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CAIR’s claims of “Islamophobia” are unverified, self-serving, and designed to deflect scrutiny of subversive activities by Muslim groups in America.
The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released their report “The Right to Be Different” earlier this month. The report claims that CAIR received over 8k complaints of “Islamophobia” in 2025, an “all-time high”.
The 122-page document relies entirely on self-reported complaints without any external evidence, verification, or substantiation for the 8,683 total cases. It presents the numbers as “lived experiences of Islamophobia” (page 75) and patterns, not proven events. It offers no mechanism to verify claims, making trust in CAIR’s intake process the sole basis – leaving accusations against Americans (e.g., widespread employment discrimination, assaults, harassment) unsubstantiated beyond complainants’ words.
Everyone just has to accept that Americans are targeting Muslims. CAIR uses claims of “Islamophobia” to flip the conversation from legitimate scrutiny to accusations of anti-Muslim bigotry.
Deflecting Scrutiny by Flipping the Script
Despite the lack of publicly available raw data for independent verification, “The Right to Be Different” document received national attention.
For example, Kanishka Singh of Reuters reported (citing CAIR) that Islamophobia is on the rise in the wake of Somali fraud in Minnesota. Singh reported that due to President Donald Trump’s condemnation of Somali fraud, “CAIR’s Minnesota chapter reported 693 complaints, up from 353 in 2024.”
Further, “CAIR also noted targeting of Afghan immigrants after two National Guard soldiers were shot in Washington in November for which an Afghan was indicted.”
This statement refers to Afghan Muslim immigrant Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who “ambushed two National Guardsmen from Virginia, shooting them in cold blood before being taken down by another heroic guardsman with a pocketknife.” Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom was killed, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe was hospitalized in critical condition.
Wolfe (along with the posthumous award to Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom) received the Purple Heart during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on February 24, 2026, at the U.S. Capitol.
It is unclear, exactly, how “Afghan immigrants” experienced “Islamophobia” in the wake of the shooting.
The entire report “The Right to Be Different” is HERE:
The Methodology
Americans also have to take CAIR’s word on the 8,683 complaints of anti-Muslim bias, which are reported through a self-reported intake process. Individuals submit complaints directly to CAIR via phone, email, or the organization’s online complaint form. The final figures represent reported allegations only, with no public release of raw or anonymized individual data available for journalists or researchers.
A form, prominently on the CAIR National website homepage, invites users to submit their allegations.
Verbatim from the report:
Each year, thousands of Americans contact CAIR through a variety of media, including telephone, email, and our online complaint system. When possible, CAIR staff may also reach out to offer their services to individuals whose incidents were reported in news sources and not directly to CAIR. With each complaint, case intake staff review preliminary materials and conduct interviews with prospective clients as part of the confidential intake process. These nationwide intake staff will then classify the case using the complaint category definitions provided earlier in this report. Each CAIR office that does intakes then submits their annual totals to the research and advocacy team.
No requirement for police reports, court documents, medical records, or other proof is mentioned.
The CAIR Press Conference
To discuss the CAIR report, Corey Saylor (Research and Advocacy Director, CAIR) held a press conference with CAIR’s National Litigation Director and General Counsel, Lena Masri.
Like all of CAIR’s statements against Americans, Saylor’s statements were vague accusations, many of which were directed toward President Trump and government officials. He declared, for example, that “a group of powerful public officials asserted that freedom comes with conditions: you must speak approved lines, worship in approved ways, trace your ancestry to approved places, and think approved thoughts.”
Government Cuts are Islamophobic
“We saw efforts to claim that democracy only works for certain people,” Saylor continued, referring to welcome staff cuts in government offices such as in the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education. The move was to fulfill a campaign promise to streamline the government.
The cuts impacted approximately 238,000 federal employees, which leaves 2,035,344 taxpayer-funded federal government employees, not including:
- the 600k who work for the United States Postal Service, or
- federal contractors, which outnumber federal employees by “two to one” which means that there are over 4 million contractors, costing taxpayers an additional $833.8 billion annually, or
- approximately 5.5 million state government employees, also funded by the taxpayer.
So, while 238,000 federal employees seems like a lot, unfortunately it is really a drop in the bucket.
CAIR: Islamophobia at ‘All-Time High’
Saylor explained that much of the Islamophobia that CAIR saw in 2024 was due to people “supporting Palestinian humanity” but in 2025, “the drivers appear more mixed due to resurfacing anti-Muslim narratives.”
