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Fifth Column

Universities/Black Bloc/Iran proxies all together: Round-up 4/6-4/12/2025

2025-04-13

Stories I happened across while wandering through the internet last week.

University Apologizes For Inaction After Student’s Antisemitic Abuser Pleads Guilty
[DailyWire] Nearly a full year since college soccer player Noam Nedivi came forward with his story of antisemitic abuse, his university is apologizing for not only its failure to protect the student, but also actions that derailed his college experience.

Lawrence Technological University actually kicked Nedivi off his team and declined to protect him from a roommate who subjected him to months of antisemitic verbal and physical abuse. The Michigan school has now formally apologized after his former roommate and teammate, Zavier Chimienti, pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation and misdemeanor domestic violence in October.

The ordeal, first reported by The Daily Wire nearly a year ago, included Chimienti harassing Nedivi with anti-Jewish slurs, Nazi salutes, and full-on physical abuse.

“Last year, a Jewish student reported verbal and physical antisemitic abuse committed by another student on campus,” LTU’s administration wrote in a press release. “The student’s complaint should have been handled better. In that way, we failed him and the LTU community, and caused unnecessary pain to our student. We apologize to our student for the hurt caused him [sic].”

Nedivi told The Daily Wire that he is relieved the situation has come to an end, but he’s far from satisfied.

“I am glad that most of the truth has come to light, but LTU’s campus was a hostile environment for me for more than a year after I reported Zavier’s harassment in my own campus apartment,” Nedivi said. “He was never suspended at any point, even after he pleaded guilty in state court.”

Nedivi added that the lack of prioritization of his safety made him decide to finish his degree online. “LTU acted more like a criminal organization than a university trying to protect me,” Nedivi added. “LTU’s administration deliberately falsified evidence, made up lies to ruin my reputation and kept me from accessing critical student resources.”

Princeton Radicals Disrupt Event With Naftali Bennet, Yelling 'Genocide' and Pulling Fire Alarm
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Anti-Israel activists at Princeton University disrupted a speech by former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, setting off a fire alarm and calling him "a fucking war criminal." The agitators joined a larger group after getting kicked out, where they told Jews to "go back to Europe" and flashed pro-Hamas hand gestures.

During Bennett’s Monday speech, which was sponsored by Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life, roughly a dozen agitators shouted, "We charge you with genocide! You’re a fucking war criminal!" and held posters with a red handprint as they marched out of the event, footage posted by the New Jersey chapter of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) showed. Princeton students and faculty led the disruption, according to AMP. A video from the Princeton Palestine Liberation Coalition, meanwhile, showed a fire alarm going off. "GENOCIDE ALARM ACTIVATED," the group wrote. Princeton's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter also shared footage of the disruption on its Instagram story.

After school officials escorted the agitators out of the event, they joined several dozen more outside and continued protesting for nearly three hours, an attendee told the Washington Free Beacon. They shouted down Jews, saying, "go back to Europe." They also used their fingers to form upside-down triangles, a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets.

AMP’s national arm was recently accused of serving as Hamas’s "propaganda arm in New York City" and is facing a Senate committee investigation over its role in fueling anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses, the Free Beacon reported. Its founder and chairman Hatem Bazian, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has called for Israel’s dismantling and once argued that "it’s about time we had an intifada in this country."

On Saturday, AMP helped organize an anti-Israel march in Washington, D.C., that included speeches from Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad, notorious anti-Semite Linda Sarsour, and Grant Miner, the Columbia University graduate student expelled for storming a campus building. It also featured murals honoring Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists.

CU Boulder pro-Hamas protestors barge into class – get yanked out by their keffiyehs
[CollegeFix] A trio of pro-Hamas student activists recently barged into a University of Colorado Boulder classroom and were promptly hauled back out by their keffiyehs.

The Daily Camera reports after entering the “Designing for Defense” class last week, one of the activists went to the front of the room and prepared to read a statement, whereupon a man who appeared to be the instructor said “No, you may not.”

He then grabbed the statement and said “Get out.”

Soon after, a video from the Buffs 4 Palestine Instagram page shows two men, one of whom “appeared to be [neither] an employee or student,” according to the Camera, dragging the activists from the room.

The pro-Hamas student organization has been in “bad standing” since October due to violations of university policy. These include “disrupting a career fair” and “using amplified sound.”

In a statement, the university said it “condemns acts of violence and does not tolerate classroom disruptions, both of which violate state law and university policies.”

12 anti-Israel protesters charged with felonies for barricading themselves in Stanford president’s office
[IsraelTimes] Twelve protesters are charged with felony vandalism for their actions during a June 2024 pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest at Stanford University in which demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the office of the school president. Those charged, ranging in age from 19 to 32, entered the building and demonstrated a “conspiracy to occupy” it, prosecutors say, adding that at least one suspect entered the building by breaking a window. All suspects wore masks, they say. Dozens of other protesters surrounded the building and chanted: “Palestine will be free.”

At the time, the university said 13 people were arrested during the protest, one police officer was injured, and the building suffered “extensive” damage.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from universities, including Stanford, over allegations that they failed to stop antisemitism and intimidation of Jewish students.

Northwestern SJP Chapter, Quoting PFLP Terrorists, Urges Members to 'Build an Intifada' and 'Destroy Amerika'
[WashingtonFreeeBeacon] Northwestern University's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter held an anarchist training session for its members at which it cited propaganda from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group urging U.S. students to "build an Intifada" and "destroy amerika."
Northwestern's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter featured two radical pamphlets as part of its materials for the Thursday training, titled "Organizing Safety 101." One of those, an anarchist pamphlet, quoted a PFLP leader and called on students to "build an Intifada" so they could "destroy amerika." The other, crafted by the SJP chapter, featured a PFLP cartoon on the cover and encouraged students to "channel [their] anger" so they could "aid in the fight" against Israel.

a mob of Yale students shouting "VIVA VIVA PALESTINA" as they tear down an American flag on campus, and cheer as it hits the ground.

pic.twitter.com/oZmZWed6MU
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 11, 2025

US administration seeking consent decree on Columbia over campus antisemitism — WSJ
[IsraelTimes] The Trump administration is working to force Columbia University into a consent decree that would legally bind the school to follow federal guidelines in how it combats antisemitism, the Wall Street Journal reports. The newspaper, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reports that the potential consent decree is part of the administration’s negotiations with the university over freeing up $400 million in federal funding that has been blocked.

Columbia University says in an emailed statement that it “remains in active dialogue with the Federal Government to restore its critical research funding.”

