Anti-Semitism

How can any school partner with the CAIR — an organization that was “happy to see” the brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians on October 7? Sadly, it’s happening. Recent news shined a spotlight on formal relationships between the Chicago and Teaneck, New Jersey school systems and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The collaborations are ostensibly done to “promote inclusion,” but CAIR’s track record shows it to be an organization that does anything but. The last organization that should be instructing any student about “inclusion” is CAIR. In addition to the “blatant and classic antisemitism” spouted by the group’s leaders for years, CAIR has become notorious as an organization that promotes a culture of sexual harassment, misogyny, and even discrimination against fellow Muslims that stretches from its state-based chapters to its national headquarters in Washington, DC. The White House severed ties with CAIR; shouldn’t Chicago and New Jersey public schools do the same? Send a message to Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and Teaneck Superintendent Andre Spencer demanding they cut ties with CAIR and put students first!

Warning: CAIR is trying to position itself as the authoritative voice Congress should look to during the Israel-Hamas conflict! But CAIR is the last organization Congress should be looking to for advice. The ADL has chronicled CAIR’s long history of promoting antisemitism — which is now out in the open after Hamas killed more than 1,000 civilians. CAIR’s Executive Director Nihad Awad (pictured) outrageously claimed “there is no difference between Ukraine and Palestine” while likening Hamas gunmen to Martin Luther King, Jr. CAIR’s New Jersey chapter condemned all elected officials in the state who issued statements of support for Israel. A 2021 NPR report recounted a decades-long history of sexual harassment against female employees at CAIR, alongside other reports of discrimination — even against fellow Muslims! Peace in the Middle East will never be achieved with CAIR’s corrupt and radical guidance. Tell your member of Congress: reject this toxic organization!       [Photo: CAIR press conference October 15, 2023 (screen grab)]

Washingtonian magazine’s new “Most Influential People” annual list highlights the head of CAIR — despite the extremist group’s exposure by NPR for an organizational culture of widespread misogyny and sexual harassment. CAIR leader Nihad Awad has been condemned by the ADL for a history of anti-Semitic remarks, including claiming that Israel “is the biggest threat to world peace and security.” The Washingtonian ignored this intolerance when recognizing Awad. He and his organization’s long track record of extremism, bigotry, and misogyny should have disqualified him from any recognition. Send a message to Washingtonian CEO Catherine Merrill here! [Photo credit: Voice of America – M. Elshinnawi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)]

More than 3,600 Activists Emailed Disney Saying Firing Gina Carano is NOT the WAY. Disney fired Gina Carano from her role in the Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian over an Instagram post comparing the treatment of conservatives to the Jews during the Holocaust – yet took no action to similarly hyperbolic Holocaust analogies from Carano’s co-star Pedro Pascal. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Carano argued that “to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” In response, Disney-owned Lucasfilm released a statement saying that Carano was not an employee and would never again be in the future, adding: “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Her post does not ‘denigrate’ anyone. Furthermore, Disney met a similarly hyperbolic Holocaust analogy tweeted by her Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal – comparing ICE detention facilities to Nazi concentration camps – with silence. Disney has not clarified why it holds her to a different standard than her co-star – or the many Disney-affiliated individuals have compared Donald Trump to Hitler without repercussions. Furthermore, Disney openly partners with a government currently committing genocide against a vulnerable minority. The credits of Disney’s recent live-action film Mulan express “special thanks” to several government entities in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government imprisons citizens in brutal camps because of their Muslim beliefs. Ironically, the company’s over-the-top response seems to validate Carano’s warning about turning neighbors into enemies.

