World Courant
A number of Democrat members of Congress have a protracted historical past of public help for a company whose chief just lately ignited a firestorm over controversial feedback concerning Hamas’ lethal assaults on Israeli residents.
Nihad Awad, the manager director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), just lately stated that he was “glad to see” the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel and that the Jewish state didn’t have a proper to self-defense as a result of it’s an “occupying energy.”
“The folks of Gaza solely determined to interrupt the siege — the partitions of the focus camp — on Oct. 7,” Awad stated on the sixteenth Annual Conference for Palestine within the U.S. on Nov. 24. “And sure, I used to be glad to see folks breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their very own land and stroll free into their land that they weren’t free to stroll in.”
He continued, “And sure, the folks of Gaza have the best to self-defense — have the best to defend themselves. And sure, Israel as an occupying energy doesn’t have that proper to self-defense.”
WHITE HOUSE SCRAMBLES TO DISTANCE ITSELF FROM ISLAMIC GROUP AFTER LEADER’S PRAISE FOR HAMAS’ OCT 7TH SLAUGHTER
President of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Nihad Awad speaks at an occasion in entrance of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. (Elif Ozturk)
Awad’s feedback compelled the White Home to scramble and scrub CAIR as a dedicated accomplice to battle antisemitism on its web site. A White Home spokesperson additionally strongly reprimanded his feedback in an announcement to Fox Information Digital.
“We condemn these surprising, Antisemitic statements within the strongest phrases,” the White Home spokesperson instructed Fox Information Digital. “The horrific, brutal terrorist assaults dedicated by Hamas on October seventh had been, as President Biden stated, ‘abhorrent’ and characterize ‘unadulterated evil.'”
In the meantime, dozens of federal lawmakers throughout the U.S. have beforehand expressed help for CAIR, as featured on the group’s web site, and a few remained silent when requested by Fox Information Digital concerning the co-founder’s stance on the horrific assaults that left 1,200 useless and others captured.
Sen. Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz., who’s going through re-election within the 2024 cycle, beforehand applauded CAIR’s work as “advocating for a extra simply society” and in addition accepted hundreds of {dollars} in marketing campaign donations from former administrators and chairs of the group’s Arizona chapter.
“I applaud the council’s devotion to our nation’s democratic values and your work advocating for a extra simply society,” Sinema stated in November 2019, earlier than she modified her occasion affiliation from Democrat to unbiased.
Federal Election Fee filings present the unbiased senator accepted $2,500 in contributions from the previous director of CAIR’s Arizona chapter, Deedra Abboud, $250 from the chapter’s former vice-chair, Mannan Abdul Mohammed, and $100 from the chapter’s former chair over time.
Sinema didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark concerning Awad’s assertion on Israel and whether or not she stands by her feedback praising the group.
CAIR DIRECTOR SAYS HE WAS ‘HAPPY’ TO WITNESS OCT. 7 ATTACKS, ISRAEL ‘DOES NOT HAVE RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE’
Sen. Kir Sinema is up for re-election in 2024. (Anna Moneymaker)
“This group’s inspiring service is an affidavit to your success in making a nurturing and supportive, responsive group,” stated Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who’s at the moment going through prison bribery costs.
Menendez additionally didn’t reply when requested about CAIR’s stance on the Israel-Hamas struggle.
In 2019, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, praised the group “for empowering American Muslims nationwide in political and social activism by our nation,” as written on CAIR’s web site.
Brown, who’s defending one of many Democrats’ most susceptible Senate seats in 2024, condemned CAIR’s most up-to-date remark concerning the battle within the Center East.
“I condemn within the strongest attainable phrases these antisemitic statements — and anybody who tries to make excuses for Hamas’s homicide of harmless civilians,” Brown instructed Fox Information Digital. “I strongly help Israel’s proper to defend itself and can proceed to face with the Israeli folks as they battle again towards Hamas’s terrorism.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin stated she condemns “these blatantly antisemitic feedback in no unsure phrases, and these remarks have led to me utterly shedding religion within the group and its work.” (Drew Angerer)
Over 100 members of Congress, together with then-Senator Vice President Kamala Harris, wrote personalised thank-you notes to CAIR in 2018 to congratulate them on over twenty years of labor.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Mich., thanked CAIR in 2018 for “all that you simply do in protection of justice and civil liberties all through our state and nation..Now greater than ever, it’s important that you simply proceed the battle for civil discourse and civic engagement.”
Baldwin, nevertheless, additionally instructed Fox Information Digital that she condemns CAIR’s “blatantly antisemitic feedback.”
“There aren’t any two methods about this: Hamas’s October seventh terrorist assaults on Israel had been utterly horrific – harmless Israelis had been slaughtered, a whole bunch of civilians had been kidnapped, and now, numerous households are grieving and afraid. I condemn these blatantly antisemitic feedback in no unsure phrases, and these remarks have led to me utterly shedding religion within the group and its work.”
Far-left members of “the Squad” have expressed help for the group over time.
Whereas operating for Congress, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrote in a letter that CAIR has “performed an instrumental position in serving to America transfer ahead.”
Rockets are fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (Ariel Schalit)
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., beforehand delivered a controversial speech at a fundraiser for the group in 2019 earlier than being named CAIR’s “American Muslim Public Servant of 2021.”
Whereas CAIR was based in 1994, Omar claimed in her speech that the group was “based after 9/11 as a result of they acknowledged that some folks did one thing and that every one of us had been beginning to lose entry to our civil liberties.”
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The Democrat acquired speedy backlash for the “some folks did one thing” remark, with RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel calling the assertion a “brazen show of disrespect.”
Fox Information’ Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.
Joe Schoffstall is a politics producer/reporter for Fox Information Digital. Story suggestions may be despatched to [email protected] and on Twitter: @joeschoffstall
A number of Dem members of congress have historical past of reward for group ‘glad’ to see Hamas assaults on Israel
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