Muslim non-profit with terror ties accused of ‘financial irregularities’ after $7 million in taxpayer money disappears

$7.2 million in taxpayer money granted to a Muslim non-profit with ties to Palestinian terrorists has reportedly disappeared. The Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN), a California-based, non-partisan advocacy group, called for an “immediate investigation” into The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) California chapter’s use of funds and sent a complaint to the Department of Justice last week.

According to the watchdog group, the money was given to the chapter, supposedly to help re-settle poor immigrants in California between 2022 and 2024, but the $7,217,968.44 was sent to CAIR-Greater Los Angeles and not to CAIR-CA, which is not a registered non-profit and therefore not eligible to handle charitable donations, according to the complaint.

The complaint stated, “These sub-grants from CAIR-CA to CAIR chapters raise serious legal concerns about whether CAIR simply shifted more money to itself.”

CAIR Los Angeles reportedly divided the federal grant and “sub-granted” to other groups, including CAIR’s chapters in San Diego and San Francisco, which are not registered with the IRS and, after receiving the funds, have no public responsibility to declare where it is spent.

Julie Marzouk, a founding board member of IAN, told The New York Post, “There’s no transparency. This is part of a consistent pattern from CAIR — to muddy the waters and limit the public’s ability to track the money.” The watchdog group has also asked the federal government to revoke CAIR-CA’s accreditation, which it requires to receive grants under the Justice Department’s refugee program.

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. 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.”

IAN is also asking for an investigation into the $2.6 million grant that CAIR-CA received from California’s Department of Social Services for the state’s 2022 “Stop the Hate” program.

Marzouk told The Post that in California, CAIR leaders have lobbied against Holocaust education in the Senate, and pushed for anti-Israel measures at the municipal level.

Zahra Billoo, the executive director of CAIR in San Francisco, said following the Oct. 7 attacks that the world was “witnessing decolonization.” Billoo said during a 2021 panel discussion sponsored by the American Muslims for Palestine, “We need to pay attention to the Anti-Defamation League. 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.”

The executive director of CAIR-CA, Hussam Ayloush, claimed Israel had no right to defend itself after Oct. 7, but that Palestinians have the right to “pick up arms.”

CAIR was dropped from the Biden administration’s antisemitism task force after its founder Nihad Awad praised the Oct. 7 massacre against Israel. Last month, CAIR settled a lawsuit brought by a former board member and employee rather than open its books to reveal sources of foreign funding.

CAIR was also listed by the Justice Department as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terror trial in US history. Steve Emerson, founder and director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, 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.”