Introduction
In previous posts, I have not had many nice things to say about the document CAIR produced in response to Leila Fadel’s April 15 article, published by NPR (Civil Rights Org CAIR Accused Of Ignoring Alleged Misconduct : NPR.) I never saw the initial version of that CAIR response, sent out April 16; I only have the revised version of May 7. That version contains a number of deliberately deceptive or demonstrably false statements.
For example, these two sentences appear in the middle of the third paragraph of the document:
“…CAIR strives to hold every member of our team to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct. We also take allegations of misconduct, especially misconduct against women, very seriously.”
It might seem reasonable to assume, as I did up until recently, that the Communications Director is chiefly to blame for the deceptive or false statements. But he might not be the prime mover of the process that produced that document. In fact, I have come to a rather unremarkable conclusion: Nihad Awad is the main personnel problem at CAIR. He more than anyone else generates the forcefield that prevails at CAIR.
Nihad faces constraints himself, of course, such as the imperative of securing as much funding as possible for CAIR. But somehow that imperative must not be permitted to justify union-busting, or keeping sources of foreign funding hidden, or retaining and continuing to promote a master fundraiser who happens to also be a sexual predator.
Personnel changes are often ineffective without structural changes, and only after a thorough investigation of allegations and problems at CAIR can anyone have a good idea of what changes in both categories are called for. But it would certainly move things along and be in the interest of the organization, its mission, and the Muslim community for Nihad Awad to step down.
But I promised you a smoking gun, so here we go.
Part One: The Emails
The April 16/May 7 document is pretty much a blanket denial of any responsibly or knowledge of sexual or other misconduct by CAIR leaders at either the National office or affiliate offices, in keeping with the denials by CAIR contained in the NPR article.
The fact that CAIR had three weeks between April 16 and May 7 to mull everything over, makes that document especially damning for CAIR.
It is damning because the CAIR leadership discussed in at least 8 emails dated March 29, March 30, April 1, April 27, and May 20, and June 6, 2016, an allegation of sexual misconduct reported as early as March 16 against CAIR-Florida’s executive director, Hassan Shibly.
The sequence demonstrates that Nihad is clearly concerned at the outset (“I hope that is [sic] isn’t true”, March 30). On April 1, Nihad wrote to Lori Saroya, Director of Chapter Development.
“I had a long call with his chairman Rasheed Abbara to see where things are from their perspective. He basically agreed that the issue needs to be investigated and authorised me to speak to Hassan. So you and I should talk soon about how to approach Hassan.”
On the same day, Lori Saroya, Director of Chapter Development, wrote to Nihad:
“I think when talking to Hassan, we need to come from a position that we believe him (or at least we want to believe him). A complaint was brought to our attention so we need to do our due diligence and gather information.”
On the previous day, March 30, Lori had written to Nihad, Ibrahim and a Jenifer Wicks:
“We need a formal response from Hassan Shibly and do our due diligence to ensure adherence to the mission, vision and policies of CAIR. Attached is some information from Twitter and Facebook searches.””
Jump ahead to May 20. Lori writes to Nihad and Ibrahim:
“Just so you are aware, Hassan Shibly is still being invited by chapters for speaking engagements (I heard of two just this week). This issue has the potential to harm the credibility and reputation of the entire organization due to alleged policy and branding violations. It has been two months since the original complaint was sent to us and almost one month since the last public attack against CAIR concerning this issue. I think we need to handle it more formally now. I suggest the following:
1. Inform the CAIR National board
2. Inform the CAIR-FL board
3. Assign a group of three (National staff + National board + CAIR-FL board) to conduct an internal investigation in response to the complaint sent to CAIR National in March 2016 and the follow-up public attacks on the organization related to this issue. This team will gather facts from all parties involved, determine if any CAIR policies were violated, assess current/future potential for harm to the organization, and make recommendations on next steps.
4. Inform Hassan Shibly about the internal investigation and ask that he 1) cooperate as it is a procedural matter and 2) not make any public speaking appearances while the investigation is pending (emphasis added).“
It would be another two months before Nihad would finally “deal” with this matter. In those two months, I conjecture, he came to the conclusion that Shibly was too valuable to CAIR, all its high-minded principles notwithstanding. Or, perhaps he simply did not know how to handle this young stallion.
Or maybe Nihad dropped the ball (more like a hot, hot potato) because, in the words of a CAIR National board member, CAIR-Florida was a “strong and visible chapter” that is “effective in getting media attention and whipping up publicity” and “CAIR-Florida has continued to increase donations ands support from high value donors.” Money talks.
