(JNS) On Sept. 11 — the 23rd anniversary of terror attacks — the U.S. House of Representatives received bipartisan approval for the markup of H.R. 9495, a bill that would terminate the tax-exempt status of terror-supporting organizations. The bill specifies how the Department of Treasury would evaluate a nonprofit’s material support for terrorism using legal standards outlined in 18 U.S.C. 2339B, which have been in place since 1996. Hamas has been recognized by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. In response to this week’s bill, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which continues to present itself as a defender of civil rights, released a press release opposing the House measure. If enacted, the legislation could be used to go after CAIR and its well-documented ties to Hamas.
Hamas’s murder of 1,200 people, including at least 40 Americans, during the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 was publicly celebrated by CAIR. Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, expressed his “happiness” at witnessing the Oct. 7 attacks.
