White House slams comments from CAIR leader about October 7, CAIR says remark was taken out of context

The White House strongly condemned recent comments from the leader of a top American-Islamic group who said he was “happy to see” Gazans invading Israel on October 7.

The comments came from Council on American-Islamic Relations Director Nihad Awad at a conference two weeks ago, when – according to a video posted on X, by DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute – he said, “I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”

“We condemn these shocking, Antisemitic statements in the strongest terms,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement shared with CNN.

Bates echoed President Joe Biden in calling the October 7 attacks “abhorrent” and “unadulterated evil,” noting that October 7 “was the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

“The atrocities of that day shock the conscience, which is why we can never forget the pain Hamas has caused for so many innocent people,” Bates said in a statement responding to Awad’s remarks.

In a statement Thursday, Awad said that he condemned violence against all civilians and all forms of bigotry and claimed his comments were taken out of context.

“What I actually said while discussing international law: Ukrainians, Palestinians and other occupied people have the right to defend themselves and escape occupation by just and legal means, but targeting civilians is never an acceptable means of doing so, which is why I have again and again condemned the violence against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7th,” he said.

The White House has spoken forcefully against antisemitism and Islamophobia in the months since the October 7 attacks.

“We can’t stand by and stand silent where this happens. We must, without equivocation, denounce antisemitism. We must, also without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia,” Biden said in an Oval Office address in late October.

The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents, reported a “significant spike” in those incidents in the weeks after October 7, per preliminary data. And CAIR has reported a “clear increase in reports brought to a national level” in incidents of bias against Muslims in America.

The headline on this story has been updated.

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