A Decade of CAIR-ing for Civil Rights
- Adam Smith
- 5 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Mass. chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations looks back on 10 years of advocating for Muslim rights
Some of the kids were hit and some had their hijabs pulled off. One boy was put in a headlock, punched and sent to the hospital with a broken nose and concussion. Most were harassed and called anti-Muslim and anti-Arab slurs.
In total, nearly half of the students who identified as Muslim and were surveyed in a report by the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations were allegedly bullied because of their religion.
So, when the civil rights group released its report, “Silenced Voices: Examining Bullying and Islamophobia in Massachusetts Public School,” early this year, it expected lots of media coverage of the alarming rates of bullying it uncovered.
Instead, it got mostly silence.
“That report is the apple of my eye, (given) the work we’ve done here,” said Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, an attorney and executive director of CAIR-Massachusetts.
But, she said, “We have not been getting a lot of press on (our) data around the mistreatment of Muslims since October 7.”
The difference in media attention from CAIR’s first bullying report on students in Massachusetts, released in 2021, and the one in 2025, is striking. The previous one, said Amatul-Wadud, was well publicized by local news outlets. This year, she said, no one really wanted to hear about what Muslim kids and teens were facing, amid the genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the continued taking of homes and property in the West Bank.
But CAIR-Massachusetts, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary on Nov. 22, has seen tough times before. When the Massachusetts chapter started in 2015, it was during the election season when then-candidate Donald J. Trump had called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
“When I think about the past 10 years and knowing our history, I would say that what happens to Muslims as a marginalized identity — and particularly because so many Muslims are also immigrants, either first or second generation, and so many Muslims are identifiable as people of color — that whatever is happening in the political climate is going to impact that demographic,” said Amatul-Wadud.
She notes that shortly after the state chapter’s formation, came the first iteration of the so-called “Muslim travel ban” executive order. Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center would during Trump’s first term soon note a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes. In the years following, after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, many would face doxing online, get fired from their work and get publicly called out for their support for Palestinians. Some people would even become victims of hate crimes.
A National Effort
Founded in the mid-1990s, CAIR is a national civil rights and advocacy group whose stated mission is to “enhance understanding of Islam,” defend civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims. As with other Muslim rights groups who speak up for Palestinians, the national group has faced accusations of supposed antisemitism from pro-Israeli organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and some Republican lawmakers, such as U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, for its criticisms of Israel and Zionism. Sen. Cotton has even tried to link CAIR with Hamas, a claim CAIR has called baseless and a “McCarthy-era”-style witch hunt. Both Cotton and ADL leadership have themselves also been accused of making comments hurtful to Palestinians.
“Currently, every Muslim, Arab and civil rights organization, as well as students, faculty and others who call for justice for Palestine and oppose Israeli genocide, are in the cross-hairs of Zionist groups and their allies in Congress for intimidation, censorship and silencing. CAIR is not an exception,” pointed out Susan Akram, a clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law. Akram noted the surge in targeting of pro-Palestinian voices since October of 2023.
But, Akram said, CAIR has also become “one of the foremost civil rights organizations around the country, not only for Muslim Americans, but also for others suffering civil rights violations and abuses.”
Decade of Activism
Much of CAIR-Massachusetts’ work is local, serving the estimated 132,000-150,000 Muslims in the state. Its director says the group, which has a lean staff of about a half dozen — including prominent attorney Barbara Dougan — has been especially busy over the past two years working on hate-crime and discrimination cases. Targets of discrimination have been doctors, health care workers and students who stated solidarity with Palestine, for example, or people who were leading demonstrations or simply displaying a Palestinian flag, according to the group.
In a recent case, CAIR-Massachusetts civil rights attorney Mariam Aydah represented a man who was allegedly stopped, called slurs such as “fu-king terrorist” and a “fu-king piece of garbage” and had a Palestinian flag ripped off of his truck by another man while in Stoughton. In another case, the group is representing Palestine-solidarity demonstrators in Cambridge who allege a man threatened and assaulted them with his car earlier this year.
“Organizers shared a video of the man berating protesters in Harvard Square, including pulling out what appeared to be a hatchet. In an expletive-laced outburst captured in a video posted by protest organizers, the man said he would ‘f–ing kill’ protesters,” according to a report in August on Boston.com.
In an interview with Sampan in January, CAIR attorney Aydah told about her own journey becoming an attorney as a Muslim and the discrimination and bias she faced.
“CAIR has become the first call for some of the thousands of Muslims in Massachusetts experiencing civil rights violations in employment, housing, education and other areas — most recently the escalating violations of freedom of speech and expression related to pro-Palestine activism,” said Akram in an email to the Sampan.
Throughout the past two years, student activists and teachers have been disciplined, doxed and event arrested. CAIR-Massachusetts has spoken out for many of these students, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology class president Megha Vemuri, who was punished for going off script in a graduation speech and criticizing the genocide in Gaza.
Akram, who is not affiliated with CAIR, said she’s highly aware of CAIR-Massachusetts’ legal work that’s been conducted hand-in-hand with the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers’ Guild on several key civil rights cases.
Islamophobia Since 9/11
As an American Muslim in her early 50s, Amatul-Wadud said she’s familiar with Islamophobia that’s been in existence for decades. In 2016 she was lead counsel representing the residents of Islamberg, New York, in a case against an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist.
And she said she still remembers the anti-Muslim and anti-Arab backlash after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
“I was in law school when 9/11 happened, and I was also working in corporate America, and I remember feeling like the pro-American patriot would see a visible Muslim like me as a threat,” she said. “There was so much anger – as there should be – at what happened in New York. … So much horror …. and I was afraid that I would be a target. So I actually wrote my dean of the law school and said, ‘I am scared and I will not be coming to school the next couple of days, because I don’t feel safe.’”
“Now, how do I see what happened after 9/11 and what happened to the Muslim community then vs. now? Most people who track Islamophobia would say that what’s happening now, and what’s happened after the first Trump administration, resulted in more Islamophobia than even post-9/11.”
For information about CAIR-Massachusetts 10th anniversary gala, click here.