The premier Islamist organization in the United States has appointed a pro-Hamas lawyer who has made ugly statements about Jews to serve as ambassador to American mosques. In late March the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), announced that Ayman Aishat, who once accused Zionist leaders of plotting to deprive Muslims of their ability to practice their faith, was hired as the organization’s Director of Mosque Engagement where he will “help organize trainings and town halls with CAIR staff at mosques nationwide and provide civil rights and other support to mosque communities.”
Aishat previously served as a resource director of the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MFLA), an organization that has defended Aafia Siddiqui who was found guilty of trying to murder U.S. citizens and is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence for her crime. Moreover, he was denied citizenship because of his failure to disclose his ties to the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamist charity that was found guilty in 2006 of providing funds to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. In 2018, a court ruled that Aishat failed to demonstrate he was denied a proper resolution of his naturalization application.
CAIR’s new hire isn’t going to be working as an ambassador to American Jews, that’s for sure. The Middle East Media Research Institute reports that in in a January 12, 2024 speech at a mosque in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Aishat declared that “(Theodore) Herzl plotted to remove the Quran from Muslims’ hearts, to make it easier to control them and destroy their countries.” He also declared that “Herzl gathered with his people, the Zionists in Basel Switzerland and they plotted to divide the Muslims and appoint the worst of their people as leaders.”
Aishat made similar comments during his time at the Muslim Legal Fund MLFA. Writing for Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) in April 2022, J.M. Phelps reported that Aishat used “his social media to share videos that promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the “Rothschild Zionism Secret Regine in America” as well as posts that warn of the “worst characters” in human history, such as (imprecisely) the Jew, Charles Darwin.”
Ayman’s remarks indicate he will fit in quite nicely at CAIR. In November 2023, in Chicago, National Executive Director of CAIR, Nihad Awad, portrayed the massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023 as a legitimate act, declaring that “The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege the walls of the concentration camp on October 7, adding that “the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have the right to self-defense.”
And in August 2014, Awad tweeted “Israel is the greatest threat to world peace and security.” In December of 2021, Los Angeles Executive Director of CAIR, Hussam Ayloush, proclaimed that “Islamophobia is an industry mostly funded by global Zionist donors and foundations. That’s an established fact.”
In a 2015 background report by ADL the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), concluded that “key CAIR leaders often traffic in antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.”