US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to launch an investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), claiming the nonprofit advocacy group has longstanding ties to terrorist organizations including Hamas.

In a letter to IRS Commissioner Billy Long dated Aug. 4, Cotton asserted that CAIR, which is registered as a nonprofit charitable organization that purports to protect the rights of American Muslims, has “deep ties to terrorist organizations.” Cotton pointed to what he described as “substantial evidence” from past government exhibits and public statements by CAIR officials, including its founding connections and remarks by its current leadership.

“Recent news and longstanding evidence demonstrate CAIR’s ties to terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and their activities,” Cotton wrote.

While Hamas is a US-designated terrorist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood has not been proscribed as such, although lawmakers in Congress recently introduced legislation to designate the global Islamist movement, which has been banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Austria.

In his letter, Cotton called on the IRS to conduct a full review of CAIR’s financial records, affiliations, and operations to determine whether the organization continues to meet the legal requirements of its tax-exempt status.

Citing a 2008 case, the largest terrorism-financing case in US history, Cotton said CAIR had been listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. CAIR was infamously named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas. Cotton also referred to government trial exhibits indicating CAIR’s founders participated in meetings with Hamas supporters in Philadelphia.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”

Beyond past associations, Cotton pointed to more recent comments from CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad. In a 2023 speech following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, Awas said he was “happy to see” Palestinians “breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.” Cotton cited the remark as evidence of CAIR’s alignment with violent extremist rhetoric.

“These connections are not mere historical footnotes,” Cotton wrote, accusing CAIR of engaging in activities inconsistent with its stated mission of civil rights advocacy. He argued that 501(c)(3) organizations should not be permitted to operate under tax-exempt status if they are involved in or supportive of terrorism.

The IRS has not publicly responded to Cotton’s letter.

CAIR did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story but replied to Cotton on the X social media platform.

“Is that the best you’ve got, Tom? We figured your handlers would have given you something better to work worth, not debunked conspiracy theories and half-baked legal arguments,” CAIR posted. “Unlike [Cotton], our civil rights organization defends the Constitution, including its guarantees of free speech and religious freedom. Also, unlike Tom Cotton, we oppose injustice here and abroad, from hate crimes to terrorism to ethnic cleansing to genocide. That’s why we speak out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and why we spoke out against attacks on civilians in Israel on Oct. 7th. Receipts below. This is called moral consistency, Tom. You should try it. Make sure to ask AIPAC first, though.”

AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group in the US.

Cotton’s letter comes amid growing scrutiny of Middle Eastern and Muslim advocacy organizations as the Israel-Hamas war continues in Gaza and antisemitic hate crimes surge across the West.

The senator has spearheaded multiple efforts to tackle antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment within the US. Earlier this year, for example, Cotton introduced the “No Student Loans for Campus Criminals Act” and “Woke Endowment Security Tax (WEST),” legislation which would penalize students and universities that spread pro-terrorist ideologies.

Police officers block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in protest against Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy

There was a recorded rise in antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom the day after the English punk rap duo Bob Vylan called for the death of Israeli soldiers at the Glastonbury Festival in June, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters.

CST on Wednesday published a new report detailing antisemitic incidents recorded from January to June 2025. The report stated that the highest daily total for such outrages in the first half of 2025 was 26 reported on June 29, 16 of which took place online.

On June 28, Bob Vylan vocalist Pascal Robinson-Foster led thousands in the audience to chant “Death, Death to the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces, during the band’s set at the Glastonbury music and arts festival in Somerset, England. The performance was livestreamed by the BBC.

CST said the 26 incidents reported to the charity on June 29 involved “anti-Jewish responses” to events at Glastonbury, and CST’s statement on X that described Bob Vylan’s anti-IDF chants as “utterly chilling” and “an expression of mass hatred.”

The second worst day for “anti-Jewish hatred” in the first half of the year was May 17, when 19 incidents were recorded just a day after Israel announced the expansion of its military operation in the Gaza Strip, according to CST’s new report.

“In all of these incidents, anti-Jewish language, motivation, or targeting was evident alongside the rhetoric linked to Israel or Zionism,” CST said. “Both of these cases [on June 29 and May 17] illustrate how sentiment and rhetoric towards Israel and Zionism influence, shape, and drive contemporary anti-Jewish discourse, online and offline, often around totemic events that grab mainstream public attention.”

Because of their anti-IDF comments, Bob Vylan was dropped by their talent agency, as well as festivals and concerts worldwide. The duo also had their US visas revoked, and police in the UK launched an investigation to see if the band’s anti-IDF comments are a criminal offense.

The BBC apologized for broadcasting Bob Vylan’s “offensive and deplorable behavior” in their Glastonbury performance, during which Robinson-Foster also complained about working for a “f—king Zionist” and chanted “Free, free Palestine.”

According to Wednesday’s report, the CST recorded 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.

Fifty-one percent of all antisemitic incidents in the first half of this year “referenced or were linked to Israel, Palestine, the Hamas terror attack (on Oct. 7, 2023) or the subsequent outbreak of conflict,” CST noted. The group also recorded 73 antisemitic assaults in the first half of the year – with an additional three physical attacks categorized as “extreme violence” – and 572 cases of online antisemitism.

The Royal Ballet perform in a general rehearsal of “Dark with Excessive Bright” at the Royal Opera House in London, Britain, Feb. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville

The Royal Ballet and Opera has canceled a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv scheduled for next year after 182 anti-Israel RBO staff members signed an open letter protesting the planned performance and the organization’s support of Israel.

In an open letter published by Artists for Palestine UK on Monday, RBO staff members said they “reject any current or future performances in Israel” and are committed to “withholding our productions from institutions that legitimize and economically support a state engaged in the mass killing of civilians.” They further condemned RBO’s decision to have a production of “Turandot” by Giacomo Puccini at the Israeli Opera this year. “The decision cannot be viewed as neutral. It is a deliberate alignment, materially and symbolically, with a government currently engaged in crimes against humanity,” said staff members – including dancers, singers, musicians, and backstage crew.

They then claimed that the Israeli Opera offers free tickets to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. The RBO “is clearly making a strong political statement by allowing its production and intellectual property to be presented in a space that openly rewards and legitimizes the very forces responsible for the daily killings of civilians in Gaza,” the letter stated.

Staff members demanded that the RBO “withholds our productions from institutions that legitimize and economically support a state engaged in the mass killing of civilians.” They also condemned RBO’s “silence on Israel’s genocidal conduct” and expressed solidarity with a performer who last month raised a Palestinian flag during the curtain call of “Il trovatore” at the Royal Opera House. The staff members said the performer displayed “courage and moral clarity on our very stage.”

Video footage from the incident showed RBO’s Director of Opera Oliver Mears trying to seize the flag from the performer in front of a live, applauding audience. The open letter said Mears’ actions “sent a clear message that any visible solidarity with Palestine would be met with hostility, while the organization remains silent on the ongoing genocide.” They called for Mears “to be held accountable for his public display of aggression,” and demanded that the RBO “publicly acknowledge the genocide in Gaza” and “end its silence” regarding Israel’s actions.

“History will remember the choices we make in times of atrocity. We urge our organization not to be complicit through inaction or false neutrality,” they stated in conclusion.