Nihad Awad

Early life

Nihad Awad was born in Amman New Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. He studied at Second Amman Preparatory School for Boys, located at the camp and belongs to UNRWA, and at Salaheddine High School in Achrafieh in Jordan. He moved to Italy and later to the United States to pursue his university studies.

Career

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 the public relations director for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP).

In June 1994, IAP president Omar Ahmad and Rafiq Jaber founded the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Awad was hired as the executive director. In a March 1994 speech at Barry University, the future CAIR executive director said in response to an audience question about the various humanitarian efforts in the Palestinian 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." At the time that Awad expressed support for Hamas, the group had not conducted suicide bombings and was not designated a terrorist organization by the US. Awad said in 2006 that he no longer supports the group and has condemned suicide bombings.[[File:Bush Islamic Center Washington.jpg|225px|right|thumb|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]."]] A few days after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Awad was one of a select group American Muslim leaders invited by the White House to join President George W. Bush in a press conference condemning the attacks and acts of anti-Muslim intolerance that followed.

On October 11, 2023, Awad condemned both the killing of Palestinians and Israelis in the Gaza war and called for a ceasefire. During the same speech, he condemned antisemitism as "real phenomenon, a real evil". He also said that Palestinians, just like Ukrainians, had the right to defend themselves against an occupation, but only via legal means and never via targeting civilians like Hamas did on October 7.

Awards

• The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre's "500 Most Influential Muslims 2009"
• Among 100 of the "World's Most Influential Arabs" for 2010 by Arabian Business magazine
• Recipient of the Phillip Brooks House Association's Robert Coles Call of Service & Lecture Award at Harvard College in 2017.
• Listed Among "19 of the Most Important Civil Rights Leaders of Today" by USA Today in 2020.

References

References

1. [http://www.mndaily.com/daily/gopher-archives/1992/11/18/Bosnia-Herzegovina.txt] {{webarchive. link. (March 11, 2007)
2. [http://www.mndaily.com/daily/gopher-archives/1992/11/18/Bosnians_fight_with_empty_hand.txt] {{webarchive. link. (February 21, 2006)
3. "Archived copy".
4. Kushner, Harvey W.. (1998). "The future of terrorism: violence in the new millennium".
5. (February 10, 2017). "Republican calls CAIR a Hamas-linked 'terrorist group'". Al Jazeera.
6. (July 8, 2014). "MEET THE MUSLIM-AMERICAN LEADERS THE FBI AND NSA HAVE BEEN SPYING ON". The Intercept.
7. (September 22, 2006). "Muslims Supporting Congressional Hopeful". The Associated Press.
8. (September 17, 2001). ""Islam is Peace" Says President". Office of the Press Secretary.
9. ""Islam is Peace" Says President". Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
10. (2023-10-11). "Targeting civilians is wrong, whether they are Palestinian, Israeli, American or any other nationality. Yet our nation has given a green light for Netanyahu's far-right, openly racist government to continue its medieval siege and mass bombing of civilians in Gaza. @POTUS must bring this week of horrific violence to an end and then pursue a just and lasting peace before more Palestinian and Israeli civilians perish. Our National Executive Director @NihadAwad's full statement on President Biden's speech ⬇️".
11. Baker, Peter. (December 8, 2023). "White House Disavows U.S. Islamic Group After Leader's Oct. 7 Remarks".
12. (7 December 2023). "US Muslim leader: I was happy to see Gazans breaking the siege on Oct. 7". Times of Israel.
13. "Blogger: User Profile: Nihad Awad".
14. [https://archive.today/20120718134937/http://www.arabianbusiness.com/power100-2010/list?view=profile&itemid=150752]
15. (19 October 2017). "Award recognizes Nihad Awad of the Council on American Islamic Relations".
16. "From Esmeralda Simmons to Laverne Cox, here are 19 of the most influential civil rights leaders of today".