Note: This post contains lengthy excerpts from three previous posts, with occasional minor changes or additions, as well as one email exchange (in Part Four) which I am publishing here for the first time. The purpose is to consolidate the internal communications of CAIR which put the lie to its claim to have conducted a thorough internal investigation and found no evidence of any complaints of sexual harassment [or, presumably, comparable or worse sexual misconduct] made against a prominent chapter executive. Although much of my own perspective (and a wee bit of editorializing) is included, there is plenty of the raw emails themselves, from which any reader is free to draw his or her own conclusions.
On April 16, 2021, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) published what was essentially a blanket denial of numerous allegations against it which Leila Fadel had included in an article published the previous day by National Public Radio (Civil Rights Org CAIR Accused Of Ignoring Alleged Misconduct : NPR.)
Fadel’s expose was long in the making, affording CAIR ample time to compose a credible response. Instead, it side-stepped the most damning allegations against a celebrated chapter leader by claiming to have no record of any “sexual harassment” complaints against him, and (by inference from another sentence) no knowledge of any allegations of misconduct by him before December of 2020.
However, CAIR senior staff and board members were plenty aware and concerned about a complaint made against the chapter leader in March, 2016, by a woman claiming to be an estranged “secret wife”. But the accused apparently succeeding in persuading the National Executive Director and the Director of Communications to drop the matter. Instead, the one who had sought a legitimate investigation of the complaint, the Director of Chapter Development, was told to apologize to the accused and learn to get along with him.
In the following, “Anisa” has been substituted for the real name of the former Director of Chapter Development.
Part One
excerpted from: A Smoking Gun at CAIR – Reform CAIR
These two sentences appear in the middle of the third paragraph of CAIR’s April 16 statement, which was updated on May 7:
“…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.”
And this paragraph appears as second to the last in the April 16 statement:
“[W]e 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. CAIR-Florida conducted a similar review, and likewise found no record of any such complaints.”
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 in at least a dozen emails that I have seen between March 29 and July 20, 2016, CAIR senior staff either discussed an allegation of sexual misconduct and its potential harm to CAIR made against CAIR-Florida’s executive director Hassan Shibly on March 16 of that year, or were recipients of emails from Shibly regarding the matter.
The sequence demonstrates that National Executive Director Nihad Awad is clearly concerned at the outset (“I hope that is [sic] isn’t true”, March 30). On April 1, Nihad wrote to Anisa, Director of Chapter Development:
“I had a long call with his chairman Rasheed Abbara [of CAIR-Florida board of directors] to see where things are from their perspective. He basically agreed that the issue needs to be investigated and authorized me to speak to Hassan. So you and I should talk soon about how to approach Hassan.”
On the same day, Anisa, 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, Anisa 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. Anisa 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 matter quiet. The meeting took place on July 21, 2016. The reader might recall that Anisa, for her persistence in seeking an investigation into the allegation, 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 Anisa:
“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 his activities which was the subject of the email exchange and that I can take to the airport but the meeting went late.”
Earlier, Anisa 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
Some Simple, Poor Man’s Logic
In all the email exchanges you just read, how many times did you see the two words, sexual harassment?
That’s right. None.
Okay. How many times does sexual harassment or harassment (in the sexual context) appear in Leila Fadel’s article of April 15, 2021? I counted ten, by the old-fashioned method.
“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.
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 Anisa raised a real fuss over it.
But if nobody remembered that Anisa 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 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.
As I noted in a recent post (CAIR’s Dysfunction and the Muslim Community – Reform CAIR), were sexual harassment truly unacceptable to CAIR as it claims, CAIR could have demonstrated that by interviewing the Florida employee who did allege sexual harassment by Shibly and who is named in Fadel’s April 15, 2021 article, and offering some sort of redress, rather than simply claiming ignorance of the matter.
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.”
· Note: 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.
