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Steven Emerson,
Executive Director
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June 29, 2017
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IPT
Exclusive: Updated Suit Against San Diego Schools Highlights CAIR's Radical
Ties
by John Rossomando
IPT News
June 28, 2017
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first of your friends to like this.
 Lawyers for parents
suing the San Diego Unified School District (SCUSD) over the implementation
of its Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)-backed
anti-Islamophobia program have updated
the complaint they filed in federal
court last month. The updated
filing adds focus on CAIR's Hamas ties and its status as a religious
organization, in addition to shining a greater spotlight on how the scheme
violates California law.
This anti-Islamophobia program came about due to lobbying
by CAIR, and was passed by the school board, according to the
plaintiffs, with the aim of stopping anti-Muslim bullying. But the Freedom
of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) – the group filing the lawsuit – and
plaintiff parents don't buy into the rationale.
As in the original complaint, the plaintiffs continue to assert that the
school district created a "discriminatory scheme" that
establishes Muslims as a privileged group. The anti-Islamophobia program
allegedly does so because similar policies do not protect adherents of
non-Muslim religions from similar harassment, and as such, violates state
and federal law.
School district officials noted they would "identify safe places"
for Muslim students and "explore clubs at the secondary level to
promote the American Muslim Culture," the updated complaint said.
Similar accommodations are not being given to adherents of other religions
who feel bullied or harassed
The amended complaint notes that the school district only found seven
reported incidents of religiously motivated bullying of K-12 students
between July 1, 2016 and Dec. 31, 2016, but did not specify the victims'
religion(s).
"Applying this number, the number of K-12 students who reported an
incident of religiously motivated bullying and harassment is approximately
0.006 % of actively enrolled students," the revised
complaint said.
It also
notes that CAIR-CA's 2014 report that led the school district to adopt
its anti-Islamophobia program found that only 7 percent of students
reported being subjected to mean comments or rumors about them because of
their religion. FCDF Executive Director Daniel Piedra told the
Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) the so-called anti- Islamophobia
program might be a solution to a non-problem, but it's great for CAIR's
fundraising.
"CAIR-SD solicits donations on its public website to 'Combat
Bullying in Schools,' which is listed as a 'specific program,'" the updated
complaint said.
Is CAIR a Religious Ministry or a Civil Rights Group?
This revised complaint aims to undermine any attempt by the San Diego
schools to cast CAIR as a secular civil rights group; the complaint now
includes CAIR testimony in a recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
case explicitly claiming it is a religious group.
"This can help shape public opinion, so that's what's great about
so-called lawfare [filing lawsuits to accomplish political goals],"
Piedra said.
Yet CAIR San Diego Executive Director Hanif Mohebi sought to downplay
his group's religious character after Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund
(FCDF) attorney Charles LiMandri announced the suit. The FCDF claimed among
other things that having the SCUSD work with CAIR to formulate the
anti-Islamophobia program violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S.
Constitution.
Mohebi described CAIR as a civil rights and liberties organization.
"I am appalled. I am not happy with people who have no shame to
label people with no facts," NBC
San Diego quoted Mohebi as having said in response.
CAIR's National Executive Director Nihad Awad, referred to in the NRLB
case as Nehad Hammad, contradicted Mohebi, asserting that CAIR is a
religious ministry and is therefore exempt from the NLRB's jurisdiction.
[Awad's full
name is Nehad Awad Hammad, according to a 200-page deposition.]
"The Employer's letterhead includes a header that reads, 'In the
Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.' According to Hammad, the
header is there to identify the Employer as a religious organization, and
the header [on CAIR stationery] is the opening verse of every chapter of
the Quran," Charles L. Posner, regional director of the National Labor
Relations Board, wrote
in his April 7 ruling.
The lawyers cite Awad's testimony in the NRLB case, noting that he
stated that "informing the American public about the Islamic faith is
a religious obligation, and distributing these publications is both a
religious and educational exercise."
They also
note in their amended complaint in the San Diego case that CAIR's
National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 1993
that he "wouldn't like to create the impression that I wouldn't like
the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.
... I'm going to do it through education."
These facts can go a long way toward helping the plaintiffs build their
case that working with CAIR violates the Establishment Clause, Piedra said.
