Synagogue hostage crisis reminds us that neo-Nazis aren’t the only ones targeting Jews

CAIR quickly denounced the Colleyville attack as antisemitic and “an unacceptable act of evil” this weekend. But CAIR officials themselves have promoted antisemitic tropes. In November, Zahra Billoo, the executive director of CAIR’s San Francisco chapter, gave a speech denouncing not only anti-Muslim bigotry and right-wing groups, but also “polite Zionists” — including mainstream Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, which fights antisemitism, and Hillel, an organization for Jewish college students — as well as “Zionist synagogues.”

“When we talk about Islamophobia, we think oftentimes about the vehement fascists,” Billoo explained. “But I also want us to pay attention to the polite Zionists. The ones that say, ‘Let’s just break bread together.’” Accusing them of being part of an interconnected network of Zionist-supporting organizations trying to harm Muslims, she warned, “They are not your friends.”

(Billoo didn’t respond to requests for comment to media organizations when news of her remarks broke. However, in response to the leader of the ADL calling her comments antisemitic, the CAIR National Twitter account posted: “You use false claims of antisemitism to smear Muslims.”)

If CAIR doesn’t condemn such antisemitic tropes — these Jews can’t be trusted, they’re part of an organized Islamophia network, don’t break bread with polite Zionists — it is not truly opposing antisemitism and the root causes of what we see underpinning these acts of violence against Jews

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/amp/ncna1287744

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