Romin Iqbal (centre) of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) attends a news conference at CAIR-Columbus headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, in 2018. Iqbal was terminated for sharing information about the organization for “a hateful anti-Muslim. corporation.”
Brooke LaValley / USA TODAY Network via Reuters
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Brooke LaValley / USA TODAY Network via Reuters
Romin Iqbal (centre) of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) attends a news conference at CAIR-Columbus headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, in 2018. Iqbal was terminated for sharing information about the organization for “a hateful anti-Muslim. corporation.”
Brooke LaValley / USA TODAY Network via Reuters
The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it fired one of its top leaders after it was discovered he was sharing information about the organization with “a prominent anti-Muslim group.” language.”
Romin Iqbal, the group’s current Executive and Legal Director, was terminated after country headquarters contacted CAIR-Ohio’s board of directors to provide details of his misconduct.
A forensic investigation by a third-party expert found “concluding evidence that Iqbal spent years secretly recording CAIR cyber meetings and passing on classified information related to national advocacy by CAIR for a prominent anti-Muslim group,” said CAIR-Ohio.
When faced with the outcome of the investigation, Iqbal confessed, according to CAIR-Ohio. He was supposedly working with Project Terrorism Investigation, an organization founded by Steven Emerson.
The group says it focuses on “radical Islamic terrorism.”
But Emerson has a “history of promoting disinformation and conspiracy theories about Islam and its followers,” according to The Bridge Initiative, a Georgetown University research project on agoraphobia, and used her team to further this effort.
Iqbal allegedly shared secret information for years
Details of Iqbal’s years-long work with Emerson’s team were revealed after CAIR’s country office received information about the inner workings of the Terrorism Investigative Project.
That information shows that Emerson is monitoring comments made by Muslim figures and is still working on developing what CAIR CEO Nihad Awad described. like content that bans Islam.
Evidence also allegedly indicates that Emerson’s team “communicated and provided assistance to Israeli intelligence with the office of then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
NPR has contacted the Terrorism Investigations Project for a response to these allegations. A representative for the group did not immediately respond.
In addition, CAIR received extensive evidence that Emerson and his organization worked for many years to spy on prominent American mosques and Muslim organizations using internal staff. ministry and volunteers, the group said. That includes the chapter of CAIR in Columbus, Ohio.
The organization hired an outside law firm and forensic expert to dig into the information shared with them and validate the evidence.
The effort explored Iqbal’s work with Emerson and his team, CAIR’s Awad said.
“For years, Mr. Iqbal has secretly shared confidential information about our civil rights work – including stealthy recorded conversations, strategic plans and private emails,” Awad said. with anti-Muslim extremists”. “He did this in violation of his moral obligation to the organization and his moral obligation to protect the Ohio Muslim community.”
CAIR is continuing to investigate the situation and is likely to consider the allegations urgently, Awad added.
