The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is reviewing whether the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) misused federal grants intended for Afghan refugees. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the review on June 9, 2026. It covers CAIR National and its California and Washington affiliates.
The review followed an April 27 letter from Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and 13 other House Republicans urging HHS to suspend CAIR and begin debarment proceedings to bar it from federal grants government-wide. Under federal regulations, debarment generally lasts no more than three years, though the debarring official may impose a longer period if circumstances warrant.
CAIR describes itself as the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. Concerns about the group stem largely from the federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas charity accused of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. In 2008, five former officials were convicted on 108 counts.
Prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator. U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis denied its request to remove its name from the list. In a July 2009 order, he wrote that the government had produced “ample evidence” establishing CAIR’s associations with the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and Hamas. Ghassan Elashi, a CAIR-Texas figure, was among those convicted and was sentenced to 65 years for financing terrorism.
In April 2009, the FBI said it had suspended formal contacts with CAIR and would not treat it as a liaison partner until it could resolve whether the group or its executives remained connected to Hamas. CAIR denies any ties to terrorism.
CAIR is not the only Islamist organization to receive HHS funding. A July 2026 Middle East Forum audit identified 14 organizations it describes as Islamist or terror-linked that received $79 million in HHS funding since 2010. According to the audit, 87 percent, about $68.5 million, was awarded between 2022 and 2025. Federal award records show that at least eight received funding during the Biden administration, while four foreign recipients received money through awards signed before 2021. Each of the 14 groups is examined below.
CAIR chapters received about $42.2 million in HHS-funded Afghan resettlement grants through state agencies and private organizations since July 2022. This included $40.7 million for CAIR-California and about $1.5 million for chapters in Washington and Oklahoma.
In March 2025, the Intelligent Advocacy Network filed a DOJ complaint alleging that CAIR-California redirected $3.6 million of a $7.2 million HHS grant to itself and affiliated chapters, failed to deliver promised services, and omitted the funding from its tax forms.
The United Arab Emirates designated CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014. The governors of Texas and Florida issued state designations in late 2025. A federal judge blocked Florida’s order in March 2026.
The Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, received nearly $860,000 in HHS sub-grants through the Virginia Department of Social Services in 2024, mostly for Afghan support services. From 2021 to 2023, it received about $340,000 for COVID-19 and influenza vaccine outreach, including funds to “dispel myths” about vaccination.
Anwar al-Awlaki, who later became an al-Qaeda recruiter and was killed in a 2011 U.S. drone strike, served as the mosque’s imam in 2001. The 9/11 Commission Report describes how a mosque member helped two hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, find an apartment.
According to the Middle East Forum, Department of Homeland Security records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request described the mosque as a front for Hamas operatives. Ismail Elbarasse, who helped found the mosque, was an assistant to Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook.
Shaker Elsayed, a former imam, resigned in 2017 after advocating female genital mutilation and later described COVID-19 as divine punishment.
ICNA Relief, the domestic humanitarian arm of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), received $10.6 million from HHS, including an $819,000 grant in 2024 for refugee cash and medical assistance. The Middle East Forum links ICNA to Jamaat-e-Islami, a South Asian Islamist movement whose Kashmiri wing, Hizbul Mujahideen, is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who helped establish ICNA and served as vice president, was convicted in absentia in Bangladesh of murdering 18 intellectuals during the 1971 war. Erick Jamal Hendricks, a former ICNA youth coordinator, is serving a 15-year sentence for conspiring to support the Islamic State.
The Islamic Center of Detroit, located in Dearborn, Michigan, received $40,000 from HHS in 2022 for mosque renovations. Two additional HHS-funded sub-grants of $500,000 each were obligated in 2024 and 2025 through the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity for refugee job placement services.
Executive director Sufian Nabhan served on the board of the Islamic Association of Palestine, which shut down after a civil court found it financially liable for Hamas violence. He later served on the board of American Muslims for Palestine, which faces a Senate HELP Committee investigation into alleged Hamas ties.
Imran Salha, the center’s head imam, told a Dearborn rally on October 10, 2023, that Israel’s past actions had put “fire in our hearts that will burn that state” until its demise.