Any consent decree with Columbia could last for years and would give a federal judge oversight powers for ensuring that the school adheres to any agreements it meets with the federal government on how it addresses antisemitism, the Journal says.

Link

Home Front: WoT

CAIR tries to block Columbia U release of SJP records to Congress

2025-04-12

[X]

BREAKING: The Council on American Islamic Relations is seeking to block Columbia from turning over records to Congress about the pro-Hamas group Students for Justice in Palestine.

CAIR is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and was labeled a terrorist group by the UAE in 2014. pic.twitter.com/aEZYe5RvKF
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 11, 2025

CAIR Seeks To Block Columbia University From Submitting SJP-Related Protest Records to Congress
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] The Ivy League school appears to be withholding information from federal lawmakers as a result of CAIR's suit.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) asked Columbia to produce records related to SJP's activities, finances, potential links to terrorist groups, and overall "threats to campus safety" by Wednesday. CAIR, which is suing Columbia’s board of trustees on behalf of detained protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and several other foreign anti-Israel students, objected to the request.

Releasing the documents, attorneys with CAIR's legal defense fund argued, could implicate Khalil and his classmates. They asked a federal judge in New York to implement a 30-day review period, during which CAIR could assess the documents and file objections. The judge, Arun Subramanian, responded by ordering Columbia to delay the release of the documents until Friday for CAIR's review, according to court filings.

Link

Home Front: WoT

CAIR denounces ruling to deport Mahmoud Khalil

2025-04-12

[GEO.TV] The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the ruling by an immigration judge to deport the permanent resident for his ''peaceful political activities'' calling it a ''dangerous, unconstitutional'' decision, Al Jazeera reported, citing a statement.

“Although today’s ruling is just the first step in a long legal process, it should be alarming to all Americans who cherish the Bill of Rights and basic freedoms like free speech,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, in a statement.

“We are confident that federal courts will see through the Trump administration’s lawless attack on free speech and that the movement against the Israeli government’s genocide will continue to grow in our nation, despite these Orwellian attempts to suppress free speech.”

Court allows US admin to deport pro-Palestine Mahmoud Khalil

[GEO.TV] An immigration judge ruled Friday that a pro-Paleostinian student protester, a US permanent resident detained by the Trump administration, can be deported, US media and a legal rights group said.

Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said the government had met its burden to prove it had grounds to deport him, Fox News reported.

"An immigration judge ruled immediately after a hearing today that Mahmoud Khalil is removable under US immigration law," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.

Comans had ordered the government to spell out its case against Khalil, who the government is seeking to deport on the grounds that his protest activities are a threat to national security.

In a letter to the court, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
insisted that Khalil's activism could hurt Washington's foreign policy.

The Times of Israel adds:

Lawyers for Khalil are expected to appeal. And a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred Khalil’s removal from the country.

Khalil’s lawyers, including representation from the American Civil Liberties Union, have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to crack down on free speech protected by the US Constitution.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, has cited the Immigration and Nationality Act, passed in 1952, which gave the executive branch power to deport any noncitizen who poses “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

The law also specifically allows for the deportation of a non-citizen who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.”

On Friday, Justice Department attorneys said in papers filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that Comans would not have the authority to immediately free Khalil.

They said an immigration judge could determine if Khalil is subject to deportation and then conduct a bail hearing afterward if it is found that he is not.

Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government, however, has said that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and pro-Hamas.

Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student coalition that spearheaded anti-Israel protests at the school.

CUAD has praised “violent resistance” by Palestinians, including, explicitly, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. The group also hosted a number of pro-Hamas figures to campus, including Khaled Barakat, who was later listed by the Biden administration as a specially designated foreign terrorist.

In addition, Khalil served as a negotiator and spokesperson for the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia last year, and for students who broke into and occupied a university building, unfurling a banner calling for “intifada.” He is not personally accused of participating in the building occupation, however, and wasn’t among the people arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

Link

Home Front: Politix

NJ Gubernatorial Hopeful Defends Nation Of Islam After Video Surfaces of Him Applauding Violent Rhetoric by Louis Farrakhan

2025-03-30

[WahingtonFreeBeacon] ‘The cracker hit you on your jaw, you break his neck. That’s the way we think,’ Farrakhan said, prompting applause from Baraka

New Jersey gubernatorial candidate and Newark mayor Ras Baraka (D.) defended the Nation of Islam and accused critics of trying to silence him after a video surfaced showing him applauding racist and ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful comments from Louis Farrakhan, the group’s notorious anti-Semitic leader.

While serving as Newark’s deputy mayor in 2004, Baraka hosted Farrakhan to celebrate the first day of Kwanzaa. The Nation of Islam minister encouraged the mostly black audience to "break his neck" if "the cracker hit you on the jaw," called white people "the devil," and praised Baraka’s father. Baraka, for his part, called Farrakhan a "role model" whose teachings helped him "become a man" as a college student.

"The cracker hit you on your jaw, you break his neck. That’s the way we think," Farrakhan said, prompting Baraka—in the front row—to stand and applaud, video footage posted by the Nation of Islam shows.

After the video resurfaced, Baraka provided a lengthy statement to Jewish Insider on Thursday, saying he would "not be bullied."

"I will not be bullied or silenced into walking away from the fight for justice. I will not be cowed into denouncing my lifelong work for peace, equality, and equity," Baraka said. "These latest accusations and insinuations aren’t just false—they’re a reflection of the fear my candidacy is provoking in the political establishment."

"The Nation of Islam holds deep respect in many parts of the Black community because of the work they’ve done to reduce violence and support self-determination in neighborhoods that have been ignored and abandoned for generations," Baraka added.

The Nation of Islam and its leader have long histories of anti-Semitism. Farrakhan, for example, has compared Jews to "termites" and has praised Adolf Hitler
Hitler

...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like...
as a "very great man." The Nation of Islam, meanwhile, sent a letter to several House Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
defending its leader, telling them not to listen to "Satanic Jews" in 2018.

Baraka, the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, is a leading candidate in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He describes himself as an "underdog," even though he has the highest favorability among the six Democratic candidates jockeying for the governor’s mansion, according to a March 5 Fairleigh Dickinson University poll.

Farrakhan, during the 2004 speech, said the "cracker is the real devil" and praised Baraka’s father—another anti-Semite.

"You’re dealing with a devil, man. You’re not dealing with righteous people. This cracker is the real devil, and you better wake up and realize that," Farrakhan said.

"Ras Baraka came from a father that understood, ’You kill my cat, you lose your dog,’" he added.

