The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is an organization that is, to put it mildly, toxic. They are well-heeled, but being that they are a 501(c)3 group, they have not been required to disclose who is funding them. Their list of donors would be very, very interesting indeed, given CAIR’s antisemitism and tacit support for Islamic radicals.
That is, they have not been required to disclose their funding sources – until now. An editorial at the New York Post brings us the news:
Great news for America: Poisonous advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic Relations is going to have to come clean about its donors.
The good news comes thanks to a spectacularly failed move by CAIR to shut down Loria Saroya, a former employee who criticized the group for (among other things) lack of transparency around funding after she left it in 2018, via a defamation lawsuit.
A judge has ruled that the group must open its books for discovery efforts in Saroya’s own countersuit.
CAIR has long been suspected of entanglement with terror groups like Hamas.
Now we’ll know much more about this nefarious group – will it be enough to shut them down? Or at least revoke their tax-free status?
A 2008 federal case against terror front the Holy Land Foundation reportedly saw CAIR named as an unindicted co-conspirator and traced links between Hamas and CAIR leadership. (CAIR leaders have denied this.)
But because it’s a 501(c3) group, it ordinarily wouldn’t have to reveal who’s giving it the big bucks that keep it in business.
Now, thanks to Saroya’s persistence and the group’s own bungled legal ploy, America is going to find out just how deep those ties are and just who is signing the checks.
Whoops. I’m not a legal scholar, nor do I play one on television, but this would appear to be a legal misstep on a seismic level. Now all of CAIR’s donors will be revealed – and what an interesting list of generous folks that promises to be. And one wonders what other information may be contained in these records that, because of said legal screw-up, will now lay CAIR’s affairs open to the world – or, at least, to the court.
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The editorial concludes:
Co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad was caught celebrating the terrorist atrocities of Oct. 7 (which proved too much even for the Biden administration).
And the group has long expressed that same warped view of the world, reserving most of its energy for attacking Israel even though the real violators of Muslim human rights are found in Iran, Syria and elsewhere.
Plus, CAIR has been accused of fostering an abusive and misogynistic office culture — which Saroya reportedly fought back against before her exit from the group.
It’s time to open the books and let CAIR’s prominent allies and everyone else see the truth.
The schadenfreude, it is strong in this one.
Given that CAIR represents a culture known for being abusive and misogynistic, Saroya’s claims are hardly surprising. At this point, of course, no information has been released from this discovery process, and it will likely be some time before we see any of this information. But the list of donors to an organization like CAIR, a vile organization indeed, will prove to be revealing. Will it be enough to revoke CAIR’s 501(c)3 status? Will direct ties back to Hamas and Hezbollah be revealed? That remains to be seen – but we can hope.
We will continue to watch this case and bring you updates as it unfolds. Stay tuned!
