Following multiple exposés documenting the terrorist and extremist backgrounds of two individuals affiliated with Georgetown University, the Washington Post has taken an interest in CAMERA’s work.
In a May 8 article titled “How a Georgetown scholar went from ‘quiet’ researcher to detainee,” the Washington Post extensively cites and quotes CAMERA regarding the story of Mapheze Saleh and Badar Khan Suri, the latter of whom is currently being detained by immigration authorities. Among CAMERA’s findings mentioned in the article is Saleh’s work for Hamas and Suri’s participation in a terror-supporting “convoy,”
But the Washington Post misleads about the nature of Saleh and Suri’s sins. It also quotes a handful of actors, such as Saleh herself and Suri’s lawyer Hassan Ahmad, who continue to deceive the public about the facts.
Mapheze Saleh and Badar Khan Suri at their wedding, holding up an image of former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat kissing the forehead of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin.
Several times, the Post suggests that Saleh and Suri were targeted for “support for Palestinians and their family ties to Hamas.” This is simply false. Saleh doesn’t just have “family ties” to Hamas; she is herself tied to Hamas. Even in recent court filings (see para. 6), Saleh has admitted to having worked for the regime of Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Suri, too, participated in a convoy organized in part by one terrorist organization for the purpose of aiding Hamas.
Working for and/or aiding terrorist organizations is not “free speech,” regardless of how many times Ahmad, Saleh, and Suri protest otherwise.
Moreover, to describe Saleh and Suri’s public rhetoric as simply “support for Palestinians” is both egregiously dishonest and cynical. Saleh didn’t just “support” Palestinians; she repeatedly and emphatically glorified Hamas, including its threat to murder “civilian hostages” just days after the October 7 massacre. Suri didn’t just “defend[] the rights of Palestinians to fight back;” he has publicly praised Hamas’s leadership in full knowledge of its history of targeting civilians.
Such dishonesty is to be expected from Saleh and Suri’s legal team. Indeed, CAMERA has previously responded to their lies and deceptions.
What is new, and revealing, is the attempt by several other parties to denigrate or fabricate about CAMERA and its work.
The Washington Post writes that, according to “[l]egal experts and historians,” Suri’s case “represents the rising influence of advocacy groups like…the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).”
Such a compliment is well taken. However, several personalities are then quoted to air their grievances against CAMERA.
One such commentator, New York University professor Lila Corwin Berman, claimed that groups like CAMERA “can’t be ignored, and they can become real threats.” Another commentator, UCLA professor David Myers, similarly scaremongers to denigrate CAMERA’s work, claiming: “The new policy of detaining and deporting Palestine-supporting political undesirables brings these organizations fully in line with federal policy and will grant them a new measure of prominence and notoriety.” Astha Sharma Pokharel, from the Center for Constitutional Rights, describes CAMERA and its work with terms such as “extremist,” “racist,” and “Islamophobic.”
Notable, however, is that they don’t contest the facts which CAMERA has meticulously documented and presented to the public. Nor did any of the commentators present any facts of their own. Instead, all three relied on emotionally-charged, speculative, and opinion-based arguments, devoid of factual support, to distract the Washington Post’s audience.
In truth, it is the facts which cannot, and must not, be ignored, and it is the facts which appear to be threatening to these individuals.
The more such parties resort to baseless smears and attacks instead of contending with the evidence, the more confident CAMERA will grow in its work. Facts, after all, are a comfortable thing when you learn to work with them instead of against them.