SDUSD has had a long relationship with CAIR. Back
in March 2012 the school district entered into a partnership agreement
with the Islamist group to create a "Teaching Against Islamophobia
Training Program for Faculty and Staff of SDUSD." The amended
complaint also notes that the school board gave CAIR San Diego
Executive Director Hanif Mohebi an award in November 2015 recognizing
CAIR's role in "promoting equitable educational opportunity for all
students." The proclamation recognizing Mohebi also noted that CAIR
San Diego had taught students for 10 years to "accept and honor
religious and cultural differences among their peers."
Another
example of CAIR-CA's religious activity is the distribution by CAIR-CA,
the parent organization of CAIR San Diego, of a pamphlet titled, "An
Educator's Guide to Islamic Practices," that includes citations
from the Quran. Further, CAIR San Diego officials visited an elementary
school in the district in February to lecture Seventh and Eighth graders
about Islamophobia.
Mohebi has already been in the schools over a dozen times talking about
Islam, Piedra said.
CAIR-CA urges Muslim students to report alleged bullying episodes
through its website rather than through the school district directly.
According to the school district's bullying and intimidation policy
students making the complaints may seek damages in civil court, the amended
complaint notes.
"According to CAIR-CA, if the Anti-Islamophobia Initiative is
successful, 'San Diego Unified School District would be the leading school
district in the nation to come up with a robust and beautiful anti-bully
and anti-Islamophobic program,'" the amended
complaint said.
CAIR-CA has a broader definition of bias and bullying than the school
district does. The
updated lawsuit said that CAIR's definition could cause students to be
accused of Islamophobia even if they "neither prefer nor incline
toward Islamic beliefs and Muslim culture."
"The California education code prohibits school districts from
sponsoring any activity that promotes discriminatory bias on the basis of
religion," Piedra said. But "[t]he anti-Islamophobia program
promotes a discriminatory bias."
Piedra notes that state law requires complete neutrality when it comes
to religion, and CAIR's definition of bullying is so broad that
unintentional slights could potentially land students in hot water.
Plaintiffs Raise Questions Regarding CAIR Hamas Ties
Piedra contends the amended complaint also offers an opportunity to
define who CAIR is, particularly when it comes to its Hamas ties.
"Six CAIR leaders have been arrested, convicted or deported for
terrorism crimes; of course, we have it as an unindicted co-conspirator [in
the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) Hamas fundraising trial]. Among those
convicted [in the HLF trial] was [Ghassan] Elashi, the founder of CAIR's
Dallas chapter," Piedra said.
The amended complaint alludes to the HLF trial's findings, saying
"Federal prosecutors have acknowledged that Muslim Brotherhood leaders
founded CAIR and that CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim
Brotherhood to support terrorists." Federal Judge Jorge Solis wrote
that pieces of evidence introduced by prosecutors in the 2008 HLF trial
"do create at least a prima facie case as to CAIR's involvement in a conspiracy
to support Hamas" in his July 2009 ruling.
Awad openly expressed his support for Hamas at a March 22, 1994
forum held at Barry University in Florida saying, "I used to support
the PLO, and I used to be the President of the General Union of Palestine
Students which is part of the PLO here in the United States, but after I
researched the situation inside Palestine and outside, I am in support of
the Hamas movement more than the PLO."
He again defended Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups a decade
later when he accused CAIR's critics of spreading "an Israeli
viewpoint" during a 2004 interview with Al-Jazeera. He referred to Hamas
and other Palestinian terrorist groups, as well as Hizballah, as "liberation movements."
"I truly do not condemn these organizations," Awad said. "I will condemn them only when I see that
media outlets are requiring the heads of Jewish foundations in America to
condemn Israel for its treatment of innocent people; for killing people
whether in Lebanon, Qana, or Palestine; for bulldozing their homes; and for
their flagrant human rights violations.
"We do not and will not condemn any liberation movement inside
Palestine or Lebanon."
Internal documents seized by the FBI show that CAIR and its founders, Omar Ahmad and Nihad Awad, belonged to a Muslim
Brotherhood network known as the Palestine
Committee. Both men appear on a telephone list of Palestine Committee members [Ahmad is
listed under a pseudonym "Omar Yehya"]; CAIR is listed on a meeting agenda listing the committee's branches.
The amended complaint references
an April 2009 letter from FBI headquarters in Washington to former U.S.
Sen. John Kyl explaining its 2008 decision to suspend its relationship with
CAIR due to concern about "a connection between CAIR or its executives
and HAMAS."
The plaintiffs' lawyers note that
the U.S. Department of Justice reaffirmed this policy of not cooperating
with CAIR in September 2013, and that the United Arab Emirates classified
CAIR as a terrorist organization in 2014.
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