A prominent Muslim nonprofit organization linked in a federal court case to Hamas is crying foul after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cut an estimated $8 million in security grants to Muslim American groups accused of “alleged affiliations to terrorist activities.”
Yet, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has urged Muslim American groups to reject DHS grants, bears direct responsibility for corrupting the federal government’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
For years, CAIR helped promote the security program among radical mosques and Islamic centers. Now, CAIR claims that the government is cutting off funds to Muslim nonprofits merely because of their “criticism of Israel’s genocide.”
In a statement to Fox News, CAIR insisted that “the government cannot ban American organizations from receiving federal grants based on their religious affiliation or their criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
In truth, DHS pulled security grants to dozens of radical organizations in response to a Middle East Forum report, written by this author, that exposed $25 million in historical DHS grants to groups with ideological links to terrorism. CAIR, which placed American communities at risk when it helped extremist groups apply for security funding, dismissed the report as “ravings.”
Published on July 21, “Homeland Insecurity: Unraveling DHS Funding of Terror-Linked and Extremist Groups,” went as far back as the Obama administration to identify DHS grants to 501(c) nonprofits with ties Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, among others. The lionshare of this funding was allocated through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which administered grants for security improvements to houses of worship, such as bulletproof glass, surveillance cameras, and armed security guards.
There is nothing in the 10,000-word report to suggest that political criticism of Israel resulted in any group’s disqualification. Instead, the study documents antisemitic sermons and anti-Jewish conspiracies expressed at government-funded Islamist mosques. It shows how taxpayer dollars went to mosques that harbored 9/11 hijackers and other terror suspects.
Imagine a federal grant program that paid Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, to fortify their compound prior to the deadly government siege of 1993. FEMA grants were used to beef up security at mosques and community centers belonging to insular, fundamentalist Islamic sects that discourage social integration and celebrate acts of terrorism.
How did a government agency responsible for protecting America’s homeland come to fund so many radicals?
The answer lies in FEMA’s partnership with CAIR, a group that was listed as an unindicted co-contractor in a federal terror finance case. Last month, Sen. Tom Cotton published a letter calling on the Internal Revenue Service “to investigate CAIR for ties to terrorists” and revoke its tax exempt status. Indeed, seven CAIR officials have been arrested, convicted, or deported for terrorism-related crimes.
Under Biden, CAIR served as the unofficial Muslim sponsor of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, helping extremist mosques and charities apply for the money at training seminars, sometimes with FEMA’s participation as guest presenters. As far back as 2015, the Islamist group sponsored events at terror-linked mosques in Florida, where Muslim congregations didn’t just learn about FEMA’s security grants—they also received firearms training from CAIR officials.
CAIR may even bear responsibility for the program’s vetting failures. With a history of lawsuits aimed at DHS and its subordinate agencies, CAIR advised nonprofits “facing grant application denials” to contact its offices, so it can ”work with FEMA” to “address the issue” and “ensure that Muslims are not inappropriately screened or barred from funding.”
Deny funds to a mosque, and CAIR could drag you to court.
Now that the Trump team is responsible for administering nonprofit security grants, CAIR is advising Muslims to steer clear of the program altogether, arguing that mosques could be used as “surveillance hubs for federal immigration or law enforcement.” In fact, new terms and conditions under the grant program require participants to cooperate with immigration authorities, including a pledge that they will not leak or otherwise publicize the existence of an immigration enforcement operation.”
This is a problem for CAIR, which has issued community advisories in the past warning illegal immigrants of imminent ICE raids. Immigration officials have attributed similar leaks to botched operations.
Although Trump’s DHS may have finally cut the cord on subsidized security at radical nonprofits, there’s nothing to stop the next administration from resuming these harmful practices. To ensure this chapter of mismanagement is never repeated, Congress members must act decisively, enshrining rigorous oversight and ironclad vetting into law. They can start by banning government partnerships with terrorist-supporting front organizations like CAIR.
Benjamin Baird is the director of MEF Action, a project of the Middle East Forum, and lead author of “Homeland Insecurity: Unraveling DHS Funding of Terror-Linked and Extremist Groups.”
