(RNS) — Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas has urged the IRS to open an investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ nonprofit status over its alleged “deep ties to terrorist organizations.”
In a letter addressed to IRS Commissioner Billy Long on Monday (Aug. 4), Cotton claimed CAIR worked to “advance the Islamist agenda in America while concealing their true affiliations.”
One of the country’s largest Muslim advocacy groups, CAIR was founded in 1994 and works to empower and support Muslim Americans.
“Recent news and longstanding evidence demonstrate CAIR’s ties to terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and their activities,” wrote Cotton in his letter.
Cotton’s letter repeats allegations made about CAIR by conservative critics since the mid-2000s, citing evidence presented during a federal investigation of the Holy Land Foundation, a prominent Muslim charity that was shut down in 2001. At the time, the group had been one of the largest Muslim charities in the country. Leaders of the Holy Land Foundation were accused of diverting funds to Palestinian groups with ties to Hamas. In 2008, five leaders of the group, who claimed they were involved in humanitarian work, were convicted of supporting Hamas.
For years, federal law enforcement had been monitoring officials from Hamas, even before it was classified as a terrorist group in 1997, and had wiretapped meetings between those officials and Palestinian American leaders in the early 1990s. In 1993, the founders of CAIR were part of one of those meetings in Philadelphia, and transcripts from the meetings were later introduced into evidence during the Holy Land Foundation trial. Cotton cites that 1993 meeting as evidence that CAIR has ties to terrorists.
Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, speaks outside the White House, Aug. 25, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Cotton’s letter is the latest in a series of accusations claiming CAIR has ties to terror organizations, amid the group’s vocal pro-Palestinian activism. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, CAIR has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and denounced the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Cotton’s letter points to CAIR’s pro-Palestinian activism, citing a November 2023 speech by CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad, at the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago.
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“I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in,” said Awad, referring to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, at the convention.
The White House condemned Awad’s comments, denouncing them as “shocking, antisemitic,” according to a statement of then-White House spokesman Andrew Bates shared with CNN at the time. After the controversy, Awad issued a statement condemning the Oct. 7 attacks.
Cotton’s letter urges the IRS to “immediately investigate CAIR’s compliance with section 501(c)(3), including a review of its financial records, affiliations, and activities.”
“Tax-exempt status is a privilege, not a right, and it should not subsidize organizations with links to terrorism,” reads the document.
CAIR logo. (Image courtesy of CAIR)
An IRS spokesperson told Religion News Service that “federal employees are barred by law from disclosing tax return information, including whether the agency is investigating or examining the return of any taxpayer.”
“Tom Cotton’s baseless demand that the IRS target a nonprofit organization based on debunked conspiracy theories is an un-American political stunt straight from the McCarthy era,” wrote CAIR in an email statement to RNS. “It’s motivated by the senator’s desire to protect the genocidal Israeli government from criticism.”
The group said it condemned both the Hamas attacks on Israel and the “ongoing genocide in Gaza,” adding, “this is called moral consistency. Senator Cotton should try it.”
