A federal agency responsible for preventing another 9/11 attack just handed a prestigious service award to a terror-linked Islamist group that uses lawfare to exploit airport screening procedures.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has faced years of lawsuits and negative publicity aimed at undermining its work, much of which comes from a single source: the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Despite this, TSA just bestowed CAIR, perhaps its most strident critic, with its annual “Disability and Multicultural Coalitions Award.”
Recognized on September 24 “for providing valuable input to TSA on experiences of Muslim travelers with airport screening,” CAIR currently represents multiple clients that are suing the federal agency. In addition, the awardee repeatedly lists TSA as a top offender in its annual hate crimes reports.
TSA’s award comes months after the Biden administration pledged to stop working with CAIR, a decision prompted by statements from the group’s founder endorsing Hamas’ actions on October 7. However, other federal agencies severed ties years earlier, after CAIR was linked to a Hamas fundraising ring in a 2007 terror finance trial.
Anti-Muslim Agency
Created in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, TSA is a federal law enforcement and regulatory oversight agency responsible for protecting America’s mass transit system, including the country’s highways, railroads, bus routes, and airports. As a subagency of the Department of Homeland Security, TSA works closely with the FBI and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to maintain security over U.S. airspace and air terminals.
Year after year, CAIR claims that these three agencies account for more hate crimes and anti-Muslim bias incidents than any single entity. They contribute more than white nationalists and neo-Nazis, and far more than supposed “Islamophobic” hate groups. America’s airports are ground zero for anti-Muslim hate, according to CAIR, recording hundreds of incidents every year.
Following the rollout of President Donald Trump’s travel ban in 2017, which initially barred international travel from seven countries known for sheltering terrorists, CAIR debuted a hate crimes reporting app that allowed Muslim travelers to register discrimination complaints with the click of a button. Fresh from experiencing long delays at customs, these visitors were apparently eager to file incidents with CAIR, resulting in nearly 1,000 government bias cases involving TSA, CBP, and the FBI in 2017.
By enforcing a government policy that was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court, DHS agencies committed nearly 35 percent of all of CAIR’s anti-Muslim violations that year. These offenses were lumped in with hundreds of non-violent incidents and a small number of allegedly violent cases.
In recognizing CAIR, a TSA press release mentioned the importance behind “ensuring the Muslim voice is represented, especially considering the rise in Islamophobia nationwide and globally,” an upsurge that CAIR blames in large part on TSA agents. Yet, the award-winning nonprofit doesn’t just besmirch TSA with questionable bias statistics; CAIR is actively suing the federal agency in U.S. courtrooms.
Lawfare Machine
In August, CAIR filed a complaint against TSA’s top official David Pekoske, along with administrators from 18 other DHS agencies, on behalf of an anti-Israel activist embroiled in multiple lawsuits and state and federal investigations. CAIR claims that Osama Abu Irshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), was placed on a federal terrorism watchlist and subjected to a prolonged interrogation upon a return flight from Jordan and Qatar.
In a press release, CAIR blamed Abu Irshaid’s experience with airport security on his “passionate advocacy for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” In truth, Abu Irshaid refused to answer basic questions from federal agents regarding his whereabouts in Jordan. Their curiosity is understandable; Abu Irshaid visited Jordan in late 2021, attending a widely publicized conference and meeting with senior Hamas leaders and a convicted terrorist hijacker to discuss “armed and popular resistance” against Israel.
AMP, the pro-Hamas group Abu Irshaid leads, is currently overwhelmed with litigation, including a class action lawsuit from the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attacks, and a Virginia attorney general’s probe looking into whether AMP offered “support to terrorist organizations.”
Abu Irshaid’s case is only the latest. CAIR invokes the term “flying while Muslim” to describe popular, common sense practices that allow TSA agents to screen military-aged males hailing from Syria ahead of grandmothers traveling from Sheboygan. Since 9/11, the nonprofit has initiated a seemingly endless campaign of lawsuits seeking to “disband” the Terrorist Screening Database, a classified listing of known and suspected terrorists.
In August 2023, CAIR filed suit against TSA on behalf of Mohamed Khairullah, a small town New Jersey mayor, alleging their client faced “years of enhanced screening, unreasonable delays, electronic device searches, and interrogations while traveling,” due to his placement on a watchlist. Yet, Khairullah’s social media history provides insights into the government’s suspicions. He publicly praised ISIS in 2014 for supposedly bringing law and order to Syria and held a memorial event in 2019 for his “role model,” a slain ISIS jihadist. Khairullah visited Turkey and Syria as part of a charity tied to Al Qaeda financiers and was photographed at an apparent rally for the terrorist group in Syria.
Despite the deluge of litigation, CAIR’s efforts to undo TSA screening procedures have repeatedly failed. A class action lawsuit challenging the basis in law for a terrorist watchlist was defeated last year in a Texas district court, a ruling that was later upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. In 2022, the Sixth Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that found CBP agents violated the constitutional rights of CAIR’s clients, deciding instead that plaintiffs cannot sue federal agents for upholding government policy.
Despite the losing streak, CAIR isn’t ready to throw in the towel until it exhausts every legal option at its disposal. And why not? As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Islamist group receives tax-free, religiously-sanctioned donations to fund its lawfare machine. These lawsuits come at a great expense to American taxpayers and serve to undermine counterterrorism protections.
Blacklisted
TSA rewarded CAIR for advising security personnel to put the concerns of known and suspected terrorists above the country’s national security interests. Astonishingly, this award was granted after the White House assured the public that it would no longer work with CAIR, whose leader Nihad Awad told an audience he was “happy to see” the October 7 atrocities in Israel.
TSA must rescind CAIR’s award. Better still, the agency should follow the lead of the FBI and police in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Ohio, all of which abide by policies forbidding outreach with CAIR. Anything less represents a risk to public safety.
Benjamin Baird is the director of MEF Action, a project of the Middle East Forum.
