Key Takeaways:
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CAIR was founded through U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas-affiliated networks, with multiple founders directly tied to terrorist financing and pro-Hamas operations.
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The organization continues to promote extremist ideology, including praising October 7 and funding or legally defending anti-Israel, antisemitic campus activism nationwide.
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Texas’ recent designation of CAIR as a terrorist and criminal organization highlights the growing recognition that CAIR drives radicalization and threatens Jewish students and American civil society.
Like most cultural or religious organizations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claims to advance the civil rights of American Muslims. But its ties to terrorist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as its involvement in fueling campus radicalism, suggest a darker mission.
Over the thirty years since its founding, CAIR has been at the center of controversy. This comes as no surprise, given that from the moment CAIR was founded, the organization was connected to terrorist organizations.
The Terrorist-Affiliated Origins of CAIR
In 1993, Hamas leaders and activists in the U.S. held what is now known as the “Philadelphia Conference” to discuss how they could more effectively disseminate Hamas’ mission and messaging throughout America following the signing of the Oslo Accords.
At the conference were representatives from the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the Occupied Land Fund (later renamed the Holy Land Foundation, HLF), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). The Palestine Committee, a subgroup of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States, created all three organizations. The Palestine Committee itself was created to help spread the ideology by increasing the “financial and moral support for Hamas,” and publicizing the “savagery of the Jews.”
The conference participants concluded that establishing a new, outwardly moderate organization would be successful in carrying out this mission. The result was the establishment of CAIR just a few months later in 1994.
CAIR quickly began receiving paychecks from the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), an organization created to raise funds for Hamas. The organization was eventually shut down in 2009 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which designated HLF as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) and as such, a Hamas front organization. During its years of activity, HLF managed to raise more than $12 million USD in support of Hamas under the guise of charity.
The Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) sought “to serve the cause of Palestine on the political and the media fronts,” and similarly transferred material aid to Hamas. It was subsequently shut down in 2004.
What is CAIR?
CAIR’s origins are not isolated. Beyond the Hamas connections among the various charity organizations tied to CAIR’s early network, many of CAIR’s founders and employees were directly connected to the Muslim Brotherhood – the organization that created Hamas. For instance, Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad were members of the Palestine Committee and present at the Philadelphia Conference in 1993. Both subsequently became co-founders of CAIR. Additionally, Rafiq Jaber, the president of IAP, who was also present at the Philadelphia Conference, became a founding director of CAIR.
Nihad Awad is CAIR’s executive director today. In the aftermath of October 7, he publicly praised the attacks, saying he was “happy to see people breaking the siege,” and the Palestinians who carried out the terrorist attacks that day became an “inspiration source” for people worldwide.
“I was happy to see the people of Gaza break the siege on October 7.”
This man heads CAIR, a partner in the @WhiteHouse National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.pic.twitter.com/HND4o7691z
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) December 7, 2023
Meanwhile, Ghassan Elashi, the treasurer of HLF, later became a founder of the Texas chapter of CAIR. Linda Sarsour, although not directly affiliated with CAIR, has been a consistent face at many of its conferences. She recently claimed that New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s largest institutional backing was from the Unity and Justice Fund, which she said is controlled by CAIR.
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Where is CAIR Today?
Today, CAIR once again finds itself under scrutiny. On November 18, the Governor of Texas designated CAIR alongside the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.
This is welcome news, not only considering the terrorist-affiliated background of CAIR, but also its consistent hostility towards the Jewish community in the U.S. Specifically, CAIR has aided in the extreme anti-Israel and antisemitic protests that spread across college campuses.
It was recently revealed that anti-Israel protesters who faced punishment from their respective universities for their actions both before and after the October 7 attacks were receiving a hefty payment of $1,000 provided by CAIR. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, more than $100,000 was raised in donations to support these campus protesters.
Students who lost “scholarships, housing or other support because of their advocacy,” were eligible for the grant. Let’s not forget that these so-called student “advocates” consistently physically and verbally harassed Jewish students and professors and have frequently chanted in support of terrorist organizations, including Hamas.
Many of these protesters were organizing themselves through seemingly grassroots organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Yet again, CAIR’s connection and protection of these students is abundantly clear.
In October 2024, the SJP chapter at the University of Maryland wanted to host a “vigil” on October 7 in recognition of the start of the war and, consequently, in support of Hamas. The university decided to cancel the event due to security concerns. CAIR and another organization, Palestine Legal, filed and eventually won a lawsuit against the university for its “unconstitutional ban” of the vigil.
One year later, in October 2025, CAIR was once again at the forefront of a lawsuit involving campus protesters when it sued Northwestern University on behalf of the school’s Graduate Workers for Palestine. CAIR and the pro-Palestinian group alleged that subjecting students to mandatory antisemitism training violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But arguing that students should be exempt from learning about antisemitism, especially amid rampant harassment, intimidation, and openly antisemitic rhetoric on campuses, lays bare the antisemitism at the heart of the objection itself.
The connection between CAIR and campus antisemitism is not new. In 2021, Zahra Billoo, the previous executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of CAIR, when speaking at an American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) convention, remarked that the audience needed to “pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses,” because they don’t “have your back when it comes to human rights.” She subsequently stepped aside from CAIR after her remarks, but AMP was and remains connected to SJP.
Anti-Israel campus protests are not only creating a hostile environment on campus for Jewish students, but they are also shaping the worldview of the next generation of American leaders. CAIR’s consistent role in defending, funding, and legally shielding these movements makes clear that it is not merely observing this shift, but it is actively driving it.
The Muslim Brotherhood identified that influence over the media is “stronger than politics,” and CAIR’s actions continue to reflect that strategy in real time. By embedding itself in campus activism, CAIR is cultivating the ideological environment it wants the next generation to inherit. What may appear to be spontaneous student activism is, in reality, deeply connected to a decades-long project rooted in Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas networks. This is a project that threatens not only Jewish students but the integrity of American civil society itself. The designation of CAIR as an FTO and TCO is just the first step in stopping this process.
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