According to Saylor, “complaints rose … in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Texas” in the last three years. He attributed this in part to President Trump’s “disparaging comments about Somali Americans and the launch of Operation Metro Surge”. He continued to state that “Texas stands out due to actions by Governor [Greg] Abbott and Attorney General [Ken] Paxton targeting Muslim civic and religious life, including Islamic centers, burial practices, mediation, schools, and CAIR itself.”
RAIR has delved deeply into the subversive Internal/External Strategy of all of the states Saylor listed, and others. The goal of the “front facing”, or “external”, Muslims such as imams and politicians, is to ultimately dominate the West, and America in particular. The few heroes who fight back are not harming Muslims, but are in fact empowering those Muslims who are shielded from their fellow Americans through a cradle-to-grave parallel society. This concept, verbalized by RAIR founder Amy Mek, is vital to understand the true subversive nature of Islam in America.
While CAIR and their allies seek to exploit Muslims, those who call out this subversive behavior seek to empower Muslims to embrace the Western countries they inhabit.
Pro-Hamas Re-Framed as ‘Pro-Palestine’
Saylor lamented that “government officials used collective and ideological punishment to target citizens and non-citizens who are perceived to be ethnically and ideologically undesirable.” He named four individuals:
- Rümeysa Öztürk, whose “aggressive anti-Israel activism” was addressed at RAIR.
- Mahmud Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder and Columbia graduate student who allegedly distributed pro-Hamas flyers in the wake of the October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel.
Pro-Hamas Flyer Allegedly Distributed by Mahmud Khalil
- Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University postdoctoral student in the United States on a student visa, was accused of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” Further, he was accused of having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
- Sami Hamdi, “an anti-Israel agitator” who expressed “euphoria” after the October 7 massacre. RAIR reported on extensively Hamdi, who was ultimately removed from America.
Watch RAIR TV’s special report on Sami Hamdi:
These non-citizens were not considered for removal for advocating for “Palestine” but rather for supporting Hamas, an officially designated foreign terrorist organization.
It is not at all surprising that CAIR would support Hamas supporters, as CAIR leader Nihad Awad could not help his own euphoria over the October 7th Hamas attack against Israel, stating that it was a source of “inspiration” and that he was “happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.” Even Joe Biden’s White House was forced to distance itself in the wake of Awad’s vile comments.
Texas and Florida
Saylor claimed that Texas and Florida were launching “broad attacks on Muslim life simply for being Muslim,” including Florida’s attempts to pass state legislation that would “essentially ban the practice of Islam in the state.” He also noted the federal “Sharia Free America Caucus” (launched by Texas Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self in December 2025) as part of resurfacing anti-Muslim narratives, advancing bills like H.R. 5722 (Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act), which bars foreign nationals “adhering to Sharia” from entry or staying in the U.S., and H.R. 5512 (No Shari’a Act), which restricts courts from enforcing Sharia-based judgments.
Saylor also lamented that Florida and Texas “went after Islamic schools and they also went after this organization.”
Thanks in large part to RAIR Foundation USA’s reporting on the deep Muslim Brotherhood influence on schools in Texas and Florida, state officials are taking notice. It is revealing how CAIR is completely supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood and other subversive Islamic groups controlling the education of children in America.
Lena Masri Weighs In
Next, Corey Saylor introduced attorney Lena Masri, who used to wear a hijab but evidently changed her mind. Rashida Tlaib, militant member of the “Squad” and representative of the Red/Green Axis, referred to Masri as a “phenomenal civil rights attorney” on X in 2018.
Masri stated that the CAIR report “reflects a broader landscape” of abuse against Muslims, whose “participation in American civic life is conditional…on whether their views are considered acceptable by those in power.”
Reflecting on a common theme of the report, Masri explains that there is a “growing effort to silence advocacy for Palestinian human rights.” This comment conveniently ignores pro-Hamas activism, such as in the case of aforementioned Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri, Mahmud Khalil and Sami Hamdi, all of whom were not simply advocating for people in Palestine, but expressing “euphoria” over Hamas’s targeted attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Consider that the four named in the CAIR press conference are the alleged examples of Islamophobia in America, yet each one of these non-citizen individuals was targeted for supporting a State Department designated foreign terrorist organization.