Part Two
Excerpted from: Charming, Reckless, with a License to Exploit Women – Reform CAIR
Shortly after posting A Smoking Gun at CAIR – Reform CAIR , five more communications, each still smokin’, came to my attention. These five must reads give us some sense of how frustrating it was for the few people inside CAIR who were wise to Hassan Shibly and his charming ways, to deal with him. In one of them, Shibly’s willingness to bully and lie outright is on full display.
In that communication Shibly, then executive director of CAIR-Florida, warns that shaitan (the devil) is at work. He might be right, but it’s not Anisa doing shaitan’s bidding. Unfortunately, we do not have time to do justice to that communication in this post. (See Part Three below.) But rest assured, it can explain how Shibly may have intimidated some of the leadership of CAIR.
Not all. Not the one who is now the target of CAIR’s defamation lawsuit.
In the spring and summer of 2016, the one who might have reined Shibly in, the National Executive Director of CAIR, never did. Shibly certainly wasn’t going to let the new Director of Chapter Development, a sister, cramp his style.
You will recall from our last post that Shibly was pretty ticked in one email exchange in which Anisa was frank with him and told him he should not accept any speaking engagements or represent CAIR in any way outside of Florida, pending an investigation (that would never quite get going). You might recall that Shibly actually sent Anisa a cease and desist letter. Here is part of that letter from Shibly:
“If there’s any further need to discuss, Nihad can call me any time. I’m happy to discuss with him. I will not not [sic] am not obligated to discuss with anyone else. People should study Surah Noor and their Islamic ethics and follow the good example set by Nezar, Zahra, Dawud, my family and others who had seen the attacks [the secret wife’s tweets] but adhered to our Islamic teachings. Alhamdulilah the attacks are a non-issue. Only person ever mentioning or alluding to them is Anisa at this point.”
Alhamdulilah, the “attacks” were from a woman he exploited with his supposed Islamic-sanctioned secret marriage, and whom he manipulated emotionally. It will be an “issue” to her, putting it mildly, for the rest of her life. Surah Noor (Qur’an, 24) cannot be read as cover for men who “marry” women for pleasure and then smear and shame them when the fun is over.
On July 8, 2016, Anisa expressed her deep concern and frustration with Shibly in an email to Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR-Los Angeles:
“Hassan is reckless and I literally lose sleep over what he is going to do next that will have a negative impact on all chapters. I am very concerned that most chapters are unaware of the issues and invite him to speak, jeopardizing their reputation in their own communities if/when his issues become public. These national T.V. appearances and White House meetings featuring him as a CAIR representative may hurt us in the future. I agree there needs to be a solution. He blocked me on email and was difficult on the phone when I tried to discuss some issues with him—there’s no accountability. My next step is to submit a report to the National board and ask them to intervene. We could use your help.”
The report Anisa would submit to the National board would be one of several, none of which it acted on.
On July 18, I.T. Director Omar Ali wrote to Anisa concerning Hassan Shibly:
“It baffles my mind to see a chapter ED decision(s) superseding that of a Chapter Developer….The double edge sword for you would be that those who fall to his “charm” may think you have an agenda against him personally if they are not privy to the facts.
“But if I know how things work here, there’s not going to be a way for any of us to know until it’s probably too late (emphasis added).”
That same day, Nihad chastised Anisa for her concerted efforts to constrain CAIR’s bucking bronco, since he was not jumping on that bronco himself:
“Please adhere to my request not to communicate on this issue with Hassan and others until we talk and resolve this issue. Hassan has been complaining to us that you are not heeding the call. I see that he is not heeding the call either. But at least you answer to me as your supervisor. He may not unfortunately.”
Also that same day, Shibly sent Anisa, Nihad, Ibrahim, Ahmed Al-Shehab, and Roula Allouch, the National board chair, a cease and desist letter, the fifth communication I mentioned at the outset of this post (which I discuss in Part Three below).
Suffice it to say, any inclination Nihad and Ibrahim might have had to constrain Shibly in the least, dissipated.
The only one to persist, though she had read the same three-page threat-filled rant of Shibly’s, was the Director of Chapter Development.
