In a letter to IRS Commissioner Billy Long, Sen. Tom Cotton says the Council of American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, does not deserve its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because of what he called “longstanding evidence” connecting it to terrorism.
One of CAIR’s biggest critics, Muslim terrorism expert Robert Spencer, said, “Finally. This is something that should have been done many years ago. This is an organization that very much needs to be exposed, investigated, and shut down.”
Founded in 1994 as a Muslim advocacy firm, CAIR’s ties to terrorism have been investigated for decades.
The U.S. Government listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 conviction of the Holy Land Foundation for providing Hamas with millions of dollars.
In 2004, when CAIR filed a defamation suit against Navy veteran Andrew Whitehead for posting on his website that “CAIR is a terrorist supporting front organization,” “CAIR is an organization founded by Hamas supporters which seeks to overthrow the constitutional government in the United States and replace it with an Islamist theocracy,” and “CAIR has proven links to, and was founded by, Islamic terrorists,” CAIR settled out of court and the statements remained online.
Whitehead’s attorney, Reed Rubenstein, told us in 2006, “They decided these statements were no longer either false or defamatory. In other words, the first conclusion you would draw is that the statements are in fact true.”
Spencer, who runs the website Jihadwatch.org, says, “CAIR was founded by Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmed out of the Islamic Association for Palestine, which ultimately was shut down for being a Hamas front. There is surveillance audio from 1994, when CAIR was founded, that make it very clear that CAIR was founded in order to advance Hamas’s agenda in the United States.”
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CAIR Founder Ahmad was quoted in a 1998 San Ramon Valley Herald news article as saying, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran…should be the highest authority in America…”
After the October 7th Hamas massacre, video recorded by the Middle East Media Research Institute or MEMRI showed CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad saying he was “…happy to see (Palestinians) breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land…”
Awad’s comments caused the Biden White House to cut ties with the group.
Spencer said, “They have gained so much influence, power, and access in the American government that I think Nihad Awad figured he was untouchable. He could say whatever he wanted. What he said turned out to be too much, even for the Biden administration.”
We asked CAIR about Awad’s October 7th statement and they replied, “We specifically condemned attacks on civilians on October 7th, just as we condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
As for Cotton’s letter to the IRS, CAIR told us, “Tom Cotton’s demand that the IRS baselessly target one of America’s largest Muslim nonprofit organizations for the benefit of the Israeli government is an un-American political stunt that sets a dangerous precedent for nonprofits of all faiths.”
It added, “Unlike Tom Cotton, CAIR has opposed injustice both here and abroad, including discrimination, hate crimes, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.”
Spencer believes that the last thing CAIR wants is for the IRS to look into its funding, telling us, “If, I think, the full story of CAIR’s funding were told, we would see some surprises in terms of, perhaps funding from foreign governments, any number of things that, they very carefully conceal with help from officials who are sympathetic.”
CAIR says only “a small and negligible percentage of donations” come from foreign sources.
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