The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) defended its decision to promote Hesham Ayyad’s story of an alleged anti-Palestinian hate crime after it was revealed that law enforcement had arrested the man, alleging it was a hoax.
Ayyad, a twenty-year-old Ohio resident, was arrested last Tuesday alongside his brother, Khalil, on counts of falsification, obstructing official business, false alarm, and domestic violence, Cleveland.com reported last week.
When reached for comment, CAIR’s national communications director Ibrahim Hooper directed National Review to the group’s official statement on Tuesday. “Hate crimes pose a serious and escalating threat to the American Muslim community. When we receive credible reports of such crimes, we report them to law enforcement and ask for an investigation, which is what happened here,” the group noted on Tuesday. “In this case, the reported victim was hospitalized with severe injuries, lending further credence to his allegations. We do not know anything about the latest developments other than what law enforcement has publicly alleged against the two brothers, who are represented by their own legal counsel.”
“If false statements were made about this incident, that is unacceptable and should be addressed by law enforcement accordingly. In the meantime, we strongly condemn those anti-Muslim extremists who are already flooding social media with hateful messages that dismiss or even justify the very real rise in threats against American Muslims and others who support Palestinian human rights.”
Ayyad alleged he was struck by a driver on his way home for lunch in a Cleveland suburb. “The driver then allegedly turned around and hit the man [Ayyad] while shouting ‘DIE!'” a press release from CAIR released shortly after the incident in late October claimed beside a photo of a hospitalized Ayyad.
Ayyad further noted that the driver of the vehicle drove past him yelling, “Kill all Palestinians,” and “Long live Israel.”
“We call on state, local and federal law enforcement authorities to monitor and investigate crimes related to the rising Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism,” CAIR’s interim chief executive in Ohio, Faten Odeh, announced following the incident. “The Council on American-Islamic Relations encourages those experiencing acts of aggression, racism, and Islamophobia to call their local CAIR offices and report these incidents.”
Despite walking back its claim that Ayyad was seemingly not an actual victim of a hate crime, CAIR has yet to retract its social-media post demanding “law enforcement authorities . . . fully investigate this disturbing attack and charge the perpetrator with a hate crime.”
Local law enforcement later investigated the incident and “found that injuries sustained at the time of the incident were caused by a violent fight that the alleged victim had participated in with his brother, which was confirmed by area video surveillance.”