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Health and Human Services<\/span> Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking a beat from his busy day job ending the scourge of vaccines and modern medicine to take up a right-wing push attempting to link the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States to terrorism.\u00a0<\/p>\n The MAHA enthusiast announced<\/a> last month that HHS was demanding federal action on allegations that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR, and its California and Washington affiliates had misused federal grant funds. \u201cIf there is evidence of fraud, abuse, or ties to designated terrorist organizations, we will act,\u201d he wrote on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n The post came as a shock at CAIR\u2019s national headquarters in Washington, D.C., because the organization had never received nor solicited federal funding from Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n \u201cNot even a penny,\u201d said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of CAIR. \u201c[Kennedy] would know that if he had spent any amount of time doing research before he decided to publicly attack us in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s mystifying crusade appears to be an attempt to satisfy the demands of a group of Republican members of Congress led by Rep. Chip Roy of Texas<\/a>, as an emboldened right wing chomping at the bit to target Muslim Americans dictates the decisions of the executive branch. After Roy and his colleagues argued without evidence that CAIR and its affiliates were connected to international terrorist organizations and had misused federal funds intended to help settle Afghan refugees, Kennedy\u2019s fumbling attempt to address their concerns set off a bizarre chapter in the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to crack down on dissent that left the intended targets wondering whether they were under a real investigation or had become pawns in a challenging midterm cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring election cycles we see the ramping-up of this type of anti-Muslim rhetoric,\u201d said Saher Selod, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. \u201cSaying we need to investigate CAIR national is following a playbook of trying to motivate a base to come out and vote, and Muslims have become the bait in this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n CAIR, which advocates for the civil rights<\/a> of Muslims in the United States, has been a thorn in President Donald Trump\u2019s side since his first administration, when the group sued to block his infamous \u201cMuslim ban<\/a>.\u201d In Trump\u2019s second term, CAIR national and its local chapters have continued to push back against the administration\u2019s anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda through the courts and in public statements.<\/p>\n \u201cSaying we need to investigate CAIR national is following a playbook of trying to motivate a base to come out and vote, and Muslims have become the bait in this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n While CAIR national has never received HHS funding, CAIR California and CAIR Washington, which operate separately from the national branch and are overseen by their own boards of directors, have received federal health dollars to provide legal services to Afghan refugees fleeing after the Taliban<\/a> took power in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both chapters vehemently denied any wrongdoing and emphasized the extensive vetting process required by both their respective states and the federal government to use the funds under contention.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey won\u2019t get anything out\u201d of an investigation, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR California. \u201cIt is merely an attempt to create smear and destruction, to silence \u2026 the most important American Muslim voices in the country when it comes to issues dealing with Israeli abuses and the U.S. funding of those abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The allegations levied<\/span> against CAIR and its local affiliates come amid a larger wave of anti-Muslim attacks as Republicans fight to hold onto power in a midterm cycle<\/a> where they\u2019re likely to lose seats. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December in designating CAIR as a \u201cforeign terrorist organization.\u201d In Tennessee, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles posted on X<\/a> that \u201cMuslims don\u2019t belong in American society.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats have hardly been immune from spreading Islamophobic rhetoric. During last year\u2019s New York City mayoral election, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had to apologize for comments <\/a>characterizing now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, as supportive of a \u201cglobal jihad.\u201d Before winning New Jersey\u2019s June primary, Dr. Adam Hamawy faced attacks from some of his Democratic opponents over a brief 1995 trial testimony he gave for a religious leader convicted of plotting terror attacks, in what Hamawy\u2019s campaign described as well-worn Islamophobic tropes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Roy, who has been leading the charge against CAIR in Congress, was running his own campaign for Texas attorney general when he sent a letter to Kennedy<\/a> urging HHS to investigate and suspend CAIR and CAIR California, accusing the organization of having long-standing ties to Hamas and documented \u201cmisuse of federal grant funds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In response, CAIR California sent a letter to Kennedy refuting Roy\u2019s claims as \u201clies, smears and defamatory statements.\u201d The group noted that it was selected and vetted by the state of California to provide these services, and argued that its \u201cuse of public funds are fully accounted for, transparent and compliant with its legal obligations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n