Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is calling on the IRS to launch a full investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), arguing that CAIR’s terror ties violate its tax-exempt status. In a letter to IRS commissioner Billy Long, Cotton cited the group’s “ties to terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood” and urged a review of CAIR’s “financial records, affiliations, and activities.”
Cotton noted that tax-exempt status “is a privilege, not a right, and it should not subsidize organizations with links to terrorism.” He referenced a 2009 federal case that named CAIR as a co-conspirator in a Hamas-related terror financing operation. The government found that CAIR’s founders attended a Philadelphia meeting of Hamas supporters to strategize about advancing the Islamist agenda in the U.S. while hiding their affiliations. One CAIR chapter founder received a 65-year prison sentence from that case.
CAIR’s current leadership has drawn further outrage. Just a month after Hamas’s October 7 terror attack, executive director Nihad Awad said he was “happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege” and insisted Israel “does not have that right to self-defense.” According to the ADL, Awad met with Muslim Brotherhood members in 2022 and eulogized a U.S.-designated al-Qaeda recruiter in 2024.
Cotton stressed that U.S. nonprofits must operate “exclusively for charitable, educational, or religious purposes” and cannot provide material support to terrorism. “The IRS has broad authority to examine whether an entity’s operations align with its exempt purpose,” he wrote, urging immediate action.
