The ACLU’s Calumny, and CAMERA’s Response

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920; the leading light among its handful of founders was a Boston Brahmin, Roger Baldwin. In its early days, the ACLU intervened in a good way: it argued for lifting the ban on James Joyce’s Ulysses (leading to Judge John Woolsey’s famous opinion); in 1925, it partnered with Clarence Darrow to argue on behalf of John T. Scopes, who had dared to teach evolution in the buckle of the Bible Belt; and it took a stand in support of Sacco and Vanzetti during their trial for murder.

It also helped defend people who, during the period of Joseph McCarthy’s heyday and the House Un-American Activities Committee under Martin Dies, were sometimes wrongfully accused of being Communists (though there were also those who were rightly accused — though not by McCarthy — of aiding and abetting Communism). The ACLU went haywire when it defended the “right of Nazis” to march through the town of Skokie, Illinois, where half the population was Jewish — a march that had only one aim, which was not “to express an opinion,” but only to sow fear among the Jews in that town, many of whom were Holocaust survivors. The ACLU won that case for the Nazis. The organization must have been very proud.

Now the ACLU has decided to defend from deportation people, Badar Khan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, who deeply sympathize with, the terrorist organization known as Hamas, whose aim, as set out in its 1987 Charter, is the destruction of the state of Israel and the expulsion or murder of all of its Jewish citizens. Hamas’ final solution in “Palestine” is not different from the Nazis’ Endlösung in Europe, but on a smaller scale. The ACLU is angry, and will stop at nothing, it seems, to attack CAMERA, a pro-Israel organization, for pointing out that Suri and Saleh, whom the government wants to deport, are, in fact, supporters of Hamas, a designated terrorist group. On October 7, 2023, 6,000 members of Hamas smashed into Israel from Gaza, where they proceeded to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder 1,200 people and take 251 hostages back to Gaza. But the ACLU is ready to defend from deportation both Suri and Saleh, who continue, even after October 7, to support the group. And the ACLU has attacked CAMERA for presenting evidence that could help make the case for their possible deportation. More on the ACLU’s charges against CAMERA, and CAMERA’s devastating reply, can be found here: “The ACLU’s Egregiously Dishonest Attack on CAMERA,” by David Litman, CAMERA, April 24, 2025:

Double standards are anathema to civil liberties. Yet the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which claims to protect the latter, instead exemplifies the former. Consider its recent attacks on CAMERA.

The ACLU has been a leading voice advancing the narrative that the Jewish community uses charges of antisemitism to silence criticism of Israel. For example, in a 2023 letter, the ACLU wrote: “the clear objective behind the promotion of the IHRA definition [of antisemitism] is the suppression of non-violent protest, activism, and criticism of Israel and/or Zionism…”

Contrast this with the ACLU of Virginia’s defense strategy for its client Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University academic facing deportation. In short, the ACLU has resorted to accusations of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry to suppress activism against and criticism of terrorism.

In court documents and public statements, the ACLU claims that Suri and his Palestinian-American wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because of their “Muslim religion” and Saleh’s “national origin.”^[1] In this regard, the ACLU singles out CAMERA, calling it a “group that spreads misinformation and seeks to discredit American Muslims.” According to the ACLU, CAMERA was a leading player in the “racist and Islamophobic doxxing” and “smear campaigns” that led to Suri being detained by immigration authorities.

What is the ACLU’s evidence of CAMERA’s anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian motivations? None is provided….

Saleh, for example, is depicted as simply “express[ing] sorrow for the deaths of Gazan people.” Omitted is that she repeatedly expressed glee at the murder of Israelis. In one case, she approvingly reposted a Hamas propaganda video promising to murder Israeli civilian hostages.

Suri, too, is described simply as “an academic dedicated to ending wars and finding just and peaceful solutions to conflicts” and “expressing support for the Palestinian people.” But these descriptions are contradicted by Suri’s actual history. Recall that he engaged in a celebratory pose with Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas terrorist leader known for such “peaceful” rhetoric as: “we need the blood of women, children, and the elderly of Gaza so it awakens our revolutionary spirit!” and “we will never recognize Israel!” Suri himself has stated: “What Ismail Haniyeh is doing…is no different from what any national leader would do…”

Yes, of course, any “national leader” would urge his supporters to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder. Washington, Garibaldi, and Bolivar are just a few of those leaders from the past whom Ismail Haniyeh was emulating.

Did Saleh and Suri act on behalf of Hamas? Did either of them work directly for the terror group? Did Suri smilingly grasp the hand, in a celebratory pose, of the senior Hamas leader and arch-terrorist, Ismail Haniyeh? Did Saleh repeatedly express her “glee” on social media at Hamas’ October 7 orgy of rape, torture, mutilation and murder? Did her father work for Hamas as a member of the Gazan civil service? Did Saleh repost a Hamas video promising the murder of more Israeli civilians? Did she ever work for the Gazan Foreign Ministry, which is run by Hamas? Did Suri take part in a “convoy” in 2010-2011 organized by the PIJ in support of Hamas, an effort to “break the blockade” of weapons that the IDF had placed on Gaza?

Or are Salah and Suri, as the ACLU wants the world to believe, just two innocent academics, hoping for peace, and merely mouthing a few phrases expressing their sympathy for fellow Muslims and for their “resistance” to the Israelis who simply will not leave them alone? And why is CAMERA persecuting them? The ACLU wants to know.

Let the facts be submitted to.a candid world, and I am sure that, despite the best efforts of the ACLU, Badar Khan Suri and Mapheze Salah will be on their way to a Muslim land, to live among people who, just like themselves, swell with pride at the very thought of what Hamas did on October 7, 2023.