Amiri Baraka, while serving as New Jersey’s poet laureate in 2002, wrote a poem suggesting that Jews had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

"Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?" Amiri Baraka wrote in a poem titled, "Somebody Blew Up America."

Farrakhan, during the 2004 speech, said black people, not Jews, are the subject of biblical prophecies.

"You may think that’s talking about some Jews somewhere, but it’s talking about you," Farrakhan said to the predominantly black audience.

The younger Baraka, in his statement to Jewish Insider, denied any anti-Semitic accusations.

"I am not antisemitic. I have never been. And it’s offensive and irresponsible for anyone to suggest otherwise," he said. "Throughout my life, I’ve built bridges across communities, faiths, and backgrounds to stand for justice and peace."

"This is what happens when someone challenges a broken status quo that’s failed working people for decades," Baraka continued. "So let’s be clear, the people trying to twist my words and my record are the same ones who don’t show up for any community—not Black, not Jewish, not Latino, not South Asian, not working-class people from anywhere. These are people who rely on our collective division."

Baraka did, however, praise Farrakhan and his teachings during the 2004 event.

"It wasn’t until I heard the voice and the organization of the Nation of Islam and Minister Louis Farrakhan that I really began to try to stand up straight and get the courage that I needed to get to begin to organize in the community the way I should have," he said.

Baraka hosted Farrakhan again in 2017 while serving as Newark’s mayor to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Million Man March.

"For all these years, the American taxpayers’ money has been given each year to Israel to maintain them on the land of the Paleostinians. So don’t you tell me that we have not earned by our sweat and blood—a land of our own and to obligate them," Farrakhan said. "Since we cannot get along with them in peace and equality after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return some of the worst treatment human beings have ever experienced, we believe our contributions to this land and the suffering forced on us by white America justifies our demand for complete separation in a state or territory of our own."

Baraka, who did not return a request for comment, has not shied away from associating with anti-Israel groups while on the campaign trail. On March 11, he spoke at an anti-ICE rally that featured the Council on American-Islamic Relations

... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
New Jersey, an anti-Semitic group that characterized Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
's Oct. 7 attack on Israel as a prison break, calling it "inevitable" and "not unexpected."

Link

Fifth Column

Get Yourself a Burner Phone! CAIR's Handy-Dandy Guide for Campus Agitators Who Want to Escape Deportation

2025-03-28

[RedState] Every once in a while, an email lands in your inbox that makes you wonder, "How the heck did I get on this email list?" Such is the case with an email I received yesterday from Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). I suspect I'll be dumped from that email list rather quickly, but, until then, I'll play Jeffrey Goldberg for a bit (although CAIR isn't exactly being secretive about their intent to help campus agitators escape justice).

The email's subject line was, "CAIR Releases ‘Travel and Free Speech Guidance During the Trump Administration’," and in the body of the email, CAIR links to a guide for "non-citizens," campus agitators and other troublemakers of the antisemitic kind on how to avoid being detained and deported/repatriated by the Trump administration. They very helpfully offer separate guidance for those who are here legally and those who may be visa or green card deficient.

There was also a link to the recording of a recent CAIR seminar, which doubled as a Ramadan fundraiser, that was full of handy-dandy tips for those who mistake being offered the privilege of studying in the United States for an open invitation to rampage, always while masked, across college campuses while calling for the wholesale elimination of the state of Israel. Israel is also known as one of the U.S.'s closest allies, which only seems to embolden the agitators.

Here's a bit of CAIR's guidance on how to make sure your digital footprint is invisible to law enforcement:

"Delete some of the apps, some pictures you have on your phone. Things that you think are maybe innocent, but in this day and age, with the Mahmoud Khalil’s case [sic], what are they charging with all this—it’s not my job as an immigration attorney to make the community fearful, but be smart about what we’re doing," said Spojmie Nasiri, an immigration attorney on CAIR’s National Board of Directors.

If any of this rings a bell, it's because Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a citizen of Lebanon who worked as a professor at Brown University, was recently given a one-way ticket home after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials at Boston's Logan International Airport discovered deleted photos on her phone of Hezbollah militants. In fact, Dr. Alewiah was trying to get back into the United States after having attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by the Israeli Air Force back in September, while on a visit home to Lebanon.

The message from CAIR is clear: don't be a Rasha Alawieh. Delete those photos showing you're a terrorist-loving simp!

Better yet, get a burner phone.

"Maybe buy a burner phone, or maybe have a backup phone," she added. Nasiri also warned that non-citizens’ phones are subject to searches after traveling abroad and recommended setting up two-factor authentication and turning off facial recognition.

CAIR also advises those with expired visas to not go back to their home countries to "get your stamp" because you might not be allowed back into the US. It's apparently better to be an illegal subversive than actually behave yourself while here.

It's obvious that CAIR is miffed at the recent crackdown by the Trump administration on foreigners who use their time in the U.S. not to help make it better, but to stoke dissent. And, hey, it's clearly good for CAIR's business to peddle in its perverse form of antisemitic and anti-American "tourism."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Inside the new fifth column-Meet the CAIR-Linked Group That Aims To Place Muslim Americans in Federal Jobs

2025-03-26

[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Muslim Americans in Public Service's ties to terrorist supporters could raise concerns about its efforts to place employees inside government

Muslim Americans in Public Service is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that coordinates with federal agencies to help Muslims obtain and advance careers in government. To do so, it partners with Islamic organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations,

…one of many branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in America…

that have either condoned terror attacks or have been linked to terrorist organizations.

In addition to CAIR, the nonprofit known as MAPS touts the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations as one of its partners and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and Helping Hand for Relief and Development as two of its sponsors. MAPS has worked with CAIR to host events that bring together MAPS members "across all levels and branches of government." And while it does not disclose its donors, it says it receives "sizable in-kind donations" from its partners, as well as funding from "federal agencies," nonprofits, and state commissions.

Perhaps it’s time to cut them off from federal agencies — turn DOGE loose on them to figure out donation flows, and maybe member connections if they have a little spare time and bandwidth in the midst of all else that they’ve got going.

MAPS’s affiliation with those groups—all of which have praised or been linked to terrorist organizations—could raise concerns about its efforts to place employees inside the federal bureaucracy. While it's unlikely MAPS will have success placing political appointees in the Trump administration, which has opposed affinity groups that support DEI initiatives in federal agencies and is staunchly at odds with MAPS's criticism of Israel, the group's top members include some career officials entrenched in the federal government.

