As part of our founding values, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has always condemned hate.
Because of our values, we have specifically and repeatedly condemned antisemitism throughout our 30 years of existence. We also regularly work with Jewish civil and human rights organizations, and benefit from numerous Jewish team members at the local and national level.
Like other civil and human rights groups, we reject the false notion that advocating for Palestinian human rights is an act of bigotry. It is crucial to differentiate between unacceptable antisemitic hate and legitimate opposition to what even Israeli human rights organizations have described as the Israeli government’s apartheid policies and human rights abuses against the Palestinian people.
This brief document, citing examples from 1999-2023, offers only a snapshot of CAIR’s long record of rejecting antisemitism. This document is not comprehensive.
The past: CAIR takes a principled stand against antisemitism.
CAIR has condemned attacks on a California Jewish Center (8/10/1999), terror attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa (12/2/2001) and terror attacks on Jewish Passover celebrations (3/28/2002). The organization also condemned an Iranian cartoon contest mocking the Holocaust (2/08/2006), an antisemitic article published in a British Columbia Muslim newsletter (1/12/2004) and called on an Arab publication that printed excerpts of the protocols of the Elders of Zion to apologize (11/08/2002). CAIR has condemned anti- Semitic incidents in Chicago (2/17/2006), Houston (2/24/2005) and Calgary, Canada (8/25/2004). The organization has also condemned an apparent bias attack on a rabbinical assistant in Brooklyn (3/20/2008), racist and anti-Semitic comments made by Columbus, Ohio Police Officer (8/28/2007), an antisemitic attack on a Penn State Jewish student (2/29/2008) and the vandalism of a Chicago synagogue (4/02/2007).
CAIR condemned a shooting incident at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (06/10/2009). After CAIR pointed it out, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles recalled a “Heil Hitler” license plate (04/22/2010). CAIR denounced vandalism perpetrated against a Chicago synagogue (09/22/2010), antisemitic attacks on Anaheim councilman (10/03/2013), an attack on a Kansas Jewish community center (04/12/2014), and stood with Maryland’s Jewish community after the hate vandalism of a synagogue (04/08/2015). CAIR expressed solidarity with the Jewish community after an Iowa synagogue was vandalized (05/12/2016). CAIR condemned anti-black, anti-gay, and anti-Semitic letters sent to seven businesses and the Israeli consulate in New York City (10/6/17). CAIR denounced the shootings at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue (10/27/2018), anti-Semitic vandalism targeting a Brooklyn synagogue (11/02/18), and vandalism of a Holocaust memorial (10/9/19). CAIR strongly condemned anti-Black, antisemitic and Islamophobic remarks by then GOP Candidate Marjorie Greene (06/19/2020). CAIR condemned antisemitic material distributed to Idaho and Maryland homes and expressed support for the Jewish Community (12/21/2021). We also condemned a neo-Nazi group’s attempt to promote antisemitic hate in Iowa (12/30/2022).
The present: CAIR continues taking a principled stand against antisemitism
CAIR condemned the distribution of antisemitic flyers in Missouri’s St. Louis County (5/10/2023), Louisiana (5/02/2023), Wisconsin (3/09/2023) and Kentucky (4/12/2023). The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned antisemitic neo-Nazi vandalism targeting Michigan’s Jewish community in Oakland County (5/01/2023), multiple incidents of antisemitic vandalism in Queens, New York (3/24/2023). The organization further condemned antisemitic vandalism on the Stanford University campus (3/14/2023), the distribution of antisemitic flyers in two neighborhoods in Kent County, Mich (3/08/2023), antisemitic materials to businesses in Cincinnati (3/06/2023), distribution of antisemitic flyers to homes in West Virginia’s Kanawha County (3/02/2023). CAIR welcomed a hate crime charge brought against a suspect in an allegedly antisemitic incident in Maryland (2/27/2023) and several alleged antisemitic incidents that took place on the campus of the University of Denver. (2/15/2023)
CAIR is among a broad spectrum of international and Israeli observers criticizing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Presbyterian Church USA have labeled Israel an apartheid state. TheUN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing also recognized that Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians. Internationally recognized Israeli Human Rights group B’tselem produced a reported subtitled “This is Apartheid” in 2021. In 2022, former Israeli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair said, “It is with great sadness that I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime.” On March 30, 2023, Middle East Eye reported, “The Israeli Law Professors’ Forum for Democracy has found that changes introduced by the current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘validate the claim that Israel practices apartheid.’ The group represents 120 of Israel’s most prominent law professors.”
Balanced? Journalists covering CAIR sometimes cite the Anti-Defamation League’s criticism of CAIR without providing critical context about that organization’s bias and its involvement in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic advocacy
In August 2020, CAIR joined a broad coalition of more than 100 civil rights and human rights advocacy organizations in denouncing the Anti-Defamation League’s “history and ongoing pattern of attacking social justice movements,” particularly those led by “immigrants, Muslims, Arabs, and other marginalized groups, while aligning itself with police, right-wing leaders, and perpetrators of state violence.” The coalition released an extensive report documenting the ADL’s troubling history of 1) surveillance of progressive organizations and movements, 2) support of militarized police training exchange programs, 3) suppression of human rights and Palestinian voices, 4) support of racist and white supremacist influencers, 5) promotion of Islamophobia, 6) suppression of campus activism, 7) trampling on progressive social justice movements. The report can be read here.
The ADL has supported unconstitutional laws punishing political boycotts of Israel, criticized an ice cream company for ending product sales in only the occupied West Bank, and remained on the board of a coalition that includes a bigot who used the phrase “filthy Arab.” Interviews with eight former ADL employees found that CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has repeatedly chosen to support crackdowns on criticism of Israel over protecting civil liberties, putting him in conflict with his own civil rights office.
Greenblatt has also been widely condemned for remarks analogizing the Palestinian keffiyeh with a swastika, accusing Jewish and Palestinian students of being proxies of the Iranian government equivalent to Hezbollah, allegedly walking away from a Palestinian woman upon learning that she was Palestinian, smearing Jewish activists who do not support Zionism as antisemitic, and downplaying or ignoring antisemitism in the Trump administration, including Elon Musk’s Nazi-like salute.