Nihad Awad

Nihad Awad (second from right) stands to President Bush's left, when Bush said "Like the good folks standing with me, the American people were appalled and outraged at last Tuesday's attacks [on Sept. 11, 2001]." Nihad Awad is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington D.C.-based American Muslim political and civil rights group.¹ After studying civil engineering at the University of Minnesota in the 1990s, he worked at the University of Minnesota Medical Center . After the Gulf war , he was Public Relations Director for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), described by U.S. government officials as a Hamas front organization. In a March 1994 speech at Barry University , future CAIR Executive Director Awad said in response to an audience question about the various humanitarian efforts in the Occupied Territories, "I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO ...there are some [Hamas] radicals, we are not interested in those people.” A few days after September 11, 2001 , Awad was one of a select group American Muslim leaders invited by the White House to join President Bush in a press conference condemning the attacks and acts anti-Muslim intolerance that followed. He is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You , an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.² " "Islam is Peace" Says President" .³ Statement by Nihad Awad at a panel discussion, “The Road to Peace: the Challenge of the Middle East,” Barry University, March 22, 1994.⁴ " "Islam is Peace" Says President" .⁵