MAPS thrived during the Biden administration and now boasts thousands of members, including intelligence community officials who hold high-level security clearances, according to Maaty, the group’s chairman.

Formed in 2021, MAPS is led by a board of current and former career federal employees, according to the group’s website and their LinkedIn profiles. Ahmad Maaty, the founding chairman of MAPS, is a senior economist at the Department of Justice. Other board members include Veterans Affairs official Hasan Shanawani, Office of Management and Budget examiner Farrah Pappa, United Nations mission adviser Mariya Ilyas, and White House policy analyst Ameer Abdulrahman, a former official for Democratic Senate candidate Morgan Harper.

While MAPS largely focuses on job-related issues that impact its members, it has weighed in on some political issues. The group criticized the Biden administration over its support for Israel in the war against Hamas, saying that it "disagrees with many of the policy positions taken by the current Administration." It also condemned the 2023 censure of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) over her statements calling for the eradication of Israel and denounced the removal of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over anti-Semitic remarks.

Since then, MAPS has hosted panels and networking events thanks to support from its terror-tied partners.

Earlier this month, for example, MAPS hosted an event that ICNA and Helping Hand cosponsored. One of its featured speakers, Nicole Fauster-Bradford, is the community advocacy director at CAIR. She spoke alongside Sarah Khasawinah, a senior policy adviser in the Senate.

Former ICNA president Mohsin Ansari has spread anti-Semitic tropes about the "liberal anti Muslim media headed by Jews," according to reports. He has also praised Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, a Bangladeshi cleric convicted of war crimes against Hindus, as a "very, very, very special person." Congress has investigated both ICNA and Helping Hand over their alleged links to Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
, a Pakistani terrorist group.

CAIR, for its part, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal Hamas financing case in 2008. The Biden White House distanced itself from the group after its executive director stated he was "happy" about the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

In addition to the March event, MAPS held an annual networking event in January that ICNA and Helping Hand cosponsored. It featured Ansari as a speaker.

In a statement sent to the Washington Free Beacon, MAPS said it "engages independent organizations with various audiences," like CAIR, ICNA, and Helping Hand, "to increase its civic engagement and reach those with a desire to serve the public." It did not answer questions on CAIR's Oct. 7 rhetoric and the groups' ties to terror organizations.

MAPS thrived during the Biden administration and now boasts thousands of members, including intelligence community officials who hold high-level security clearances, according to Maaty, the group’s chairman.

Oh? Tracing connections could prove profitable, should the Trump administration be interested in reducing the concentration of probable jihadis in America…

In 2023, then-transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg recorded a video message praising MAPS, saying that "so many core Islamic values reflect American values." In April 2024, the group hosted an event at the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Agriculture where then-secretary Tom Vilsack spoke in praise of the group. ICNA and Islamic Relief USA, a subsidiary of Islamic Relief Worldwide, which Israeli authorities sanctioned for allegedly funneling money to Hamas. The State Department condemned Islamic Relief Worldwide in 2020 over its leaders’ "vile anti-Semitic vitriol."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Hamas-linked CAIR chapters accused of ‘financial irregularities’ with $7 million taxpayer cash now unaccounted for

2025-03-19

[NYPost] A Moslem charity with links to Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
was awarded more than $7.2 million in taxpayer cash, which has now disappeared, according to a watchdog group.

An "immediate investigation" needs to be launched into The Council on American-Islamic Relations

... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
’ (CAIR) Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, chapter’s use of funds, according to the watchdog, who sent a complaint to the Department of Justice Thursday.

According to the Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN), a California-based, non-partisan advocacy group, the money was given to the chapter to help re-settle impoverished im~~migrants~~ colonists in California between 2022 and 2024.

In what appears to be a sleight of hand, the money — $7,217,968.44 — was sent to CAIR-Greater Los Angeles and not to CAIR-CA, which was the only group eligible to receive it, according to the complaint.

The Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Moslem organization, which is not a registered non-profit and not eligible to handle charitable donations, received the entire pot of money according to the complaint, viewed by The Post.

"These sub grants from CAIR-CA to CAIR chapters raise serious legal concerns about whether CAIR simply shifted more money to itself," the complaint said.

CAIR Los Angeles also appeared to divide the federal grant and "sub-granted" to other groups, including CAIR’s chapters in San Diego and the Socialist paradise of San Francisco

...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
Those CAIR chapters were not registered with the IRS
...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies...
and once they receive cash, have no public responsibility to declare where it is spent, the complaint charges.

"There’s no transparency," said Julie Marzouk, a founding board member of IAN who scoured public documents to trace the cash.

"This is part of a consistent pattern from CAIR — to muddy the waters and limit the public’s ability to track the money."

Marzouk and her group have also asked the federal government to revoke CAIR-CA’s accreditation, which it needs to receive grants under the DOJ’s refugee program.

The accreditation allows groups to represent low-income im~~migrants~~ colonists before federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security without a lawyer, Marzouk told The Post.

"It’s a privilege, not a right, and a group needs to follow appropriate rules of conduct," she said.

Although dispersing the money to its sub-groups isn’t illegal in itself, CAIR-CA is supposed to keep an account of where the dollars are going.

CAIR-CA’s accreditation expired last month and needs to be renewed if they want to continue receiving funds, according to the complaint.

"[CAIR’s] misuse of federal grant funding and support for Hamas, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, do not meet the ethical and legal requirements necessary for EOIR [Executive Office of Immigration Review] accreditation," the complaint said.

"A formal forensic audit followed by a proper DOJ investigation is necessary to evaluate the full extent of CAIR-CA’s financial misconduct, compliance breeches and support for terrorism."

CAIR did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

IAN also wants a probe into $2.6 million that CAIR-CA received from California’s Department of Social Services in funding for the state’s "Stop the Hate" program in 2022.

The grant was awarded to CAIR "omitting California," the complaint said, adding that the state was so confused it "sought clarification on the entity name."

In California, CAIR leaders have lobbied against Holocaust education in the Senate, and pushed for anti-Israel measures, such as boycotts, at the municipal level, said Marzouk.

Some CAIR leaders praised the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks against Israel. Zahra Billoo, the executive director of CAIR in San Francisco minimized Hamas atrocities against Israelis, declaring that the world was "witnessing decolonization," according to the Anti-Defamation League.

In earlier statements, Billoo warned about Jewish organizations.

"We need to pay attention to the Anti-Defamation League," said Billoo during a 2021 panel discussion sponsored by the American Moslems for Paleostine.

