US Muslim Brotherhood Groups Boycott White House Eid Celebration Over Biden Stance On Israel-Gaza Violence 

US media is report­ing the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR) has joined an ini­tia­tive to boy­cott a planned vir­tu­al White House Eid cel­e­bra­tion to be host­ed by Pres­i­dent Biden in con­nec­tion with his stance on the vio­lence in Israel and Gaza. Accord­ing to an arti­cle in The Hill:

May 15, 2021 CAIR said it was join­ing with oth­er groups in the boy­cott over the White House’s “incred­i­bly dis­ap­point­ing and deeply dis­turb­ing” response to the vio­lence. “We can­not in good con­science cel­e­brate Eid with the Biden Admin­is­tra­tion while it lit­er­al­ly aids, abets and jus­ti­fies the Israeli apartheid gov­ern­men­t’s indis­crim­i­nate bomb­ing of inno­cent men, women and chil­dren in Gaza. Pres­i­dent Biden has the polit­i­cal pow­er and moral author­i­ty to stop these injus­tices. We urge him to stand on the side of the vic­tims and not the vic­tim­iz­er,” said CAIR Nation­al Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Nihad Awad.

Read the rest here.

CAIR has stat­ed that its action was in response to Biden admin­is­tra­tion state­ments that “ignore the Israeli assault on Al-Aqsa” and what it char­ac­ter­ized as the “expul­sion” tak­ing place in the East Jerusalem neigh­bor­hood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine (AMP), a Pales­tin­ian advo­ca­cy group with strong ties to both the US MB and to the US Hamas sup­port infra­struc­ture, had ear­li­er urged the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty to strong­ly rebuke the Biden response to devel­op­ments in Israel and Gaza and to not par­tic­i­pate in the event, stating:

We can­not cel­e­brate Eid with a Pres­i­dent who jus­ti­fies the killing of our broth­ers and sis­ters in Pales­tine! The Unit­ed States is par­ty to the war crimes com­mit­ted by Israel as the US gov­ern­ment funds the ille­gal occu­pa­tion to the tune of $3.8 bil­lion min­i­mum annu­al­ly, which in turn is used to pur­chase weapons from US man­u­fac­tur­ers to be used on the Pales­tin­ian people.

Read the rest here.

CAIR is part of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) in the US. It describes itself as “a grass­roots civ­il rights and advo­ca­cy group” and was found­ed in 1994 by three offi­cers of the Islam­ic Asso­ci­a­tion of Pales­tine, part of the US Hamas infra­struc­ture at that time.

A coali­tion of 42 orga­ni­za­tions that co-signed a boy­cott pledge includ­ed CAIR, AMP, and sev­er­al oth­ers tied to the GMB:

• Mus­lim Amer­i­can Society

• JETPAC Resource Cen­ter, part of a Mus­lim polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee led by CAIR-Mass­a­chu­setts board mem­ber Nadeem Mazen

• Mus­lim Legal Fund of Amer­i­ca, whose Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Khalil Meek also serves as a board mem­ber of the US Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO)

• USCMO found­ing mem­ber Islam­ic Cir­cle of North America

Pri­or report­ing by the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report about CAIR and US pol­i­tics has included:

• A Novem­ber 2020 report that CAIR has issued a state­ment con­grat­u­lat­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden on his vic­to­ry, vow­ing to hold the forth­com­ing admin­is­tra­tion account­able on Mus­lim inclu­sion and civ­il rights issues.

• An April 2021 report that a coali­tion of Amer­i­can Mus­lim advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood has pub­lished a report on Amer­i­can Mus­lims elect­ed or re-elect­ed to pub­lic office dur­ing 2020.

• A May 2021 report that the Unit­ed States Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions has pub­lished an open let­ter call­ing on Pres­i­dent Joe Biden to appoint a State Depart­ment spe­cial envoy to mon­i­tor and com­bat Islamophobia.