Muslim organization fires state leader who it says secretly associated with anti-Muslim group

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said this week that it discovered one of its regional leaders had been working as a mole for an Islamophobic far-right organization.

In a release, CAIR’s national communications coordinator Ismail Allison said the organization had discovered evidence indicating that it had been infiltrated by someone working for the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). The IPT was founded by Steve Emerson, a far-right media pundit often accused of spreading Islamophobic misinformation and anti-Muslim hate.

“Last month, our forensic investigator provided her report. The report confirmed that the key evidence we received was authentic and that an employee of a local CAIR affiliate had indeed been secretly working with a hate group,” said Allison. “That employee was Romin Iqbal of CAIR-Ohio.”

Iqbal was the executive and legal director for CAIR’s Ohio chapter. 

CAIR had hired an outside law firm and a forensic specialist to perform an investigation which apparently confirmed that Iqbal had been sharing information with the IPT for years. According to Allison, this information included recorded conversations, private emails and strategic plans. 

When questioned about the investigation’s findings, Allison said that Iqbal confessed to working with the IPT. Iqbal was terminated on Tuesday. Iqbal never had access CAIR’s data or the data of other local chapters, he added. 

According to The Columbus Dispatch, Iqbal, 45, led CAIR-Ohio for three years and worked for the organization for 15 years.

Allison wrote that Iqbal had violated his “moral duty to protect the Ohio Muslim community” and added that he would be held accountable. He said Iqbal’s conduct may have “violated numerous state and federal laws.”

“Sadly, this hate group’s attempt to spy … on mosques and Muslim organizations was not surprising,” wrote Allison. “Civil rights advocates have been targeted by infiltrators for decades. From Malcolm X and Fred Hampton to anti-apartheid activists, those who stand for justice have repeatedly been targeted by those who stand for injustice.”

When reached for comment by The Hill, the IPT said it would “never monitor the wider American Muslim community,” but added that it would “not hesitate to uncover and publicly expose radical Islamist activity on American soil by groups like CAIR.”

When pressed on whether it communicated with Iqbal or received internal CAIR information from him, the IPT did not immediately respond.

Updated 4:58 p.m.