Zainab Chaudry: Calls for reinstatement of Maryland hate crimes panel member after ouster for anti-Israel posts
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: Democrat Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown took action against a member of the Maryland Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention on Tuesday, November 21, 2023, when he "temporarily suspended" Zainab Chaudry after numerous 'antisemitic' social media posts by her surfaced,
The posts by Chaudry, longtime executive director of the Maryland branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who was named to the commission this year, included a claim that reports of babies murdered in the October 7 Hamas attack were “fake.”
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Brown said his office learned last week about social media posts from Chaudry. She made the posts in the weeks following Hamas’ attack, which saw more than 1,200 people killed, including children and infants, as well as several cases of rape and destruction of property.
In the posts, Zainab referred to the day of the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 as "the uprising in Palestine", and two days later referenced the perpetrators as "Palestinian freedom fighters."
Howard Libit, of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said, "I don't think you see how you can interpret it any other way but praising Hamas. Any reasonable person who reads those social media posts is going to come away with someone who is dismissing the horror of what Hamas did."
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Zainab explained to WJZ News that her words were distorted, misconstrued, and taken out of context.
"As if Muslims who don't condemn Hamas are automatically condoning violence, that's not going to work anymore. We need to hear that from our elected officials and the silence has been deafening," she said.
She explained herself, "It's not shocking. It's not surprising. I think anyone who speaks out to defend Palestinian human rights experiences some level of backlash and retaliation."
Libit and others have called for Zainab Chaudry to be replaced on the Hate Crime Response and Prevention Commission.
What did Attorney General Anthony Brown say on Tuesday?
Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a press release on Tuesday, “The Office of Attorney General learned last week about personal social media posts of a member of the Maryland Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention, Zainab Chaudry, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations – Maryland Office.”
“Attorney General Brown has determined that Ms. Chaudry’s social media posts risk disrupting the work and mission of the Commission, so he is announcing steps that he took today to ensure that the vital work and mission of the Commission can continue without interruption,” the release said, adding that Chaudry’s membership on the commission would be “temporarily suspended.”
He added that his office would “develop a draft values statement” concerning personal communications by commission members, and called on those members to “to exercise great care in their communications and conduct.”
Attorney General Brown shared that the commission had only met at its inaugural meeting on September 6, 2023, only a month before Chaudry's personal social media posts emerged.
Maryland delegate Joe Vogel, a Democrat from Montgomery County who helped create the commission, said he was "disappointed" in Chaudry's social media posts.
He said, "The Office of the Attorney General and commission members are ultimately responsible for the operations of this commission. I support their judgement in determining how to hold accountable a commissioner whose actions further hatred and division and ultimately betray the commission's core mission and values.”
What were Zainab’s posts about?
In a Facebook post dated October 26, 2023, Chaudry stated, “I will never be able to understand how the world summoned up rage for 40 fake Israeli babies while completely turning a blind eye to 3,000 real Palestinian babies.”
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On October 17, 2023, she posted, “[T]hat moment when you become what you hated most,” and included two photos of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, one showing it lit up with the Israeli flag in solidarity with Israel following the attack, and another from a ceremony in 1936 when it was decorated with the flag of Nazi Germany during the Olympics that year.
In another post from November 6, 2023, Chaudry appeared to suggest the mere existence of Israel as a nation was the cause of the ongoing war, writing it was an “inconvenient fact.”
She included an image of the words “it all started in 1948,” the year Israel was founded as a nation.
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In other contentious posts from the weeks following the October 7 attack, Zainab shared a quote celebrating “martyred Palestinians,” and a post alluding to what appeared to be an Islamic prophesy that said “garrisons who defend the lands of Islam will be in Ashkelon,” an Israeli city north of the Gaza Strip.
When reached for comment, Zainab shared with Fox News Digital that the “Nazi post” was originally shared “by a close Jewish friend,” before going on to accuse the Israeli government of wanting to commit genocide against Palestinians.
She also condemned the killing of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, saying, "There's tremendous pain and suffering that is occurring. And, the silence of, especially, communities who may be able to relate to some degree to that suffering is compounding that pain."
Calls for reinstatement of Zainab Chaudry
Meanwhile, an online petition calling for Brown to restore Chaudry on the commission has garnered more than 3,800 signatories, including support from 28 Muslim community organizations in Maryland.
The petition from CAIR refers to her as a “widely respected civil rights activist and an important leader of the Maryland Muslim community” and accused the attorney general’s office of validating a “dishonest smear campaign” promoted by Fox News and “other bigoted voices.”
The Greater Baltimore chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America also joined CAIR’s petition and put out its own statement condemning Brown’s decision to suspend Chaudry, saying it was a move to “suppress her advocacy for Arabs and Muslims and rob them of their right to representation on the commission.”