Anisa spent the day of July 21, preparing for the meeting with Hassan Shibly. She produced a formal report to Nihad along with a list of questions to ask Shibly. Working up to the last minute, she went to a White House Eid event and made sure Hassan came back with her to the CAIR office, while Nihad prepared for the meeting.
Anisa was excluded from the meeting, as you will recall, except that she was asked to apologize to Shibly at the end.
And that’s just one example of how CAIR “strives to hold every member of our team to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct…[and takes] allegations of misconduct, especially misconduct against women, very seriously” (CAIR statement, April 16/May 7).
CAIR has all of these emails. No less than six individuals of CAIR National were privy to these discussions.
Part Three
Excerpted from: The Shaga’ah of Two Sisters – Reform CAIR
Three days before the brothers-only meeting in which Hassan was exonerated, he sent a three-page letter to Nihad, Ibrahim, Anisa, Ahmed Al-Shehab, and Roula Allouch. In that letter, Shibly is very annoyed that Anisa does not approve of him and CAIR-Florida hosting the 2017 National retreat for Executive Directors.
Shibly is moving full-speed ahead with his plans, while Anisa is still pushing CAIR to begin a bona fide investigation of the allegation of a secret marriage of his, and assessing the risks of such a prominent role for Shibly given the allegation and numerous social media posts by the secret wife herself.
In his telling of events, Shibly is the peacemaker and only responds to Anisa’s provocations. All the many other chapter heads are wondering what is eating Anisa, who just can’t let the past rest. Everyone but Anisa was over this matter months ago. By Shibly’s telling, Nihad considers the case closed. Shibly won a great victory in court defending his honor against his accuser [the estranged secret wife], whom he calls a “stalker.” He peppers his admonitions of Anisa’s nosiness and overreach with suggested Islamic concepts for all to ruminate upon. And, being the wise man he is, he can sometimes be gentle with Anisa:
“I am sure Sr. Anisa fears Allah enough to stop potential buhtan and ghiba. There is no excuse at this point. Let me be clear, I do not have ill-will to Anisa. In fact I love that she probably acted out of sincerity and love of organization. But her actions were still wrong. If they are stopped/corrected we can all move forward…
“Finally, we need to have more love for each other and better communication.”
This is more than a dispute between a Chapter Executive Director and the Director of Chapter Development, in which the pecking order might not be obvious to most. That could not explain the intensity of the dispute.
What might explain the intensity is that Hassan Shibly probably suspects that Anisa is wise to his ways. So would be anyone else at CAIR paying attention. But Shibly is charming and a very valuable fundraising asset for CAIR. And he can be sparing of mercy as well.
Shibly ends his letter with this stern warning to Anisa:
“I am available to speak to Nihad any time. However I will consider any further communication about my [sic] or my chapter by Anisa to anyone a violation of both my rights before Allah and before the legal system and will demand my full rights both in dunya and akira. There is no excused for her to spread fitna when Nihad and I can communicate directly. And there is absolutely 0 risk to CAIR or chapters or anything else like that“(emphasis added).
Zero risk.
Right.
Shibly’s furry notwithstanding, Anisa would take it upon herself to minimize his opportunities to meet and seduce women as a representative of CAIR. She persuaded the CAIR-CA chapter to host the gathering. But her days were numbered, because there just was not enough room at CAIR for the good ol’ boys club and this fearless upstart, Sr. Anisa.
Part Four
On July 20, 2016, one day before Hassan Shibly would meet with Nihad Awad and Ibrahim Hooper concerning the complaint by a former secret wife, Anisa sent Nihad, Ibrahim, Roula Allouch (chair of the national board), and Ahmed Al-Shehab (national board member) the following draft letter addressed to Hassan Shibly for their review and comments:
Dear Hassan,
As you know, we are concerned about the allegations and attacks directed at CAIR on social media over the last several months. A woman named [deleted] made disparaging references to CAIR in her public Tweets and Facebook posts, such as:
- “CAIR Fls Hassan Shibly fooled me majorly into a love affair, I wonder if he’s good at fooling clients on the job @CAIRNational #douchebag.”