The Inner City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), with branches in Chicago and Atlanta, received $6,443,783 from HHS, mostly for health center upgrades and expanded access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The Middle East Forum reports that IMAN’s donors include the Barzinji and Mirza family foundations, which it describes as successors to the SAAR Network, a group of businesses and nonprofits accused of financial connections to al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. IMAN has also partnered with the Islamic Society of North America, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case.
Sameera Fazili, a former deputy director of the National Economic Council under President Biden, chairs IMAN-Atlanta’s advisory committee.
Leaders Advancing and Helping Communities (LAHC), a Lebanese Shi’a community organization in Dearborn, received a $616,184.90 HHS grant beginning in December 2020 to combat substance abuse. It later received a $200,000 HHS award, of which $150,000 has been paid, to prevent underage drinking, and two HHS-funded sub-grants of $71,717 each in 2025 to combat opioid addiction.
According to the Middle East Forum, senior LAHC leaders and board members have defended Hezbollah in public statements and appeared at rallies supporting the group. Allegations linking founder Ali Jawad to Hezbollah originated with blogger Debbie Schlussel, who provided no sources. Jawad left John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign after the allegations surfaced.
Wayne County Commissioner Sam Baydoun, then an LAHC board member, spoke at a Dearborn rally on September 25, 2024, where participants chanted “Death to Israel.”
The Muslim American Society (MAS) in Sacramento received $90,000 in HHS funds for a reproductive health literacy program with the University of California-Irvine for Afghan and Syrian refugees.
In a 2008 sentencing opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit stated that MAS was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America. The United Arab Emirates designated MAS a terrorist organization in 2014. In January 2026, the Trump administration designated the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
The Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, received a $250,000 earmark through HHS in 2022 to expand its health clinic. In January 2000, it held a fundraiser for the Benevolence International Foundation, which the Treasury Department later designated for funding al-Qaeda. Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, attended Friday prayers at the center. Its imam at the time, Faizul Khan, was a senior leader of the Islamic Society of North America.
Peace in the Home Family Services, formerly the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation, received at least $1.6 million from HHS, mostly to combat domestic violence and provide shelter and counseling. According to the Middle East Forum, it received more than $11 million in public funds between 2015 and 2025. The group hosted Imam Omar Suleiman as the keynote speaker at its 2017 fundraising dinner, partnered with MAS, and promoted a Students for Justice in Palestine event in 2011.
Islamic Relief Worldwide, headquartered in the United Kingdom, received $270,000 in HHS funds through a consortium sub-grant for an infectious disease preparedness project in Kenya. Israel banned the group in 2014, stating it financed Hamas, and the United Arab Emirates designated it a terrorist entity that year. Germany ended all projects with the group in 2020 over its Muslim Brotherhood ties.
In January 2021, the U.S. State Department cut ties with the organization, citing antisemitism and glorification of violence among senior leaders. In March 2026, its American branch, Islamic Relief USA, filed suit to sever its corporate relationship with the parent organization.
The Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs received $80,387 in HHS funds through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 2021 to study sickle cell anemia treatments. Its secretary-general, Ishaq Oloyede, has said claims of a Christian genocide in Nigeria are driven by far-right and pro-Israeli actors. The council has also sought to establish Sharia panels in Christian-majority southern states.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah received $128,800 in HHS funds through the University of Notre Dame in 2023 for research on a family support program. Its director, Khalil Shikaki, is the brother of Fathi Shikaki, a founder and the first commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Testimony before the House Financial Services Committee and exhibits from the Sami Al-Arian terrorism case link Khalil Shikaki to money transfers among suspected Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the early 1990s. He is currently a professor at Brandeis University.
Aligarh Muslim University in India received $389,810 in HHS funds through a Boston hospital in 2016 and 2017 for cancer research. Indian authorities arrested several students and alumni in 2023 and 2024 for alleged Islamic State links. The Students Islamic Movement of India, which India banned after 9/11, was founded at the university.
Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, received $3.59 million in HHS sub-grants from U.S. universities, mostly for HIV research. This included $110,000 from the University of Rochester to study gay Muslim men living with HIV. The Middle East Forum reports growing Salafi influence on campus, and a human rights group counted 10 incidents of student mobs pursuing men suspected of being gay between 2012 and 2016.
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