CAIR Director Nihad Awad spoke at an event by American Muslims for Palestine and praised the October 7th terror attack where over 1,200 Jews were slaughtered by Hamas.

MEMRI wrote that Awad said “The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on October 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense.”

Below is the video:

So the man who rails against hate and so-called islamophobia is openly celebrating the ‘victory’ Palestinians had on October 7th? What a monster.

According to National Review, Awad claimed his remarks had been taken out of context:

Reached for comment after the video was publicized by the Middle East Media Research Institute on Thursday morning, Awad said his remarks had been taken out of context and claimed he was not referring to the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered more than 1,000 Israelis on October 7.

“The average Palestinians who briefly walked out of Gaza and set foot on their ethnically cleansed land in a symbolic act of defiance against the blockade and stopped there without engaging in violence were within their rights under international law; the extremists who went on to attack civilians in southern Israel were not, Targeting civilians is unacceptable, no matter whether they are Israeli or Palestinian or any other nationality,” Awad told National Review in an exclusive statement.

“What I actually said while discussing international law: Ukrainians, Palestinians and other occupied people have the right to defend themselves and escape occupation by just and legal means, but targeting civilians is never an acceptable means of doing so, which is why I have again and again condemned the violence against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7th and past Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, including suicide bombings, all the way back to the 1990s—just as I have condemned the decades of violence against Palestinian civilians,” Awad added.

The fact that he said “And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves…” and that Israel does not undermines his entire argument that he was taken out of context. This man is clearly a virulent antisemite and Muslim terrorism supporter.