Nihad, as we know, dealt with Shibly by inviting him to Washington for what was a “brothers only” meeting with himself and Ibrahim, on basically how to keep the thing quiet. The meeting took place on July 21, 2016. The reader might recall that Lori Saroya, for her persistence in seeking an investigation into allegations of Shibly’s sexual misconduct and exploitation of women, was asked at the end of the meeting to come in to apologize to Shibly.
Nihad had made some effort to meet with Shibly earlier, on June 6, but Shibly seems to have dodged the meeting, as judging by this email Nihad sent Lori:
“He came by briefly and he was supposed to return after his meeting because we wanted to talk. But he did not. He said that he was late and that he had to go to the airport. I told him that I’d like to speak to him about a couple of important issues including the his activities which was the subject of the email exchange and that I can take to the airport but the meeting went late.”
Earlier, Lori had written to Shibly:
“Salam br. Hassan,
Insh’Allah this finds you well. I ask that you refrain from presentations, speeches, projects, meetings or other activities outside of your jurisdiction (Florida) that 1) identify you as a CAIR representative and /or 2) are within CAIR’s scope of work, until further notice. We will discuss the specific complaints with you and hope to resolve them soon.”
This must have rubbed him the wrong way, judging by his response:
“What are you talking about? I ask that you not give me orders. Salam.”
Hassan Shibly, Esq.
CAIR Florida
Oh, silly me again!
This is the same Esquire who sent Lori, Director of Chapter Development, a cease and desist letter in response to her attempts to have a real investigation undertaken of Shibly’s alleged misconduct.
Part Two: Some Simple, Poor Man’s Logic
Since I love to speculate, I will venture that Hassan Shibly was about as easy for CAIR to rein in as it is to keep Donald Trump to a scripted speech. Which never happens.
In all the emailage you just read, how many times did you see the two words, sexual harassment?
None.
Okay. How many times does sexual harassment or harassment (in the sexual context) appear in Leila Fadel’s piece? I counted ten, by the old-fashioned method. So let’s say ten or more.
“Sexual harassment” is all over Leila Fadel’s article. But not all of the sexual misconduct allegations against Shibly were specifically sexual harassment. The most memorable ones, I would suggest, were “secret” marriages.
So let’s assume you are CAIR management and you interview all of your current staff (including yourselves)* and review all emails for any trace of sexual harassment allegations against Hassan Shibly. I don’t know for sure that you would uncover any. (Which is not to say there weren’t any: remember, as things go around here, anything is possible—stay tuned!)
But in the course of the interviews, wouldn’t it dawn on somebody, or perhaps even yourself if you were either Nihad or Ibrahim, that there was something like a harassment allegation, but it wasn’t that exactly.
….Oh yes. There was something about a “secret” marriage. And it was only a few years ago. And it came from the secret wife herself! And that stubborn Lori Saroya raised a real fuss over it.
But if nobody remembered that Lori Saroya had something to do with it, but had noticed the following short paragraph early in Leila Fadel’s article, that also could have helped narrow the focus of the investigation:
“When concerned parties brought allegations to senior CAIR officials in Washington, D.C., and Florida, former employees said, there was little, if any, follow-up action. They said leaders were aware of some of the allegations as early as 2016.”
Well, that’s something like how an honest all-staff interview would probably go. An honest process could not fail to produce some recollection of the Shibly charges only four years previously. Especially, as I said, if Nihad and Ibrahim were part of the process.
And that is why I can say with no hesitation, that the following paragraph which appears second to last in that April 16/May 7 document is total nonsense, and deliberately deceptive:
In the meantime, we want to be very clear: sexual harassment is immoral, illegal and absolutely unacceptable to us. After learning about the allegations in the NPR story, we reviewed our records, interviewed our staff, and confirmed that our office never received any complaints of sexual harassment, inside or outside of the workplace, against CAIR Florida’s former director….
Sexual misconduct is not limited to sexual harassment, unless you have some need for it to be.
But we don’t have to assume the worst of Nihad and Ibrahim to understand that a culture of misogyny may prevail at CAIR. Misogyny is alive and well in the Muslim community, as it is, when push comes to shove, in the United States Senate. (Think Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey-Ford.) But other factors reinforce it at CAIR, such as the profound reluctance of the Muslim community to talk about it publicly, and that bottom line of raking in the bucks. It was said of Hassan Shibly that he brought in “millions.”
*The employees who were responsible for compliance from 2016-2020 and dealt directly with the Shibly saga were no longer employed by CAIR when such an interview would have happened.
Reform CAIR 