He has described the October 7 attack as ‘a desperate attempt to tell the world that Palestinians are here, that Palestinians are part of the equation.’
Mahmoud Khalil will be awarded the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) 2025 Champion of Justice award, the organization announced today. His wife, Noor Abdalla, and attorney Amy Greer will also be honored “for their courageous efforts to free Mahmoud and stand up for every person’s constitutional right to express support for Palestinian human rights.”
“Mr. Khalil’s effort to end U.S. support for the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza and his perseverance under unprecedented oppression by our own government is an inspiration to everyone who believes in free speech and human rights,” CAIR said in a statement.
Khalil is the legal alien the Trump administration has tried to deport over his pro-Hamas sympathies. Khalil was instrumental in orchestrating the pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University, was a public affairs officer for the terror-promoting United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and was a lead negotiator for the Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s encampment.
In a recent interview with the New York Times‘ Ezra Klein, Khalil classified Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as inevitable and downplayed the attack as “a desperate attempt to tell the world that Palestinians are here, that Palestinians are part of the equation.”
The activist refuses to condemn Hamas. He calls concerns about antisemitism on Columbia’s campus “manufactured hysteria.” He was part of other anti-Israel protests that excused Hamas’s inexcusable attack.
Our Andy McCarthy has detailed why Khalil’s deportation would be justified. Progressives argue that Khalil’s speech is protected by the First Amendment. But they don’t stop at defending Khalil by just litigating the constitutionality of his potential deportation — they’ve made him a martyr for the cause. Why CAIR has followed suit is no surprise.
Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) called for an Internal Revenue Service investigation into CAIR last week, because for decades, the organization has maintained ties to terrorist organizations and offered support to groups and individuals like Khalil who sympathize with terrorists. CAIR’s naming of a Hamas shill as a champion of justice should add fuel to Cotton’s fire.