Orthodox Rabbis Condemn CAIR, Say Charges Of ‘Islamophobia’ Against Jewish Groups ‘Antisemitic'

A coalition that represents more than 2,000 Orthodox Jewish rabbis on American public policy issues condemned a recent report from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) regarding "Islamophobia in the Mainstream," calling the report "both pro-terror and antisemitic."

"In every case, CAIR is deliberately claiming that to reject terrorism is anti-Muslim," Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), told Fox News Digital. "It is hard to imagine something that incites animus towards Islam and all who practice it more than the idea that tolerance for Islam requires acceptance of atrocities committed by purported believers."

The CAIR report faulted charitable foundations for passing money along to "26 Islamophobia Network groups between 2017-2019 to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about Muslims and Islam."

"As it is employed today, 'Islamophobia' is fake news," CJV Midwestern Regional VP Rabbi Ze'ev Smason said in a statement provided first to Fox News. Smason said CAIR deserved "robust condemnation for spreading hate under the guise of religion."

"CAIR was founded by individuals associated with Hamas, a genocidal terror organization, to provide a PR front and support the Hamas agenda in the U.S.," CJV President Rabbi Pesach Lerner said. "It was an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal Holy Land Foundation anti-terror case, and now employs the charge of 'Islamophobia' as a cudgel to attack foundations, organizations and outspoken individuals who call it out correctly and truthfully as an apologist for terrorism." 

The U.S. government had shut down The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest Muslim organization in the U.S. at the time, in 2001. In 2008, its leaders received life sentences for "funneling $12 million to Hamas," which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization. CAIR opened its first office with a $5,000 grant from the Holy Land Foundation, and its founders participated in an October 1993 meeting in Philadelphia with Hamas sympathizers and HLF officials, according to prosecutors in the HLF case.