Last week saw a consequential change in leadership at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Alia Salem once seemed to have a future filled with promise at CAIR as the executive director of its Dallas-Fort Worth branch. In 2015, she won CAIR chapter of the year, an award largely in response to her role promoting the Ahmed “Clock Boy” Mohamed media incident. Here she is appearing on MSNBC with Mohamed and host Chris Hayes, a longtime editor of The Nation:
But last week, news came that Salem is now out, replaced by Iyad Alnachef, a man with his own prior history of Islamist activism. Alnachef formerly served as National Youth Director for the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA,) an organization named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror finance trial and as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends” in an internal Muslim Brotherhood memorandum.
One does not need to dig too deep into Alnachef’s social media postings to see a range of positions that place him well outside the mainstream, but apparently right in line with what CAIR looks for in its leaders. See how he responded angrily on July 27 last year to former president Bill Clinton’s calls for Muslims who hate terror to stay in America and “help us win":
Asking that Muslims love America and hate terror is “too high expectations Mr. President”? Clinton is “as hateful” about Muslims as Trump?
Why does Alnachef despise the Clintons so much? Could it have something to do with their record on Israel? See Alnachef’s Facebook posting from last April and note the vulgar, sexist metaphor Alnachef utilizes -- “Israel is Hillary’s Monica” -- and the conspiratorial idea of Israel unduly influencing US foreign policy:
Alnachef seems to have a penchant toward fringe thinking; he shared a video in July 2016 promoting the idea that the Boston bombing was a “false flag.”
Here’s an idea for CAIR to consider in its hiring practices: maybe it’s because you keep picking people with extreme, out-of-the-mainstream views for leadership positions that 88% of American Muslims say your organization does not best represent their interests.
