section 230 as a shield for their propaganda.
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Here's how Hamas' influence has infiltrated schools and the media
The Hamas network has infiltrated America, and the media is ignoring it — even though it’s all nicely wrapped up in a report from George Washington University.
The report details the 1987 formation of Hamas. Immediately following this formation, Muslim Brotherhood branches and offshoots throughout the world activated to assist them.
In 1988, the head of the Palestine section of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East traveled to the United States, which resulted in the formation of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s vision for the Israel-Palestine conflict was laid out in a 1992 memorandum, which said a goal of the Brotherhood was to “liberate its land from the abomination and the defilement of the children of the Jews.”
The document also called on the committee to work to “increase the financial and moral support for Hamas to fight surrendering solutions.”
This committee responsible for the document was composed of the heads of three U.S.-based organizations that had been set up to aid Hamas in Palestine.
“They’ve infiltrated our country, and this is not being discussed in the media at all,” Mark Levin comments, disturbed.
Members of the committee even held a three-day meeting at a Marriott hotel in Philadelphia, which was attended by over 20 top leaders of the Hamas support network in the United States.
At the meeting, the need to get pro-Hamas material into Islamic schools as well as influencing American public opinion, policy makers, and infiltrating American media outlets and university research centers were discussed.
“They’ve infiltrated our country. They’ve infiltrated our schools. They’ve infiltrated our media, and they still are,” Levin says. “They’ve infiltrated the Democrat Party with Tlaib and others like her.”
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