Memorial Day, a federal holiday held the last Monday in May, is the nation’s foremost annual day to mourn and honor its deceased service men and women.[1]
The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIRR) has a problem with Memorial Day. There are instances of inattention to the actual date of Memorial Day, unopposed criticism of the U.S. military on Memorial Day by some CAIR officials, and years of apparent indifference to the Day itself. Consider the following:
When is Memorial Day?
On November 9, 2006, CAIR issued the following press release:
DC: MUSLIM VETERANS TO LAY MEMORIAL DAY WREATH. The Muslim American Veterans Association (MAVA) will conduct a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, Area 5 in Washington, D.C., on 11 November at 0700 A.M.[2]
November 11, 2006, was Veterans Day, honoring all U.S. military veterans, especially those still alive. CAIR apparently did not know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
I could not find another mention of CAIR and Memorial Day until 2014.
Memorial Day 2014
On May 22, 2014, CAIR issued the following press release:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today marked the upcoming Memorial Day holiday with the release of a video featuring American Muslim veterans expressing pride in serving their nation through military service and sacrifice. In the 44-second video, three CAIR representatives describe their service in the Army and Navy:
“My name is Dawud Walid. I’m executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and I served honorably in the Navy. “My name is Sakinah Mujahid. I’m on CAIR’s Minnesota board of advisors and I served 13 years in the Army. “My name is Wilfredo Ruiz. I am an attorney with CAIR’s Florida office and I am a former officer in the U.S. Navy. “American Muslims serve our nation’s military and have died for our freedoms.”
The video ends with the tag line: “On this Memorial Day, CAIR honors all who served our country.”[3] So far so good.
However, on May 23, Zahra Billoo, the Executive Director of CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, tweeted that she:
“struggles with Memorial Day each year. How does one balance being pretty staunchly anti-war while honoring those who died in the military”
She also quoted Dawud Walid, who said:
If one dies in an unjust war in which we illegally invaded and occupied a sovereign nation, should that person be honored?[4]
Billoo also retweeted “hateful anti-American comments” by Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian poet, writer, and political organizer.[5]
It was reported that:
CAIR-St. Louis Executive Director Faizan Syed came to her [Billoo’s] defense, retweeting a message claiming that the U.S. army “often murders innocent women and children.”[6]
Other CAIR officials had no criticism of any of these comments.
Memorial Day 2015
Billoo “again slandered the U.S. military and said servicemen often ‘murder’ innocent civilians.”[7] CAIR officials had no criticism of this.
Memorial Day 2016
Billoo stated “that she is ‘proud’ to stand by her inflammatory comments.”[8] Later that year Billoo equated the U.S. military with ISIS.[9] CAIR officials had no criticism of this.
Memorial Day 2017
This year CAIR took a different approach to Memorial Day. On May 26, 2017, CAIR
…released a video message marking Memorial Day from Gold Star father Khizr Khan in which he urges all Americans to “recommit ourselves to unity, liberty, justice, and finally – to an end to all wars.[10]
CAIR must have considered this video as compensation for previous Memorial Day issues placing CAIR in a poor light, and as a years-long pay-it-forward, because in an internet search I was unable to find any mention of CAIR and Memorial Day until 2025.
Memorial Day 2025
On May 27, 2025, one day after Memorial Day, CAIR posted an article titled, “Honoring Muslim American Veterans on Memorial Day.”[11] CAIR was reaching back into the archives, because this article had been written by Craig Considine for the Huffington Post on May 27, 2013.[12] Why would CAIR post a Memorial Day article one day after Memorial Day? Perhaps because Considine’s article started out, “On May 27th, Americans will celebrate Memorial Day…” and whoever posted the article didn’t realize that it had been written in 2013, when Memorial Day was on May 27th.
