Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is calling out a disturbing CAIR connection inside the City University of New York (CUNY), demanding answers for the school’s hiring of a former employee of a pro-Hamas group as its chief diversity officer. During a heated House Education and Workforce Committee hearing, Stefanik grilled CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez over Saly Abd Alla’s past with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
“In 2021, you hired Abd Alla as CUNY’s chief diversity officer,” Stefanik stated. “Were you aware at that time that this senior administrator you hired was previously employed by CAIR?” Matos Rodriguez admitted Abd Alla worked in “the central office with no responsibility over cases that have to deal with students or faculty,” insisting the school expects “total professionalism.”
But Stefanik wasn’t buying it. She noted that CAIR was named an “unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorist financing case” during the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial. She reminded the committee that CAIR’s own executive director publicly said he “was happy to see” Hamas’s October 7 attack.
“It obviously doesn’t break CUNY’s rules to have a senior employee who was previously employed by a terrorist-affiliated organization,” Stefanik said. “That is unacceptable to New York taxpayers. It is unacceptable to American taxpayers.”
Matos Rodriguez confirmed Abd Alla still holds her position. “There you go,” Stefanik responded. “So no action, just words here today.”
