White House rejects US Islamic group after leader’s comments on October 7

The White House on Thursday disavowed a US-Muslim advocacy group after the group’s director said he was “pleased to see” that Palestinians broke out of Gaza on October 7, the day of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people died. and led to the seizure of 240 others as hostages.

A spokesperson for President Biden condemned comments by Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who stated in a speech that Palestinians in Gaza “have the right to self-defense” but that Israel “as an occupying power” power” is not. Mr Awad said his comments were misinterpreted.

“We condemn these shocking, anti-Semitic statements in the strongest terms,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said. “The horrific, brutal terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7 were, as President Biden said, ‘abhorrent’ and represent ‘unadulterated evil.’” Mr. Bates added that the day’s atrocities “shock the conscience.” and said that “Every leader has a responsibility to denounce anti-Semitism wherever it emerges.”

The White House did not have an extensive relationship with the council, which goes by the acronym CAIR, but an officer from the group took part in a “listening session on Islamophobia” in May with Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff. Later that month, the White House named the council among a number of independent organizations a document discussing commitments to combat anti-Semitism. The White House on Thursday removed CAIR’s name from that online document after Mr. Awad’s comments to make clear that it was distancing itself from the organization.

CAIR has long been a controversial player in Washington, presenting itself as a champion of civil rights for Muslims in an era of Islamophobia, but has been regularly pilloried by many, especially on the political right, as an apologist for extremism. Mr. Awad, a Palestinian American, and his group have been accused of past sympathy for Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. While Mr. Awad said in 1994 that he “supported the Hamas movement,” he said in 2006 that “I do not support Hamas today” and CAIR has denied any association with the group or support for terrorism.

Mr. Awad’s comments were made two weeks ago at a meeting of American Muslims for Palestine, but were widely disseminated Thursday morning by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or Memri, a Washington-based group founded by a veteran Israeli intelligence officer. that monitors and translates Arabic and other media. In a video posted onlineMr. Awad seemingly celebrated and justified the Oct. 7 attack.

“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege and the walls of the concentration camp on October 7,” he said. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege, throwing down the chains of their own country and walking freely into the land they were not allowed to enter.

“And yes,” he continued, “the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense.”

said Mr. Awad in a statement Thursday that his comments were taken “out of context” by “an anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian hate website” to distort his meaning. In another part of his speech, which was not included in the video, he said he denounced hatred of Jews and called anti-Semitism “a real evil” that “must be rejected and fought by all people.”

He said his comments in the October 7 speech referred to Palestinians who had crossed from Gaza into Israel after the border was crossed that day, but were not themselves involved in violence.

“The average Palestinians who briefly left Gaza and set foot on their ethnically cleansed land in a symbolic act of resistance to the blockade and stopped there without committing violence were within their rights under international law,” Mr Awad said in the statement . . “The extremists who started attacking civilians in southern Israel were not. Attacking civilians is unacceptable, regardless of whether they are Israeli, Palestinian or any other nationality.”