EXCLUSIVE: CAIR honors Mahmoud Khalil, antisemitic activists at gala

While CAIR continues to position itself as the nation’s leading Muslim civil rights organization, its history remains clouded by its origins and ties to groups connected with terrorism. Federal prosecutors in the landmark Holy Land Foundation case named CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing trial in US history. The Holy Land Foundation was found guilty of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.

Despite Khalil’s controversial record, CAIR celebrated him before a crowd of more than 1,000 attendees alongside a roster of speakers and honorees that included documented Jew-hater Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has repeatedly been accused of antisemitism, most infamously for her 2019 comments suggesting that US support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins,” which was widely condemned as trafficking in antisemitic tropes about Jewish money and political influence.

Other VIPs included activist Linda Sarsour, who was ousted from the Women’s March over antisemitism, antisemitic progressive pundit Cenk Uygur, and Georgetown researcher Badr Khan Suri, who was recently detained by immigration officials for spreading Hamas propaganda.

The gala’s most controversial moment came when CAIR presented its 2025 Champion of Justice Award to Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil drew national attention during his time at Columbia University, where he organized anti-Israel rallies, including the takeover of Hamilton Hall, trapping custodial staff, and actions targeting Jews on campus. He is also accused of distributing material for Hamas. He was accused of using student organizations as platforms to legitimize terrorist violence and spread extremist propaganda under the guise of campus activism and was detained by immigration officials. A federal judge recently ordered his deportation.

At CAIR’s gala, Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, was honored alongside his legal team, Amy Greer, Ramzi Kassem, and Baher Azmy, with Civil Rights Hero Awards. Other awardees included attorneys Mahsa Khanbababi and Hassan Ahmad, who represented Rumeysa Ozturk and Professor Badr Khan Suri, respectively.

Badr Khan Suri, a Georgetown University postdoctoral researcher, was detained by immigration officials in March 2025 for allegedly spreading propaganda in support of Hamas. According to a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, Suri, an Indian national in the US on a student visa, was accused of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” DHS further alleged that Suri has “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”

Ozturk has engaged in anti-Israel activism in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israelis on October 7, 2023. Ozturk has been a vocal supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel economically and politically. Her activism, celebrated by CAIR, reflects the organization’s consistent pattern of aligning itself with figures hostile to Israel and its right to self-defense.

“Despite unconstitutional crackdowns on free speech, a manufactured surge in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate, attacks on immigrants, and a foreign policy held captive by ‘Israel first’ extremists, the American Muslim community has not been knocked off course,” CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad declared in his keynote remarks.

Awad previously said in November 2023, just weeks after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist massacre in Israel, that he was “happy to see people breaking the siege” in reference to Hamas’s invasion, in which Palestinian terrorists murdered over 1,200 people, raped women, kidnapped 250 civilians, including Americans, and carried out the deadliest single-day attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Awad’s praise for what he described as “resistance” drew condemnation from lawmakers and Jewish groups, who accused CAIR of openly glorifying terrorism.