Hamas-Linked CAIR Uses Local Television to Target Its Enemies Nearly Once a Week

In recent days, Jihad Watch has drawn attention to several local television reports in which the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) used its access to the media to attack or pressure members of the public.

First came Robert Spencer and Megan Basham, whom CAIR wanted removed from a conference at Concordia University Chicago. Then came Janelle Bowles, the Arizona school-board member whom CAIR demanded apologize or resign over social-media posts.

Now it is an Oakland County, Michigan executive named Dave Coulter.

By my count, Coulter is the twenty-fourth person, business, school, government agency, or other target of a CAIR television campaign during the first twenty-five weeks of 2026.

The latest dispute concerns “Voices for Palestinians” placards installed beneath Adopt-A-Road signs near Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The location was especially sensitive, because a man whom the FBI says was inspired by Hezbollah’s jihadist ideology recently attacked the synagogue.

Coulter called the placement troubling, and asked the independently operated Road Commission for Oakland County to review the matter. His statement acknowledged First Amendment protections. It also focused on the proximity of the signs to the synagogue, and requested an independent review of how the location had been approved.

CAIR-Michigan recast that limited request as an effort to silence “Palestinians.”

“We call on the Road Commission to reject Oakland County Executive David Coulter’s biased attempt to silence voices in support of Palestinian humanity,” said CAIR-Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid.

Walid then broadened the dispute into an accusation of ethnic cleansing and genocide, claiming that “Palestinians” had been dehumanized and denied their rights for decades.

That is not what Coulter’s statement said. He did not call for “Palestinian” advocacy to be banned throughout Oakland County. He questioned the placement of these particular placards near the site of a recent jihad terrorist attack against a synagogue.

CAIR’s Contribution to Local News

The problem is not that CAIR is allowed to speak. Advocacy organizations have every right to make accusations, issue demands, and pressure public officials.

CAIR, however, is a dangerous organization, and we need to know what it is doing.

The problem is what local television stations do with CAIR’s accusations against people.

Again and again, the stations give CAIR the opening frame. They repeat its labels, accept its interpretation of motive, and describe its campaign as a civil-rights response. The people being accused may not even be invited to deny a charge that has already been presented to thousands of viewers.

And this has been going on for nearly eight years.

That is not a neutral arrangement. No other civil rights organization is using the media to attack the public as often as CAIR.

In the Coulter story, a public official asked for a review of the placement of two signs near a recently attacked synagogue. CAIR turned that into an attempt to silence “Palestinian” humanity. Television news carried the accusation.

Coulter became the twenty-fourth target in twenty-five weeks.

At this rate, someone else will take his place next week.