Who is funding the Council on American-Islamic Relations? It’s a question that has loomed large over CAIR since its scandal-shaded founding in 1994 by leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine, an organization convicted of providing material support in the United States for Hamas terrorists abroad.
CAIR has always kept its sources of financial support close to its chest. Last month, we were provided with the latest example when the country’s largest Muslim advocacy group decided it was preferable to settle a defamation lawsuit rather than open the books on its backers.
In 2021, former CAIR staffer Lori Saroya was slapped with a lawsuit by her former employer for accusing the organization of “discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment, and creating a hostile work environment.” An NPR story released that same year seemed to corroborate the toxic culture at CAIR and revealed ample instances of workplace intimidation, religious bigotry, and misogyny that permeated its chapters across the country and extended to its national headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Faced with the prospect of discovery motions that would compel the organization to hand over internal documents, CAIR pulled back and dropped its lawsuit with prejudice in January 2022. The move was announced in a press release in which CAIR declared that even absent a judgment, the group proved in court that Saroya took actions to “cyberstalk, smear, and undermine” the organization.
Saroya responded with a defamation lawsuit of her own in January 2024 and asserted in court documents that CAIR issued an “outrageously false press statement” and “did so as part of a concerted effort to blacken her reputation, destroy her credibility, and silence her and others who have raised serious concerns about CAIR’s abuse of women, dishonest practices, and violations of civil rights, among others.”
Saroya’s suit said, “CAIR spends substantial amounts of donors’ money in order to threaten, intimidate, and sue those who have the courage to speak about CAIR’s culture of discrimination and misogyny” and that the U.S.-based nonprofit organization “had been receiving massive amounts of funding from international donors, information about which was kept a strict secret (even from CAIR’s Board).”
Defending these discrediting declarations would require donor disclosure.
“In short, CAIR’s press release has opened the door to litigating — and thus discovering — the merits of the 2021 litigation,” Magistrate Judge David Schultz said.
CAIR chose to settle on Feb. 27 for an undisclosed amount and closed the case and prospect of pulling back the curtain on its underwriters — for now.
This wasn’t the first time CAIR cowered when it had to be forthcoming about its funders. CAIR filed a suit in 2004 alleging “libelous defamation” by the Anti-CAIR website critical of its actions. The complaint was met with aggressive pushback by Anti-CAIR’s lawyers, who moved for discovery regarding CAIR’s “Saudi Arabian financial backers [and] its relationship with Hamas and other terror groups and individuals.” As soon as a judge demanded CAIR cough up a response, the group settled.
The pattern is clear: When accused of receiving funding from terrorist groups, CAIR responds with aggressive lawfare. When that aggression is countered with a demand to divulge its bankrollers, CAIR heads for the hills.
To be clear, CAIR is under no obligation to publish its donor lists absent the demand of law, a privilege it enjoys as a recognized 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization in the U.S. If CAIR is receiving money from recognized terrorist organizations, however, or providing terrorist organizations such as Hamas with support (material or otherwise), Americans deserves to know.
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“CAIR’s leadership has a long history of spewing vile antisemitism and anti-Zionist rhetoric, including openly praising the Hamas terrorists that brutally attacked Israel, murdering, raping, and kidnapping more than 1,200 people on October 7 [2023],” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said in response to the most recent court settlement. “The allegations that CAIR receives funding from Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, if true, are deeply concerning and require an immediate investigation.”
With CAIR reticent to reveal the sources of its funding, one can only guess where it’s coming from. At this point, it’s possible to make a pretty good guess.
Gregory T. Angelo is president of the New Tolerance Campaign.