Getting to know Nihad Awad

CAIR is the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It holds itself out as a civil rights group. Yet it is the successor to a defunct Hamas front group of which CAIR executive director Nihad Awad was a former official. We have previously noted Awad’s support for Hamas, but Awad isn’t necessarily partial only to Hamas. Below is a photo of Awad speaking on April 20, 2002 in Washington, D.C. on a stage bearing the flag of Hezbollah.

The Counterterrorism Blog now reports that Awad participated in a three-day summit of U.S.-based HAMAS members and supporters in 1993, a fact about which Awad had previously deployed his customary evasiveness. Michelle Malkin comments on the new evidence regarding Awad: “Surprise, surprise.”
Awad is a key supporter of Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison. As we reported here, Awad was the featured guest at an Ellison fundraiser in suburban Minneapolis before the hotly contested Democratic primary this past September. And in his reports for us here, here and here, Joel Mowbray in addition established the substantial and coordinated financial support Awad and other CAIR officers directly provided to Ellison.
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