- “CAIRNational he had told me confidential info regarding a lawsuit with an imam and a little girl, got to listen to conference calls, etc.”
- “You guys [CAIR] should probably ask why Hassan Shibly uses his religious beliefs that men can have four wives to manipulate women into having affairs with him behind his legal wife’s back.”….
- “CAIR blocked me becuz I’ve exposed one of their prized leaders for dishonesty, Hassan Shibly. How’s that investigation going?”
This issue was initially brought to the attention of the CAIR-Florida board, but they deferred it to CAIR National and asked that we follow up on it. To formally close this matter and to ensure that we have done our due diligence to protect the CAIR brand, the CAIR National board requires clarification on the following:
- More information on your relationship with [deleted] including the type of relationship, how you met, how long you have known her, and her affiliation to CAIR/CAIR-Florida/CAIR chapters.
- You referred to [deleted] as a “stalker” on multiple occasions and stated that she is a “fan” (of you, in your capacity as CAIR-FL’s executive director). I would like you to elaborate on that so we can determine if this issue poses safety risks to you or others at CAIR, and if they may potentially be stalked by this individual in their capacity as executive directors of CAIR chapters.
- You stated that the disparaging Tweets were made in “connection with some enemies we have made…” We would like you to elaborate on who those “enemies” are, why they are “enemies” of CAIR, and their role in this matter.
- More information on your meetings, if any, with [deleted] during travel for speaking engagements, chapter engagement efforts and/or community outreach, in which you were identified as a CAIR-Florida representative.
- On March 29, 2016, you stated “They removed everything,” referring to the disparaging Tweets and Facebook posts about CAIR. However, on March 30, 2016, several posts disparaging CAIR were still visible. We would like documentation that the disparaging Tweets and Facebook posts about CAIR have been, in fact, deleted.
- I appreciate you sharing documentation that provides more information on the defamation lawsuit and look forward to reviewing the documents when you are in Washington, D.C. this week.
- I would also like to discuss several other issues with you, including affiliation, jurisdiction, branding, and conflict of interest. We appreciate your candor and cooperation to resolve these matters.
Sincerely,
In response, Ibrahim Hooper wrote:
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL
Salaam,
How about questions the picture* and the fact that she knew about an internal matter (the threat of the lawsuit over the girl) that nobody outside CAIR and [deleted]knew about?
Roula Allouch responded with a much shorter proposed letter to Shibly, which I am not including here. Ahmed Al-Shehab responded:
Jazaka’ Allah Khair Anisa for sending this out so late in the night, you probably did not get to sleep…
I agree with Roula, I think we can take subset of these points for now and not have all the details in email.
Br. Ibrahim, I don’t see a problem asking him the questions you have as they are concerning on how she knew all the details…and asking him to explain the pictures. If he pushes back, our argument should be that it is no longer about protecting his reputation, it is about protecting the reputation of the entire Organization, thus we need to have all true facts so we don’t get blind sided by Islamophobes.
Ahmed
When it came time to lay down the law, it was Hassan who did it. He arrived at the July 21st meeting with a letter from his lawyer which made short, harsh work of the woman Hassan had lured into a bogus marriage. The lawyer argued, in essence, that her allegations were all a hoax, and she had virtually begged (“mightily beseeched us…”) for a resolution of the matter. Never mind the confidential information she shared on her posts. Anisa never saw that document until it was sent in an open letter to me in a response by Hassan Shibly to my “incessant diatribes”, on July 12, 2021.
The reader can make his or her own judgment about that letter which apparently satisfied Nihad Awad. Here is the link: 2016 Vindication (https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B12GzFCC1Go3JVi
- The picture referred to was posted by the secret wife of herself and Hassan Shibly cheek-to-cheek with matching stocking caps with the caption: “What love looked like.”
Reform CAIR 