The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a controversial Islamist organization, is the beneficiary of tens of millions of dollars of financing provided by the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), a multilateral governmental bank whose top shareholders include Iran, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, a Middle East Forum investigation has found.
In the heart of Washington D.C, just a few blocks from Union Station, CAIR and its network of nonprofits and LLC subsidiaries have managed and overseen the nearly-completed construction of a foreign-funded $18 million building project named “CAIR Plaza” — an effort to provide the terror-tied Islamist group with decades of future rental income.
For many years, CAIR has denied benefiting from foreign support.
Financed by the Islamic Development Bank, as part of a $30 million project, CAIR Plaza is listed by its D.C. developers as a $18.5 million endeavor, comprising “a 49-unit apartment building with retail space.”
The Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) has long been accused of serving as a vehicle for the financing of Islamism around the world. A 2021 lawsuit notes that the ISDB “manages the Al-Quds and the Al-Aqsa Funds, which are funds established by twelve Arab countries in order to provide financial support to the Palestinian intifada and provide money to the families of Palestinian homicide bombers.”
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies describes ISDB as “a multilateral bank in which Iran (a U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism) has a seven percent voting share” and notes that, “Members of IsDB’s current leadership have purportedly engaged in corruption, covered up money laundering operations, assisted Iran and its proxy Hezbollah to avoid U.S. sanctions, and supported Islamist terrorist organizations.”
As for CAIR, in 2009, the FBI blacklisted the group after federal prosecutors named the Islamist organization as an unindicted co-conspirator during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates designated CAIR as a terrorist organization. And in 2025, the state of Texas designated CAIR as a terrorist organization, citing its leadership’s reported links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Despite the ISDB’s multi-million-dollar support, a statement on CAIR’s website states that the group does not significantly benefit from foreign monies. Another page on its website claims: “CAIR does not receive funding from foreign organizations or governments.”
CAIR Plaza
The ISDB first approved the CAIR Plaza project in 2013, listing the estimated cost at $30 million, of which the bank would provide $11 million of sharia-compliant financing, along with $5 million from the Awqaf Properties Investment Fund, an ISDB project dedicated to building waqf [endowment] projects that “contribute to the sustainable socio-economic development of the Ummah.”
According to the ISDB, the objective of the CAIR Plaza project is to,
The project has an excellent location in Washington DC opposite the main train station. The land area is 880 m2. The project includes the establishment of a residential/commercial building with a total area of 8,400 m2, consisting of 74 apartments, office space of 2,030 m2 and car parking lots.”
Property tax records indicate the land where CAIR Plaza is being built, 201 K St NE, is owned by the Greater Washington LLC of Delaware.
CAIR founder Nihad Awad has served as an official of the LLC, which CAIR’s Washington Trust Foundation lists, in its own tax return, as a related legal entity.
The Washington Trust Foundation’s Schedule R indicates its relationship to both CAIR and the Greater Washington LLC of Delaware
The D.C. Department of Buildings indicates work paused on the CAIR Plaza construction, citing failed inspections
CAIR’s subsidiary acquired land all around 201 K St NE in D.C.
A 2005 property lease agreement in which CAIR head Nihad Awad (a.k.a. Nihad Hammad) signs as both the top official of both CAIR and the Greater Washington LLC of Delaware, which owns the CAIR Plaza property
Data published by the D.C. Department of Buildings also shows that Greater Washington acquired a significant number of properties around that same D.C. block.
The building firm behind the project, Banneker Ventures, has previously partnered with CAIR to sponsor events featuring the D.C. mayor, Muriel Bowser.
CAIR official Johari Abdul-Malik has claimed that the mayor will be attending the ribbon-cutting for CAIR Plaza. Currently, however, CAIR Plaza appears to be suffering some construction delays. The D.C. Department of Buildings’ database records multiple failed inspections at the property.
Other ISDB Beneficiaries
As noted by Brandy Shufutinsky and Pavak Patel at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the ISDB’s website “shows it has spent $13.1 million to support 44 K-12 schools in America.”
Those beneficiaries include the Brighter Horizons School in North Texas, which a Middle East Forum investigation previously found was established and staffed by Hamas-aligned operatives, and utilizes curricula that teaches hatred of “disbelievers” and lauds the work of banned terror charities. The school reportedly benefited from almost $1 million of ISDB support.
Other ISDB beneficiaries include a $6 million project for a mosque in Ohio and a $7.5 million commercial project to benefit a mosque in Minnesota.
The ISDB’s largest financing scheme is a $90 million project in New York City to build dormitory space in a 21-story residential tower for the Turken Foundation, a Turkish organization founded and managed by members of the authoritarian Turkish regime leader’s own family, and long accused of Islamist activities.
In Texas, the ISDB is funding the construction of ICI Oasis, an enormous residential project managed by the Islamic Center of Irving, a key component in Texas’s modernist Salafi movement. The ISDB has pledged $7 million to the project.
Inadequate Foreign Disclosure Rules
CAIR’s various nonprofit entities appear not to disclose the ISDB’s financial support. The Washington Trust Foundation’s most recent 990 tax returns reference the 201 K St project under its listed assets, valuing a “CONST PROJECT 2ANDK CAIR” at over $17 million. And its listed liabilities include almost $9 million for a “2ND AND K PROJECT.” There is no apparent mention of the source of these funds.
This is not the first time CAIR has benefited from ISDB support. In 1999, CAIR’s headquarters was reportedly funded with $250,000 of ISDB monies. That same year, CAIR reportedly arranged a $2.1 million loan with the Bank of Kuwait.
In 2008, the ISDB provided a $100,000 “grant” to CAIR “for the Upgrading of [its] Leadership Training Center.” The grant was approved during a meeting of the bank’s leadership in Tehran.
Within the 501(c) system, in contrast to rules concerning foreign fundraising for donations and grants, foreign loans do not apparently impose public disclosure requirements on the recipient nonprofit, other than the numerical addition to the total disclosed sum of liabilities.
Repayment of a foreign loan may trigger disclosure rules. However, so far, the Washington Trust Foundation does not appear to have made any repayments (or, at least, it has not reported any), in spite of the ISDB’s first disbursement occurring over seven years ago –– some $1.7 million in 2019.
In the 2023 report for the ISDB’s Awqaf fund, it lists the bank’s arrangement with the Washington Trust as a form of sharia loan known as istisna, in which, typically, the lender contracts directly with the contractor tasked with producing the financed asset; the beneficiary only begins to pay back the sum once the construction of the asset is completed.
This arrangement may explain the opacity of CAIR’s public financial records. However, even if CAIR (that is, its Washington Trust Foundation) is not the immediate and direct recipient of ISDB’s monies, there is a clear and enormous increase in the Foundation’s assets at the 201 K St address (land its subsidiary owns), jumping from $2 million in 2021 to over $17 million just three years later. That is, foreign government-backed financing is reflected but not disclosed.
At the very least, America’s 501(c) system and its disclosure requirements are insufficiently prepared to handle the problem and complexities of sharia financing from hostile foreign institutions.