"We need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation. We need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues. We need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses, just because they are your friends today, doesn’t mean that they have your back when it comes to human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of CAIR-CA, said that Israel had no right to defend itself after Oct. 7 and yet Paleostinians have the right to "pick up arms"

In January, he concluded a sermon in Los Angeles by asking worshippers to join CAIR for a monthly fee to fight against President Trump’s executive orders that would impact the Moslem community, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Last month, The Post revealed that CAIR Inc., the Moslem’s charity’s national chapter, settled a lawsuit brought by a former board member and employee rather than open its books to reveal sources of foreign funding.

Evidence in past court proceedings has shown links between The Council on American-Islamic Relations Foundation Inc. and both Hamas and the Moslem Brüderbund.

CAIR Inc. settled with Lori Saroya, months after US Magistrate Judge David Schultz ruled any assets owned by the group are all within the "scope of permissible discovery" as part of the former Minnesota chapter leader’s lawsuit against the controversial Moslem rights group.

Link

Fifth Column

Protesters call for campus takeovers as Columbia activist threatened with deportation

2025-03-11

[IsraelTimes] Hundreds protest outside ICE center in New York for Mahmoud Khalil; legal experts say feds have grounds to deport; free speech group warns of chilling effect and calls for clarity

Anti-Israel demonstrators rallied in New York City on Monday and called for escalation across the US, part of a furious backlash after federal agents detained an anti-Israel protest leader at Columbia University over the weekend.

Hundreds of protesters filled Manhattan’s Foley Square outside an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, to demand the release of the student organizer, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate.

The demonstrators carried signs that said "Release Mahmoud Khalil," with the activist’s image, and chanted, "We want justice, you say how? ICE off our campus now."

"I believe that Paleostine will win," they chanted. Many in the crowd wore keffiyehs and held Paleostinian flags.

One sign said, "Stop Jewish fascism

fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. Its distinguishing philosophical feature is the Corporate State. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about...
," and another showed US President Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
doing a "Sieg Heil" salute in front of a swastika.

"Trump thinks he can strip our rights, to attack our movement," a speaker told the crowd. "To that we say, ’You are wrong, we will not be silenced, we will continue to organize and we will continue to struggle until the complete liberation of Paleostine.’

You do that, dear heart, while the rest of us get on with life. We’ll touch base in thirty or forty years to see how you’re doing.

"They make figures like Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
and ’terrorists’ into enemies," another speaker said.

"There are actual gunnies in the United States, but they are not Mahmoud Khalil," he said. "The terror comes from the capitalists and their pawns."

The protest drew a larger and more ideologically diverse crowd than recent anti-Israel protests, reflecting the widespread outrage over Khalil’s detention. Speakers and signs tied Khalil’s arrest to issues including affordable housing, immigration, and constitutional rights.

Khalil was a leading organizer for the Columbia protest movement. Columbia protesters held disruptive demonstrations on campus starting soon after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, that have continued into recent weeks. Protesters have openly endorsed violence and US-designated terror groups, and Jewish and Israeli students and faculty have said the activists created a hostile and discriminatory environment. A university task force reported "crushing" discrimination against Jews and Israelis on campus.

The Columbia protest coalition includes the campus branch of Students for Justice in Paleostine. The group’s parent organization, National Students for Justice in Paleostine (NSJP), called for mass unrest on campuses across the US in response to Khalil’s arrest.

NSJP issued a statement on Sunday calling on activists to walk out of class, "take over central spaces on campus, and assert our mass power." The protest activities were scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. The statement was cosponsored by several other leading anti-Israel activist groups.

"The popular movement against Zionism, imperialism, and fascism will not shy away in the face of federal threats," the statement said.

An array of politicians and ~~Red Guards~~ liberal groups lined up behind Khalil, including the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations

... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
. More than 1.3 million people signed a letter calling for his release. New York State Attorney General Letitia James said she was "extremely concerned" and in touch with Khalil’s lawyer.

DEBATES OVER FREE SPEECH
Khalil is the first confirmed case of a detention for possible deportation after Trump’s vow to crack down on student protesters. Authorities have not announced charges against Khalil, who had a green card, according to his lawyer.

The Department of Homeland Security said, "Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization." US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
said on X, "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."

Trump said Khalil’s arrest was "the first arrest of many to come."

"We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it," Trump said. "Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again."

ICE’s online database said Khalil was born in Syria and is being held in jug in Louisiana.

A federal judge in New York City ordered Monday that Khalil not be deported while the court considered a legal challenge brought by his lawyers. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Disputes over Khalil’s detention hinge on free speech protections and immigration law.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, issued a letter to the administration seeking more information about Khalil’s arrest.

"The statements the government has released suggest its decision may be based on his constitutionally protected speech. This lack of clarity is chilling protected expression," said FIRE, which has said that Columbia protests have included both protected speech and illegal conduct.

Will Creeley, FIRE’s legal director, said that if there are allegations about material support for terrorism, "you really need to see those."

"Simple, independent advocacy on behalf of a terrorist organization, however reprehensible some, many, or even all Americans might find it, is still protected by the First Amendment," Creeley told The Times of Israel.

Support for Hamas would become illegal if it was coordinated with the terrorist group, Creeley said. Free speech also does not cover targeted threats, discriminatory harassment, and incitement to imminent violence.

"It’s very much a stretch to think that activities ’aligned’ with Hamas are enough to justify this kind of action," Creeley stated. "Folks who would find pro-Hamas advocacy abhorrent should understand that the First Amendment protects your rights just as well, and to defend the rights of those who disagree with you is the best guarantor of your own rights."

GROUNDS FOR DEPORTATION
Two legal experts said authorities have grounds for deporting Khalil.

Federal laws say aliens are inadmissible to the US, or "deportable," if they engage in terrorist activities, including anyone who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization." Green card holders are considered aliens.

Last week, at a protest Khalil attended at Columbia affiliate Barnard College, demonstrators passed out pamphlets from the "Hamas media office," and photos of the late Hezbollah terror chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
, according to students at the scene. Hamas and Hezbollah are US-designated terrorist groups.

Federal authorities appeared to take notice of last week’s protest. A Trump administration antisemitism task force warned the university it would cut its public funding shortly before the protest, then announced the cancellation of $400 million in federal funding for the university shortly afterward, saying that "chaos and antisemitic harassment have continued on and near campus" since the warning.

Distributing Hamas pamphlets could be grounds for deportation, said Ted Frank, senior attorney at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, which has filed litigation against anti-Israel groups that have blocked traffic at US protests.

