CAIR Bay Area
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) San Francisco Bay Area is a chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a controversial advocacy group for the interests of Muslim Americans. 1 CAIR San Francisco Bay Area works to support the Muslim community in the San Francisco Bay Area and supports several left-leaning causes, including opposing President Donald Trump’s ban on travel for nationals of certain mostly Muslim-majority countries, supporting affirmative action, and supporting California’s state-level “Green New Deal” left-environmentalist policies. 2
Contents
Background
The Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR San Francisco Bay Area) is a local affiliate of the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. CAIR is a large and prominent advocacy organization for Muslims in the United States. 3 Critics have suspected CAIR of supporting political Islamist movements, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, throughout the group’s existence. 4 CAIR is an opponent of American anti-terrorism policies like the PATRIOT Act, citing civil liberties concerns. 5 CAIR’s leaders are extremely anti-Israel,3 claiming that terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah are liberation movements. 3
CAIR San Fransisco is the oldest CAIR chapter in the country. 1 It was founded in 1994 as a group of volunteers hoping to educate and integrate more fully into a broader society. 1 The organization now serves the estimated 250,000 Muslims who live in the nine different Bay Area counties. 1
Advocacy
CAIR San Francisco is involved in opposition to various Trump administration initiatives, including a counterintelligence program and Executive Order 13769, labeled by critics as the “Muslim Ban” for prohibiting entry to the United States for nationals of selected Muslim-majority countries. 6 They also help provide legal services, in areas including employment discrimination, FBI visits, hate crimes, hate incidents, immigration, and travel issues including alleged mistreatment by the Transportation Security Administration. 7 CAIR San Francisco has also supported at least one bill in favor of affirmative action and in favor of the California Green New Deal. 2
The executive director of CAIR San Francisco, Zahra Billoo, was one of the plaintiffs who sued President Trump to challenge Executive Order 13769, banning nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States. 8
In 2020, CAIR San Francisco Bay Area signed a petition alongside a large number of left-liberal organizations in support of conducting California elections by mail, at least during the COVID-19 pandemic. 9