Despite the determination by the FBI and federal prosecutors that the Council on American-Islamic Relations is a Hamas front, the Washington, D.C.-based group received just under $3 million in 2017 from non-Muslim foundations in the wake of President Trump’s travel ban.
CAIR collected more from non-Muslim foundations in 2017 than in any other year, reported the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
IPT pointed out that the FBI, Justice Department prosecutors and at least one federal judge determined CAIR is led by executives tied to a U.S.-based Hamas support network.
The U.S. government has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.
On social media, CAIR officials have compared Israeli soldiers to ISIS and endorsed slogans calling for Israel’s annihilation.
Nevertheless, dozens of liberal foundations continue to donate to CAIR, IPT found in an analysis.
Since 2010, 16 CAIR chapters and its national office have received at least 265 grants of more than $1,000 from non-Muslim foundations, totaling more than $5.47 million.
Some donors paid for a study that tried to recast the negative press that CAIR and other Muslim groups received due to the 2008 Hamas terror financing trial as “Islamophobic.”
‘Excused behavior’
Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, explained the left “sees Muslims as victims of Western racism, imperialism, and fascism, so it excuses their misbehavior, from hateful comments to genocide.”
“The only exception is if Muslims are seen as Western lackeys, in which case the indulgence is righteously suspended,” he said.
IPT noted the windfall CAIR received stemming from opposition to President Trump’s travel ban.
The policy affected only about 10 percent of the world’s Muslim population, but that didn’t stop funders such as the Proteus Fund from calling it a “Muslim ban.”
Proteus coordinated the #NoMuslimBanEver campaign in conjunction with CAIR’s San Francisco chapter. It also gave CAIR four grants in 2017 totaling $27,000 to counter the ban and its impact on travelers.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided in June that CAIR’s argument that the ban was based on anti-Muslim animus was unconvincing.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that “because there is persuasive evidence that the entry suspension has a legitimate grounding in national security concerns, quite apart from any religious hostility, we must accept that independent justification.”
Among the non-Muslim donors to CAIR are the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation, the Bush Foundation, Levi Strauss Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
Ignored history
IPT noted that FBI formal policy since 2008 prohibits outreach communication with CAIR, due to evidence linking the group’s leaders to Hamas.
CAIR co-founder and Executive Director Nihad Awad said in 1994 that he formerly supported Yasser Arafat’s PLO, “but after I researched the situation inside Palestine and outside, I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO.”
Just after its creation that year, IPT noted, CAIR was included in an internal list of groups self-identified as the “Palestine Committee.” The committee, created by the Muslim Brotherhood, was charged with supporting Hamas politically and financially in the United States.
Exhibits admitted into evidence during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial directly linked CAIR and its founders to the Palestine Committee.
“It is unlikely the foundations giving CAIR money consider this history,” IPT said.