Memorial Day 2026
Instead of trying again in 2026, CAIR apparently decided to lay low and ignore Memorial Day. On Memorial Day, May 25, I went to the websites of the following CAIR organizations: CAIR (National), CAIR California, CAIR Chicago, CAIR Michigan, CAIR Minnesota, CAIR New York, and CAIR Texas. At each website I took screen shots of the various webpages, allowing some overlap to show continuity, to see if there was any mention of Memorial Day on any of these websites. There was no mention of Memorial Day on any of these websites. Those screen shots, listed by CAIR organization, are found in Appendix 1.[13]
I also checked the Facebook page posts for these CAIR organizations on and around May 25. There was no mention of Memorial Day.
Conclusion
Is Memorial Day important to CAIR? Is it even relevant to CAIR? From what we have seen, the answer to both questions is “No.” So, here are some things to think about.
In 1919, Theodore Roosevelt stated:
We should insist that if the immigrant who comes here does in good faith become an American and assimilates himself to us he shall be treated on an exact equality with every one else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed or birth-place or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American and nothing but an American. If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own origin and separated from the rest of America, then he isn’t doing his part as an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. . . We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one soul loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people. .[14]
CAIR touts itself as an organization representing Muslims in America. So, who are the Muslims CAIR is representing? Here are some considerations.
The majority of Muslims in the United States are not native-born Americans. A survey was taken between July 17, 2023, and March 4, 2024, and found that 59% of adult Muslims in the United States had been born outside the United States.[15]
Muslims in the United States are generally considered to be devout in their adherence to Islam, and the mosque is where they learn about their faith from imams. A 2020 study found some interesting facts about imams in the United States:
- Over half (55%) of imams had a BA, MA, or PhD in Islamic studies from an overseas university. Only approximately 6% of all imams had a degree in Islamic studies from an American university or institution.
- 68% of the imams were born abroad and 32% were born in the US. 78% of full-time paid imams were foreign born.
- Of those imams born abroad, almost half were from Arab countries, with Egypt being the origin of most Arab imams.[16]
So Muslims in the United States are going to mosques and learning their religion mostly from imams born outside the United States. And as I wrote about in an earlier article, there are some common themes being taught in those mosques:
- Hostility toward Israel and calls for its destruction;
- Hostility toward Jews and Christians and calls for their death;
- Great antipathy toward the United States;
- The lauding of designated foreign terrorist organizations and individual terrorists;
- Praise for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians and the subsequent fighting by Hamas.[17]
And the doctrines of Islam are not compatible with the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United States. I wrote about this in a brochure titled Islamic Doctrine and Muslim Immigration to the United States.[18] I concluded:
How can Muslim immigrants assimilate into a society of non-Muslims toward which their religion teaches such hatred and violence, and the intent to destroy? The reality is that they can’t. That is why Muslims already in the United States seem to stay mainly socially separated from non-Muslim Americans. So, where does their “one sole loyalty” truly lay? As we can see above, it is not with Jewish and Christian Americans.
This is why CAIR has a problem with our Memorial Day.
Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of six books and numerous articles about Islam. His latest book is Islamic Doctrine versus the U.S. Constitution: The Dilemma for Muslim Public Officials.
[1] https://www.cem.va.gov/history/Memorial-Day-history.asp
[2] https://www.cair.com/press_releases/dc-muslim-veterans-to-lay-memorial-day-wreath/
[3] https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-marks-memorial-day-with-video-featuring-muslim-veterans/
[4] Ryan Mauro, “CAIR Officials on Memorial Day: Do U.S. Troops Merit Honor?” Clarion Project, May 26, 2014, https://clarionproject.org/2014/05/26/cair-officials-memorial-day-do-us-troops-merit-honor/. Also see Fox News video, “Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Officials Question Honoring U.S. Troops,” May 26, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Xcvdx59dE.
[5] Jim Hoft, “CAIR Officials on Memorial Day: Do Fallen Troops Really Merit Honoring?”, Gateway Pundit, May 27, 2014, https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/05/cair-officials-on-memorial-day-do-fallen-troops-really-merit-honoring/.
[6] Ryan Mauro, “CAIR Denounces US Military on Memorial Day,” Islamist Watch, May 27, 2015, https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/cair-denounces-us-military-on-memorial-day.
