The controversial Islamist group — with which the White House severed ties after its director said he was “happy” with Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 — faces allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
The suit could see the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) forced to open its books amid allegations secret foreign donors fund its multimillion-dollar budget.
Lori Saroya was, in the words of one who knew her, CAIR’s “golden child”.
Based in Blaine, Minnesota, where he was head of CAIR’s chapter, Saroya became so important to the national leadership that they brought him to the White House and groomed him to be a senior leader because he was the group’s “pride and joy.”
Now Saroya, 42, is turning out to be CAIR’s worst nightmare as she dismisses a nasty legal battle with the controversial Muslim civil rights organization that includes allegations of sexual assault and alleged harassment involving several CAIR leaders.
Saroya, who is now the first Muslim to serve on the Blaine City Council, filed a federal defamation suit against the group last week in federal court in Minnesota.
Lori Saroya, the first Muslim city council member in Blaine, Minnesota, is CAIR’s chapter leader and senior staff member and has called out the organization for bullying and sexual harassment. Running For Something
The suit was in response to a statement released by CAIR in January 2022, accusing Saroya of “cyber-stalking” CAIR staff by using inflammatory emails and social media accounts to spread “Islamophobic tropes and conspiracy theories” about the organization.
In her complaint, Saroya said that the press release caused her to be bullied online and scared her so much that she stopped going to her mosque. He also said the allegations in the press release came up during a job interview and he was not offered a job by the person.
He said he left CAIR after he called on the organization to look into allegations of sexual assault and harassment against several leaders, including one Saroya – whom other members hailed as “courageous” – said “engaged in a pattern of unwanted and highly inappropriate behavior” towards him. .
Saroya’s filing comes nearly two years after CAIR dismissed its own federal defamation suit against Saroya in which its leaders accused him of waging a “systemic and ongoing internet defamation campaign designed to harm [CAIR’s] reputation and cause severe economic harm.”
Nihad Awad, co-founder and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has come under fire from the Biden Administration for antisemitism. Getty Images
CAIR also claims in the lawsuit that Saroya “voluntarily resigned” from CAIR after a female staff member said Saroya had harassed her to the point that “the female staff member is considering seeking a restraining order.”
Saroya called CAIR’s allegations “absolutely false” in his own civil complaint and one of his lawyers wrote in the suit that all of the organization’s accusations were “part of a concerted effort to blacken his reputation, destroy his credibility, and silence him and others who have raised serious concerns about CAIR’s abuse of women, dishonest practices, and civil rights violations, among others.”
“The complaint lays out a record of serious problems in an organization that bills itself as a civil rights organization but as the complaint describes has engaged in a very contradictory pattern of behavior,” Saroya’s Boston-based attorney, Jeff Robbins, told The Post.
Founded in 1994 by a group of young Muslim activists concerned about increasing anti-Muslim discrimination, CAIR is now the largest Muslim civil rights group in the US and includes approximately 33 local chapters across the US.
Attorney Hassan Shibly, previously head of CAIR’s Florida chapter, was the subject of a National Public Radio investigation into allegations of secret marriages, bullying and sexual harassment. AFP/Getty Images
But there is also controversy surrounding the group and CAIR’s ultra-powerful co-founder, Nihad Awad, who is Palestinian-American.
Last month, the Biden administration said it had ended its work with CAIR on drafting a national antisemitism strategy after Awad said he was “glad” to witness the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.
Awad made the shocking statement at the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in Chicago on November 24, according to video footage distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
The New Venture Fund – part of the liberal dark money network – gave $40,000 to the Arizona chapter of CAIR which shared a template on Instagram to help others denounce school administrators or employers who issued statements “supporting Israel.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations was established in 1994 and is headquartered in Washington, DC. Google Maps
CAIR was also struck by a lengthy National Public Radio investigation in April 2021 that focused primarily on CAIR’s Florida chapter head at the time, Hassan Shibly, and allegations involving clandestine marriages, bullying and sexual harassment.
Shibly has denied the allegations reported by NPR.
The report included allegations from many women who had issues with Shibly as well as other senior leaders at CAIR.
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Aslam Abdullah, a cleric based in Southern California, told NPR that several women have come to him with what he sees as credible allegations of harassment, sexual misconduct or unfair treatment of senior men in CAIR or CAIR affiliates. These women did not believe that CAIR National’s investigation would be fair and refused to cooperate, she told the outlet.
Saroya, however, according to several people who knew him, was remarkable for having the courage to stand up to CAIR’s leadership. Before resigning from CAIR in 2018, he led the Minnesota chapter of CAIR from 2007 to 2016 and then jumped to the national office as national chapter development director and board member.
A former CAIR volunteer, who did not want to be publicly identified, told The Post that she witnessed some of the same abusive behavior on the part of CAIR’s senior leadership that Saroya alleges she did. He blamed Awad for creating a culture of fear at CAIR that allowed senior leaders to target staff and volunteers, especially women.
“It is a powerful thing and Awad and some others see women as easy targets,” he said. “He runs the organization and he has a cult-like status so everyone does everything he wants. CAIR is also a legal organization so it is full of lawyers. I was threatened. I have their head of litigation threatening me.
“The problem is that this is the only civil rights organization [Muslims] have,” he added. “So people think that women like me and Lori just have to accept all this because there is no one else if we affect this organization. That’s why Lori was so brave to refuse.”
When contacted by The Post for comment on the allegations in this story, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper forwarded a January 2022 press release.
Saroya stated in her lawsuit that she was owed wages after she left but claimed that CAIR said they would only pay her if she promised not to make negative comments about the organization.
Shibly took part in the Muslim protests against the Biden Administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Michigan Community Update/Facebook
Saroya told The Post that she could not comment while her legal case is pending other than emailing a statement saying her suit underscores CAIR’s “unfortunate record of suppressing and indulging serious allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination within its organization, retaliating against women who raised these issues and engaged in grossly dishonest behavior toward the public, the Muslim-American Community and even his own Board.”
“CAIR’s defamatory statements about me are intended to intimidate not only me but others like me,” he said in the email. “The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold CAIR and its leadership accountable – something that has been a long time coming.”
Saroya’s lawsuit alleges defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is seeking at least $75,000 in damages and an injunction forcing CAIR to retract its press release and remove it from any public space.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