"The pamphleting, at least under congressional law, says, ’Yeah, deport for that,’ and the Biden administration could have done that, but they weren’t enforcing that law, so the Trump administration is enforcing that law," Frank said. "Under the law, even just espousing support for Hamas is enough for deportation."

Frank added that voicing support for terrorist activities, and not a specific terror group, is grounds for deportation, according to the law’s wording, and there is also no difference under the law between having a green card or a student visa.

Americans’ speech in support of Hamas is protected by the First Amendment, but different rules apply for immigration and deportation, Frank said.

Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney and professor at New York’s Cardozo School of Law, said that if the government launched an investigation and found evidence that Khalil supported Hamas before he received a green card, they could revoke his status.

"Immigration laws are clear — that if he lied on his green card application about his support of Hamas, they could rescind his green card," Wildes said.

If the government found evidence Khalil supported Hamas after receiving a green card, prosecutors could make a case for his deportation in criminal or immigration court, Wildes said. Wildes is a Jewish Democrat, the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, and Melania Trump’s immigration lawyer.

"Until you’re an American citizen, you can be deported from the United States," he said.

Creeley disagreed that Khalil could be deported, saying, "That read of the law is overly expansive and gives the government power it does not have."

Link

Terror Networks

Controversial Muslim charity (CAIR) accused of links to Hamas settles lawsuit rather than disclosing sources of funding

2025-03-01

[NY Post] A Washington-based Muslim nonprofit, which is one of the largest operating across the US, agreed this week to settle a case brought by a former board member and employee rather than open its books to reveal sources of foreign funding, The Post has learned.

Evidence in past court proceedings has shown links between The Council on American-Islamic Relations Foundation Inc. and both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Links??? CAIR is the original branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, while Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood in the Palestinian Territories.

CAIR Inc. settled with Lori Saroya Thursday, months after US Magistrate Judge David Schultz ruled any assets owned by the group are all within the "scope of permissible discovery" as part of the former Minnesota chapter leader’s lawsuit against the controversial Muslim rights group.

Saroya filed her federal defamation complaint against CAIR last year after the group dropped a lawsuit against her, which accused her of embarking on a "defamation campaign" against the organization.

CALL FOR FEDERAL PROBE
Lawmakers are demanding a federal investigation into the nonprofit,

Yes, please. Guys, the Rantburg archives date back to 9/11/2001 and have references to articles and events even older. Y’all are welcome to search using all related key words, if that will get you up and running more quickly. Lots, for instance, on the Holy Land Foundation, among a great many others…

which took in more than $5.3 million in contributions and grants in 2022, the last year for which public filings are available.

Grants? Any connections to USAID?

"CAIR’s leadership has a long history of spewing vile antisemitism and anti-Zionist rhetoric, including openly praising the Hamas terrorists that brutally attacked Israel, murdering, raping, and kidnapping more than 1,200 people on October. 7 [2023]," said Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic Congressman from New Jersey.

Referring to court proceedings which showed the links, he added: “The allegations that CAIR receives funding from Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, if true, are deeply concerning and require an immediate investigation.”

From? Maybe. To, however, most definitely.

CAIR, which was founded in 1993, was linked to Hamas in 2008 when US authorities successfully prosecuted five leaders at the Holy Land Foundation For Relief and Development, a now-defunct Texas-based nonprofit, for giving more than $12 million from the US to the terror group.

Once the HLF was compromised, a new group with no obvious ties to Hamas had to become the funnel for cash; US Authorities concluded that was CAIR during its prosecution of the earlier group, as cited in a report by The Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

Evidence in the trial against HLF showed that Ghassan Elashi, the treasurer of the charity, became the founding board member of CAIR’s Texas chapter and that HLF transferred funds to CAIR for “consulting services.”

The prosecution also presented evidence that Hamas provided “seed money” for CAIR, according to a congressional hearing.

UNDISCLOSED AMOUNT
“The history is very clear,” said Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Program on Extremism at GWU.

“CAIR was created by this core group of Hamas leaders in the US in the early 1990s. There are FBI wiretaps of a workshop given by the group’s leaders on how to deal with the media and create a veneer of respectability and use the language of civil rights.”

CAIR is the now the largest Muslim civil rights group in the country, and includes 33 chapters, including two in California.

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

High-ranking gamer banned for pro-Israel stance could forge new legal precedent for US Jews

2025-02-27

[IsraelTimes] Lawsuit against gaming competitions that shut out a Zionist Jewish competitor aims to open a new front in the court battles over antisemitism and anti-Israel activism

In the fall of 2021, professional gamer Felix Hasson was hiking in the West Bank’s Wadi Qelt, a valley cut through the biblical landscape’s limestone hills between Jerusalem and Jericho.

The Jewish-American Hasson, then a teenager, was listening to Kanye West’s latest album, "Donda," during the hike.

"In the west bank bumpin carti... i got to introduce these settlements to off the grid," he posted on Twitter, referring to a song on the album featuring rapper Playboi Carti. (At the time, West, now known as Ye, had not yet posted any antisemitic tirades online.)

The tweet and others would surface more than two years later, after Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, getting Hasson banned from several high-level online gaming competitions, according to a federal lawsuit filed in December in New York. Hasson is suing the competitions for excluding him in a case that his legal team hopes will set a legal precedent for other industries — online and off. The case also illustrated the evolving tactics in legal battles over antisemitism and anti-Zionism as both Israel’s advocates and its opponents take to the courts.

Hasson, a 21-year-old from New York, is a professional gamer specializing in Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. He began competing in online tournaments in 2020, and by 2022, was ranked third in Israel while residing there during a gap year.

Playing under the pseudonym T_pot, Hasson was ranked 19th in the world for gamers playing as Terry, one of Smash’s characters.

The lawsuit argues that, although Hasson’s family is from the US, he considers Israel his "ultimate place of national origin" due to his Jewish ethnic and religious identity. That definition would protect Hasson’s Zionism under Title II of the US Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law ensures equality in "public accommodations," including sports arenas, without discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.

"What we’re doing is we’re really pushing for case law that when you tell a Jewish person that you’re not going to include them in your place of public accommodation because they support Israel, that alone constitutes discrimination," said Hasson’s lawyer, Matthew Mainen.

Hasson grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where he attended events hosted by the area’s branch of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. He told The Times of Israel he had dreamed of becoming a competitive gamer since the sixth grade. He tried different games before settling on his strongest, Smash, around 2020.

