Political

Political FARA Violations:

FARA Statute: The term “agent of a foreign principal” refers to any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal or of a person any of whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in major part by a foreign principal.  And who directly or through any other person:

  • represents the interests of such foreign principal before any agency or official of the Government of the United States
  • engages within the United States in political activities for or in the interests of such foreign principal
  • acts within the United States as a public relations counsel, publicity agent, information-service employee or political consultant for or in the interests of such foreign principal

Meetings and Coordination: CAIR has acted as a foreign agent of the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an association of 57 Islamic states promoting Muslim solidarity in economic, social, and political affairs.  CAIR has also acted as a foreign agent for member states of the OIC, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and the UAE.  The above link contains a selection of cases in which CAIR has coordinated with such foreign principals and failed to report these interactions as a registered foreign agent to the Department of Justice in contravention of the requirements of FARA.

NOTE: Private documents exist indicating hundreds of contacts between CAIR and foreign principals including representatives of foreign governments, businesses, NGO’s and individuals, all of which potentially come under FARA.  Due to ongoing litigation we cannot reproduce those documents here at this time.

Influence Operations: CAIR has consistently acted in its role as a foreign agent to influence agencies and officials of the United States government.  They have had extensive relationships with law enforcement including numerous education and “sensitivity training” programs on dealing with the Muslim community.  CAIR has also publicly censured and criticized government representatives and officials who have expressed opposition to their OIC-inspired activities in the United States.  CAIR has intimidated corporations who violate OIC-approved conduct regarding Muslim employees and customers.  By means of lawsuits and threats of lawsuits, boycotts and threats of boycotts, letter-writing campaigns, and other tactics they have chilled open debate about Sharia-compliance.  CAIR has also participated in various media campaigns to influence US public opinion on behalf of foreign principals.

NOTE: This is an interim report and the political influence operations cited here are meant to be exemplary, not exhaustive.  We will continue to add influence operations to the list, and we encourage readers to send us open-source documentation of activities similar to those presented here so we may deepen the evidence in our case.

Supplementary Information:

  • Action Alerts: The CAIR Observatory maintains an archive of 2,284 CAIR Action Alerts dated from September 6, 2001 to February 13, 2007.  Action Alerts are news items, press releases and calls to activism that were sent out via email to the CAIR listserv.  Our archive preserves statements by CAIR personnel that they may have removed from their website.  By browsing the Action Alerts you can retrace CAIR’s priorities in real-time, including how they framed the news issues of the day.