New Report Traces CAIR's Hamas Ties After Ohio Director Participates in Event with Designated Terrorist
Following Jewish Onliner's revelation that the CAIR-Ohio director moderated an event with Hamas official Majed al-Zeer—a new GWU report documents CAIR's decades-long ties to Hamas' support network
A new report from George Washington University’s Program on Extremism reveals extensive historical connections between the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Hamas infrastructure in the United States. The report follows revelations by Jewish Onliner that CAIR-Ohio Director Khaled Tuurani participated in an event with US-designated Hamas official Majed al-Zeer.
Origins in Hamas Support Network
The 8-page report by researchers Lara Burns, Barry Jonas, and David Collins traces CAIR’s creation to a 1993 meeting of the US-Muslim Brotherhood’s “Palestine Committee”—a Hamas support infrastructure established in 1988 following directives from the International Muslim Brotherhood. According to FBI evidence presented in the report, the meeting was wiretapped as part of investigations that would later lead to terrorism prosecutions.
The Palestine Committee Structure
The report details how Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook—who would later be arrested by the US in 1995 and deported to Jordan in 1997—oversaw the creation of three initial Hamas front organizations: the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR).
Documents seized during FBI searches revealed that CAIR was discussed as a fourth organization to join this structure. Meeting minutes from July 1994, seized from Palestine Committee member Ismail Elbarasse’s home, explicitly listed CAIR alongside the other three organizations under the Palestine Committee umbrella.
Al-Zeer Connection Documented Since 1990s
Crucially, the report reveals that Majed al-Zeer—the designated terrorist who appeared at the recent event with CAIR-Ohio’s Tuurani—appears in FBI documents from the 1990s alongside CAIR’s co-founders.
A document listing “Important phone and fax numbers (Palestine section)” seized during a 1994 FBI search of Palestine Committee leader Abdelhaleem Ashqar’s home shows Marzook listed as #1 for numbers “Inside America,” with CAIR co-founders Omar Yehia (Ahmad) and Nihad Awad also on the list. Al-Zeer appears as #7 on the page listing important numbers “Outside America.”
The Palestine Committee meeting in Philadelphia in October 1993 brought together leaders who would later found CAIR, including Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad. The meeting, held in response to the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO, was recorded discussing strategies to support Hamas while operating “under cover to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.”
“War is deception,” the meeting participants declared, according to FBI wiretap evidence, as they planned to “deceive the American public about their motives, while remaining true to their ideologies when addressing the Palestinian and Arab populations.”
CAIR’s Response Contradicted by Evidence
The report concludes by noting that CAIR recently submitted a letter to the Treasury Department stating: “CAIR is not and has never been an agent, affiliate, offshoot, subsidiary, supporter, partner, funder, representative, supporter, or pen pal of any militant group.”
The researchers argue that CAIR’s current executive director Nihad Awad’s participation in the 1993 Philadelphia meeting, combined with the organization’s documented inclusion in Palestine Committee meeting minutes and recent collaboration with al-Zeer, demonstrates a pattern inconsistent with CAIR’s public claims.