[7] Ryan Mauro, “CAIR Official Stands By Memorial Day Criticism of US Troops,” Islamist Watch, May 29, 2016, https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/cair-official-stands-by-memorial-day-criticism.
[8] Ibid.
[9] https://canarymission.org/individual/Zahra_Billoo
[10] https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-releases-memorial-day-video-from-gold-star-father-khizr-khan-urging-end-to-all-wars/
[11] https://www.cair.com/american_muslim_news/honoring-muslim-american-veterans-on-memorial-day/
[12] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lets-honor-muslim-america_b_3339838
[13] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1usnFzL7lYZ9LckA9ShELWNJB-yV-LcQU/view?usp=sharing
[14] Immigrants – Assimilation of, https://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=991271&module_id=339518
[15] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1493666/religious-background-of-us-immigrants/
[16] Dr. Ihsan Bagby, The American Mosque 2020: Growing and Evolving, Report 1 of the US Mosque Survey 2020, June 2, 2020, https://ispu.org/report-1-mosque-survey-2020/.
[17] Stephen M. Kirby, “What is Going On at Muslim American Mosques and Events?” Jihad Watch, March 10, 2025, https://jihadwatch.org/2025/03/what-is-going-on-at-muslim-american-mosques-and-events. I also wrote about what to do with the green card-holding imams preaching these themes: “Time for Some Green Card-Holding Muslim Leaders to be Deported,” Jihad Watch, March 19, 2025, https://jihadwatch.org/2025/03/time-for-some-green-card-holding-muslim-leaders-to-be-deported.
[18] https://islamseries.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/islamic-doctrine-amd-muslim-immigration-to-the-united-states.pdf
Walter Sieruk says
Regarding Hamas, one of the things that are printed in its Charter of that jihad entity, reads, “Our struggle against the Jews is very great It needs sincere efforts.” Likewise,, it further states that the Hamas members must engage in the jihad with a “sincere purpose.”
This key word in that statement is the word “sincere” Also those other two words which are “sincere purpose.”
This reveals the fool statement, which has been in America, at least since that early 1970’s that is “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere. That saying is 100% balderdash. For as observed those vicious and malicious jihad attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7th 2023 , with the many Islamic atrocities committed by the Muslim terrorists of Hamas on that terrible day were done by Hamas Muslim terrorists who were sincerely following the instruction found in the Quran which in Surah 47:4.. Whenever you encounter the disbeliever’s strike of the heads until you make a great slaughter among them….”
The terrible reality is that using machine guns and missiles is a more effective way of making a great slaughter among them than a sword can, as seen on that awful day.
Furthermore, the Qur’ an also instructs in Surah 9::123 “O you who believe ! Fight those of the disbelievers who are close to you and let them find harshness in you.”
Therefore, it really does matter what a person believes, regardless if he or she is deeply sincere. As history has revealed by those Muslim terrorists of Hamas who on October 7th 2023 when they engaged in the jihad, they were, no doubt sincere in obeying their religion but also dangerous deluded deadly and demonically inspired, their horrific and horrendously evil actions.
GianCarlo MATTA says
tell us , w.s. , how many books have you read ? and wich ?
tell us , please …….
Walter Sieruk says
To answer your question,on the “how many have ” on Islam I the twentieth century I read a member of books on Islam about five and about six booklets on Islam , published in Turkey from different Muslim owned Islam organizations .Now in this twenty -first century , after September 11,th 2001 I then read and studied many more books on Islam and bought about twelves videos on Islam and its jihad. I really don’t know why you asked that question ?
Walter Sieruk says
Muslim terrorists malicious murderous jihad violence as observed in those horrendous Hamas jihad attacks of October 7, 2023 will continue because of the basic root ideology of Islamic terrorists is based on the theology of Islam’s “holy book” the Qur ‘an. For the Qu ‘ran instructs in the use of violence and killing for the advancement of Islam. As found in, for example, 2:191. 5:33. 9:5, 111.123. 47:4. Therefore Islam is a dangerous and deadly religion.
