Judging from their response to the recent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Islamist organizations in the United States have little sympathy for the women and children taken hostage by the terror organization on October 7, 2023. Instead of acknowledging—even obliquely—the suffering endured by hostages held in abominable conditions for well over a year, prominent Islamist organizations rewarded Hamas for the war crimes it committed on October 7 by repeating anti-Israel talking points they had promoted since the conflict began. They also highlighted the influence Muslim voters had in the recent election by praising the incoming Trump Administration for applying pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire deal. Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), surveyed the websites of Islamist organizations (and in some instances, reached out directly to staffers) to document the Islamist community’s response to the ceasefire.
CAIR’s Indifference to Welfare of Hostages
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), established the “Blame Biden, Praise Trump, Demonize Israel” template in a statement it issued on January 15, 2025.
“We commend President Trump for pushing for a ceasefire deal and reportedly warning Netanyahu that Israel, too, would face consequences for continuing to refuse to make a deal,” said CAIR’s National Director Nihad Awad, in a statement that also leveled the charge of “genocide” against Israel. “We urge the incoming Trump administration to ensure that the Israeli government does not sabotage this ceasefire deal, and we also urge the administration to pursue the end of the occupation so that a just, lasting peace can prevail across the region.”
Can I get back to you?
Given that Awad spoke with Hamas leaders about how to advance the propaganda war against Israel in a hotel room in Philadelphia in 1993 before establishing CAIR the following year, it should come as no surprise that he had nothing to say about Hamas taking the hostages in the first place and offered no words of concern for the hostages themselves.
“Can I get back to you? asked Ismail Allison, CAIR’s national communications manager, when asked if his organization had any words of solace for the relatives of Israeli hostages who have likely died in captivity. Neither Allison, nor any other CAIR official, has responded to a follow up email from FWI.
A poster calling attention to the plight of Doron Steinbrecher who was held captive for 471 days by Hamas. The poster was displayed at a vigil organized by Jewish organizations in Boston, Mass., on November 3, 2023. Steinbrecher, who was taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, was one of three hostages freed by the terror organization on January 19, 2025.
(Dexter Van Zile)
USCMO’s Contempt for Biden
Another D.C.-based organization, the US Council of Muslim Organizations, an umbrella organization of Islamist organizations in America, issued a similar statement that, predictably, condemned Biden for not forcing a ceasefire, praised Trump for doing so, and condemned Israel for defending itself since the October 7 attack.
“We will not forget that President Biden steadfastly worked to militarily arm, diplomatically shield, and politically protect the war criminals of the Israeli government,” said USCMO’s secretary-general, Oussama Jammal, who, like Awad, accused Israel of “genocide.” “In doing so, Biden administration officials violated U.S. law at every possible turn and directly helped the Israeli military kill babies, children, mothers, entire families, healthcare workers, journalists, humanitarian aid workers, and public servants all at historic numbers.” Again, there was no word of concern for the welfare of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas in the USCMO statement, which was broadcast by other Islamist organizations, such as the Muslim American Society.
Rahma Worldwide Denies Hamas Use of Hospitals as Military Assets
Rahma Worldwide Aid, a Michigan-based Islamist organization whose staffers have met and worked with Hamas, has restricted its commentary about Gaza to brief postings on Facebook that highlight the suffering of the Palestinians living there. However, the organization’s executive director, Ahmad Halabi, did respond to an email inquiry from FWI about his organization’s attitude regarding the hostages. Halabi declared that Rahma is “deeply concerned for the well-being and safe return of all civilians, no matter their background” and that the organization stands “firm in condemning harm to civilians and emphasizes that international law must be upheld by all parties in any conflict. This includes the humane treatment and immediate release of hostages as a fundamental principle of human dignity.”
Rahma’s concern over the threats to human dignity apparently does not extend to Hamas’s use of medical facilities in Gaza as military assets. Halabi cited “reports from the United Nations indicating that no evidence has been found to support claims of hospitals in Gaza being used for other purposes. We remain equally committed to highlighting violations, such as the targeting of civilian infrastructure, which endangers innocent lives.”
Halabi’s refusal to acknowledge well-documented evidence of Hamas-dug tunnels underneath Al-Shifa Hospital should come as no surprise. As documented by MEF’s Islamist Watch director Sam Westrop, the organization has deep ties to Hamas with its personnel working alongside Hamas or meeting with Hamas officials in 2021 and 2023, with Westrop reporting in 2024 that “Rahma’s involvement with Hamas goes back at least several years, with statements by Hamas government offices noting, in half a dozen posts, the terror group’s financial and logistical relationship with the Michigan charity.” (Rahma Worldwide has yet to respond to a follow-up inquiry about its work with Hamas officials in Gaza.)
DAWN Acknowledges Hamas’s War Crimes While Blaming Israel
Hostage-taking of civilians is a war crime, and Hamas immediately should release all civilian hostages.
The indifference to Hamas’s war crimes does not extend to every Islamist-supporting or Islamist-adjacent organization in the U.S. One organization willing to condemn Hamas is Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a Qatari-aligned think tank that, in other contexts, has defended and promoted the interests of anti-Western Islamists under the guise of advancing democracy in the Middle East. In response to a query from FWI, DAWN issued a statement acknowledging Hamas’s war crimes.
“Hamas officials who have committed war crimes, including the brutal assault on Israeli civilians on October 7, should be held accountable for their crimes, just as Israeli officials responsible for war crimes in Gaza should be held accountable for their crimes,” the organization declared. “Hostage-taking of civilians is a war crime, and Hamas immediately should release all civilian hostages. We grieve with the families of the 815 civilians murdered on October 7 by Palestinian armed groups in Israel, just as we grieve with the families of the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, the vast majority of them women and children, killed by Israel in Gaza since October 9.”
DAWN’s moral equivalence notwithstanding, the organization’s willingness to acknowledge Hama’s war crimes was remarkable when compared to the silence of organizations such as the Muslim Umma North America, the Islamic Association of North Texas, Islamic Relief, Helping Hand for Relief and Development which did not respond to FWI queries about the subject.
DAWN Gives Hamas a Pass in Subsequent Statement
Alas, DAWN appears to have softened in its insistence that Hamas be held accountable for its crimes. After declaring that Hamas should be held accountable for its crimes in the statement it sent to FWI late last week, DAWN posted another statement on its website making no mention of Hamas’s crimes. In this statement, DAWN declared that the international community “should force Israel to pay the bulk of reconstruction and rehabilitation costs and hold accountable Israeli civilian and military leaders responsible for savage crimes in Gaza.” In other words, DAWN wants Israel to be punished for a war Hamas started.
Will Islamists Bash Trump Next?
If Islamist leaders in the U.S. think that President Trump is going to reward them for bashing his predecessor during the final days of the Biden administration, they might be disappointed. Trump seems to harbor few illusions about the prospect of the ceasefire holding, declaring that Hamas officials who controlled the now-devastated Gaza governed it “viciously and badly. So you can’t have that.” He has also suggested that Gazans should be relocated to Indonesia while their homes are rebuilt. While officials in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, have expressed outrage, it may take a while for Islamists to put together another round of statements—this time condemning Trump.
