CAIR-CA Leader Zahra Billoo Urges Supporters to Hide Anti-Zionist Views Strategically

A video spreading on social media shows Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' California chapter, urging supporters to be strategic about voicing certain views in public.

The clip, posted on X, captures Billoo discussing how to handle controversial sentiments in public versus private. Fox News Digital has not independently verified the full context or the complete video.

Billoo cautions against posting certain views online. "Now imagine your LinkedIn profile says, ‘I hate all Zionists,’" she says. "Not strategic. Right? … You may say that sitting around Kahwah House on a Friday night, but you’re not going to say it on your LinkedIn."

She tells supporters to weigh strategic choices against reckless ones.

Commentators and political figures reacted quickly online. Fox News political analyst and radio host Guy Benson wrote on X, "Notice, the message here isn’t ‘don’t hate people and don’t be bigots.’ The message is ‘we must hide our hatred and bigotry more strategically.’"

Republican National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon posted, "Wow."

Christopher F. Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal, shared the video and tied it to questions about CAIR-CA's place in California public life.

The attention arrives as a recent City Journal report details CAIR-CA receiving about $40 million in state-administered funds in recent years, mostly from federally funded programs.

The report raises old claims of CAIR's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, which the group calls baseless and part of a defamation effort.

Republican-led states have acted against CAIR. In December, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state would label CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations at the state level. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took a similar step.

Those moves lack the force of a federal designation, which only the U.S. State Department can make. CAIR calls the actions unconstitutional and defamatory.

CAIR describes itself as a civil rights group that protects Muslim Americans from discrimination. It says its funding faces full oversight.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently addressed rising antisemitism. "A 46-year national high in antisemitic assaults should alarm EVERY American," he wrote on X. "We must confront hate and antisemitism directly and reject hate wherever it appears. Every person deserves to feel safe in our country."

A governor's office spokesperson did not comment on the video. The office said the administration partners with nonprofits on community programs and meets Jewish and Muslim leaders statewide. It highlighted plans to boost security funds for religious sites, toughen hate crime laws, and back Holocaust and genocide education.