A sweeping new investigation has intensified scrutiny of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) after uncovering that California officials funneled more than $40 million in taxpayer money to the groups state chapter despite years of allegations linking the organization to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to The Post Millennial, CAIR, which brands itself as a civil rights organization representing Muslim Americans, was previously named by the Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General as an unindicted co-conspirator in the landmark United States v. Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case. Federal authorities identified CAIR as part of the Muslim Brotherhoods Palestine Committee and as an entity created to support Hamas operations in the United States, with government evidence in that case having linked CAIR leaders to Hamas, a specially designated terrorist organization.
A new report in City Journal by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo found that the California Department of Social Services has directed at least $41 million to CAIR-California over the past five years, much of it derived from federal funding streams. The authors argue that this massive public investment has flowed to an organization that federal investigators have long associated with Islamist networks hostile to American and Israeli interests.
The report notes that California first awarded CAIR-CA $7.2 million in 2022 through a program intended to provide immigration-related legal services. CAIR-CA asserted that the grant would enable its Afghan Legal Services Project to assist approximately 1,800 people, yet public records requests cited by investigators could not verify how many legal cases were actually handled under the program.
Rather than pause or reassess in light of those transparency concerns, California officials dramatically expanded the funding. In September 2025, the California Department of Social Services approved an additional $23 million in federal taxpayer dollars for CAIR-CA, effectively deepening the states financial partnership with the controversial group.
The City Journal investigation further alleges that CAIR-CA has used its position as a primary grantee to redistribute millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subgrants to organizations with documented Islamist ties. In 2024 alone, CAIR-CA reportedly disbursed more than $4 million to 39 separate organizations, raising alarms among critics who see a publicly financed ecosystem of radical activism taking shape under the guise of social services.
One of the most notable beneficiaries was the Muslim American Society (MAS), which received roughly $185,000 from CAIR-CA. The George Washington University Program on Extremism has identified MAS as a Brotherhood legacy group in the United States, language that underscores its ideological lineage from the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement whose political agenda runs counter to Western democratic and constitutional norms.
CAIR-CA also reportedly sent $30,000 to the Islamic Society of Orange County, which the report linked to individuals connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Another $117,000 went to California chapters of the Islamic Circle of North America, an organization rooted in the Jamaat-e-Islami movement, a South Asian Islamist current that has been widely criticized for its extremist positions and hostility to pluralistic values.
These revelations arrive as Republican-led states are moving decisively to distance themselves from CAIR and to treat it as a security concern rather than a civil rights partner. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated CAIR a terrorist organization last year, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed suit, citing CAIRs status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case as justification for cutting ties.
CAIR has consistently denied any affiliation with extremist organizations, but the City Journal report revisits the groups origins inside the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Palestine Committee. A George Washington University Program on Extremism report described that committee as part of the US-based Hamas infrastructure, a characterization that places CAIRs founding squarely within a network designed to advance the interests of a designated terrorist group.
During the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism-financing prosecution in American history, federal investigators uncovered what prosecutors described as a Hamas support network operating on U.S. soil. While CAIR was never criminally charged, the court found ample evidence connecting the organization to Hamas, and former FBI Special Agent Lara Burns, who led the investigation, told City Journal that CAIR functioned as part of a broader network designed to shield Hamas-linked interests from law enforcement and media scrutiny.
Steve Emerson, founder and director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, previously told the Jewish News Syndicate that CAIR was created as a Hamas front group and still functions as a propaganda arm of Hamas to this day. Such assessments from veteran counterterrorism researchers have long fueled conservative skepticism toward CAIRs claims of being a mainstream civil rights organization.
The City Journal report also catalogues inflammatory statements by CAIR leaders following Hamas October 7 terrorist onslaught against Israel. Zahra Billoo, executive director of CAIRs San Francisco office, posted We are witnessing decolonization on the very day Hamas terrorists massacred more than 1,200 Israelis, and months later she referred to slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a martyr.
Billoo further advised her followers that they can express hatred against Zionists in private, but should not write "I hate all Zionists" on their social media profiles, urging them instead to be "strategic." For many observers, such guidance reveals a deliberate effort to conceal extremist sentiments from public view while maintaining a radical ideological posture behind the scenes.
CAIR-CA CEO Hussam Ayloush has likewise drawn condemnation for rhetoric that echoes the propaganda of Israels enemies. He compared Israel to Nazi Germany and declared that Israel should be attacked, while national CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad sparked outrage after publicly stating he was happy to see Palestinians breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, remarks made in reference to Hamas October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians that left 1,200 dead and over 240 taken hostage.
Those comments ultimately forced even the Biden administration, which has often courted progressive activist groups, to distance itself from CAIR. The White House removed CAIR from its task force on antisemitism in late 2024, a move that underscored how extreme the organizations public statements had become in the wake of the Hamas atrocities.
On Tuesday, Abbott announced what he described as a major legal victory against CAIR after a federal court granted his request for donor records and travel details tied to the organization. Last year, CAIR opted to settle a case with a former employee rather than open its financial books to scrutiny that could have revealed its sources of foreign funding, a decision that only deepened conservative concerns about the groups transparency and allegiances.
Progress in my legal fight against CAIR, Abbott wrote. I declared CAIR a Foreign Terrorist Organization. They sued to block it. I demanded CAIR give us its donor list, donee list, and details for Nihad Awads travel to 9 countries hosting Islamic terror. A federal court granted my request.
The controversy has also cast a spotlight on CAIRs growing efforts to influence American politics by backing radical candidates, often to the left of already liberal Democrats. In Washington state, chapter head and executive director Imraan Siddiqi is running for the state House with the endorsement of anti-Israel activist Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), following a history of anti-Israel activism and inflammatory rhetoric surrounding Hamas and the October 7 attacks.
For conservatives, the California funding scandal and the broader pattern of CAIRs conduct raise fundamental questions about why taxpayers are underwriting organizations and candidates aligned with Islamist and anti-Israel agendas. As more red states move to sever ties and pursue legal remedies, the pressure is likely to grow on blue-state governmentsand on Washingtonto explain why an entity that courts once found had ample evidence linking it to Hamas continues to enjoy public money and political access.
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