Political activist Rev. Al Sharpton has a long history of anti-Semitism, including a leading role in one of the worst anti-Semitic riots in U.S. history. Yet the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – whose founding mission is to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people” – has chosen to partner with Sharpton without even asking for a public apology. ADL leadership needs to hear from Americans of conscience like you that this betrayal of core values for political expediency is unacceptable. The ADL’s stated mission is “To stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” To that end, the organization once spoke unequivocally about Sharpton. In a 1992 report in the aftermath of the Crown Heights riots, the ADL assigned Sharpton “a leading role” in the pogrom and named him as one of nine “Black Figures and Community Activists who have Promoted Anti-Semitism.” The report also noted that Sharpton co-chaired an event honoring notorious bigot Louis Farrakhan. In 1992, Sharpton defended gross anti-Semitic comments by Professor Leonard Jeffries, going so far as to declare, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.” Protesters led by Sharpton called Jews “bloodsuckers” and threatened to “burn and loot the Jews.” One demonstrator then did exactly that, shooting seven people in a store. After years of confronting Sharpton’s anti-Semitic track-record, the ADL has recently joined forces with Sharpton. ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has appeared on Sharpton’s MSNBC show, joined him for Capitol Hill press conferences, and partnered with Sharpton to boycott Facebook. As Tablet magazine noted, ADL CEO Greenblatt has “refused even to seek out the most minor price from Sharpton for bringing him back into the fold of acceptability—not even a simple apology that would at least telegraph a distaste for anti-Semitism to Sharpton’s many followers. Greenblatt couldn’t even muster that small gesture.” The ADL needs to hear your voice. Using the form on this page, take a minute to send an email or tweet to the ADL demanding the organization stop betraying its founding mission. No partnering with Sharpton until he takes demonstrable action to atone for his anti-Semitic behavior!

Anti-Semitism has no place in our country, and especially in the halls of Congress. Just yesterday it was reported that a bipartisan group of 120  Members of Congress endorsed the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization with 25 years of giving a platform to Jew-haters. This is a group that was an unindicted co-conspirator in one of our country’s largest terrorism financing trials, and was accused of supporting the internationally recognized terrorist group Hamas. While many understand CAIR’s true nature, no one has made the effort to communicate clearly to Congress that praising CAIR is intolerant. That silence ends now. For every 1,000 petitions signed, NTC will send one “CAIR Bear” item (okay, they’re actually Care Bears) to eight Members of Congress who should know better than to support this racist group: Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Joe Kennedy (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rob Woodall (R-GA) * The Petition We, the undersigned, send this message: You supported a resolution in 2019 that proclaimed opposition to hate and anti-Semitism. Then, you wrote a letter of endorsement for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an intolerant and anti-Semitic organization, on its 25th anniversary. You can’t oppose anti-Semitism and support CAIR. Although CAIR leaders claim to oppose anti-Semitism, they routinely put blatantly anti-Semitic speakers front and center at some of their biggest events, including their recent 25th anniversary gala. No organization that truly opposes anti-Semitism would highlight such prominent bigots. One of the 25th anniversary gala headliners was Representative Ilhan Omar, who has used multiple anti-Semitic tropes, some remorselessly, that are internationally recognized as anti-Semitic, including the dual loyalty canard and promoting the falsehood that Israel controls the world. Her comments were even praised by white supremacist leader David Duke who called her “the most important Member of the US Congress!” Another headliner was Linda Sarsour, who recently left the Women’s March leadership after her anti-Semitic baggage became too much for the organization to bear. Sarsour was also caught in a double standard when she did not include any reference to the Jewish people in a statement commemorating the Holocaust after previously attacking a White House statement the year prior for an absence of a reference to the Jewish people. She has also accused Jewish progressives of having dual loyalty with Israel. Other examples of CAIR speakers espousing anti-Semitism include Professor Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley professor who Tweeted anti-Semitic cartoons and spoke at a CAIR Minneapolis event, and CAIR Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush, who called for the “termination” of the Jewish State of Israel (as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran). Opposing anti-Semitism and supporting CAIR is contradictory. If you actually oppose racism, you must revoke your support of CAIR. Do it now.   *Up to 25,000 signers