Overview

• On Aug. 4, Cotton sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Billy Long requesting a comprehensive review of CAIR’s finances, affiliations and activities under section 501(c)(3).
• His petition points to CAIR’s 2008 listing as an unindicted coconspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case and evidence of founders’ participation in a 1993 meeting with Hamas supporters in Philadelphia.
• Cotton also highlights CAIR’s designation as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee during the largest terrorism-financing trial in U.S. history.
• CAIR responded by calling the allegations “debunked conspiracy theories” and likening the demand to a McCarthy-era tactic.
• CAIR executive director Nihad Awad’s pro-Palestinian remarks in late 2023 prompted the Biden administration to sever ties and strengthened the senator’s push for heightened scrutiny.