Masri doubles down on the false premise, stating that the report “documents how speech supporting Palestinian rights has increasingly been framed as suspicious or threatening…” It is “that framing”, she explains, that “has been used justify government investigations, campus discipline, and even immigration enforcement actions against individuals because of their political views.”
Masri continues:
“In Texas and Florida, state leaders took the extraordinary step of issuing official actions attempting to brand one of the country’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, this organization, as a terrorist group, an unprecedented use of government power that courts are now reviewing.”
RAIR Foundation USA has delved deeply into the Islamization of Texas and Florida, both of which have been targeted for decades while officials have largely looked away.
Masri stated that “public officials test the boundaries of the constitution by attempting to redefine who is allowed to participate fully in American civic life.” She continues to laud the courts, stating that “the story of Muslim civil rights in America today is not only about discrimination. It is also about the rule of law.”
“Again and again,” she continued, “when these cases reach the courts, judges and juries reaffirm the same basic constitutional principle. In the United States, the government does not get to decide whose speech is acceptable, whose religion is legitimate, or whose participation in civic life is allowed.” As an example, she cites the case of Reginald Clemons, et al. v. Anne L. Precythe, et al., where Muslim prisoners were rewarded by the court after allegedly being beaten for praying.
After the plaintiffs won, CAIR staff attorney Ahmad Kaki said that the case represented a “well-deserved victory for these men who were brutalized and punished for simply seeking to get closer to God.” The transcript of the case has not yet been released and media coverage has favored the plaintiffs.
Are Muslims a Part of America’s Founding?
Masri concluded her comments by stating that “Islam is an American religion.” She said that Islam “has been present in the United States since before the United States itself formed.” She continued to explain that Muslims have been victimized from the beginning, as they were slaves and therefore were unable to “contribute to writing the founding documents because they were working on plantations.”
“Anyone who attempts to say that our country is anything other than a nation where many faiths thrive and that Islam is an American religion is deceiving you for their own purposes,” Masri explained. “And we should all be very clear and aware of why politicians are putting forward certain agendas to exclude Americans from the ability to participate in the civic and religious life of this country.”
Lena Masri should familiarize herself with actual American history.
The Barbary Pirates, based in North African states like Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis, and Morocco, raided Mediterranean and Atlantic shipping in the 18th and early 19th centuries, seizing vessels, enslaving crews and passengers (including roughly 1.5 million Europeans and Americans from 1530 to 1780), and extorting tribute or ransom.
In 1785, when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams asked Tripoli’s ambassador in London why these unprovoked attacks targeted American ships, he explained that the Quran declared all non-Muslim nations sinners, giving Muslims the right and duty to wage war on them, enslave captives, and earn paradise for any Muslim killed in such battles.
This religious justification, documented in contemporary American accounts and later analyses like Christopher Hitchens’s “Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates,” framed the piracy as religiously sanctioned jihad rather than mere banditry, prompting early U.S. leaders to reject tribute and pursue military action to end the threat.
Clearly Islam has been incompatible with the American tradition from the beginning.
Watch the Press Conference here:
CAIR’s claims of “Islamophobia” are unverified, self-serving, and designed to deflect scrutiny of subversive activities by Muslim groups in America.
CAIR’s “The Right to Be Different” is not a genuine defense of civil rights but a calculated deflection tactic by a Hamas-linked organization long accustomed to weaponizing unverified claims of “Islamophobia” to shield subversive activities and silence legitimate scrutiny.
By inflating self-reported complaints into an “all-time high” without a shred of independent verification, and by reframing support for a designated terrorist group like Hamas as mere “advocacy for Palestinian human rights,” CAIR seeks to invert reality: portraying Americans who resist Islamic influence, from state leaders in Texas and Florida to federal officials enforcing immigration laws, as the true bigots.
History, from the Barbary Pirates’ religiously justified assaults on early America to today’s parallel societies and Muslim Brotherhood networks infiltrating education and civic life, shows that Islam’s incompatibility with Western freedoms is not new.
True empowerment for Muslims in America lies not in CAIR’s victimhood narrative or exploitation by radical groups, but in rejecting these front organizations and embracing the full embrace of American values that allow all to thrive without demanding submission or special exemptions.
Renee Nal is an investigative journalist and documentary film producer. This article has been cross-posted with permission from the RAIR Foundation.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