After the tweet posted during his West Bank hike, Hasson shared several other pro-Israel posts. He called a meme shared by the IDF "based," and joked about Paleostinian Smash players using bombs in the game in a jab at Hamas rockets. On October 7, he said on X, formerly Twitter, "gaza got something big coming their way for sure," and two months later, laughed at an X post showing a user celebrating the Hamas attack, then lamenting the IDF response.

Hasson said that another gamer had seen one of his posts about Israel, then dug up the others and contacted tournament organizers. In December 2023, the other gamer shared screenshots of Hasson’s posts and asked organizers for Luminosity, a gaming company, "why is this racist zionist weasel allowed at your events?"

"Israel is committing genocide and anyone who cheers it on should be treated with appropriate scorn," he said.

In response, a Luminosity organizer said Hasson had been removed from an upcoming event in New York.

"Have been running events all day, just got to this and he has been removed," a tournament organizer posted on X, following the statement with a thumbs-up emoji.

The announcement "gained a lot of traction," Hasson said, prompting other competitions to follow suit. None of the organizers spoke to him before removing him, he said. Nearly all of the competitions Hasson was banned from were held in person.

"For the weeks after it happened, several weeks, I just felt a constant tightness in my chest, just really worried," Hasson said. The cancellations took place during his winter break from college, and his mother worried about him returning to campus.

"What if news of this had gone around campus, and then what if my safety was in danger?" he said. "Like, ’Oh, he’s a Zionist, get him.’ It was very, very unpleasant, frightening."

ZIONISM = JUDAISM?
The lawsuit said Luminosity has allowed players who posted anti-Israel vitriol online to continue competing, despite the ban against pro-Israel Hasson. Posts shared by players named in the lawsuit said, "Israel is evil," mocked Israel’s counter-offensive in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
with Holocaust imagery, defended Hamas, shared conspiracy theories saying Israel caused most of its October 7 casualties, called Israelis "colonial oppressors," and accused Israel of genocide.

The pattern repeated with several other gaming forums that banned Hasson, but not gamers who espoused anti-Israel vitriol. One organizer, from the Waypoint gaming cafe in New York, accused Hasson of "incitement to hate and violence" and told him that all tournaments in the New York region had unanimously decided to ban him from competitions, the lawsuit said. Mainen said the double standard constituted "disparate treatment," an illegal form of discrimination.

Jewish legal advocates have sought to define Zionism as a facet of the Jewish faith, and not a political belief, to protect pro-Israel Jews, and combat anti-Zionism, under US civil rights protections. The argument has been widely used in cases involving Title VI, which bars discrimination in programs that receive federal financial assistance, to combat anti-Zionism on campuses that get government funding. It has not been effectively tested under Title II, though, said Mark Goldfelder, the director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC), the legal group backing Hasson.

"What we did in this case is we used public accommodations law to try and make it clear that excluding Zionists from whatever space it might be, including in this instance, e-platforms, would constitute a violation of Title II," Goldfelder said. "We want to take this Title II approach, public accommodations law, and bring it into the fuller civil rights conversation."

He hopes that, if the lawsuit is successful, it will extend Title II protections for pro-Israel Jews to forums such as music venues, sports competitions and bookstores, where Jewish, "Zionist" authors have been excluded. Mainen pointed to a pro-Israel activist in Oakland, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, who was ejected from a pro-Hamas cafe for wearing a hat with the Star of David.

"The precedent that this case might set would really focus in on not just video games, but any place that’s offering services that’s attempting to deny them on the basis of someone’s support for Israel," Mainen said. "It’s going to be the launch point for a lot of cases in the future."

The lawsuit could also affect the gaming industry directly and other digital spaces. Jewish gamers have reported widespread antisemitism online, and NJAC has been approached for legal protection from people being abused in the metaverse.

"There’s really no statute right now to rely on, but as the lines between virtual reality and what I would call ’our world’ become increasingly blurred, e-sports, just as much as anything else, is a place where people can experience discrimination," said Ben Schlager, senior counsel at NJAC.

The lawsuit also aims to challenge Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, a federal law that protects online platforms from civil liability for third-party content by its users. Facebook cannot be sued, for example, if one user defames another on its platform. The law only protects the service providers if they are acting in "good faith," however, meaning they are not liable for decisions on content moderation if those decisions are made in a fair and reasonable way.

"You’re banning them because you want to discriminate against them. We would argue that that’s bad faith. You can’t racially discriminate, you can’t nationally origin discriminate, you can’t religiously discriminate against someone," Mainen said. "It’s been tough to successfully challenge, but we think that this discrimination component is going to be able to pierce the immunity of internet service providers."

Mainen pointed out that US Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas has signaled he is open to challenging such discriminatory bans.

"We’re willing to take this all the way up to the Supreme Court. We see an invitation from Justice Thomas," he said.

LAWFARE TO OPEN NEW FRONTIERS
The lawsuit could mark a new front in the legal battle being waged over the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, and related discrimination, in the US. Jewish groups like NJAC, the Lawfare Project and the Brandeis Center have used the courts to advocate for Jews, efforts that have gained steam since October 7. On the other side, groups like Paleostine Legal, the Council on American-Islamic Relations'>Council on American-Islamic Relations

... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
and the New York Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union have filed lawsuits for pro-Paleostinian activists. Some universities, like Columbia, are being battered from both sides.

Samuel Estreicher, the director of the Center for Labor and Employment at New York University’s School of Law, is not involved in the Hasson case. He reviewed the lawsuit and said that Zionism was a political idea, not religious, but that Title II could apply to the case due to Hasson’s religious identity. Title II covers religion, but not politics, he said.

"If you’re treating Jews differently because they adopt certain views with respect to Israel, differently than other groups, then that’s a basis for religious discrimination under Title II, I would argue," Estreicher said.

He added that the case, if successful, could set a precedent by putting gaming forums under public accommodations law. It could also open the door to further, similar Title II cases involving Jewish issues. The precedent could be influential, but would be non-binding, meaning other courts would not be required to follow the same decision in similar cases, he said. Title II was an important tool for advocates in the civil rights era, but is not widely used today, he added.

The lawsuit filed in New York’s federal Southern District Court requested that the court declare that the bans against Hasson were unlawful, that the gaming forums take him off the blacklist, and pay $1 million in damages to Hasson.

Luminosity and Waypoint did not respond to requests for comment and did not yet have legal representation listed in the case.

Hasson said he is still banned from competing in New York, but plays in Texas, where he attends Houston
...a city in Texas, named after Sam Houston, who would drop deader than he is now if he could see how it turned out...
’s Rice University and keeps a mezuzah on his door. He knows the gaming community in Houston, which welcomes him as a player and defends him when out-of-towners try to eject him from the area’s competitions. Other gamers have also highlighted the case, pointing out the double standard organizers applied against Hasson.

