The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is reporting that its Maryland Director, Zainab Chaudry, has received a “Trailblazer Award” from the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights (MCCR). According to a CAIR press release:
Chaudry received the Civil Rights and Fair Housing Trailblazer Award on Saturday, August 20th at MCCR’s biennial gala in Hanover, Maryland. “I’m honored by this recognition and ask God to guide me to continue working for justice and equity for all Marylanders,” said CAIR’s Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry.
Read the rest here.
The MCCR is an independent agency governed by a nine-member commission appointed by the Maryland Governor to serve individuals, businesses, and communities throughout the State. Its mandate is to protect against discrimination based on race, color, religion, and other protected classifications. In an August 2022 interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT, Chaudry described Israel as an “Apartheid Zionist regime,” stating that Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip happened every as often as “the political climate warrants it.” Chaudry has also contributed to Middle East Eye, an Islamist publication linked to the Global Muslim Brotherhood (GMB).
CAIR describes itself as “a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group and as “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group.” It was founded in 1994 by three officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine, part of the US Hamas infrastructure at that time. Documents discovered during the terrorism trial of the Holy Land Foundation confirmed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood and that CAIR itself is part of the US Muslim Brotherhood. The organization is led by Nihad Awad, its longstanding Executive Director and one of the three founders. Recently, CAIR has been generally portrayed in the media as a Muslim civil rights group.
For more on CAIR, go here.