(Axios) A legal battle between one of the nation’s most prominent Muslim advocacy groups and one of its former senior officials threatens to escalate allegations of sexual misconduct and reveal details of the organization’s internal workings.
Why it matters: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a large and influential civil rights group. Its defamation lawsuit against former board member and senior executive Lori Saroya poses some major reputational risks.
Background: The lawsuit, filed in May, accuses Saroya of running a multi-year campaign to defame CAIR and cut off its sources of financial support.
- Saroya resigned from the group in 2018, and has since accused its leadership of participating in or attempting to cover up sexual misconduct, discrimination and financial improprieties.