Patton says
NO moose slime should EVER set foot on that hallowed ground for ANY reason. Period. No debate.
somehistory says
cair…’the largest muzzie” criminal organization in the U.S….celebrates murder by their fellow muzzies.
it’s best that they ignore the days set aside to honor those who love what is right and work to defend the innocent. It’s keeps their demon filth unconnected with the memories humans have of their lost loved ones and those who are far away.
I wouldn’t want any part of what cair has to offer as a “remembrance.”
Larry Estavan says
The Bridgeview Mosque –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoJ4Yoc1KiA
David Ross says
Foreigner here. Outside the US (which had its own history, between dueling CSA Memorial Day and the Union Memorial Day end-of-May), 11/11 is Armistice Day. It commemorates the end of WW1. It is a solemn occasion – likely borrowed from the Americans – concentrating on the fallen.
The US, having its own days for memorial, took on 11/11 for the living. That’s Veterans’ Day for you.
So if someone isn’t from the US, that someone may well still remember 11/11 as Armistice Day and not Veterans’ Day.
somehistory says
cair is made up of muzzies who all ****claim**** to be American. So they are not considered as someone you reference in your final paragraph.
muzzies celebrate days when muzzies shed blood in copious amounts and stake claim to land and property for their demon masters.
rubiconcreset says
Mr. Kirby, your articles are always informative. I am curious about the Islamic countries that have banned the Muslim Brotherhood. I say this because I read that some ME nations will not accept Muslims from England because they have been radicalized there. I don’t know if that is true but if it is then what are those nations doing to reduce MB extremism? I am not naive enough to believe that those efforts will be effective long term with Islamic civilizational jihad but they may be helpful short term. It is part of a broader conversation about strategies to elliminate Islamic jihad from our shores and from every western nation.
BOB says
You can ban them . Then what. They will simply be in secret. It tells to be quiet, vote for radical left in western countries, and then in the end over throw the left and put in sharia law.
Look at Texas. Muslims are building a city of. Wopping 100,000,000 people, an Islamic city with SECRET SHARIA LAW. YOU MUST WEAR THE BURKA. We won’t be able to stop the spread of more SHARIA CITY all over America! These will be ISAMIC BASES to further expand upon the disbeliever. These will be Muslim brotherhood fraud zones, pillaging money from the government and tax payer, the disbeliever. THATS THE PLAN!
Not many patriots know about this secret plan but I found out about it. It’s about secret zoos.
gravenimage says
Epic City *is* scary–but a *million people*? Almost as large as Dallas?
BOB says
Beans said it not me. He lives there. 100 thousand right.
gravenimage says
Where did Beans say this? Not on this thread.
And Epic City–which has no residents so far–has a planned 1,000 units. I’m not sure they plan to have 1,000 tenets per unit…
The truth is terrible enough. No need to exagerate–it just makes Anti-Jihadists look less trustworthy.
gravenimage says
Why Hamas-Linked CAIR Has a Problem with Memorial Day
…………………………………………………………………
*Of course* they do. How *dare* anyone remeber Americans daring to defend their nation against danger? “Islamophobic”…
tgusa says
” How does one balance being pretty staunchly anti-war while honoring those who died in the military”
How does one balance being pretty staunchly anti-war while living in a country that those who died in the military (or survived) made possible. If Americans had been anti-war from the beginning we wouldnt have a country. More that that, If Americans had been anti-war from the beginning there would never have been a beginning.
“If one dies in an unjust war in which we illegally invaded and occupied a sovereign nation, should that person be honored?”
In the history of our nation no veteran has started a war.
“Later that year Billoo equated the U.S. military with ISIS”
If we wanted to we could be like ISIS. If we wanted to we could murder innocent women and children. If we wanted to we could murder innocent civilians. If we wanted to.
Hamas-linked CAIR should be thanking us for not doing that. Everything they accuse Americans of doing they themselves are guilty of doing. Yes, I blame all muslims for the actions of ISIS.
tgusa says
Regarding Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Below is a simple lesson for the Hamas-linked CAIR dunces. Veterans Day honors all Veterans. Memorial Day honors Veterans who gave their lives. We dont memorialize Veterans that survived we honor them.