Hasson said he hopes the lawsuit will result in an apology, his reinstatement in competitions, and send a wider message.

"I hope that by winning this case, it sends the message that you’re allowed to voice positive feelings about Israel and not fear that the entire community will shut you down and kick you out forever," he said.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Florida Man: Jewish Florida man arrested after shooting 2 Israelis he thought were Palestinians

2025-02-18

[IsraelTimes] Mordechai Brafman tells police he killed both men, though victims, a father and son, escaped with just a grazing and shoulder injury

A Jewish man in Miami Beach was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts of attempted murder, a day after opening fire at a car in which he said he saw “two Palestinians” inside.

However, police said that the victims were actually two Jewish Israelis visiting the US. The victims, Ari Rabey and his father, initially thought they were being targeted in an antisemitic attack..

Mordechai Brafman, 27, was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after he shot at the car 17 times with a semiautomatic handgun on Saturday.

Police said there was no altercation between Brafman and the two victims before the shooting, which they described as unprovoked, reports said.

According to the arrest sheet, Brafman said that while he was driving his truck, “he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.”

Neither victim was killed. One was hit in the left shoulder, while the other was grazed by a bullet.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for Brafman to be charged with a hate crime, which would increase the severity of his offenses.

And so he should be.

Brafman, who is married, gave his occupation as plumber, reports said.

Most plumbers are pretty smart, I thought. Clearly it isn’t a requirement after all.

A year ago he was interviewed by local media after vandalism to a bagel store on Miami Beach that had displayed an Israeli flag, Hebrew media reported. At the time Brafman called for more unity and less conflict between people.

Ari Rabey, who was hit in the shoulder, later posted to his Facebook page about the shooting.

“Dear Jews,” he began and then explained that he was in Miami with his father.

“They tried to kill us for nationalistic reasons,” he wrote.

Rabey went on to explain that his father had been wearing a yarmulke on his head when they were driving in the car at the time of the shooting.

Surveillance video posted to social media showed the Rabeys seeking help from a building they drove to. One of the men can be seen with blood on his shoulder.

The two men later spoke to the local ABC 10 News station with Ari talking in Hebrew which was translated by his cousin. Ari said that Brafman pulled up alongside their car, rolled down his window, and opened fire. Even as they tried to drive away, Brafman kept firing, bullets hitting the back of their car with one round grazing his father’s ear as he drove the vehicle.

Ari at first thought his father had been shot in the head, he recalled.

“God gave me my life as a gift,” he said. He was treated at the hospital and later released.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Former CAIR-KY gov’t affairs director accosts random Jew in Manhattan office building hallway, demands ISIS jihad on recording witnesses

2025-02-08

[X] If someone could translate whatever nasty thing she is saying in Arabic, that would be lovely.

🚨Meet Noora Shalash, Director of Government Affairs for CAIR-Kentucky.

She really let the mask slip that this is a harmless civil rights organization when she yells “I demand Jihad, I want ISIS to kill all of you.”

Great job @jewhatedb 💪 pic.twitter.com/fRxGLpW7Zx
— Jason Curtis Anderson (@JCAndersonNYC) February 7, 2025

A longer version of which the above is an excerpt:

Midtown Manhattan - crazed antisemite assaults a visible Jew and gets arrested.

“F*ck the Jew … f*ck the Zionists” she says confidently. pic.twitter.com/EdmTR2UzWg
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) February 7, 2025

‘F—k the Jew, F—k the Zionist’: Former CAIR Director Launches Antisemitic Tirade in Manhattan
[Algemeiner] A former senior employee of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was caught on camera launching a profane and antisemitic tirade at Jewish men in New York City in a viral video posted to social media on Thursday.

Noora Shalash, who previously worked as the director of government affairs for CAIR’s Kentucky branch, was confronted by an individual in an office building after allegedly harassing a "visibly Jewish man." After being grilled for her alleged conduct, Shalash then went on an antisemitic diatribe.

"F—k the Jew. F—k the Zionist," Shalash said.

Shalash then said that she "loves Jesus" and claimed Jews "dishonor the Virgin Mary and call her a ’whore.'" She also called the man recording the video a "b—ch" and swiped her hand at his cellphone. A security guard intervened and physically pulled Shalash away while she appeared to continue attempting to assault the man.

"This is what Jews have to deal with in New York City," the man said.

The video, which was obtained and posted on X/Twitter by the watchdog group StopAntisemitism, quickly went viral on social media, gaining nearly 600,000 views within 16 hours.

CAIR National responded to the viral incident, claiming that Shalash had not been employed by the organization for five years and currently has "no other role at our civil rights group."

"We condemn and reject the antisemitic comments in the video, just as we condemn and reject the anti-Paleostinian racism and anti-Moslem hate," the organization added.
*Wink Wink*
A picture circulated on social media showing CAIR identifying Shalash as a bigwig as of October 2020.

CAIR has long been a controversial organization. In the 2000s, the organization was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that "US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ’ample evidence to establish the association'" of CAIR with the Paleostinian terrorist group Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), "some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas." CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it "unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ’Foreign Terrorist Organization.'"

CAIR leaders have also found themselves embroiled in further controversy since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The head of CAIR, for example, said he was "happy" to witness Hamas’s rampage of rape, murder, and kidnapping of Israelis in what was the largest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

"The people of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7," CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Moslems for Paleostine convention in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
last November. "And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.

Two commenters on the Instapundit post on the subject claimed to know/know about the Shalash family of Lexington, Kentucky. Bottom line, they are an immigrant clan of violent criminals, the kind who'll pull an AK-47 on a schoolboy who annoyed one of the youngsters of the family. Wanting evidence (of course!), I did a search, and discovered two articles about men with the same name and antecedents, so presumably relatives. The first, a report from the sixth federal appeals court, informs us that the FBI agrees with the Instapunditeers — one of the family appealed his federal conviction for stealing and trafficking in stolen baby formula on the basis that “…eight weeks prior to his trial, CBSNews reported that the FBI had traced money from baby formula traffickers to terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah…” and “…FBI Director Robert Mueller [told a reporter] that sales of black market baby formula have been used to fund terrorist organizations.”

A local newspaper informs us that a man with the same name, so presumably also a relative, a former imam for the Islamic Center of Lexington, went to jail for conspiring to a murder-for-hire of a third man who owed him money.

Link

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